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In The Trenches
Press Release: Symposium to Explore Solutions to Injection Drug Use in SF, Including Feasibility of Legal Safe-Injection Facility
For Immediate Release: October 17, 2007
Contact: Laura Thomas 415-846-4614
Public Heath Officials, Injection Drug Users and Advocates Join to Explore Solutions to Injection Drug Use in San Francisco
October 18 Symposium Will Examine Needs, Feasibility, Support and Options for Legal Safe-Injection Facility
27 Cities in Eight Countries Have Adopted Safe Injecting Sites; Evidence Shows they Reduce HIV, Crime and Drug Use
Public health officials, injection drug users, drug war reform adovocates and others will convene for a day-long symposium to examine the needs, feasibility, support, and various options for a legal Safe Injection Facility in San Francisco. The envisioned Safe Injection Facility would serve homeless and marginally housed injection drug users, and the communities most affected by them. The symposium, which is free of charge, will be held on October 18, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., at the Women's Building auditorium, 3543 18th St. & Valencia in San Francisco.
Speakers include public health officials, service providers, legal experts, injection drug users, community groups, leaders in the faith community and evaluators from InSite, a safe injection facility in Vancouver, Canada.
San Francisco has several large concentrations of injection drug users (IDUs), and while prevalence of HIV/AIDS remains relatively low among IDUs, rates of hepatitis C have reached epidemic levels, and fatal opiate overdose remains one of the leading causes of death in San Francisco. Community concerns regarding public drug use and improperly discarded syringes have been raised repeatedly over the last few decades. Twenty-seven other cities in eight countries around the world facing similar issues have opened Safe Injection Facilities, and this symposium will open a broad discussion about this option.
The symposium is sponsored by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, and the Alliance for Saving Lives (ASL), a community consortium working to promote community and individual health through legal safer substance use sites. ASL members include the Harm Reduction Coalition, Tenderloin Health, Mission Neighborhood Resource Center, Homeless Youth Alliance, Drug Policy Alliance, and individual researchers and service providers throughout San Francisco.
Continuing Education Units are available for a small fee for RN's, Certified Addiction Treatment Specialists, LCSW's and MFT's. As seating is limited, please RSVP to [email protected] to reserve a space.
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Blog
Someone Tell the Drug Czar That Hemp Isn't a Drug
The brave drug warriors at ONDCP need so much help. They are just as confused as can be about so many things, but they wear industrial strength earplugs and never go on the internet except to periodically blog about how confused they are. It would be funny if they weren't destroying America.
So anyone who still thinks these people are serious should visit the Drug Czar's blog right away and read his recent post, "Terminated! Gov. Schwarzenegger Vetoes Pro-Drug Hemp Bill." It is downright delusional; a perfect encapsulation of the thinly-veiled psychosis that festers beneath the skin of the powerful Drug War Experts in Washington D.C.
But that would be pointless, because the Drug Czar doesn't care about these things. All he cares about is that marijuana legalization advocates sometimes participate in criticizing U.S. hemp policy, and if those people want hemp, he will burn to the ground every damned stalk until they pry the flamethrower from his shriveled dead hands.
In fact, as a marijuana legalization advocate, I should maybe shut up about this, lest I fuel the Drug Czar's deranged fantasy that people who want to make pants and granola bars are actually part of a diabolical conspiracy to turn California into the world's biggest rehab clinic.
So anyone who still thinks these people are serious should visit the Drug Czar's blog right away and read his recent post, "Terminated! Gov. Schwarzenegger Vetoes Pro-Drug Hemp Bill." It is downright delusional; a perfect encapsulation of the thinly-veiled psychosis that festers beneath the skin of the powerful Drug War Experts in Washington D.C.
While drug legalization groups extol hemp as some kind of miracle-plant, many Americans arenât getting the full story. Industrial hemp and marijuana are not just "related" â they come from the same cannabis sativa plant.Now, I could explain that hemp actually is a useful plant. I could propose that a hemp bill can't be "pro-drug" because hemp isn't a drug. I could point out that the farmers who want to grow it don't care about marijuana legalization. I could argue that Americans already know it's a type of marijuana. And I could even prove that you can't grow commercial marijuana anywhere near it due to cross-pollination.
The real agenda of hemp enthusiasts is to legalize smoked marijuana and it is no coincidence that legalizing hemp would complicate efforts to curb the production and use of smoked marijuana by young people.
