Santa Cruz WAMM March Refutes Federal Oppression

SANTA CRUZ Cal. Yesterday's WAMM march in Santa Cruz was an
inspiring event that spoke powerfully to the absurdity of the federal
war on marijuana. Supporters filled the city's central district,
marching from Pacific Garden Mall to City Hall, where political
leaders expressed their solidarity in the midst of wheelchair-bound
patients and live marijuana plants. Rep. Sam Farr sent a message
announcing that he would re-introduce his Truth in Sentencing bill,
to give patients an affirmative defense in federal court cases.
Glorious Santa Cruz basked in an atmosphere of truth and freedom that
felt like the polar refutation of the dark forces now controlling
our nation's capital.
The absurdity of federal policy was aptly highlighted by a pair of
stories juxtaposed on the front page of Friday's Santa Cruz Sentinel
(not shown here). On top, a feature titled "Medical pot parade to
put festive face on ongoing, hard-fought battle." Beneath it -
coincidentally or not - the story, "Drug-gang farmers increasingly
squat on state lands," about rogue marijuana gardens in the parks.
So there you have federal "drug control" in all its bankrupt
perversity - seriously ill WAMM patients parading through the
streets with marijuana plants because they can't risk growing on
their own private land for fear of forfeiture, while pirate gardens
proliferate beyond the government's control in its own state parks!
- D. Gieringer, Cal NORML

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2005/July/15/local/stories/02local.htm

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2005/July/17/local/stories/01local.htm
Santa Cruz Sentinel - July 17, 2005

Hundreds of WAMM supporters fill Pacific Avenue holding marijuana
plants as well as memorial markers for WAMM members who have died.
(Shmuel Thaler / Sentinel)
Pot backers rally in Santa Cruz

S.C. mayor declares July 16 Medical Marijuana Day
By NANCY PASTERNACK
Sentinel staff writer

SANTA CRUZ - It was short on floats and balloons. But Saturday's
downtown procession of medical marijuana users and their supporters
was long on clarity.

Several hundred members and friends of the Wo/Men's Alliance for
Medical Marijuana rode in wheelchairs or walked slowly up Pacific
Avenue, most of them holding signs with headshot photos of deceased
loved ones who had counted on relief from medical marijuana during
their final months or years.

Some held or wore cannabis plants.

In the wake of a June 6 Supreme Court ruling that has called into
question the authority of individual states to employ their own
medical marijuana laws, advocates for the beleaguered Santa Cruz
cooperative have redoubled efforts to differentiate themselves from
recreational drug users, and to promote legal access to what they
feel is a medically useful, and in some cases, necessary drug.

Rick Steeb of San Jose joined the throngs Saturday in their march
toward Santa Cruz City Hall. Steeb said he has been using medical
marijuana for the last four years. The drug, he said, does much to
mitigate pressure and pain in his eyes, and to alleviate his insomnia.

"I'm concerned about the providers," he said of Valerie and Michael
Corral - founders of WAMM - and other cooperative marijuana growers.

"They have so many terminally ill patients who absolutely depend on
the relief these drugs provide," Steeb said.

If the Supreme Court ruling were to result in federal crackdowns on
growers, "I would have to seek the drug out on the street," he said.

Stephanie Sakasai's sign bore a black-and-white shot of her best
friend Chelene Cook, who died in 1996 of brain cancer. Cook had been
supplied with drugs from WAMM in the months before her death, and,
according to Sakasai, had benefited a great deal from them.

"I know it was because of it that she lived as long as she did," said Sakasai.

Participants in the noon hour's quiet, somber parade settled in the
courtyard of City Hall to hear from elected officials, and local and
regional medical marijuana advocates.

Cheers rang out in the City Hall courtyard when City Councilmember
Cynthia Matthews read aloud from a proclamation signed by Santa Cruz
Mayor Mike Rotkin, who was not present Saturday. The statement
declared July 16th "Medical Marijuana Day."

Allen Hopper, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties
Union's drug law reform division, compared acts of civil disobedience
on behalf of medical marijuana with acts that led to the 1954 U.S.
Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education.

The ACLU drug law reform division headquarters is in Santa Cruz.

"People have stood up and said, 'we're not going to take this
anymore,'" Hopper said of Saturday's parade and rally.

The 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision, which rendered
segregated schools unconstitutional, wouldn't have stood a chance
politically, he said, except for the social movement behind it.

Several blocks away from the rhetoric, Santa Cruz Police Lt. Mark
Sanders spoke by telephone about medical versus recreational use of
marijuana as a practical, law enforcement matter.

"We have guidelines, but they get evaluated on a case-by-case
basis," he said. The difference between what is currently considered
legal and illegal possession, he said, "is frequently very blurry and
very difficult to judge."

Contact Nancy Pasternack at npasternack [at] santacruzsentinel.com.

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Dale Gieringer (415) 563-5858 // canorml [at] igc.org
2215-R Market St. #278, San Francisco CA 94114