RAICH - A LTE WRITING OPPORTUNITY PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE DrugSense FOCUS Alert #297 Thursday, 2 Dec 2004 Seldom have we seen as much press as the coverage of the Supreme Court hearing on Raich v. Ashcroft last Monday. We suspect that it is a rare newspaper that has not printed something. Thus you have an opportunity to write letters on the subject not only to newspapers for which MAP has archived clippings, but also to your local newspapers. We will not suggest what you should write because we know so many of you are skilled letter writers. However, you may wish to include one of these points. (1) Many news clippings indicated that the court decision could strike down the current medical cannabis laws at the state and local level. This is simply not true. An example of a good already published letter on this is at http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n1715/a05.html (2) A few clippings on the Raich case indicate that more than one judge appears to think going to the DEA or FDA to reschedule cannabis is the proper approach. This process is ongoing, has passed through the DEA to HHS and is presently under review. But the media seems to not be aware of the rescheduling effort. See http://www.drugscience.org/ The majority of the MAP archived news clippings that could be targets for letters may be found at http://www.mapinc.org/people/Angel+Raich - and a few that link may miss are at http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm You may wish to check the above links frequently as new news and opinion clippings continue to be added to the MAP archives. Thanks for your effort and support. It's not what others do it's what YOU do Additional suggestions for writing letters to the editor are at: Writer's Resources http://www.mapinc.org/resource/ PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID (Letter, email messages, etc.) Please post a copy of your letter or report your action to the sent letter list () if you are subscribed, or by E-mailing a copy directly to if you are not subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others can learn from your efforts and be motivated to follow suit. This is _Very_ Important as it is one very effective way of gauging our impact and effectiveness. Subscribing to the Sent LTE list () will help you to review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing efforts. To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm and/or http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form Prepared by: Richard Lake, MAP's Senior Editor = Please help us help reform. Send drug-related news to

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