But that would be pointless, because the Drug Czar doesn't care about these things. All he cares about is that marijuana legalization advocates sometimes participate in criticizing U.S. hemp policy, and if those people want hemp, he will burn to the ground every damned stalk until they pry the flamethrower from his shriveled dead hands.
In fact, as a marijuana legalization advocate, I should maybe shut up about this, lest I fuel the Drug Czar's deranged fantasy that people who want to make pants and granola bars are actually part of a diabolical conspiracy to turn California into the world's biggest rehab clinic.
In The Trenches
Fall 2007 NY Harm Reduction Trainings - SPACE AVAILABLE!
Dear Friends of the Harm Reduction Coalition,
There is still space available in a number of our Fall 2007 NY Harm Reduction Coalition calendar trainings. You may visit our website for registration policies and information by going to www.harmreduction.org or cut and paste this link into your web browser to download our registration form: http://harm.live.radicaldesigns.org/downloads/NYC%20Fall%202007%20Registration%20Form.pdf
Please contact us with questions at [email protected] or (212) 683-2334.
Best,
Stephen Crowe
Assistant Training Coordinator
In The Trenches
Sponsor a medical marijuana patient today
John Lehman has suffered from AIDS for the last 10 years. The pain medicine he takes kept him unfocused and mainly in bed, keeping him from his work as a writer. "It was frustrating, to say the least, when vague thoughts of stories danced in my head and there was nothing I could do to put them onto a page," he says.
Luckily, John lives in Montana, where voters passed MPP's medical marijuana ballot initiative in November 2004. Since then, patients like John have been permitted to use and grow their own marijuana legally for medical purposes. However, with no income, John couldn't afford the $50 fee to register with the state's medical marijuana program and obtain the ID card that would protect him from arrest.
Fortunately, MPP was able to help. Through our medical marijuana scholarship program, we paid John's registration fee so that, now, he doesn't need to fear being arrested by state and local police.
Here are John's own words:
Fewer pain pills to pop plus using medical marijuana to alleviate my discomfort equals the opportunity to write again. Medical marijuana also stimulates my appetite when keeping my weight is threatened. In turn, this enables me to go out into the community and give back.
If anyone can help continue the phenomenal work of the Marijuana Policy Project by a kind donation, please do. Other patients like me need your help.
Won't you please help other low-income patients get the protection they need by paying a full or partial registration fee?
A donation of $50 will keep one patient out of jail in Montana or Vermont; a donation of $75 will do the same in Rhode Island; and a donation of $110 or $200 will do the same in Colorado or Nevada, respectively. If you can't afford those amounts, please give what you can.
After MPP's recent lobbying campaigns in Vermont and Rhode Island and our ballot initiative campaign in Montana, these three states now allow patients to possess and grow their own marijuana. But many seriously ill patients have little or no income and are unable to afford fees for the required state medical marijuana ID cards. In response, MPP created a financial assistance program to help pay the registry fees for patients who cannot afford it â and has since paid the registration fees for 90 financially needy patients.
Would you please sponsor a low-income medical marijuana patient today? Your donation can prevent medical marijuana patients from being arrested and jailed simply because they cannot afford to pay the registration fee.
Whether it's $10 or $1,000, cancer, AIDS, and other seriously ill patients are hoping you will give the most generous gift you can to help them. Please give now, while it's fresh in your mind. Thanks so much ...
Sincerely,
Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.
P.S. As I've mentioned in previous alerts, a major philanthropist has committed to match the first $3.0 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2007. This means that your donation today will be doubled.
In The Trenches
ASAâs Medical Marijuana in the News: 10/12/07
- ASA ACTION: Patients Ask California Governor for Protection
- ASA ACTION: Protests of DEA Raids Drawing Attention
- FEDERAL: Another Dispensary Raided in LA
- ELECTION: Presidential Candidates Confronted on Medical Marijuana
- COLORADO: Caregiver Case in the News Again
- OPED: Patient-Advocate Confronts Naysayers
- EDIBLES: Another Medical Edible Maker Charged
- CALIFORNIA: Dispensary Implementation
- ASA BLOG: Comments from ASA staff and guests
ASA ACTION: Patients Ask California Governor for Protection
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has expressed his support for California's medical marijuana program, but activists want him to do what he can to stop federal interference. More than 300 patients and advocates attended ASA's rally at the governor's office in LA to help educate him on the importance of this issue. Letters of support came from Republican elected officials as well as Los Angeles City Council Member Dennis Zine and Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby. Local media, which reaches more than 10 million people, covered the protest extensively.
