WAMM Settles With Feds 8-year-old lawsuit
source: http://www.metrosantacruz.com/metro-santa-cruz/01.27.10/news-1004.html
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THE MORNING of Friday, Jan. 22, was a long time coming for Michael Corral. As he walked up to the doors of the federal courthouse in downtown San Jose, members of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, the collective he helped found in Santa Cruz in 1996, were slowly gathering outside the glass doors. Some leaned on canes and walkers. One member had a seeing-eye dog, another a wheelchair.
"It's a draw. They didn't win, we didn't win," Corral said. "This has gone on so long, it was time for it to end."
The group moved slowly through the metal detectors and into the elevators taking them up to Judge Jeremy Fogel's U.S. District courtroom on the fifth floor. As the doors closed behind them, a security guard joked, "Toke up party afterwards!"
After the eight years it took to get to this point, the hearing was very brief, just minutes long. Judge Fogel looked out over the assembled group of about 30 WAMM patients and supporters and commented on the attendance. "It's rare that dismissed-case management draws this big a crowd," he remarked.
But this was no ordinary case dismissal. Not only was the federal government standing down from its defense of a 2002 raid on WAMM property by DEA agents, the settlement was also a formal recognition of Attorney General Eric Holder's October 2009 memorandum titled "Medical Marijuana Guidance" and the sea change in federal policy that it represents.
"Based on that new philosophy, if you will, by Eric Holder, [Judge Fogel] has urged us to resolve the case," says Santa Cruz attorney Ben Rice, who has represented WAMM for the last 15 years. "It's a terrific win for WAMM as well as the people of this community."
http://www.metrosantacruz.com/metro-santa-cruz/01.27.10/news-1004.html
"It's a draw. They didn't win, we didn't win," Corral said. "This has gone on so long, it was time for it to end."
The group moved slowly through the metal detectors and into the elevators taking them up to Judge Jeremy Fogel's U.S. District courtroom on the fifth floor. As the doors closed behind them, a security guard joked, "Toke up party afterwards!"
After the eight years it took to get to this point, the hearing was very brief, just minutes long. Judge Fogel looked out over the assembled group of about 30 WAMM patients and supporters and commented on the attendance. "It's rare that dismissed-case management draws this big a crowd," he remarked.
But this was no ordinary case dismissal. Not only was the federal government standing down from its defense of a 2002 raid on WAMM property by DEA agents, the settlement was also a formal recognition of Attorney General Eric Holder's October 2009 memorandum titled "Medical Marijuana Guidance" and the sea change in federal policy that it represents.
"Based on that new philosophy, if you will, by Eric Holder, [Judge Fogel] has urged us to resolve the case," says Santa Cruz attorney Ben Rice, who has represented WAMM for the last 15 years. "It's a terrific win for WAMM as well as the people of this community."
http://www.metrosantacruz.com/metro-santa-cruz/01.27.10/news-1004.html
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