Judge: No medical pot return

<www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2002/December/05/local/stories/02local.htm>

December 5, 2002
By BRIAN SEALS
SENTINEL STAFF WRITER

SAN JOSE -- local medical-marijuana cooperative on Wednesday
vowed to press on with its courtroom fight to get its confiscated pot
back after a U.S. District Court judge denied the request.
The Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana filed suit against the
federal government Sept. 24, seeking return of the marijuana plants
that were confiscated by federal agents Sept. 5 at the Davenport
residence of alliance leaders Mike and Valerie Corral.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel rejected the request in a ruling
dated Dec. 3, but ordered other items seized during the raid, including
a laptop computer, an instructional video and firearms, returned to
the Corrals.
The ruling was not a surprise to the cooperative’s attorneys, who
said they expected the case to wind its way to the appellate level.
“We’ve always assumed we’d be in front of the U.S. Supreme Court
on this,” said Santa Cruz attorney Ben Rice, who represents the
cooperative along with Santa Clara University law professor Gerald
Uelmen.
Fogel’s opinion said the court was bound by previous 9th Circuit U.S.
Court of Appeals and Supreme Court rulings.
Among the opinions cited was a 1990 case in which the 9th Circuit
ruled that Congress can regulate “intrastate criminal cultivation of
marijuana plants found rooted in the soil.”
However, the opinion seemed sympathetic to the cooperative’s
cause.
“Nothing in this order should be construed as indicating how this
court would rule with respect to the movant’s arguments were it free
to do so,” Fogel wrote in a footnote.
DEA spokesman Richard Meyer said the agency was pleased with the
ruling.
“We remain determined to protect the community from dangerous
drugs, and marijuana is a dangerous drug,” Meyer said.
That has been the federal government’s position during the medical
marijuana debate, placing it at odds with California voters, who in
1996 approved medical pot use by state residents upon a doctor’s
recommendation.
State judges have been more willing to order medical marijuana
returned. Just this week, a judge in San Luis Obispo ordered the
return of 8.2 grams of marijuana to man who had a prescription for it
from his doctor to use pot.
In Santa Cruz County, the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana
has more than 200 members and has worked with local law
enforcement.
Valerie Corral said she wasn’t discouraged by the ruling, but would
rather be focusing on cooperative members.
“We should be doing our work with people who are facing death,”
Corral said.
The September raid sparked outrage in Santa Cruz County and
among medical-marijuana supporters statewide. High-level politicians
like state Attorney General Bill Lockyer and U.S. Rep. Sam Farr also
issued statements critical of the raid.
The Santa Cruz City Council responded to it by allowing the
cooperative to dispense medical marijuana to about a dozen of its
members on the steps of City Hall, a move that garnered national
press attention.
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Contact Brian Seals at bseals (at) santa-cruz.com