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WAMMfest Goes Off Without a Hitch
Santa Cruz — Although smoking was not allowed at the WAMMfest on Saturday due to a planning mix-up, the annual celebration of medical marijuana still filled San Lorenzo Park with hundreds of patients and supporters.
Without an exemption to the city’s no-smoking rules in the park, WAMMfest organizers patrolled the park and handed out fliers stating that smoking was not allowed this year. In the past, organizers have set up tents in the park where medical marijuana patients could inhale their medicine.
“What we’re trying to do is respect the laws and keep it safe and fun,” WAMM board member Suzanne Pfeil said. “We don’t want anyone to receive a citation.”
Santa Cruz police said they would not increase the number of officers on duty Saturday afternoon for WAMMfest. However, they said those on duty would issue citations if the park’s no-smoking rules were not followed.
“Organizers of the event were very respectful and responsive to any inquiries park staff had who were doing their regular patrols of the park,” Santa Cruz police Lt. Rick Martinez said. “There was a small smoking tent but it wasn’t located on park property. We estimated the crowds to be around 200-300 people. Overall I think it was a success for the organizers.”
Police wrote two citations for smoking and one for alcohol at the end of the day.
Leaders of the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana said earlier in the week they were able to get approval to set up a smoking tent for patients with identification cards on county property near the county building nearby so that members could still smoke while in compliance with the city’s ordinance.
“We spoke with city parks and they told us that adjacent to the county building it is county property,” Pfeil said. “So we met with city parks and the Sheriff’s Office to discuss how we could best comply with the county. We don’t want anyone to get ticketed, we just want everyone to have fun.”
WAMM sent a letter to the City Council asking for support of the group’s festivities last month. But no one asked a specific council member to put the no-smoking exemption request on the agenda, a necessary step before council members could consider the request.
“We have received so much support from the community. This festival is a way to give back to them,” Pfeil said. “We serve the sickest of the sick. Despite the economic times, we’re still trying to serve everyone without them having to go to their bank account only to watch it disappear.”
For WAMM member Stephen Richter, the festival is about visiting with close friends and remembering other members who have died.
“It’s a beautiful thing to honor our friends and let people know what we’re about,” Richter said as he walked through rows of pictures lined up in a memorial garden for deceased WAMM members. “Everybody walks around and they don’t realize that what we are doing is trying to help people and to help each other. It’s a blessing to be a member. I’ve gotten to meet wonderful people at very trying times. We learn a lot from each other.”
While some remembered old friends at the festival, others reaffirmed their relationship with a wedding at 4:20 p.m.
“We actually got married last year in Washington and thought we would renew our vows here, but they surprised us with an altar and chairs that were decorated with flowers,” said Maya Black of Olympia, Wash. “My husband was familiar with the work WAMM does and told me I need to meet Valerie Corral. She’s the type of person that is so selfless. When I met her I felt like I’ve known her forever.”
The two agreed they would have WAMM founder Corral remarry them at the festival. Maya Black’s husband, Kevin, said he has been involved with the medical marijuana movement for 10 years and has run security at the Seattle hemp festival for years.
“To have Valerie remarry us is an honor. I would do anything for WAMM. Most people realize that this festival is a good thing,” Kevin Black said. “I’ve met far too many people who are medical marijuana patients that I consider family who have AIDS or multiple sclerosis and have gotten thrown in jail because they had marijuana. I can’t sit idly and let that happen.”
WAMMfest asks for smoking exception, again
SANTA CRUZ -- Santa Cruz leaders should decide Sept. 22 whether to lift the city's smoking ban in San Lorenzo Park for the third year in a row and allow medical marijuana patients to smoke in designated tents during the annual WAMMfest celebration.
The decision comes two weeks after the City Council passed sweeping no-smoking bans for the entire city, including Pacific Avenue, Beach Street, Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf and all city parks. Some parks, including San Lorenzo, already were off-limits to smoking.
WAMM's request includes permission to errect a special tent to accommodate members of its nonprofit collective -- many of whom are terminally ill -- if they need to light up during the event. Another tent would be available to medical marijuana patients with proper patient identification.
"We just hope to have a great time in the park," said Valerie Corral, co-founder of Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, which sponsors the annual WAMMfest. "Create a day where there's low stress and fun for people."
