Breakfast at the Compassion Flower Inn isn't always "mellow." When Ray Manzarek, keyboardist for The Doors, stayed there two weeks ago he argued that the minimum voting age should be raised to 35. It's not unusual for guests at the "bed, bud and breakfast" to debate politics into the early afternoon, but it's caffeine that fuels the morning conversation. "Pot isn't what drives the topics," says co-owner Andrea Tischler. The inn on Laurel Street opened four years ago, on 4/20, and its friendly attitude toward medical-marijuana users made front-page news across the country. Tischler and her partner Maria Mallek run the inn with the help of their two children. [continues 553 words]
Santa Cruz -- County officials are seeking doctors' advice on how much medical marijuana is enough. The county Board of Supervisors this week named George Wolfe, a former county health officer, to convene a group of doctors to develop guidelines for the quantity of pot that patients might need for treatment and how much they should be allowed to possess. The group is to report back to the board Aug. 17. A state law passed last year provides some guidelines on how much marijuana, or how many plants, patients or caregivers may keep on hand. But the law allows cities and counties to set their own limits. [continues 348 words]
SANTA CRUZ -- A leading critic of U.S. drug policy contends there is no link between the decriminalization of marijuana and increased drug use. In research published in the May issue of the American Journal of Public Health, Craig Reinarman, a UC Santa Cruz sociologist, said he found there was no difference between drug-use rates in Amsterdam, where marijuana is freely bought at licensed coffee shops, and San Francisco, where pot-smokers still can get busted. "Drug policy doesn't appear to have much relevance," Reinarman said in an interview Monday. "There is not a lot of evidence to suggest that criminalization has a deterrent effect." [continues 440 words]
Valerie Corral had just finished a conversation with an ill friend Wednesday when the phone rang. This time there was good news, unlike much of what had come over the past two years. In September 2002, her medical marijuana garden was raided by federal agents who confiscated 167 plants. This was followed by months of scrapping together marijuana for the 250-member Wo/men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana. This week's news: U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel issued the injunction that WAMM had sought barring future raids by the federal government like the one that occurred that September morning at her Davenport garden. [continues 569 words]
DEA Can't Raid Local Group's Marijuana Garden, Judge Rules A judge ordered the federal government Wednesday to keep away from a California medical marijuana group that grows and distributes cannabis for its sick members. The decision from U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose was the first interpretation of a federal appeals-court decision here last year that ordered the federal government not to prosecute a sick Oakland woman who smoked marijuana with a doctor's recommendation under a 1996 California medical-marijuana law. [continues 827 words]
SANTA CRUZ -- Members of an area medical-marijuana cooperative return to federal court today seeking an end to drug raids like the one that decimated their pot garden in September 2002. Joining the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana as plaintiffs in the suit are the city and county of Santa Cruz. They will, once more, ask U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel to outlaw future raids. "We have a lot of reason for optimism," said Mike Corral, who along with his wife, Valerie, is a co-founder of the collective. [continues 505 words]
The 2002 federal raid on the headquarters of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Santa Cruz has faded into the background, but it won't stay there for long, if HOWARD DOVER has any say in the matter. Dover, a native Canadian who is now a Los Angeles standup comic, will perform in Santa Cruz for the second time in a benefit show for WAMM. Dover has invited a number of other comics to appear with him, including ROB BRACKENRIDGE and ROBERT HAWKINS, as well as folksinger DIANE PATTERSON, all to raise awareness and funds for WAMM's ongoing legal defense. [continues 195 words]
Rejecting one front of the government's drug war, a federal appeals court ruled Friday the United States cannot ban the sale of food made with natural hemp that contains only trace amounts of the psychoactive chemical in marijuana. The decision overturns the Drug Enforcement Administration's ban on the domestic sale of hemp food products. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had suspended the prohibition so judges could hear a challenge from the hemp industry, which has been allowed to sell its products while awaiting the court's decision. [continues 683 words]
