Judge tells feds to back off from medical pot group

[G_j]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/04/21/state1934EDT0168.DTL

Judge tells feds to back off from medical pot group

DAVID KRAVETS, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, April 21, 2004


(04-21) 16:50 PDT SAN FRANCISCO (AP) --

A judge on Wednesday ordered the federal government to keep away from a California medical marijuana group that grows and distributes cannabis for its sick members.

The order by U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose was the first interpretation of a federal appeals court decision here last year that ordered the federal government not to prosecute a sick Oakland woman who smoked marijuana with a doctor's recommendation under a 1996 California medical marijuana law.

Fogel ruled that the Justice Department cannot raid or prosecute the 250 members of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, which sued the government after the Drug Enforcement Administration in 2002 raided its Santa Cruz County growing operation and seized 167 marijuana plants.

The group's director, Valerie Corral, said the group had been receiving and growing marijuana in secret since the raid out of fear of being prosecuted. But with Fogel's decision, the group intends on immediately planting hundreds of plants at Corral's one-acre property in the Santa Cruz hills.


..more..

[ixion]

1. it would be nice if the feds would let them implement their own law

But, like a psychotic boyfriend or girlfriend... or a big brother, the courts have to issue a restraining order.