[420 Girl]

From dispensaries to legalization, marijuana is making headlines on the Central Coast and across California.

WAMM, the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana is the longest running medical marijuana organization in the nation.

And its founder, Valerie Corral was the first patient in the U.S. to challenge the law of medical necessity.

She and her husband were arrested and raided for the first time in 1992, and she says a lot has changed since then.

"Oh my gosh I witnessed a great change in the last two decades that ive done this work publicly," says Corral

Valerie and Mike Corral are more familiar with Washington D.C. federal agents that most would ever think possible in a lifetime. They've survived DEA raids that devastated their gardens in the Santa Cruz mountains, and faced multiple arrests; each one, they say making their cause even stronger.

"We don't work with pot we work with people," Corral says firmly.

In an unassuming wharehouse next to a brake shop on the west side, Corral chats with volunteers trimming the last of the harvest for their members: people fighting disease, cancer, and brain tumors to name a few. She says WAMM has helped 200 people die with dignity in the past two decades.

"We have weekly meetings...patients don't come and buy it...we just ask for a donation, just to cover the cost of production...which is a quarter of what one would pay at a dispensary or club."

Speaking of dispensaries, Corral has seen a movement she basically started, shift.

"We had an opportunity in California to prove to the federal gov't and to the rest of Americans that the true value of marijuana lays in its ability to reduce suffering and reduce symptoms...but as often is the case people were enamored by the possibility to make money and they missed the point."

But for every dark cloud Corral sees a silver lining, "It has a positive in that so many people who are sick are accessing medical marijuana and able to relieve their suffering."

Well studied, well versed, and not short on experience, Corral is always looking ahead to the next big shift in cannabis culture.

"We're really looking toward research that will offer effective medicines that will be offered in high doses monitored and regulated...the rest of America is not going to make the same mistakes that CA did, CA is out of control, but it also is the kind of testing ground for the possibility and the treatment for people who are sick and dying."

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