California Green Party, candidates condemn federal raids, prosecution of state's medicinal marijuana farms

GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release: Friday, Sept. 7, 2004

Contacts:
Cres Vellucci, State Press Office, 916-996-1970,
Beth Moore Haines, GPCA Spokesperson, 530-277-0610,
Sara Amir, GPCA Spokesperson, 310-270-7106,

ROSEVILLE – The Green Party of California said today it condemns the raids conducted by the Drug Enforcement Agency on California medical marijuana farms – including a raid made in Roseville last Friday – and attempts to prosecute growers and users covered under California's medical marijuana laws.

"This injustice offends citizens on multiple fronts," said Pat Driscoll, the Green candidate for Congress in Sacramento (5th CD). "Foremost are the abuse of patients' legal rights to adequate medical treatment, the waste of public resources on the failed war on drugs and the damage by association to a viable, sound hemp industry."

The GPCA noted that Californians have voted both to allow qualified patients to grow and use medical marijuana and to allow growth and sales by collective caregivers. And, although cultivation, sales and use are against federal law, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held recently that federal authorities do not have the power to interfere with noncommercial medical marijuana operations confined within the state.

"I believe that we have the right to demand that the federal law enforcement agencies that operate in California adhere to the same requirements and responsibilities that we place on our own law enforcement agencies," added John Crockford, Assembly candidate (29th District, Fresno).

The GPCA drug plank calls for "a basic change in our drug policies" and "a greater autonomy in choosing to criminalize, de-criminalize or legalize drugs without having to fear federal reprisals." The party's health care plank calls for "Support for medical marijuana as stated by the California Compassionate Use Act of 1996."

According to Americans for Safe Access (safeaccessnow.org), since 1996, voters in seven states plus the District of Columbia have passed favorable medical marijuana ballot initiatives. Three state legislatures have in some way legalized marijuana as medicine. Currently, laws that effectively remove state-level criminal penalties for growing and/or possessing medical marijuana are in place in Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. Ten states have symbolic medical marijuana laws (laws that support medical marijuana but do not provide patients with legal protection under state law).

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The Green Party of California
http://www.cagreens.org
P.O. Box 2828, Sacramento, CA 95812
Phone: (916) 448-3437
gpca@greens.org