WAMM founders Valerie and Michael Corral face the loss of their land and the end of a dream

Valerie Corral was a guest on our show and spoke about Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana, or WAMM, as part of my interviews with Wendy Chapkis and Richard Webb on their book, “Dying to Get High”.  Now Valerie is facing the loss of the land and the WAMM collective.

News & Culture | WAMM founders Valerie and Michael Corral face the loss of their land and the end of a dream
But as of July this past summer, the land that the Corrals called their home for over 20 years is slipping away. Because of a perfect storm of factors—plummeting donations to WAMM, the DEA raid of the property in 2002, death and taxes—Valerie can no longer afford to stay in her home, and WAMM is losing its iconic garden. “I’m exhausted,” says Valerie. “I’m losing my land, the place I thought that I’d be buried.”

Though the situation is complex, Ben Rice, an attorney who has represented the Corrals for the last 15 years, blames the situation solely on the federal government. Without the DEA’s continual assault on California law, medical marijuana organizations would not be raided, would not spend their savings on legal defense and would not lose precious donations due to spooked members. “WAMM is sort of the soul of the medical marijuana community,” says Rice. “This never would have happened if the feds had taken the time to look at what WAMM was about and who Mike and Val were.

“For them to lose this property—they’ve given everything they have to WAMM, and this is what they get for it. It’s so, so sad.”

There is something seriously wrong with this country when a selfless person like Valerie, who at great legal risk to herself gives her whole life to helping patients, is persecuted and bankrupted, but then executives of the Big Three US automakers are each flying a private corporate jet to Washington to ask for taxpayer bailouts, when all they’ve done is act completely selfishly as they’ve mismanaged Detroit to near bankruptcy.