Marijuana activists rally in downtown LA, want end to raids
Associated Press
About 200 people on Thursday protested federal raids on cannabis clinics and urged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to compel the Bush administration to back off. Steph Sherer, executive director of Americans for Safe Access, a pro-medical marijuana group, said Schwarzenegger should coordinate with the 12 other governors whose states have legalized medical marijuana to send a message to Washington.
Marijuana activists assemble downtown
Daily Breeze (CA)
About 200 demonstrated outside of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office in Los Angeles, demanding he do more to end federal raids on cannabis clinics.
CA Marijuana Protest
KSBY - NBC TV 6 (San Luis Obispo)
Marijuana activists rallied today in downtown Los Angeles, calling for an end to federal raids on cannabis clinics and urging Governor Schwarzenegger to compel the Bush administration to back off.
ASA ACTION: Protests of DEA Raids Drawing Attention
Last weekâs protest in support of a maker of edible cannabis products for patients got more attention this week. ASA and other advocates are denouncing the rash of recent raids on medical marijuana patients and dispensaries in California.
Advocates decry medical marijuana raids
by Michael Manekin, Contra Costa Times (CA)
The raid of a large Oakland-based manufacturer of cannabis-laced candy last month was deemed by the federal government as a timely victory in the war on drugs. But medical marijuana advocates pointed to the raid as further evidence that the DEA has escalated its attack on California's marijuana laws by targeting the most vulnerable medical cannabis patients.
FEDERAL: Another Dispensary Raided in LA
DEA agents staged another paramilitary-style raid on a California medical marijuana dispensary, seizing records, cash and marijuana, but making no arrests. Alerted to the raid by a network of emails and text messages, more than 75 ASA activists, patients and other advocates protested in front of the dispensary while it happened.
DEA Agents Raid L.A. Medical Marijuana Clinic
KABC TV Los Angeles
A loud protest broke out Thursday night when agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration raided a medical marijuana clinic in downtown Los Angeles.
In The Trenches
The Sentencing Project: Disenfranchisement News & Updates - 10/11/07
National: Social Justice Groups, Latino Congress Hope to Affect Disenfranchisement
In the Summer 2007 issue of the New England Journal on Criminal and Civil Confinement, Avi Brisman argues that environmental organizations "should consider criminal disenfranchisement to be an 'environmental' issue" and that activists "should work with grassroots social justice groups to bring about changes in state criminal disenfranchisement laws and policies." Brisman, an attorney and doctoral student in anthropology at Emory University, contends in "Toward a More Elaborate Typology of Environmental Values: Liberalizing Criminal Disenfranchisement Laws and Policies" that public participation plays an important role in shaping agendas and forming coalitions around environmental issues. The loss of the right to vote for more than five million Americans due to a felony conviction not only affects electoral outcomes, but has a profound impact on the direction of the environmental movement as the voices of potential supporters are lost. Brisman calls for environmental advocates to join together with those people working to reform felony disenfranchisement laws and recognize their common goal.
A post-incarceration disenfranchisement resolution submitted by the New York University Law School's Brennan Center for Justice was unanimously passed by the National Latino Congreso during its annual convening in Los Angeles earlier this month. It endorsed the automatic restoration of voting rights to individuals with felony convictions upon their release from prison. The resolution also calls on legislators from the thirty-five states that continue to disenfranchise individuals post-incarceration to enact legislation that will automatically restore voting rights upon release from prison. The final decree of the resolution states, "the organizations represented by delegates of the 2007 National Latino Congreso pledge to support federal legislation that will automatically restore voting rights after release from prison on a national level."
International: Still No Guaranteed Right to Vote - Using the Flawed U.S. as a Model
While the Australian High Court struck down legislation passed last year stripping all inmates of voting rights, the Court upheld a 2004 law denying the vote to inmates who have been jailed for more than three years. The 4-2 decision restoring some inmates' right to vote in Roach v. Electoral Commissioner was made in August, but the ruling's impact became clear only after the court issued its reasons in late September. As a result, only 8,000 of the country's 20,000 sentenced prisoners can vote in the federal election scheduled later this year. "The judgments make clear there is no legal barrier to the disenfranchisement of significant sectors of the voting population, including 18-21 year- olds and anyone convicted of a crime deemed to be 'serious,'" the Westender reported. Solicitor- General David Bennett, representing the Howard government, suggested Australia could adopt many U.S. states' policy: permanently disenfranchising those imprisoned, even after their sentence had been served.