Medical Marijuana Advocates Buoyed by December Federal Appeals Court Ruling SANTA CRUZ - On a wall in the back room of her Westside office, Valerie Corral points to pictures of her deceased friends. "She died just a few months after the raid," Valerie says, pointing to a photo on the wall of a woman smoking from a glass pipe. The raid that Valerie refers to, conducted by the Drug Enforcement Agency in September of 2002, shut down the marijuana farm that she and her husband Mike had operated in Davenport. The pictures that now hang in her office, at the Wo/men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, include photos of 20 people she says have died since the raid - after the couple could no longer provide marijuana from the farm to those who smoke the drug to help relieve various medical ailments. [continues 1401 words]
San Francisco - A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a congressional act outlawing marijuana may not apply to sick people with a doctor's recommendation in states that have approved medical marijuana laws. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that prosecuting these medical marijuana users under a 1970 federal law is unconstitutional if the marijuana isn't sold, transported across state lines or used for non-medicinal purposes. "The intrastate, noncommercial cultivation, possession and use of marijuana for personal medical purposes on the advice of a physician is, in fact, different in kind from drug trafficking," Judge Harry Pregerson wrote for the majority. [continues 766 words]
SANTA CRUZ -- After the divisive recall, only one thing can heal the state's political wounds -- medical marijuana. At least that was the idea behind Light Up with the Governor. Billed as an alternative inauguration party, Monday's event on the Eastside featured costumed revelers, a grope booth and a screening of the 1977 classic bodybuilding film, "Pumping Iron." "This is the one issue that unifies people in Santa Cruz across the political spectrum," said Arnie Schwartz, organizer of the event and a member of Lefties for Arnie. "(We) support the right of doctors to meet the needs of their patients." [continues 267 words]
Attorneys for the Santa Cruz-based Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana were in court Wednesday asking a U.S. 9th Circuit Appeals panel to overturn a lower-court ruling denying the group the return of its pot. The group was seeking the return of more than 160 marijuana plants uprooted during a raid in September 2002 by federal drug agents. Joining WAMM were the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Club and the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana. The group's cases were combined because of similar constitutional arguments. [continues 63 words]
Santa Cruz - Attorneys for an area medical marijuana cooperative will be in federal appeals court Wednesday, seeking return of more than 160 pot plants seized by federal agents in a September 2002 raid. The Wo/men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana filed the suit weeks after the raid, seeking return of the plants and other personal items. U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel denied the request, except for return of a computer and other personal items that belonged to WAMM co-founders Valerie and Mike Corral. [continues 372 words]
SANTA CRUZ - Medical-pot advocates say Thursday's U.S. District Court ruling against a local marijuana co-op leaves ailing members vulnerable to more federal raids and prosecution. But lawyers representing the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana say they will appeal the decision. On Thursday, the district court rebuffed the collective's attempt to bar federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents from carrying on more raids like the one last September when 160 plants in WAMM's Davenport pot garden were uprooted and its founders arrested at gunpoint. Charges were never filed against Valerie and Michael Corral. [continues 662 words]
SANTA CRUZ - Thirty-five years after the "Legalize It" movement caught fire in America, a medical pot collective is throwing a public party in a city park next month. Expect live music, a fortune teller, "Have A Hempy Day" buttons and medical marijuana patients lighting up in a tent. "I remember the music festivals in the 1960s, and even now you can't go to a music festival without a little smoke in the air," said Jean Hanamoto of the local Wo/Men's Alliance For Medical Marijuana, which is staging the Sept. 14 event. "Well, ours will have a little more." [continues 607 words]
A county-operated program to issue identification cards to medical marijuana users was launched this week, and backers hope it will ease concerns of patients and police. The effort is aimed at helping police identify patients and caregivers legitimately using marijuana. County Supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt said the cards mean patients and caregivers will have less to worry about when they possess marijuana for medical use. "People feel very vulnerable," Wormhoudt said. "To add to that burden to people who are already suffering is adding another layer of difficulty that shouldn't be there." [continues 356 words]
I am really getting tired of the so-called compassion of the Women's alliance for Medical Marijuana. In the media, WAMM claims to have compassion for terminally ill patients. This is a bogus claim. It is important to point out a few things: 1) medical marijuana is not a gender issue; 2) medical marijuana is not a sexual-preference issue. According to Prop. 215, medical marijuana was passed in California for terminally ill patients. If you check out WAMM's website. They claim that 80 percent of their members are terminally ill. I challenge that statement. I have personal knowledge of no less than four patients with AIDS who were deemed not suitable to be members of WAMM. Where is the compassion for them and their suffering? [continues 188 words]