However, Corral acknowledged the group is rebounding from last year's event, where city leaders nearly denied WAMM's request for an exception to the smoking ban as the festival has a reputation for attracting out-of-town visitors who spoke pot recreationally on the park's expansive lawn. In addition, after the event a child-care provider for WAMMfest was identified as a registered sex offender. Corral said WAMM has vowed those problems won't happen again.
Meanwhile, some city leaders are noncommittal on whether they would grant a third exception. Last year the council first split the vote on whether to grant a similar request, as one member was out sick and others said they supported the cause, but not the venue. After much discussion WAMM's request was granted the following week.
This year, "we're going to have to make sure they reduce their impact of secondhand smoke as much as everyone else," Councilman Ryan Coonerty said. "The law was meant to cover all secondhand smoke, and secondhand smoke at WAMMfest is part of it."
WAMMfest also pits two of Santa Cruz's competing values against each other, as Council members two weeks ago unanimously approved expanding no-smoking rules to overwhelming public approval. But seven years ago Santa Cruz allowed WAMM to hand out medical marijuana on City Hall steps after federal drug enforcement agents raided their North Coast farm, and voters in 2006 directed police to make marijuana enforcement their lowest priority.
Police at last year's event said they had no problems, and WAMM provided its own security. Corral said the group will do the same this year. Police spokesman Zach Friend said on Monday that his department does not plan to increase patrols for WAMMfest.
Santa Cruz, CA -- Thousands of medicinal marijuana patients and supporters attended WAMMfest to celebrate and learn about the herbal medicine Saturday.
Though medical marijuana patients were able to smoke their medicine at the event that featured music, crafts and speeches, that portion of the festivities was in question until this week. After failing to muster the votes to lift the city smoking ban in parks in a prior meeting, the council Tuesday agreed to do so. Only those with a medical marijuana identification card were allowed to smoke in a specially-designated tent Saturday.
Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana co-founder Valerie Corral said the event is an opportunity to normalize the use of medicinal marijuana and bring its members' stories to the public eye.
"Almost 200 of our members have died in the past 15 years since our inception," said Corral. "We do this work for a lot of reasons and for all aspects of illness. We get to be with people at the most important time in their lives when they are facing death. We are here to take care of each other and to be by their bedside and it takes you to places you can't even imagine."
WAMM is a collective of patients and caregivers that offers free medical marijuana to seriously ill patients with a doctor's recommendation and aims to, provide hope and build community.
Santa Cruz police reported that there were no problems during the event, and that the festival provided its own security.
Organizers began setting up the celebration of the herbal drug at 6 a.m. Saturday and said by the end of the day they expected to see 2,500 visitors.
Colorful tents filled San Lorenzo Park with vendors offering a range of organic hemp soaps from Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps to bright tie-dye shirts and jewelry. Plastic marijuana leaf tiaras were also for sale in addition to sunglasses and hemp bags.
Councilman Tony Madrigal, who spoke at the event, said he was happy the council was able find a compromise that allowed patients to use their medication in a controlled, confined and secure area, while still taking part in a community event.
"This is an example of the community working together with the local government to find a solution for many of the problems the city faces," Madrigal said. "People are loyal to WAMM and come to celebrate the good work that WAMM does."
A newly expanded children's area was moved to the front of the park to invite members of the community to the family friendly event said WAMM member Babianna Mince.
"It's a family affair here. My husband is working security and I am in charge of the kids area," Mince said. "We have had about 20 kids come by since noon, which is more than we have ever had."
A survivor of uterine, bone and breast cancer, Mince said that being a medicinal marijuana patient has allowed her to participate in events such as the festival and get through 40 surgeries within the past five years.
"I feel like after that I can get through anything," Mince said.
A small memorial for WAMM members who have died was set up by the medicinal marijuana tent, featuring their names and faces.
Council OKs smoking pot in WAMM tent - San Jose Mercury News
SANTA CRUZ — Medical marijuana patients will once again be allowed to smoke dope in San Lorenzo Park this Saturday, after city leaders temporarily lifted a smoking ban to allow for a festival celebrating the medicinal herb.
The decision came after testimony from more than 20 patients who reasoned and pleaded with the Santa Cruz City Council to allow them to inhale their medication while partaking in Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana’s annual WAMMfest. Some accused council members of growing old and more conservative, while others said Santa Cruz was losing both its compassion and its weirdness.