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Help The Sentencing Project continue to bring you news and updates on disenfranchisement! Make a contribution today.
Contact Information: email: [email protected], web: http://www.sentencingproject.org
In The Trenches
MPP's presidential work explodes in the news
The Marijuana Policy Projectâs campaign to pressure the presidential candidates to take positive positions on medical marijuana just hit a new level.
Check out this CNN footage of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) avoiding Clayton Holton, a muscular dystrophy patient in New Hampshire who has used medical marijuana illegally.
And you can see a fuller video clip of the encounter here.
CNN ran its coverage of the encounter over and over again on Monday, in addition to putting it on the front of its Web site, which led to the video clip becoming one of the most watched news stories of the day on Digg.com.
This led to ABC News putting the video on its Web site, as well as a raft of critical blog coverage, including this from Andrew Sullivan and this on Boston Magazine's blog, which starts with this ...
Donât you hate it when reality comes barging into your ideological Neverland and mucks everything up? Thatâs what happened to Mitt Romney last weekend. At a campaign stop in Dover, NH on Saturday, the Mittster found himself confronted by Clayton Holton, an 80-pound man stricken with muscular dystrophy who says he is âliving proof medical marijuana works.â Romney wasnât having any of it ...
Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana is MPP's nine-month campaign to pressure the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates to take strong, public, positive positions on medical marijuana in advance of the New Hampshire primary â the first in the nation â expected to be no later than January 8, 2008.
Would you please consider funding our pressure tactics in New Hampshire?
And the fallout from our confrontation with U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) keeps getting worse for him. On September 30, he rudely dismissed Linda Macia, a New Hampshire resident with multiple sclerosis, by arguing that the government isnât arresting âthe deadâ for medical marijuana.
We featured the video coverage of this encounter in an e-mail alert to you on October 4. But check out this column in Sunday's Chicago Tribune, which blasts McCain for his heartlessness.
We have awarded McCain, Romney, and four other Republican presidential candidates a grade of âFâ for their inhumane stances on medical marijuana. On the other end of the spectrum, weâve awarded two Republican candidates â Congressmen Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) â âA+â grades.
And, of course, our campaign has already succeeded in getting all eight Democratic presidential candidates to speak out in favor of ending the federal arrests of medical marijuana patients in the 12 states where medical marijuana is legal under state law.
Please visit www.GraniteStaters.com/candidates for our complete voting guide. You'll find statements from each of the candidates, as well as a grade for each.
MPP is the only drug policy reform organization thatâs systematically influencing the presidential candidates to take positive positions on medical marijuana â and punishing those who donât. Would you please consider making a donation in support of our work today?
Thank you,
Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.
P.S. As I've mentioned in previous alerts, a major philanthropist has committed to match the first $3.0 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2007. This means that your donation today will be doubled.
Blog
A LITTLE MUSIC, MAESTRO!
YOU Nâ ME
Fill the kidsâ heads full of factoids
Fill the kidsâ heads full of pills
Keep âem moving, keep âem busy
Never give âem time to breathe
Teach obedience from the get-go
Wonder why they go insane
Blog
THE NOOSE TIGHTENS
If one example epitomizes creeping fascism in America, it is the recent Florida incident in which John Kerry did nothing while police tasered and arrested a student who asked him a rambling question about why Kerry had not contested the 2004 election and why nobody had moved to impeach Bush. Did Kafka write the script for this? Andrew Meyer had a non-soundbite question. He was trying to lay out enough background so that his question made sense, and had in fact gotten to his point, when University of Florida police moved in, manhandled him to the back of the room, put him on the floor and tasered him, while Kerry droned on, making jokes about the incident( âIâm afraid heâs not able to come up here and swear me in as President.â) and everybody in the room just sat and watched. Later, Kerry claimed he was not aware that Meyer was being tasered. Hey, the guy was screaming âDonât taser me!â I guess this kind of answered his question about why Kerry didnât contest the election. All thatâs necessary for evil to triumph, they say, is for good people to do nothing.
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