Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana — WAMM Phytotherapies

This Landmark honors Compassion, Community and the Medical Cannabis Movement in Santa Cruz County

A Community of Compassion

Born in Santa Cruz in 1992 after Valerie and Mike Corral were arrested for cultivating medical marijuana, the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana — WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies — became the country’s first patient collective, serving seriously ill and dying patient members at no cost. In 1993, weekly meetings began, with the Santa Cruz AIDS Project providing space where medicine could be shared with sick and dying members.

WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies was built around a radically simple idea: people who were sick and suffering should be able to access cannabis with dignity, care, and community around them, regardless of their ability to pay.

Cannabis was cultivated collectively and shared as medicine. Members who were able helped in the garden, processed the harvest, cared for one another, and supported people facing cancer, HIV/AIDS, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, chronic illness, dying, grief, and loss.

It was a collective of patients and caregivers creating community, building hope, dissolving obstacles, providing support, and sharing organic medical cannabis on a donation basis — from seed to deathbed.

From seed to deathbed, WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies developed a culture of care around the whole person. Through Raha Kudo: Design for Dying — its hospice outreach work formalized in September 2002 — that care extended to people approaching the end of life, helping ease suffering and creating space for dignity, connection, presence, and choice when facing death.

WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies became more than a source of cannabis. It became a community of care.

Compassion was not a slogan. It was, and still is, a shared community value.

Cannabis as Medicine

WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies emerged when cannabis was still deeply stigmatized and criminalized. For many members, the plant was not about recreation. It was about easing pain, controlling seizures, restoring appetite, sleeping, enduring treatment, and finding moments of relief during serious illness.

For people living with severe or terminal conditions, cannabis could also help take some of the suffering out of pain and open a different kind of space when facing death.

That understanding shaped the culture of WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies. The plant mattered, but so did the relationships around it: patient and caregiver, cultivator and patient, neighbor and neighbor.

Medicine was inseparable from care.

When Santa Cruz Stood With Its Patients

On September 5, 2002, federal DEA agents raided the WAMM Garden, arrested Valerie and Mike Corral, and seized 167 cannabis plants being grown for patient members.

The raid threatened more than a garden. It threatened medicine relied upon by seriously ill people and challenged a community model that Santa Cruz had come to know and support.

Twelve days later, on September 17, after the Santa Cruz City Council passed a unanimous resolution of support, WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies members — many in wheelchairs or leaning on walkers — gathered at Santa Cruz City Hall to openly defy the federal government and give away medical marijuana to members. The mayor and city council stood with them, joined by more than a thousand citizens. The City and County of Santa Cruz joined WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies in its lawsuit against the federal government.

National media captured frail, seriously ill patients standing beside elected officials while a federal helicopter circled overhead. Rather than silencing WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies, the raid became a defining image of the medical marijuana movement — an act of civil disobedience grounded in compassion, dignity, and courage.

A community stood with its patients.

A Living Legacy at Treehouse

The story of WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies did not end with legalization.

In 2023, WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies began a new-home partnership with TreeHouse, where collective meetings resumed. Members are served by TreeHouse staff and supported by clients of The Hook, while Coastal Sun, SC Labs, Highway 1 Distro, Stony Cruz, and other supporters continue helping the work and its patients thrive.

This new chapter builds on a long history of community support: a donation-based patient storefront from 1999 to 2018, a cultivation partnership with Strong Agronomy — Coastal Sun beginning in 2015, and SC Labs testing of WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies products beginning in 2010.

The setting has changed. The responsibility has not.

These efforts carry the original ethos of WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies forward into a new era. Compassion is not only something to remember. As Valerie Corral describes it, it is “the nectar of awareness, the jewel of consciousness.” It is a modest practice rooted in abundance — in knowing there is plenty to share and that everything is better in community. It carries us through this life and, perhaps, through the portal to whatever lies beyond.

WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies Timeline

1973 — A car accident sets Valerie and Mike on the road that becomes their lifelong journey into cannabis as medicine.

1992 — Mike and Valerie are arrested for cultivating medical marijuana, and out of that arrest WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies is born. Valerie becomes the first patient in California to invoke the medical necessity defense in court and wins. Measure A passes in Santa Cruz County.

1993 — Weekly meetings begin. The Santa Cruz AIDS Project offers space where WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies can give away medical marijuana to sick and dying members.

1994 — WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies activists meet with State Senator Henry Mello in Sacramento to press the case for patients.

1996 — Proposition 215 passes. Valerie co-authors the initiative, and WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies is instrumental in passing California’s landmark medical marijuana law.

1997 — Valerie meets with staff for U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno in Washington, D.C., to argue for the right of WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies to continue its work.

1999–2018 — WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies operates a donation-based patient storefront for nearly two decades.

2000 — The City of Santa Cruz passes a progressive medical marijuana ordinance protecting patients and allowing cooperatives to cultivate and distribute cannabis — a direct challenge to federal drug law.

2001–04 — California’s SB 420 establishes a state regulatory advisory committee on medical marijuana. Attorney General Bill Lockyer appoints Valerie Corral to serve.

2002 — Santa Cruz County establishes its Cannabis Identification System for patients.

September 4–5, 2002 — WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies formalizes Raha Kudo: Design for Dying, its hospice outreach project caring for members from seed to deathbed. Later that morning, the DEA arrives.

September 5, 2002 — Armed DEA agents raid the WAMM Garden in the Santa Cruz Mountains, cut down the collective’s legal state crop, and briefly arrest co-founders Mike and Valerie.

September 17, 2002 — After a unanimous Santa Cruz City Council resolution of support, WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies members gather at City Hall to openly defy the federal government and give away medical marijuana to members. The mayor and city council stand with them, joined by more than a thousand citizens. The City and County of Santa Cruz join the federal lawsuit.

2004 — WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies wins a preliminary injunction against the federal government. Its collective garden becomes the first legal medical marijuana cultivation project in the United States.

2005 — After the Raich decision and the lifting of the injunction, WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies answers with civil disobedience, leading a march of 250 cannabis plants down the Pacific Garden Mall with more than a thousand supporters.

2006 — WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies, Valerie, Mike, and the City and County of Santa Cruz argue County of Santa Cruz v. Gonzales in the 9th Circuit, grounded in the Tenth Amendment and substantive due process.

2007–2010 — Federal litigation produces a first-of-its-kind Tenth Amendment victory for WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies. U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel calls the collective “the gold standard of the medical marijuana movement.” Valerie testifies before the House Judiciary Committee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, and the resulting settlement is finalized in 2010.

2010 — SC Labs begins testing every WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies product.

2012 — WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies marks its 250th member death since the collective began in 1992.

2015 — WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies begins a garden project with Strong Agronomy — Coastal Sun.

2016 — WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies enters a new-name chapter, carrying forward the same heart of service.

2023–Today — WAMM / WAMM Phytotherapies partners with TreeHouse, collective meetings resume, members are served by TreeHouse staff, and support continues through clients of The Hook.

People Carrying the Work Forward

Board of Directors

Board Members: Phil Engfer • Alec Dixon • Suzanne Wouk • Pat Malo • Jackie Russel • Adam Yader • Josh Bushnell

In Memoriam: Wade Laughter — June 4, 2025

Medical Advisor: Arnie Leff