WAMM Settles with U. S. Department of Justice

In September, 2002, federal agents raided the grounds of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, located in Santa Cruz, CA, destroying a community garden belonging to chronically and terminally ill patients. WAMM, the City of Santa Cruz, and others sued the Justice Department (then headed by John Ashcroft), soon winning an injunction against further action by the government. On October 19, 2009 the Justice Department codified a policy shift announced last spring by the Obama Administration - that federal prosecutors in the legal medical marijuana states are not to prosecute individuals that are using medical cannabis "in clear and unambiguous compliance" with state laws.

Yesterday Santa Cruz and WAMM agreed to dismiss their lawsuit, with the stipulation that, if the government failed to abide by its new rules, the suit will be reinstated. Representing all the members of WAMM, Valerie and Mike Corral issued a statement to the court, reprinted here. Following the letter is a press release by the ACLU, one of several parties that represented WAMM in the lawsuit. Also, there are links to videos, including two times that Valerie Corral spoke to our Cannabis Therapeutics Conferences - in 2002 (before the raid), and again in 2004.

We mourn the passing of Ester Fride, PhD on January 1, 2010. Dr. Fride worked with Raphael Mechoulam, PhD on cannabinoid research beginning in 1990 . In 2000, she began specialized research on the neonatal influences of the endocannabinoid system, presenting that work at our 2002 Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics in Portland, Oregon. An article from O'Shaughnessey's News Service is reprinted here, followed with a link to the original article and a video of Dr. Fride's 2002 presentation.

Dr. Fride Leaves Us

Published January 7, 2010, by Fred Gardner

Ester Fride, the Israeli scientist who showed that a newborn mammal cannot suckle and survive without a functional cannabinoid messaging system, died on New Year’s Day at the age of 56. The cause was lung cancer, diagnosed in July, 2008.

MS Patient on Trial in New Jersey - a Caregiver's Perspective

by Jim Miller, Board of Advisors, Patients Out of Time

 John Wilson knew in advance that he wouldn't be able to mention at his trial that he has multiple sclerosis or that he used marijuana to treat it's symptoms. The first degree charge against him of maintaining a drug manufacturing facility, for growing 17 plants, could have landed him in prison for 20 years. Still, he wasn't allowed to even mention that he was sick in any way, lest the jury figure out that the marijuana he grew was to be used as medicine for him.

It reminded me of when I was on trial in DC Superior Court in 1999 for occupying congressman Bob Barr's Longworth office with my late wife Cheryl Miller and the rest of our "Commando Squad". I wasn't allowed to tell the jury that we did what we did in response to Barr's roadblocks to medical marijuana implementation in DC. When Ed Rosenthal's jury wasn't allowed to hear that he was commissioned by the city of Oakland to grow the marijuana he was found guilty of possessing, they held a press conference to express their outrage.

But John knew in advance that his jury would not hear any testsimony concerning his multiple sclerosis and medical marijuana, and CMMNJ and NORML NJ would not let that advantage go unused. We all know that it isn't a level playing field when it comes to securing medical marijuana rights for Americans. The key is to find where you can play, and then to show up. We had the right to show up before the potential jury pool would arrive for their December 14, 9:00 AM call to duty. We had the right to hold signs that said "John Wilson is a medical marijuana patient, not a criminal" and "Shhh...medical marijuana is a secret from John's jury", as well as "A jury can disregard an unjust law". There is only one way into Somerset County Courthouse, past the metal detector just inside the front door. By 8:20 AM potential jurors were lined up outside the door in groups of up to a dozen, while six of us faced them from about fifty feet away, silently holding our signs above our heads. We were all they had to look at, and look they did.

 Multiple sclerosis patient Chuck Kwiatkowski arrived with his father at 7:00 AM to ensure that nobody would get in without knowing that John has MS. The bulk of the potential jurors had a half dozen signs to read as they arrived. By 10:00 there were 38 people outside helping ensure that John would have as fair a trial as possible.