The catch, however, is that the ban was not lifted for the entire park. Instead, those with a medical marijuana identification card only will be allowed to smoke inside a tent designated for that purpose.
Council members approved the proposal on a 5-1 vote, with Councilwoman Lynn Robinson voting against the measure and Mayor Ryan Coonerty absent.
Robinson said she does not like making exceptions to rules that the city requires everyone else to follow.
WAMMfest raises awareness, draws crowd
SANTA CRUZ -- The smell of burning marijuana wafted through San Lorenzo Park during the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana annual festival Saturday, though organizers said sharing information about medicinal marijuana, not using it, was the focus of the event. "Really, this isn't about smoking in public. It's about raising awareness," WAMM co-founder Valerie Corral said. "It's about medicine and human suffering."
The group started WAMMfest 14 years ago as a fundraiser and community outreach effort. This year, the City Council voted to lift the 18-month-old ban on smoking in city parks to allow medicinal marijuana patients to light up at the event.
Hundreds of people filtered through the festival, which included live music, a kids' play area, auction and several information booths, and the weekly Saturday Market.
"We got nice weather and a pretty good turnout," Corral said.
Nearly 2,000 people attended last year's festival. Final attendance figures for this year's event were not immediately available.
Mary Cross of Capitola said she came out to support WAMM, a 200-member cooperative started in Santa Cruz in 1993. Its goal is to help the seriously ill use, grow and share marijuana for medical purposes.
"I believe that it's really important for the community to come and see what WAMM is all about," said Cross, a medicinal marijuana patient who said she uses pot to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. "It's the only thing that can help me sleep at night.
"It really helps people," she added, surveying a photo display of dozens of former WAMM members who have succumbed to their illnesses.
"I'm an everyday user, just because it's great," said Moe Jasari, who came from the south San Francisco Bay Area with two friends for the festival.
Police reported no problems with the afternoon festival. But after Measure K was passed with 60 percent of the vote in November, Santa Cruz police are forced to make adult marijuana-related crimes on private property a low priority.
Marijuana became legal in California in 1996 for people with serious illnesses, however, the federal government considers the drug illegal and has the authority to confiscate marijuana, even if it's used for medicinal purposes.
Earlier this month, in the case of Santa Cruz County v. Alberto Gonzales, U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel granted the attorney general's motion to prevent a Santa Cruz marijuana cooperative and its supporters from suing the office to stop federal marijuana raids.
At the time, Mike Corral said: "Naturally, we're disappointed. I had hoped for something better." Corral, who owned the land where federal agents seized medical pot plants in September 2002, thrusting him, his wife and their collective into the five-year legal battle that's put the them at the center of California's medical marijuana debate.
The suit, filed on behalf of WAMM, the city of Santa Cruz and the county in 2003, contends that federal agents went too far in seizing 165 marijuana plants from Corral's plot. The suit cites the Compassionate Use Act.
The Attorney General's Office, though, has maintained that marijuana, no matter how it is used, is illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act, prompting the office to seek dismissal of the Santa Cruz County suit.
Medical-pot festival set
SANTA CRUZ — Picking up the phone at her Westside office, Valerie Corral was a little preoccupied.
The co-founder of the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana was trying to hunt down a 33-year-old member of the group who’s ill with breast cancer. And homeless.
"They get ill and they’re not able to make rent," said Corral with an air of familiarity with these kinds of situations.
Members of the Santa Cruz medical marijuana cooperative are accustomed to peering over their shoulders looking for federal agents and battling illness.
So a celebration is a much needed respite.
"It’s a way to keep some joy and levity and celebration in the mix," Corral aid.
The Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana is set to host its third annual WAMMFest 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 10 at San Lorenzo Park in Santa Cruz.
What began as a party commemorating the bust of a medical marijuana garden has evolved into an annual celebration.
Since 2003, the cooperative has hosted the event around the anniversary of the September 2002 bust of its Davenport garden, when U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents uprooted 167 of its plants.
The intervening years have been a roller coaster for the group.
The second year was filled with hope, as the group was operating under a federal court injunction that barred any further raids on its garden.
This year, it’s back to concern as a June U.S. Supreme Court ruling put an end to that protection.
Nonetheless, organizers say the party is on.
