Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom

Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom

309 Cedar St. PMB 14B -- Santa Cruz, Ca. 95060

(831) 423-HUFF 24/7 message & voice mail

November 17, 2002

HUFF AND PUFF

HUFF to document and meet unmet need for Santa Cruz' Medical Marijuana Patients

Santa Cruz, Ca. -- Following the September 5th DEA raid of the Women/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM), and subsequent crop theft by the Federal Government, Santa Cruz city leaders gathered at City Hall to oversee a distribution of marijuana to 8 WAMM patients in an effort to publically demonstrate the support sick people in Santa Cruz have for their right to use medical marijuana. In 1996 passage of Prop 215 made marijuana legal to possess and cultivate, for patients and their primary caregivers. Even prior to 1996, Santa Cruz had medical marijuana clubs that served a majority of the medical marijuana clients in this city. After the Fitzmaurice-Rotkin law of 2000, these clubs died except for WAMM.

FEDERAL LAW OR STATE LAW?

Activist Richard Quigley charged Sheriff Mark Tracy with dereliction of duty for not arresting the DEA agents for tresspassing, brandishing, kidnapping, vandalism, and theft for violating California's Prop 215. "If the Federal government wants to make marijuana illegal in the fifty states, they have the recourse under law to do so, by constitutional amendment as was done with alcohol under prohibition. So far they have not done so."

Quigley also quotes directly from the California State Constitution which provides for case where federal law and state law conflict. According to the California State Constitution, when a case has reached a certain appellate level, it becomes law, superceding state law. So far they have not done so.

So given that until either one of the conditions above are met, State law prevails, and all local law enforcement officials are bound to enforce the law, including arresting federal law enforcement personel should they violate the state law.

WHAT WE WANT

We believe the City needs to (1) declare a medical marijuana emergency and (2) revise its medical marijuana ordinance to allow at least the situation that was happening in the mid-90s when the Santa Cruz Cannabis Buyer's Cooperative was operational. We would like to see the City (3) establish a growing area as San Francisco may be soon be doing after the success of Proposition S. We would like to see City Council and the Supes (4) direct their respective police forces not to cooperate with the DEA or other federal authorities when they violate our state laws. (5) We would like to see the Drug War on marijuana made not just the lowest priority but a thing of the past.

We believe the best way to encourage politicians to do this is to establish the need for medical marijuana in Santa Cruz. We will create a list of folks who are not getting their medicine as needed. And plan to attempt to meet this need by forming a new organization, HUFF AND PUFF, which will publicly and lawfully distribute marijuana as allowed by Proposition 215 on Pacific Ave.

We hope that City Council will take emergency action instead, because it has much greater resources than HUFF.

ARE YOU A MEDICAL MARIJUANA PATIENT WHO CAN'T GET YOUR MEDICINE?

Please sign below if you are interested in getting medical marijuana. Also, let us know if you would like to help with this project.

NAME OR CONFIDENTIAL NUMBER Have letter from a Dr. Need to get letter from Dr. Currently on WAMM waiting list?