Pot times July 17, 2005

Pot Backers Rally In Santa Cruz

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1127/a05.html
Newshawk: Herb

Pubdate: Sun, 17 Jul 2005
Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel (CA)
Copyright: 2005 Santa Cruz Sentinel
Contact: editorial@santa-cruz.com
Website: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/394
Author: Nancy Pasternack
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

POT BACKERS RALLY IN SANTA CRUZ

S.C.  Mayor Declares July 16 Medical Marijuana Day

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.t 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."