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CNN Live Today
Santa Cruz City Hall to Protest Pot Raid
Aired September 17, 2002 - 13:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's hard to get city and county officials out for a marijuana giveaway, but this is medical marijuana that we're talking about. It's at city hall in Santa Cruz, California, and it's to protest a federal raid on a pot farm that supplied a medical marijuana (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
CNN's Frank Buckley is in Santa Cruz -- Frank.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the medical marijuana giveaway set to get underway at 3:00 local time. What they are going to do here is give away medical marijuana to about 10 or 15 patients who already use marijuana for medical purposes. The city council will be looking on in support, but they are not here to actually physically give away the marijuana.
This follows a raid that occurred on September 5 on the marijuana garden of Valerie and Mike Corral. They are very prominent people in the medical marijuana movement. They ran their operation in consultation with local law enforcement officials to assure them that the operation was in fact for medical purposes.
Still, on September 5, the federal DEA agents raided that garden and took 167 marijuana plants and arrested the Corrals. The Corals, however, were released immediately, fairly quickly, and they have yet to be charged with any crime.
Joining me now is Tim Fitzmaurice who's a council member here in Santa Cruz. This is creating a great deal of headlines. People have been coming down here this morning, asking when you are going to start giving away the free marijuana. Tell us what this isn't?
TIM FITZMAURICE, CITY COUNCIL MEMBER: This isn't a pot giveaway, as it has been recorded in newspaper. What it is is our opportunity to witness an act of compassion that goes on in this community every week, where terminally ill people and desperately ill people come to meetings and they do it in a very quiet way, generally. They come to meetings and they get a small dose of marijuana that they use, authorized by a physician, in a small group. They give it too each other. There is no giveaway, no possession by anyone that is not authorized by a physician. So it is not a giveaway to people in general.
But it is our opportunity to witness this, to be educated by it and to how is our own compassion to this community and we are hoping that we can learn from that experience.
BUCKLEY: I can hear people across the country right now saying, Look at those wackos in California, once again way out beyond the norm, and also setting a bad example for children by giving away marijuana at city hall.
FITZMAURICE: No, no, no. What we're doing is I think we're -- first of all, there are plenty of people that are experiencing the same difficulties. We're like every other community in that regard. Our own state attorney general is in support of this kind of a program and has sent out a message in that regard. No. And in no way I think are we condoning abusive drugs. That's not the point. The point is we're condoning the treatment of seriously, terminally ill, desperately ill people.
And these people have been so cooperative with us. This particular program, a nonprofit program that does not charge any money and does not exchange any money on these matters and has been operating, I think, in the open for 10 years, suddenly, I think -- somebody else has put them on the spot. We're here to say thank you for the years and years of cooperation, and we want to learn more about this operation and we want to show our support for these people.
BUCKLEY: You mentioned Bill Lockyer, the attorney general. He wrote a letter to federal officials complaining about that September 5 raid. Local law enforcement wasn't consulted when the DEA came in here. Are you concerned about the states rights issue, the idea that California voters have passed a measure that says this sort of thing is legal here in California and in eight other states? But the federal government is saying no, it still violates federal law.
FITZMAURICE: We need to get a word out to Congress. I hear that they might want to have hearings, but those have been blocked, that Barney Frank might want to have hearings. We need to get the word out. There is a problem. The people of California democratically decided that they wanted this issue to be dealt with in a legal way. The people of our community -- over 75 percent -- said they wanted this issue to be dealt with in a legal way. This is seriously ill people getting medicine, and the Congress has got to get its act together and figure out a way for this to work for us, because if they do not resolve this issue at that level, we are not going to be able to resolve our issues with the federal government.
BUCKLEY: So what will happen next? Do you see a showdown occurring between the states and the federal government on this issue across the country?
FITZMAURICE: I am not looking for any showdowns. I am looking for some compassion from the federal government to try to understand that this shouldn't be the priority, for drug enforcement, right now. We need their help. We need their help with heroin. We need their help with serious hard drug use and all kinds of drug use in our community and communities across the country.
They shouldn't be spending their time focusing on what has been happening in plain sight for 10 years. They should be spending their time figuring out a way to really help us with the problems that we've been dealing with. And we have had good relations with the DEA and with other federal enforcement in the past. We've had good relations. I think we have can those relations in the future.
BUCKLEY: OK, Tim Fitzmaurice, with the city council here in Santa Cruz. Thanks very much, Tim.
