|
Alert:
Important
Medical
Marijuana
Vote
Coming
Up
in
Congress
--
Your
Help
Needed
6/9/06
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/439/hinchey.shtml
Since medical marijuana initiatives
were first passed ten years ago, the DEA has conducted raids against medical
marijuana clinics in California, recently with increasing frequency, forcing
hundreds if not thousands of patients to procure marijuana in the black
market instead. In a ruling issued on June 6, 2005, the US Supreme
Court upheld the government's power to do this.
While this doesn't change
anything -- state laws protecting medical marijuana patients and their
providers still are binding upon state and local law enforcement authorities
-- it is a missed opportunity for the Court to rein in federal overreaching
and help some of our society's most vulnerable members.
This July, the US House of
Representatives will vote again on the Hinchey-Rohrabacher medical marijuana
amendment, which if passed will forbid the US Dept. of Justice from interfering
with state medical marijuana laws. Your help is needed -- it is crucial
that more members of Congress vote for medical marijuana this year than
did last year. Please visit https://stopthedrugwar.org/medicalmarijuana/
to e-mail your member of Congress today!
When you're done, please
call him or her on the phone to make additional impact -- use the talking
points appearing below to prepare for your phone call. You can reach
your Rep.'s office through the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121,
or you can find the direct number using our lookup
tool online.
Please also tell your friends
about this important action alert -- we need for everyone who cares about
this to take action, and sending them to our web site to do so will also
help to grow our list for the next time. Again, please visit https://stopthedrugwar.org/medicalmarijuana/
to lobby Congress and help medical marijuana patients today!
| Talking Points for Your
Phone Call or Letters to the Editor:
The Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment,
which will come up during debate on the House Science-State-Justice-Commerce
Appropriations bill this July, would forbid the Dept. of Justice from using
funds to undermine state medical marijuana laws.
-
More than three out of four
Americans think medical use of marijuana should be legal, according to
polls, and eleven states -- Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine,
Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Washington -- have
all enacted medical marijuana laws in recent years.
-
Despite such strong support,
the federal government continues to block even research to determine marijuana's
medical benefits. Yet the 1999 Institute of Medicine report determined
that marijuana does have medical benefit.
-
Medical organizations such as
the American Nurses Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians
support legal access to medical marijuana with a doctor's recommendation.
-
Blocking patients from receiving
needed medicine -- threatening them with arrest, prosecution and incarceration
-- is senseless and cruel.
Congress should respect
state's rights and not used armed federal agents to threaten patients and
providers who are in compliance with state law.
|
-- END --
|
Issue #439
-- 6/9/06
Feature:
ACLU
Files
Suit
to
Block
Alaska
Marijuana
Recriminalization,
State
Says
It
Will
Wait
on
Litigation's
Results
|
Feature:
Turning
the
Corner
in
Baltimore
|
DRCNet
Book
Review:
"Burning
Rainbow
Farm:
How
a
Stoner
Utopia
Went
Up
in
Smoke,"
by
Dean
Kuipers
(2006,
Bloomsbury
Press,
$24.95
HB)
|
Book
Offer:
Burning
Rainbow
Farm:
How
a
Stoner
Utopia
Went
up
in
Smoke
|
Alert:
Still
Time
to
Lobby
Congress
on
Colombia
Vote
|
Alert:
Important
Medical
Marijuana
Vote
Coming
Up
in
Congress
--
Your
Help
Needed
|
Feedback:
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You
Read
Drug
War
Chronicle?
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