The July 14 article about the Oakland doctor losing his medical license for prescribing medical marijuana without conducting sufficient medical exams is typical of the perverse "war on drugs" led by Ashcroft and the Bush administration. The government says its attack on the doctor is not about marijuana, but because the doctor "didn't do enough personal exam, check the medical history and do follow-up work." What a joke. Every day I get about 20 unsolicited e-mail spams inviting me to click the screen and they will send me any amount of hard, addictive drugs like Valium, Xanax, Prozac, even Vicodin, Oxycontin, etc. Their on-line doctors will sign off on the prescription and the drugs will arrive the next day. This has been going on for months and I have never heard of any of these pushers being threatened with loss of their licenses. Maybe it's because the corporate drug makers are getting a cut of the action on their products, while getting nothing from marijuana and other street drugs. Follow the money. It explains a lot. [end]
Marijuana:A Federal Suit Will Be Fascinating To Watch, But Those Who Need Medical Marijuana Don't Need The Intrusion. The legality of medical marijuana is now in the courts, and we think the matter will climb all the way to the Supreme Court before it's over. A federal court trial in San Jose is under way. The city and county of Santa Cruz have filed suit against Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Drug Enforcement Administration over a raid on a Davenport-area marijuana farm. [continues 433 words]
The best approach to fighting the abuse of drugs and alcohol by young people is to do it in a multi-faceted way. The announcement of funding for a drug and alcohol program may just seem like one more government program, but the effort is worth paying attention to. In case you're not aware of it, substance abuse by young people is one of the significant problems of Santa Cruz County. The yearly Community Assessment Report issued by the United Way details some of these issues: [continues 471 words]
The economic news in America is not good. But that may be less a reflection on the economy than the news. Yes, there are segments of the U.S. economy that are booming. But the news media are silent on these sectors, because taken together, they form a kind of taboo economy -- that we know as the black market. As journalist Eric Schlosser points in an illuminating and passionate new book, the black market is growing -- comprising as much as 10 percent of the entire economy. And what happens in that black market mocks our most cherished ideals of democracy, justice and human rights. [continues 698 words]
SANTA CRUZ - A survey of local youth released Tuesday revealed drug and alcohol use among teens has decreased substantially since the first survey nine years ago, but local use remains above the state average. The results of the 2002 Santa Cruz County Youth Drug and Alcohol Survey were released Tuesday at a press conference at the downtown Teen Center. The survey was sponsored by all local school districts, law enforcement agencies, the county Office of Education and Health Services Agency, and United Way of Santa Cruz County. [continues 672 words]
SANTA CRUZ - A county supervisor wants to protect county residents who use marijuana as medicine by issuing them ID cards that would let sheriff's deputies know they are an approved user. Supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt on Tuesday will ask her colleagues to give a conceptual OK to the program, which would mirror one pioneered by San Francisco County three years ago. Alameda, Marin and Mendocino counties also offer the cards. Under the program, ill residents would be issued photo ID cards after presenting a signed statement from a doctor saying they need marijuana for medical reasons. The cards would legitimize medicinal pot use to sheriff's deputies challenging someone's possession, Wormhoudt said. [continues 402 words]
Federal authorities overstepped their constitutional powers in September when they raided an area medical marijuana cooperative's garden and should be prohibited from doing so again, a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court contends. As expected, the Santa Cruz-based Wo/men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, along with the county and city of Santa Cruz, sued the U.S. government, seeking an injunction against similar raids. Six WAMM members are also plaintiffs. The suit targets Attorney General John Ashcroft, federal drug czar John Brown and acting Drug Enforcement Administration chief John Walters. [continues 366 words]
The lawsuit filed this week over medical marijuana growing in Santa Cruz contains some fascinating legal arguments. The issue is far more than the one often cited - states' rights. That argument has never seemed powerful to us. Perhaps it's because of memories of the civil rights battles of the late '50s and early '60s. Back then, segregationists argued that state law should trump federal law - and that segregation should be allowed because individual states wanted it. Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy didn't agree, and two generations later we praise both men for working to extend federal protection to people of all races. [continues 464 words]
