Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) is a not-for-profit medicinal cannabis dispensing collective located in Santa Cruz, California. WAMM was founded in 1993 by Valerie Leveroni Corral and her then-husband Michael Corral. Valerie Corral is also the Executive Director of Raha Kudo: Design for Dying Project, a non-profit corporation that provides education and research to support persons facing death and their caregivers. Members of WAMM receive organic medicinal cannabis at cost while volunteers trade work for cannabis. There is a compassion program for those unable to afford the full cost of medical cannabis. WAMM was the first medical marijuana collective to receive non-profit status from the United States Government. Early days In 1973, a small airplane swooped down and scraped Valerie Corral's car, sending her "skidding, rolling and bouncing 365 feet through the dust, brush and rocks." As a result of the accident, Corral suffered injuries that led to ongoing issues such as brain damage, epilepsy, and severe migraines. Despite taking prescription drugs, Corral continued to experience convulsions, shaking, and grand mal seizures. Corral's husband Michael suggested that she try cannabis after he read in a medical journal that marijuana controlled some seizures in mice. She found that regular use of marijuana helped alleviate her symptoms. In 1992, the Corrals were arrested by the local sheriff for the cultivation of five marijuana plants. She became the first patient in California to challenge existing law while using the defense of necessity for medical marijuana. Prosecutors dismissed the case, claiming they were unlikely to win the case in front of a sympathetic jury in liberal Santa Cruz. After the sheriff arrested the Corrals again one year later, the district attorney stated he had no intention of ever prosecuting them and requested law enforcement agencies to leave the couple alone. In 1993 the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, (WAMM) was formed. Valerie Corral was a key-player in the crafting, and passage of, Proposition 215 – also known as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 – which allowed patients with a doctor's recommendation to use marijuana medicinally. WAMM became the first medical marijuana collective to be granted not-for-profit status in the United States. WAMM has been called the most legitimate medical marijuana collective and cooperative in the nation. While distribution was supported by local authorities, who also offered assistance in preventing theft, federal authorities maintained that growing, using, and distributing marijuana was illegal. To