It's not looking good for medical marijuana advocates in the landmark case currently before the Supreme Court. As they watch with a mixture of hope and horror at justices arguing about wheat production rather than the medical and humanitarian importance of the case, they're already asking the toughest question of all: 'What happens if we lose?' "WAMM is a club you literally have to be dying to get into," says Val Corral, co-founder of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana. [continues 3159 words]
The Bush administration has attacked medical marijuana on several fronts, but its latest effort to go after doctors has got the outspoken director of a Santa Cruz-based medical marijuana referral service stepping out of the shadows and onto the warpath. He offers an inside look at how medical marijuana works and why the feds have taken on a war they can't win. The Marimed Referral Service on the east side of Santa Cruz exudes the edgy yet laid-back atmosphere you'd expect from an operation that occupies "Suite M for Marijuana," as Marimed director William Malphrus jokes. This is where Malphrus and his associates match doctors willing to do physical evaluations and make medical marijuana recommendations with patients who believe they qualify for the benefits of the Proposition 215-approved green stuff. [continues 2302 words]
Six months after the DEA raided their land and left the threat of incarceration and forfeiture hanging over their heads, medical marijuana activists Valerie and Michael Corral are making plans for the future. It's not easy to find the way to WAMM's garden. First, someone has to tell you where it is--and for them to tell you where it is, you have to earn that someone's trust. Then you have to climb a long and winding road. And when you finally round the last bend in this rite of passage, you don't even get the skunky scent of marijuana to let you know that you've arrived. [continues 2389 words]
Ram Dass Wraps His Expanded Mind Around The Last Of The Truly Taboo Subjects--death And Dying ON A MONDAY afternoon, I pick up the phone feeling horribly nervous. In a minute, I have an interview with Ram Dass--the guy formerly known as Dr. Richard Alpert before he, Timothy Leary and other Harvard faculty experimented with LSD and magic mushrooms and were famously expelled from the university. But while Timothy Leary continued to tune in, turn on and drop out, Alpert became a beloved spiritual luminary who writes bestsellers. [continues 902 words]
DEA Agents Trample On Local Medicinal Marijuana Operation THE WAR ON DRUGS is making a comeback --with a vengeance. Six days short of the Sept. 11 anniversary, federal DEA agents put federal tax dollars to work by raiding the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (better known as WAMM), a Santa Cruz-based cooperative and one of the most successful medicinal marijuana programs in the nation. At 7am, Sept. 5, a dozen camouflage-clad agents showed up at the Davenport home of Valerie and Michael Corral, who founded WAMM a decade ago. Pointing their weapons, the agents told wheelchair-bound WAMM member Suzanne Pfeil to stand up. "I can't stand up. I told them I was sorry," said Pfeil, who suffers from post-polio syndrome. DEA agents then arrested a pajama-clad Valerie Corral, along with her husband Michael. [continues 1085 words]