SANTA CRUZ -- An area medical-marijuana cooperative is fighting the feds with a little help from its friends. The Wo/men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana plans to sue the federal government Wednesday -- and the city and county of Santa Cruz are joining in the lawsuit. The suit, which has been planned for months, is expected to be filed in federal court in San Jose following a 10 a.m. press conference at the Santa Cruz County Government Center. The suit, which has ramifications for all medical marijuana groups in the Golden State, will name Attorney General John Ashcroft, federal drug czar John Brown and acting Drug Enforcement Administration chief John Walters. [continues 520 words]
SANTA CRUZ - An area medical-marijuana cooperative is fighting the feds with a little help from its friends. The Wo/men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana plans to sue the federal government Wednesday - and the city and county of Santa Cruz are joining in the lawsuit. The suit, which has been planned for months, is expected to be filed in federal court in San Jose following a 10 a.m. press conference at the Santa Cruz County Government Center. The suit, which has ramifications for all medical marijuana groups in the Golden State, will name Attorney General John Ashcroft, federal drug czar John Brown and acting Drug Enforcement Administration chief John Walters. [continues 520 words]
Clarity -- It's time for good public-health policy to dictate this country's laws pertaining to marijuana. We have long argued that the fight against AIDS has everything to do with public health policy and nothing to do with morality. Perhaps we should take a similar approach with the medical-marijuana situation. Unfortunately, neither side of the medical-marijuana issue is dealing with the future in a practical or effective way. The problem stems from marijuana's role in the drug culture, and that it's a recreational drug for many people -- and what seems to be medical treatment for some. [continues 510 words]
Medical marijuana users and growers in California could cite state law as a defense against federal prosecutors who criminalize their actions, under a bill planned by three federal lawmakers. U.S. Reps. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, and Lynne Woolsey, D-Petaluma, plan to co-sponsor the bill next month with Rep. Dana Rohrbacher, an Orange County Republican. The proposed legislation comes in the wake of stepped-up federal raids on medical marijuana gardens over the past year, including one at a Santa Cruz County cooperative last September. [continues 386 words]
S.C. Mayor Made National Splash About Iraq and Pot As mayor of Santa Cruz, Christopher Krohn faced the national media to speak out for medical marijuana and rally against a U.S. war on Iraq. Every time he faced the TV cameras -- and millions of viewers -- his City Hall answering machine lit up. People cheered and sneered. One national pundit, replying to Krohn's comments, snapped back: "Don't smoke pot. Smoke Saddam." It was a brief bit of national fame for Krohn, a soft-spoken mayor who seemed genuinely befuddled by all the fuss. But he also made a stir locally. [continues 397 words]
Raid Reinvigorates WAMM, Medical Pot Debate DANENPORT -- Sept. 5 was a nightmare for Valerie and Mike Corral. Just before dawn, federal agents stormed their Davenport-area home, ordering them and friend Suzanne Pfeil to the floor. In the hours that followed, about 167 marijuana plants the Corrals say were destined for members of the Wo/men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana would be plucked from the ground and the Corrals would find themselves in a federal jail. The raid drew national publicity and put Santa Cruz front and center on the media map for two weeks, reigniting the national debate over medical marijuana and whether states have the power to enact laws the fly in the face of laws adopted by the federal government. [continues 770 words]
SANTA CRUZ -- The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to deputize the co-founders of a medical-marijuana club, symbolically making them officers of the city government. That doesn't mean Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana's Mike and Valerie Corral are actual deputies, have any special powers or will "need to show any stinkin' badges," said City Councilman Tim Fitzmaurice. Instead, their status means the council officially sanctions WAMM's activities. Council members said they hope the formal link between the city and the group will increase legal protections for the Corrals, who have not been charged with a crime in connection with a September raid by federal agents on their pot farm, but are wary of future prosecution. [continues 788 words]
In last Tuesday's column, we wondered how the "4:20" code you see on some panhandler signs around town came to represent "like to smoke pot." We received a number of answers from our readers: "Some high school students (in Marin County?) used to get together after school at 4:20 p.m. to get high. So 4:20 became a code word for smoking dope." "4/20 is National Smoke-In Day for pot smokers, a good way to console oneself after April 15's extortion." [continues 257 words]
