Despite City Measure C passing in 1994, despite State Prop 215 passing in 1996, Despite a local medical marijuana ordinance passed in 2000, and besides a 9th circuit court decision that found that the drug laws are not meant to apply to medical uses for cannabis, no distribution center has been open in the City of Santa Cruz since 2000. Critics say the law is fatally flawed and must be reformed before any distribution centers can open. This article explains why.

It is 2004, eight years after the passage of Proposition 215, the Medical Marijuana Compassionate use Act. An elderly woman walks with a cane down near the levee. She carries cash with her. Her hip joint aches with every movement, her knees also pain her and both her ankles are swollen. She meets her connection and they both look furtively around before they exchange cash for a small plastic baggy of the only medication she has found that helps her to endure her pain without knocking her into a stuporous non-productive state.

Why can’t this woman go into a clinic or health care center and pick up her medication? Why must she sneak around furtively in some back alley getting questionable quality cannabis when the citizens of Santa Cruz voted overwhelmingly (73% in favor) of legalizing the use of medical marijuana?

How to Defend a Medical Marijuana Patient in California

[ Area 420 I Tax and Regulate I California NORML I Marijuana Policy Project ]

On March 27, 2004 about 500 Santa Cruzans came together to protest next year’s proposed budget. Projected county budget cuts attempt to compensate for a loss of 7.5 million state dollars by cutting 118 jobs, 80 of which are from the human and health services departments. This lopsided allocation of funds will directly affect programs like Medical, Foods Stamps, In Home Services, and Public Health Nurses. Organizers called for more equitable distribution of available funds.


Santa Cruz County budget hearings will be held June 15 – 25 at 9AM on the fifth floor of the county building and are open to the public.



Audio: Workers Independent News Service (WINS) coverage

In Home Services Slated for Cuts

Occupied Territory is no longer just a conference. The organizing collective has decided to take the final step, and make the gathering the most interactive and self-managed gathering we could think of. Early this year calls were put out on Infoshop.org, local Indymedias, and other sites across the state and got a huge response. But instead of creating another conference that would revolve around trying to get the usual band of well known speakers that are usually seen at conferences, we have decided to make you the participant decide what the direction of the gathering will be.

Friday June 18th, we will meet you in Fresno, and that night we will decide what the gathering will grow to be. This gathering, like the future, is up to us.

[ Occupied Territory: Anarchist Gathering 2004 I FAQs I Tarps, Forks, and Community I Occupied Territory Anarchist Gathering Gets Underway ]

The closest thing to a Utopian society I have been in is the aftermath of major earthquakes. For a brief moment, people are humbled, and there is a thankfulness for life, itself. Possessions are seen as transitory in this light. The homeless are not arrested, police seem to disappear...Santa Cruz and Northridge Earthquakes taught me a lot...

Copwatch, a group to observe and monitor police activities, is being formed by Santa Cruz citizens concerned about police misconduct and abuse of power in the Santa Cruz community. Following examples set by other Copwatch groups across the nation, members of Santa Cruz Copwatch concerned with the lack of police accountability will launch observation patrols and “Know-Your-Rights� trainings in order to increase the community’s oversight of police activities.

Copwatch chapters exist in at least 6 other cities, including the 10 year old Berkeley Copwatch, and the newly formed Copwatch in East Palo Alto. Copwatch patrollers take down badge numbers, provide written testimony, and in some cases videotape the interactions between police and citizens. The objective of Copwatch is to train the public in non-confrontational techniques with which they can increase their ability to observe police actions, and thus reduce police brutality and other civil rights violations. Santa Cruz Copwatch will be networking with other community groups and work towards amassing incident reports which will be presented to City Council encouraging increased regulation of the Police Department.

Citizen's Police Review Board Gets Dismantled from January, 2003

Santa Cruz Copwatch currently meets on Tuesdays, 7:00 PM, at the Infoshop (509A Broadway).

[ Santa Cruz Copwatch I Know Your Rights card in Spanish and English ]

This is an update on the situation of the men who were racially profiled, abused and arrested on the night of November 11 after the protests against Colin Powell in San Jose at De Anza College. If you were among those who witnessed the police brutality there that evening, you are urged to get in contact with those who are supporting these victims.

On the Judicial Branch, continued

While the Capitola Mall is still restricting protest unlawfully, the National Labor Relations Board ruled in August against Capitola Malls' content-based policies, and limited time, place, and manner restrictions.

Californians for a Moratorium on Executions (CME) is a coalition of diverse groups working for a time-out on executions and a study of the death penalty in California. The coalition was founded in 2001 after more than 100 people had been released from death rows across the nation after having been found wrongfully convicted. Even many supporters of the death penalty have agreed that the system is broken and have joined the call for a time-out on executions.

Both Kelly and Manpower now offer "health plans" that are a sick joke.