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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   
MARCH 25, 2009

Medical Marijuana Bill Passes Full New Hampshire House, 234-138

Vote Marks First Time House Has Passed a Medical Marijuana Bill

CONTACT: Matt Simon, NH Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy, (603) 391-7450

CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE — The New Hampshire House passed a bill today, 234-138, that would allow seriously ill patients to use medical marijuana if their doctor recommends it – a first for either chamber of the state's legislature.

    Now that the bill – HB 648, sponsored by Evalyn Merrick (D-Lancaster) – has cleared the House, patients and advocates are calling on the Senate to pass it and send it to Gov. John Lynch to make it law without delay.

    "This vote proves that House members have taken this debate seriously, listened carefully to the testimony of patients who rely on medical marijuana for relief from terrible, debilitating conditions, and understand their duty as elected officials to provide for their needs with responsible, compassionate legislation," said Sen. Martha Fuller Clark (D-Portsmouth), co-sponsor of the bill that the House passed today. "Now it's up to my colleagues to do the same, and end the ongoing harassment of patients who have committed no crimes, and who only wish to be protected from arrest for using the proven, safe medicine their doctors recommend."

    In 2007, a bill similar to the one currently under consideration was defeated by only nine votes – an incredibly slim margin considering it had been negatively recommended by the House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee that year. The same committee gave HB 648 an "ought to pass" recommendation March 18. Also, a 2008 Mason-Dixon poll showed that 71 percent of New Hampshire voters support such a law, and medical marijuana advocates say legislators have learned a lot in two years about both medical marijuana and medical marijuana policy.

    "This vote shows New Hampshire is ready to protect patients by enacting a responsible medical marijuana law," said Matt Simon, NH Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy executive director. "Public opinion may soon become public policy."

    Thirteen states already have medical marijuana laws which effectively protect qualifying patients from arrest and help them safely access marijuana. Michigan became the most recent last year when 63 percent of voters passed its medical marijuana law by ballot initiative. Of the 11 states that have collected such data, not one has seen youth marijuana use rates increase after establishing a medical marijuana law. In fact, each of those states, including California, has actually seen youth marijuana rates decline, in some cases dramatically.

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CONTACT:

Drop the Rock, Caitlin Dunklee: 646.269.7344

New York Civil Liberties Union: Jennifer Carnig, 212.607.3363

Drug Policy Alliance: Tony Newman, 646.335.5384

Hundreds Rally at Governor’s NYC Office, Demand End of Rockefeller Drug Laws

March 25, 2009 – Hundreds of New Yorkers rallied today in front of Gov. David Paterson’s Manhattan office, urging the governor and legislative leaders to enact a sweeping overhaul of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, the state’s infamous mandatory-minimum drug sentencing scheme.

Speakers – including hip hop mogul and reform advocate Russell Simmons and the Rev. Calvin Butts of Abyssinian Baptist Church – called on lawmakers to seize this historic opportunity to end the unjust and ineffective laws.

“New York’s drug sentencing laws are the Jim Crow Laws of the 21^st Century,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “The Rockefeller Drug Laws have failed by every measure. They tear apart families, waste tax dollars and create shocking racial disparities. Governor Paterson and our legislative leaders must finally put an end to this endless cycle of failure and injustice.”

Enacted in 1973, the Rockefeller laws mandate extremely harsh prison terms for the possession or sale of relatively small amounts of drugs. Though intended to target drug kingpins, most of the people incarcerated are convicted of low-level offenses. Many of the thousands of New Yorkers in prison under the Rockefeller laws suffer from substance abuse problems; many others struggle with issues related to homelessness, mental illness or unemployment. About 90 percent are black or Latino even though most people who use and sell drugs are white.

“Today we stand at the doorstep of change, and we call on the governor, the state assembly leader and the senate majority leader to fulfill their promise to make that change to end the Rockefeller Drug Laws once and for all,” Simmons said. “We have all been working hard for too many years to not restore full judicial discretion and give judges the option to send people with addictions to treatment rather than prison. The hip-hop community will continue to seek the change that we all know is right.”

Despite modest reforms in 2004 and 2005, the state’s drug sentencing scheme remains intact. These laws deny judges the authority to place people suffering from addiction, mental health issues and homelessness into treatment programs.

“For 36 years, New York State has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars by allowing the racist Rockefeller Drug Laws to serve as a stimulus package for rural upstate prison communities,” said Glenn Martin, vice president of The Fortune Society. “No longer can we continue to lock up drug addicted people from poor urban communities, simply because policy makers lack a vision for upstate economic development.”

In 2002, Paterson, then a state senator, was arrested in an act of civil disobedience promoting the sweeping overhaul of the Rockefeller Drug Laws outside of the New York City offices of then-Governor George Pataki.

“Seven years ago, David Paterson, then a State Senator from Harlem, was handcuffed in an act of civil disobedience aimed at pressing Governor Pataki to end the Rockefeller Drug Laws.  Five years ago, as Senate Minority Leader, he proposed sweeping changes to the harsh statutes” says Caitlin Dunklee, coordinator of the Drop the Rock Campaign. “Now, as Governor, his constituents are rallying to urge him to exercise the leadership he was once known for.”

“We are here to remind Governor Paterson of his past promises and to urge him to return to his better political self,” state Robert Gangi, executive director of the Correctional Association.  “His record tells us that he’s fully aware of these laws’ harsh effects, that they are wasteful, ineffective, and marked by a stark racial bias.  It is time for him as governor to exercise leadership in removing the stain of these notorious statutes from New York’s penal code.”