SCOTTS VALLEY - When parents here see headlines about GHB or other designer drugs, they think they don't have to worry. They're wrong. Sgt. Donna Lind said she has found kids in Scotts Valley are using "ecstasy," a drug popular at raves, and abusing Coricidin, an over-the-counter cold tablet. Police also have confiscated water bottles filled with vodka from students at Scotts Valley High School. One parent is so concerned about his son's drug use that he is considering turning him in, Lind said. [continues 377 words]
As The Beach Flats Heroin Trade Grows Unchecked, Violence And Crime Are On The Rise SANTA CRUZ - The story of Jose Avalos, shot to death in a gunfight with police, is tragic but typical, police say. Develop an addiction to heroin, and there's a good chance it will kill you. But that can hold true for places, too, and police say they're worried the side effects of rampant heroin dealing in the Beach Flats neighborhood, already a major problem, is spilling into nearby areas. [continues 3074 words]
I can't believe a judge gave Greg Brown back his pot. The man didn't even have a current doctor's recommendation, just an oral approval. Why doesn't a doctor have to write a prescription in order for a patient to buy marijuana? If it is indeed a medicine, it should be treated as one. It should be dispensed by a doctor or pharmacist. I am not allowed to grow, cultivate and distribute my own penicillin. Greg Brown was smoking pot because he had a backache and an upset stomach. That describes about 90 percent of us 90 percent of the time. I wonder how the world would function if we all decided to get high whenever we had acid indigestion. Stacia Phelps Santa Cruz [end]
Fundamentalist Attorney General John Ashcroft marches on from ordering a raid on a medical-marijuana hospice in Santa Cruz to targeting Oregon doctors who work with terminally ill patients in assisted suicide. Medicinal marijuana is legal in California and assisted suicide is legal in Oregon, but they don't meet the attorney general's scriptural criteria. Ashcroft has decided these statutes are not correct and is spearheading a conspiracy against them. Damn the people and voters who passed the laws. Medical Marijuana - Prop. 215 - and Death with Dignity mean nothing to this one man, America's top cop. He's on a crusade to stamp his beliefs on everyone. RON LOWE [end]
As an 18-year resident of Beach Flats and a caregiver in WAMM, I am outraged that Phil Baer has the nerve to insinuate that medical marijuana has anything to do with the heroin dealing in the Flats. For Mr. Baer's information, the members of WAMM are terminal and do not need to go to the Flats to buy heroin. For the most part they find medical marijuana more effective than the drugs prescribed by their doctors. As Mr. Baer is quite aware, there are no people in wheelchairs or with seeing-eye dogs wandering in the Flats. To even think these people are promoting drug dealing in the Flats is stupid. [continues 51 words]
I just finished reading an op-ed in the Sept. 21 New York Times titled "Why I'm Fighting Federal Drug Laws From City Hall." I find it strange that the Santa Cruz mayor's story is newsworthy in The New York Times but not in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. BILL HAY, SOQUEL [end]
Federal drug agents will continue to raid marijuana plots, medicinal and otherwise, the agency's director said in a letter to state Attorney General Bill Lockyer. "As long as marijuana remains a Schedule I controlled substance, (the Drug Enforcement Administration) will continue its enforcement efforts targeting groups and individuals involved in its distribution," agency head Asa Hutchinson wrote in a Sept. 30 letter. Hutchinson's letter, obtained by the Sentinel, was in response to a Sept. 6 letter from Lockyer in which he criticizes a DEA raid on the Davenport garden of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, an area medical marijuana cooperative. [continues 238 words]
SANTA CRUZ - Santa Cruz County could put any parent in a cannabis conundrum. Voters have embraced medical marijuana. Kids are more likely to abuse pot. Does this cause a gray area for parents? Santa Cruz County voters overwhelmingly approved medical marijuana, with 74 percent voting to approve Proposition 215 in 1996. That proposition was written in part by Mike and Valerie Corral, who find themselves at the center of the issue after a Sept. 5 raid by federal agents. Drug Enforcement Administration agents uprooted 167 marijuana plants belonging to the Wo/men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, which the Corrals co-founded.While medical marijuana generally has been well received in the county, there are concerns in some corners about teen marijuana use. [continues 333 words]
As promised, attorneys for a local medical marijuana cooperative whose garden was raided by federal agents Sept. 5 will be in court today to try to get its pot plants back. Ben Rice and Gerald Uelmen, attorneys for the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, plan to file a motion this morning in U.S. District Court in San Jose. A hearing date will be set after the motion is filed. The motion will seek the return of at least 130 marijuana plants seized by the Drug Enforcement Agency, as well as personal items belonging to alliance co-founders Mike and Valerie Corral that were taken during the raid, attorneys said. The U.S. Attorneys Office has not filed criminal charges against the Corrals, and has not said whether any are planned. [continues 271 words]