They note the day is not a "smoke-out" and illegal toking is not welcomed. Rather, it is a day of music, food and crafts for kids.
This year renowned author and activist Paul Krassner, known as the "father of the underground press," will be appearing at the festival.
Mayor Mike Rotkin and Councilwoman Emily Reilly are scheduled for stints in the dunking booth, a fixture of the event.
An estimated 1,000 people have attended each of the last two events, which Corral said the group hopes to keep an annual gathering "as long as we’re not in jail."
"We’re offering the community something back for supporting us," Corral said.
Green is the scene: Serious and not-so-serious issues highlight local pot club’s festival
SANTA CRUZ — He’s smoked pot since he was 14.
Eighty-four-year-old George Van Vlaenderen’s early experiences with marijuana were in the mid-1930s, before its use was prohibited by federal law.
Now, smoking the drug relieves eye pressure caused by his cataracts, the World War II veteran Navy pilot said.
He stood in the sunshine near a members-only smoking tent at the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana gathering Saturday and shared his thoughts.
Those who could legalize the drug, he said, have a vested interest in keeping marijuana illegal.
Allowing people to use products of the cannabis plant legally, he said, "would eliminate the need for a lot of prescription drugs."
"They’ll do everything in their power to make sure it’s not legal," Van Vlaenderen said, "because it would cost them millions of dollars ... they’re scared like hell."
In spite of his jaunty beret and ready smile, the WAMM member’s perspective represented more serious aspects of WAMMFest.
"Get laid by a WAMM member: only $5" read a sign advertising Hawaiian-style leis of strung plastic cannabis leaves.
And a dreadlocked Homer Simpson toking from a bong graced the front of a tie-dyed "original art" shirt hawked by Jerry Converse. "Ahh, bong hits," the shirt reads.
Another shirt features Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbs) smoking a large marijuana cigarette.
"But on the back," Converse said, picking up the garment and showing it off, "he turns into spaceman Spliff on a giant Rastafarian joint planet."
WAMM co-founder Valerie Corral dismisses purely recreational users who try to associate themselves with her group.
More pressing issues are at hand, she said.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court did away with protections for marijuana cooperatives. Drug Enforcement Agency raids are a reality once again.
But eventually, she said, medical necessity will overcome politics.
"Everybody faces death — we’re all future skulls," she said. And keeping marijuana illegal "hasn’t saved or extended a single life."
WAMM member Diana Poppay, 48, emerges from the smoking tent. The mother of two said she has suffered with multiple sclerosis since 1975, and that medical marijuana’s effects have helped relieve pain, stop her muscle spasms and it allows her to eat and sleep in peace.
She said she’s thankful for the pure, organic drugs she gets through Corral’s cooperative. She doesn’t trust other sources of marijuana.
"On the street," she said, "you don’t know what they’re doing with that stuff."
Corral said she welcomes government scrutiny.
"If (government officials) watch us closely enough, they’ll fall in love with WAMM," she said. "We’re going to charm the DEA."
WAMMFEST a hit among medical-pot users
SANTA CRUZ — Hundreds of people drifted in and out of San Lorenzo Park on Sunday to help the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana commemorate the two year anniversary of a federal raid on the group’s medicinal marijuana garden in Davenport.
"At around noon on this day two years ago, we were already in jail in a federal facility in San Jose," said Michael Corral, who co-founded WAMM with his wife, Valerie.
But on Sunday, he and his wife were celebrating the regrowth of their garden, the support of the Santa Cruz community and the fight to get the feds to recognize marijuana’s medical benefits and stop arresting medicinal marijuana patients at the Santa Cruz WAMMFEST 2004.
County resident Jay Sosa, who is HIV positive, has been a member of WAMM since 1989. He said marijuana helps lessen the adverse side affects from medications he takes for his illness.
"Some of the medications I take really get to my stomach," he said. "The medicinal marijuana makes me eat."
There was plenty to eat and do at Sunday’s family-friendly event. About 20 booths offered various products, ranging from hemp clothing to snacks to literature.
One booth was quite popular. It featured a dunk tank that offered passers-by the chance to dunk their least favorite politician.
One dollar earned interested parties three baseballs to pitch at people wearing masks of famous faces such as President Bush and Condoleezza Rice, his national security adviser.
