Santa Cruz rejects compromise on park smoking for medical marij...

City police officers could be in the uncomfortable position of ticketing ill medical marijuana patients on Saturday if leaders of Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana try to allow patients to inhale at their annual festival.

[john doe]

They can't write tickets for smoking on PRIVATE property. Move the party and get over it. "Hey everybody, let go up to Valerie's place outside of town." She's got enough weed for everybody too. No cops; no tickets. No weirdo tourists staring at sick people and complaining about drug users.

[john doe]

HighLites from the last WAMMfest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch...

[url]http://www.youtube.com/wa tch?v=eI65nh52LnE[/url]

[In Other Action]

Will armed forces round up defiant local potheads Saturday? Chicago '68 redux?

[john doe]

Here's another cannabis classic from your youth..

NRPS "Henry"

http://www.youtube.com/watch...

[john doe]

Commander Cody "Seeds and Stems Blues"

http://www.youtube.com/watch...

[Move]

john doe wrote:

They can't write tickets for smoking on PRIVATE property. Move the party and get over it. "Hey everybody, let go up to Valerie's place outside of town." She's got enough weed for everybody too. No cops; no tickets. No weirdo tourists staring at sick people and complaining about drug users.

Move the party to private property? Are you kidding? This is the annual publicity stunt for the Corral's and WAMM. I suggest this be moved to the Corral's "farm" in Davenport and they can smoke themselves to death.........with Valerie and Mike's plants no less (but not free of course. Medicine costs money)

[AlwaysLearning]

If the city passes no-smoking laws, they are laws for all. Would the city grant an exemption for Tobacco-Fest? If the city is to regulate smoking, it has no choice but to prohibit smoking of anything at this event.

[turd blossom]

They don't need to smoke to use mj. WAMM step up and don't make this look like another flakey party in the park.

[Dirty Larry]

let 'em smoke there. You know no parents are going to bring their kids to a park full of hippies. Take a look at the Farmer's MArkets in Santa Cruz and Aptos. Totally different attendees.

The park will be closed to families this weekend.

[Night Dove]

I'm going to start this comment by saying I am fully supportive of terminally ill people taking advantage of medical marijuana.

"Valerie Corral, co-founder of WAMM, a nonprofit collective for seriously ill medical marijuana patients, told council members Tuesday that patients needed a spot to smoke if necessary at Saturday's celebration of medical marijuana. She said the group would erect tents near the sidewalk for patients with prescriptions to smoke privately during the annual celebration in San Lorenzo Park."

So in a nutshell Valerie Corral's idea of a "compromise" after making a mistake and not doing the proper due diligence to ensure that her event has the proper permits to do what they want is to.......... do what they want anyway. The compromise is to move a tent, that's not supposed to be there anyway without the proper permits, a little to the left? She wants what she wants regardless of the detail involved in getting things done. This woman has gotten her way too long and her actions are starting to prove it.

Take away the one heartstring argument that this group has, terminally ill patients, and ask the question "Would an exemption for these people be allowed?" The answer is no. It is making an exception for a special interest group.

This event should be on private property. If they did this there would be no problems.

[Becky Johnson]

ALWAYS LEARNING WRITES: "f the city passes no-smoking laws, they are laws for all. Would the city grant an exemption for Tobacco-Fest? If the city is to regulate smoking, it has no choice but to prohibit smoking of anything at this event. "

BECKY: Do you get it NOW that the "No Smoking" rules are sweeping, Draconian, and a ridiculous intrusion into the private behavior of private citizens? Why NOT have one tiny area of San Lorenzo Park okay for smoking? Even HOSPITALS have a smoking area!!

[Night Dove]

Dirty Larry wrote:

let 'em smoke there. You know no parents are going to bring their kids to a park full of hippies. Take a look at the Farmer's MArkets in Santa Cruz and Aptos. Totally different attendees.
The park will be closed to families this weekend.

Do you not remember the children's area from last year and the problems that surfaced afterwards? How a registered sex offender and child molester was allowed to have some form of management over the play area? That was yet another example of how the details surround this event were handled sloppily. And more sloppy details this year.

And we are expected to reward Valerie for her lack of detail by giving her what she wants as a "compromise"?

[Night Dove]

Becky Johnson wrote:

BECKY: Even HOSPITALS have a smoking area!!

Are the smoking areas at a hospital sitting on dead dry grass ready to combust along the levee at a moment's notice?

[Publicity hogs]

Valerie Corral: "We're losing track of what's important here. You almost wouldn't know this is about people who are sick." Wrong, Valerie, this is about arrogant and pot-softened minds like yours considering themselves above the law. If anyone is too "sick" to make it through a few hours of celebration without a cannabis fix, provide them pot in brownies or some other non-smoke-producing form. Of course, that wouldn't provide you the publicity stunt of flaunting the law against smoking in parks.

[Alfredo Lansky]

All this whining whilst the liquor stores and bars will be slinging drinks all day to the myriad drunks of Santa Cruz county. Please no drunks come back with the 'drinking is legal' argument.

Who cares if they have a smokeout.

[celebrate subversity]

"No" is a very difficult concept for many of these people.

[celebrate subversity]

Alfredo Lansky wrote:

All this whining whilst the liquor stores and bars will be slinging drinks all day to the myriad drunks of Santa Cruz county. Please no drunks come back with the 'drinking is legal' argument.
.

Drinking is NOT legal in the park....that's the difference.

But using your analogy, what do you suppose the local reaction would be if the GOP held an event in San Lorenzo park and wanted to lift the ban on consuming alcohol in the park?

[El Commandante]

Wasn't George Michael in WAMM?

"I apologize for the kerfuffle that's come about," Corral said.

You should apologize for using the word 'kerfuffle'. Just hold off for smoking for an hour or so, go home and 'medicate'. Stomping aroiund like a child to get your way isn't going to work.

[true roots]

WAMM is and has been beneficial to patients, that find relief from their suffering in smoking marijuana,,however those patients can obey the laws in santa cruz, by partaking in their smoke before they arrive to the event,,there can be an event without the smoke,,really there can be,,WAMM,,it does not have to be a smoke fest,,like 4/20 up at UCSC,,,keep it real, have some respect for your city and their public laws,,this same city and county has helped you provide for those who truly are in need, do the same by having an event without the smoke!!!!

[Sam Slade]

We need a medical evacuation helicopter to land in the park and take these people to a safe location where they can get loaded and then bring them back.