SANTA CRUZ - Federal prosecutors might not respect the state law that allows people to grow marijuana for medical use, but a judge in Santa Cruz County does. Medical-marijuana user Greg Brown walked out of the courthouse Wednesday a free man with a legal bag of marijuana. Superior Court Judge Kathleen Akao threw out two felony charges against the Santa Cruz man after he proved he had a doctor's recommendation to use medical marijuana. She ordered police to return Brown's pot. [continues 470 words]
Your Sept. 18 editorial acknowledges that many medical-marijuana advocates see this as a states' rights issue. "Not so fast," you say, reminding readers that "states' rights" were also asserted to justify racial segregation during the civil rights era. I see a big difference, however. For me, the key issue of medical marijuana isn't whether state law "trumps" federal law whenever both could be valid. Rather, it is what to do when federal law is invalid, restricting freedom in areas where the Constitution gives the U.S. government no authority. The Controlled Substances Act 21 USC 13, Sec. 801, appears to be such a law. [continues 140 words]
I can sympathize with those who use medical marijuana to relieve pain and possibly contribute, however, limited, to the quality or comfort of their life. But in leveraging the desire of most to help the sick, there are those, not necessarily by intent, whose own political agenda benefits from an alignment to the medical marijuana movement. If the real value of medical marijuana is cultural rather than medicinal, then time will define and resolve the argument through medical research. I do have some difficulty accepting the premise that inhaling smoke into one's lungs is beneficial. [continues 160 words]
The federal government and a local couple will be in court Nov. 5 to discuss the possible return of 167 pot plants seized earlier this month by drug agents. Mike and Valerie Corral filed a motion on Tuesday that seeks the return of the plants grown by the 238-member Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, an area cooperative that provides marijuana to people with medical conditions. Attorneys Ben Rice and Gerald Uelmen filed the motion Tuesday morning in U.S. District Court in San Jose. [continues 64 words]
Thank you for giving so much press and engaging in debate about the recent events surrounding medical marijuana. As a caretaker and someone who has watched people living and dying with cancer and AIDS, I felt I should add my own opinions. People who are dying or going through painful procedures are given a slew of drugs to help deal with pain and suffering. Opium and its derivatives are among the choice painkillers given in cases of extreme pain. Santa Cruz resident and City Council candidate Phil Baer held up a sign at the rally "decrying the connection he sees between marijuana use and heroin problems in the Beach Flats." I have news for this candidate: heroin, in its processed and controlled form of morphine, is already legal. Maybe his time would be better spent picketing the thousands of hospitals, nursing homes and hospice sights where morphine is used on a minute-to-minute basis as pain control. Is this adding to the Beach Flats' heroin problem? I think not, and these people who are suffering and using marijuana as a treatment for diseases are not either. [continues 121 words]
I have a suggestion for all who support the City Council, the County Supervisors and Mayor Krohn. The next time you need some extra cash look for a kid on your block and kidnap him. Oh, be sure not to hurt him, not even by accident, and feed him well, give him TV, videos, etc., until his folks come up with the $10,000 you may really need to feel better. Then release him unharmed. The parents will understand. Think how good it will feel to have that extra ten grand in the bank. Sure, it is illegal, but this is Santa Cruz and as Mayor Krohn and the supervisors have shown, we laugh at federal laws here. If it doesn't hurt others, it's okay. [continues 55 words]
Wednesday's editorial asked, "Should Santa Cruz be known for being the medical-marijuana capitol of the world?" Marijuana works for certain health problems when no other medicine does. Sick people take marijuana to alleviate pain, or to make it possible to hold down food and water. Many of them are fine upstanding citizens who go to great lengths to keep their pot use secret from the world, even their families. They understand that they will be judge harshly by their peers and by the federal government. They read comments like the one attributed to City Council candidate Phil Baer saying "I think it would be noble of them if they felt the pain a little bit and did something for the higher good." [continues 85 words]
The Santa Cruz City Council has finally crossed the line from laughable to just plain stupid. Handing out marijuana, free or not, is a crime. It is a federal crime. It's called distribution of a controlled substance. It is outrageous that Santa Cruz thinks it is above the law. News flash - you aren't. Too bad the DEA wasn't there to arrest and charge you all. ROYAL OAKS [end]
