DrugSense FOCUS Alert #260 - Tue, 28 Jan 2003 PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE As federal prosecutions against medical marijuana patients and providers escalate, a coalition of patients, care givers, doctors and public officials have united to launch an outdoor advertising campaign throughout California. But the billboards are just the start of the campaign by the Coalition for Medical Marijuana. Your support is needed to build on this effort. Today the Coalition (see list below) is asking you to contact your elected representatives at all levels of government to ask them to support the compassionate access to medical marijuana by patients in need. You can write to your Member of Congress through http://www.MedicalMJ.org. It has a page that allows you to send faxes and emails see: http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=100506&type=CO. A particular focus of your letters should be Senator Barbara Boxer. She is up for re-election in the next election cycle in what will be a tight race. She need to know that her failure to lead on medical marijuana -- especially her failure to stand up for voters in California is going to lose her votes. Please also contact your local and state media - write letters to the editor to newspapers - contact broadcast media and ask them to cover the issue. Is there any doubt that the federal government determined to undermine the will of the people on this issue? The buyers clubs are being closed or run underground one by one. Federal prosecutors won't permit court testimony concerning why marijuana was used, even though marijuana is permitted as medicine under the laws of California and eight other states. And because juries have no way of knowing otherwise, Federal prosecutors accuse patients and the Good Samaritans who help supply them with their medicine of being "Drug King Pins." The media stories about what happened to Bryan Epis http://www.mapinc.org/people/Bryan+Epis and what is happening to Ed Rosenthal http://www.mapinc.org/people/Ed+Rosenthal are glaring examples of how the federal government is working to end the compassionate use of medicinal cannabis. Thanks for your effort and support. Will You Act? It's not what others do - it's what YOU do. LINKS YOU CAN USE TO CONTACT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS Some of these links have pre-formatted letters you may modify and send. But don't forget that other contacts like phone calls and office visits may have even greater impact. Letters you can send to your Congress members by going here http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=100506&type=CO Contact information for all your elected officials at every level http://capwiz.com/norml2/dbq/officials/ You can send a Fax about pending legislation in Congress by going here http://mpp.org/USA/action.html Another letter you can modify and send to your Congress members http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=1213 CONTACT LINKS FOR THE MEDIA Use the dropdown at this link to obtain Letter to the Editor email addresses for the press in your state http://www.mapinc.org/resource/email.htm Contact information for many media outlets, including broadcast media http://capwiz.com/norml2/dbq/media/ SAMPLE LETTER TO MEMBER OF CONGRESS (PLEASE NOTE: If you choose to use this letter as a model please modify it so that your members of congress do not receive multiple copies of the same letter. The letter should be addressed to the member by name.) Dear Senator/Congressman In 1996 the people of California voted to allow seriously ill patients to use marijuana as a medicine. Many local jurisdictions worked with patients to develop methods of safe access through community-based dispensaries. The state Supreme Court upheld the law and these programs of safe access. But the federal government is doing its best to thwart these efforts. In recent months the Ashcroft-led Justice Department has made medical marijuana enforcement a high priority -- over thirty federal cases have been brought in California. When these cases are brought to trial it results in the jury being told it cannot consider evidence of medical use and the judge forbids the defendant to tell his side of the story. As a result statutes designed to incarcerate drug kingpins like Pablo Escobar with lengthy mandatory minimum sentences are being used against Good Samaritans who are trying to provide medicine to the seriously ill. While the actions of these providers is consistent with California law under federal law they are receiving mandatory ten year sentences. Please use your office to defend the rights of seriously ill Californians. Medical marijuana is supported by 80 percent of Californians according to recent polls. Even though President Bush spoke in favor of states rights when he was running for office his administration is now violating states rights by prosecuting medical marijuana cases. Thank you for your attention to this matter. FOR ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts please See: Writer's Resources http://www.mapinc.org/resource/ The Coalition for Medical Marijuana http://www.medicalmj.org/ Sponsors Include: American Alliance for Medical Cannabis http://www.letfreedomgrow.com/ Americans for Safe Access http://www.safeaccessnow.org/ California NORML http://www.canorml.org/ CannabisMD http://www.cannabismd.org/ Cannabis Consumers Campaign http://www.cannabisconsumers.org/ Common Sense for Drug Policy http://www.csdp.org/ DRCNet http://www.drcnet.org/ Drug Policy Alliance http://www.drugpolicy.org/ DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/ Green Aid http://green-aid.com/ Human Rights in the Drug War http://www.hr95.org/ Patients Out of Time http://www.medicalcannabis.com/ Prepared by Richard Lake, DrugSense FOCUS Alert Specialist

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