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Dear friends,

President Obama has finally selected a Drug Czar, and thanks to your advocacy, he may be the most reasonable person to ever fill that post. This is his story in a nutshell:

During a summer day in Seattle eight years ago, a feeling of uncertainty hung in the air over Myrtle Edwards Park. So did a lot of marijuana smoke.

More than 100,000 people had gathered for the city's 10th annual Hempfest. There was a new police chief in town, and nobody was sure what to expect. Nonetheless, the clock hit 4:20pm and the park filled with a haze.

How many marijuana arrests were made at Hempfest that year? Only one.

Thus began Gil Kerlikowske's career as Seattle's police chief. Under his watch, the city embraced more sensible drug policies: establishing needle exchange programs, openly discussing alternatives to prohibition, protecting the rights of medical marijuana patients, and making marijuana possession the lowest priority for law enforcement. While the chief didn't create these forward-thinking policies, he stood by them.

And now, if he is confirmed by the Senate, he'll be standing by President Obama.

While we would have preferred a public health specialist to someone in law enforcement, this new "Drug Czar" could very well pave the way to more sensible and humane drug policies. But to ensure that he does, we must "brief the chief"! http://www.ssdp.org/briefthechief

After signing the petition, you'll be directed to a page where you can purchase him a welcome gift from a wide selection of books and DVDs that question the wisdom of the Drug War.

Could this be the first Drug Czar to have a copy of How to Legalize Drugs on his book shelf? It may be a long shot, but as Louis Brandeis once said: "Most of the things worth doing... had been declared impossible before they were done."

http://www.ssdp.org/briefthechief

Cautiously optimistic,

Micah Daigle, Associate Director
Students for Sensible Drug Policy
http://www.SchoolsNotPrisons.com

P.S. Fun Fact: The police chief of Seattle who preceded Kerlikowske became an outspoken member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. Maybe there's just something sensible in that Pacific Northwestern air...

 

Friends --

Today we celebrate the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth.  While most people know that Lincoln freed the slaves and saved the Union, many don’t know that he was also one of the most generous presidents when it came to granting pardons and commutations.

In one term, Lincoln granted almost 400 commutations and pardons.  Lincoln gave clemency to everyday offenders, Southern sympathizers, draft dodgers, and wrongfully-charged Indians.  He had a weakness for weeping mothers who, in those days, could walk right into the White House and beg for mercy for their sons at the president’s knee.  As many of you know from personal experience, it’s not so easy to get a clemency request into the White House today, and it is much harder to get one granted. 

Lincoln also used clemency strategically, to inspire Congress to act.  At the end of the war, he pardoned ex-Confederates as a way of telling Congress to put differences aside and start rebuilding the country. 

Join us today in asking President Obama to do as Lincoln did:  to grant clemency generously and strategically.  By doing so, he will send a strong message to Congress that mandatory minimum sentencing laws are undermining American principles of justice and must be changed.  President Obama needs to know how much normal, everyday offenders and their families are counting on clemency, so help FAMM by writing to him now!   Click here to send a letter or email to President Obama.

My best,

Julie

Julie Stewart
President
Families Against Mandatory Minimums

Dear friends:

Fresh off our winning ballot initiative campaigns in Michigan and Massachusetts, the Marijuana Policy Project has just launched a campaign to pass a statewide medical marijuana ballot initiative campaign in Arizona.

If passed in November 2010, the initiative would protect Arizona patients from arrest and jail for using marijuana with their doctors' recommendation. This would make Arizona the 14^th medical marijuana state (or possibly the 15^th, 16^th, or even 17^th, depending on what successes we have between now and then).

We're feeling good about this campaign because in November we passed a similar initiative in Michigan with a whopping 63% of the vote — and we know we can do it again in Arizona.

But the first thing we need to do is get the initiative placed on the ballot. To do that, we must collect 153,365 valid signatures from Arizona voters, which means we need to collect about 250,000 gross signatures. We know from our past successful signature drives, like in Michigan, that it costs about $2 to collect every signature (because of the costs of paying canvassers, checking validity, and so forth), which means it will take $500,000 to fund this stage of the campaign.

Want to be part of this exciting campaign and help protect another state's medical marijuana patients from arrest and jail?  Please donate what you can here.

As you can see at the bottom of this message, a major philanthropist is willing to match your donation dollar-for-dollar, so we only need you and other MPP members to donate a total of $250,000. Arizona patients and I are grateful for anything you can do to help.

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