|
Alert:
Important
Medical
Marijuana
Vote
Coming
Up
in
Congress
--
Your
Help
Needed
6/16/06
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/440/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 #440
-- 6/16/06
Editorial:
Real
World
Consequences
|
Feature:
Death
Toll
Climbs
as
Fentanyl-Laced
Heroin
ODs
Spread
|
Feature:
Among
Whites,
Imprisoning
Drug
Users
a
Minority
Opinion,
Survey
Finds
|
Feature:
Industrial
Hemp
Push
Underway
in
California,
North
Dakota
|
Offer
and
Appeal:
Important
New
Legalization
Video
and
Drug
War
Facts
Book
Available
|
Book
Offer:
Burning
Rainbow
Farm:
How
a
Stoner
Utopia
Went
up
in
Smoke
|
Alert:
Important
Medical
Marijuana
Vote
Coming
Up
in
Congress
--
Your
Help
Needed
|
Follow-up:
Colombia
Amendment
Results
|
Feedback:
Do
You
Read
Drug
War
Chronicle?
|
Law
Enforcement:
This
Week's
Corrupt
Cops
Stories
|
Search
and
Seizure:
Supreme
Court
Upholds
Searches
Without
Notice
|
Methamphetamine:
Epidemic?
What
Epidemic?
Study
Asks
|
Law
Enforcement:
Justice
for
Sale
in
Washington
Border
County
|
Europe:
New
Italian
Government
to
Move
to
"Reduce
Damage"
of
Tough
Drug
Law
|
Europe:
Britain
to
Reclassify
Methamphetamine
as
Class
A
Drug
|
Canada:
Federal
Medical
Marijuana
Program
a
Flop,
AIDS
Society
Says
|
Weekly:
This
Week
in
History
|
Weekly:
The
Reformer's
Calendar
|
This issue -- main page
This issue -- single-file printer version
Drug War Chronicle -- main page
Chronicle archives
|
PERMISSION to reprint or
redistribute any or all of the contents of Drug War Chronicle (formerly The Week Online with DRCNet is hereby
granted. We ask that any use of these materials include proper credit and,
where appropriate, a link to one or more of our web sites. If your
publication customarily pays for publication, DRCNet requests checks
payable to the organization. If your publication does not pay for
materials, you are free to use the materials gratis. In all cases, we
request notification for our records, including physical copies where
material has appeared in print. Contact: StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network,
P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 293-8340 (voice), (202)
293-8344 (fax), e-mail [email protected]. Thank
you.
Articles of a purely
educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of the DRCNet
Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
|