“In 2002, Gov. Paterson stood by my side as a senator from Harlem New York and spoke bravely about changing the laws that heavily affected his constituency,” said Anthony Papa of the Drug Policy Alliance and former prisoner under the Rockefeller Drug Laws. “Now as governor he has the power to transform those words into action that will finally achieve meaningful reform.”

“For 36 years, the Rockefeller Drug Laws have filled our prisons, emptied the taxpayer’s pockets and have had no effect whatsoever on New York State’s drug use, especially in communities of color, except to turn young people into recidivist felons,” said George Bethos, leader of NYC AIDS Housing Network & Voices Of Community Advocates And Leaders (VOCAL). “Repeal these laws immediately or have society continue to pay the price.”

“We want to see the hundreds of millions of dollars wasted each year on criminalizing chemical dependency in poor urban areas reinvested in those very same communities targeted by these laws,” said Kym Clark, director of FREE! Families Rally for Emancipation and Empowerment. “We need livable wage jobs, educational resources, and access to health care, for starters.”

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   
MARCH 24, 2009

Medical Marijuana Passes House Public Safety Policy & Oversight Committee, 9-6

CONTACT: Former Rep. Chris DeLaForest (R-Andover)........................................................(763) 439-1178

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA -- The House Public Safety Policy and Oversight Committee passed the House version of Minnesota's medical marijuana bill, H.F. 292, today by a vote of  9 to 6. The vote is the latest in a string of solid committee wins for the House and Senate versions of the popular measure.

     Norm Stamper, former chief of police for the city Seattle, testified in favor of the bill. "As Seattle's police chief, I had real-world experience dealing with Washington's medical marijuana law, and can say from first-hand knowledge that medical marijuana is not a problem for law enforcement," Stamper said. "The Minnesota bill has solid safeguards built into it, and the problems being speculated about by some opponents simply do not reflect reality."

     Laws protecting patients from arrest and jail for using medical marijuana with their doctor's recommendation are in effect in Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Michigan's is the most recently enacted, passing with a record-setting 63 percent "yes" vote last November.

     Organizations that have recognized marijuana's medical uses include the American College of Physicians, American Nurses Association, American Public Health Association, American Academy of HIV Medicine and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, among others.
   

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Dear Friends:

We're in a new era.

Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the federal government will now defer to state governments on medical marijuana — a 180-degree reversal of the Bush administration's anti-democratic policies.

The impact was immediate. On the day of Holder's announcement, New Mexico announced that it had issued the first license that any state government has ever issued to a medical marijuana producer in any state. That first nonprofit provider will be able to grow and sell medical marijuana to card-carrying patients without being harassed or raided by local, state, or federal law enforcement officials.

Additionally:

• Rhode Island is poised to expand its existing medical marijuana law to allow for three nonprofits to dispense medical marijuana to registered patients.
• This November, Maine voters will consider a ballot initiative similar to what Rhode Island envisions. MPP's polling shows the initiative is supported by 66% of likely voters.
• The Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota legislatures are debating bills to create new medical marijuana laws that allow for licensed dispensing from day one.
• In Arizona, MPP's campaign committee will be placing a similar proposal on the statewide ballot in November 2010. That initiative is supported by 65% of likely voters.
• In California, medical marijuana is dispensed at approximately 400 collectives that are generating approximately $100 million annually in state tax revenues. They operate under a state law that allows their activity but doesn't provide for state licensing. With federal policy improved and clarified, we expect the California Legislature to pass legislation similar to our Arizona proposal.

To fully appreciate the changes we're seeing, compare the Obama administration's policy to the Bush administration's policy. In the fall of 2001, after executing the first of what would be dozens of medical marijuana dispensary raids over eight years, a spokesperson for Bush's Justice Department said, "The recent enforcement is indicative that we have not lost our priorities in other areas since September 11. The attorney general and the administration have been very clear: we will be aggressive."

As the World Trade Center was still literally smoldering and our country was about to launch two foreign wars, the Bush administration was crowing about how it was arresting medical marijuana patients. That policy was not only cruel, but stupid. Good riddance.

Now that the Obama administration has taken the Drug Enforcement Administration out of the business of busting pharmacy-like establishments, MPP will be lobbying the federal government to also do the following:

• Congress should remove the federal ban on the District of Columbia enacting a local medical marijuana law. In November 1998, 69% of D.C. voters passed a medical marijuana ballot initiative, but every year since then Congress has attached a rider to its D.C. spending bill that prevents this law from taking effect. Even former Republican Congressman Bob Barr, the author of the federal ban, now supports lifting it — and has lobbied on MPP's behalf to do exactly that.
• The DEA should stop preventing the University of Massachusetts from growing medical marijuana for research purposes. A privately grown, regulated supply of marijuana is a prerequisite to getting marijuana approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a prescription medicine.
• The Obama administration should reopen the existing federal program that currently provides medical marijuana to only three patients nationwide but that was closed to new enrollment in 1992. This could be a huge boon to patients in states without medical marijuana laws.

As you can see, it's an exciting time, with some of the best possibilities for change that I've seen since I cofounded MPP 14 years ago. But we're 100% dependent on supporters like you to help us fund our lobbying efforts ... so would you please help us take advantage of this newly receptive political atmosphere by making the most generous donation you can afford today?  I personally appreciate anything you can give to help our work.

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 $2.35 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2009. This means that your donation today will be doubled.