The medical marijuana is set to get underway at 3:00 local time here right here at city hall. We should say that the DEA's position on this is look, marijuana is still an illegal drug. They are simply doing their jobs and enforcing the federal law -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Frank, we'll check in that hour.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 17, 2002 - 13:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's hard to get city and county officials out for a marijuana giveaway, but this is medical marijuana that we're talking about. It's at city hall in Santa Cruz, California, and it's to protest a federal raid on a pot farm that supplied a medical marijuana (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
CNN's Frank Buckley is in Santa Cruz -- Frank.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the medical marijuana giveaway set to get underway at 3:00 local time. What they are going to do here is give away medical marijuana to about 10 or 15 patients who already use marijuana for medical purposes. The city council will be looking on in support, but they are not here to actually physically give away the marijuana.
This follows a raid that occurred on September 5 on the marijuana garden of Valerie and Mike Corral. They are very prominent people in the medical marijuana movement. They ran their operation in consultation with local law enforcement officials to assure them that the operation was in fact for medical purposes.
Still, on September 5, the federal DEA agents raided that garden and took 167 marijuana plants and arrested the Corrals. The Corals, however, were released immediately, fairly quickly, and they have yet to be charged with any crime.
Joining me now is Tim Fitzmaurice who's a council member here in Santa Cruz. This is creating a great deal of headlines. People have been coming down here this morning, asking when you are going to start giving away the free marijuana. Tell us what this isn't?
TIM FITZMAURICE, CITY COUNCIL MEMBER: This isn't a pot giveaway, as it has been recorded in newspaper. What it is is our opportunity to witness an act of compassion that goes on in this community every week, where terminally ill people and desperately ill people come to meetings and they do it in a very quiet way, generally. They come to meetings and they get a small dose of marijuana that they use, authorized by a physician, in a small group. They give it too each other. There is no giveaway, no possession by anyone that is not authorized by a physician. So it is not a giveaway to people in general.
But it is our opportunity to witness this, to be educated by it and to how is our own compassion to this community and we are hoping that we can learn from that experience.
BUCKLEY: I can hear people across the country right now saying, Look at those wackos in California, once again way out beyond the norm, and also setting a bad example for children by giving away marijuana at city hall.
FITZMAURICE: No, no, no. What we're doing is I think we're -- first of all, there are plenty of people that are experiencing the same difficulties. We're like every other community in that regard. Our own state attorney general is in support of this kind of a program and has sent out a message in that regard. No. And in no way I think are we condoning abusive drugs. That's not the point. The point is we're condoning the treatment of seriously, terminally ill, desperately ill people.
And these people have been so cooperative with us. This particular program, a nonprofit program that does not charge any money and does not exchange any money on these matters and has been operating, I think, in the open for 10 years, suddenly, I think -- somebody else has put them on the spot. We're here to say thank you for the years and years of cooperation, and we want to learn more about this operation and we want to show our support for these people.
BUCKLEY: You mentioned Bill Lockyer, the attorney general. He wrote a letter to federal officials complaining about that September 5 raid. Local law enforcement wasn't consulted when the DEA came in here. Are you concerned about the states rights issue, the idea that California voters have passed a measure that says this sort of thing is legal here in California and in eight other states? But the federal government is saying no, it still violates federal law.
FITZMAURICE: We need to get a word out to Congress. I hear that they might want to have hearings, but those have been blocked, that Barney Frank might want to have hearings. We need to get the word out. There is a problem. The people of California democratically decided that they wanted this issue to be dealt with in a legal way. The people of our community -- over 75 percent -- said they wanted this issue to be dealt with in a legal way. This is seriously ill people getting medicine, and the Congress has got to get its act together and figure out a way for this to work for us, because if they do not resolve this issue at that level, we are not going to be able to resolve our issues with the federal government.
BUCKLEY: So what will happen next? Do you see a showdown occurring between the states and the federal government on this issue across the country?
FITZMAURICE: I am not looking for any showdowns. I am looking for some compassion from the federal government to try to understand that this shouldn't be the priority, for drug enforcement, right now. We need their help. We need their help with heroin. We need their help with serious hard drug use and all kinds of drug use in our community and communities across the country.
They shouldn't be spending their time focusing on what has been happening in plain sight for 10 years. They should be spending their time figuring out a way to really help us with the problems that we've been dealing with. And we have had good relations with the DEA and with other federal enforcement in the past. We've had good relations. I think we have can those relations in the future.
BUCKLEY: OK, Tim Fitzmaurice, with the city council here in Santa Cruz. Thanks very much, Tim.
The medical marijuana is set to get underway at 3:00 local time here right here at city hall. We should say that the DEA's position on this is look, marijuana is still an illegal drug. They are simply doing their jobs and enforcing the federal law -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Frank, we'll check in that hour.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
