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[Courtesy of The Sentencing Project] 

 

A new report by The Sentencing Project highlights 17 states that enacted sentencing and corrections reforms in 2008. The State of Sentencing 2008: Developments in Policy and Practice finds that a nationwide budget crisis coupled with widespread prison overcrowding has led many states to address critical challenges in the areas of sentencing, drug policy, parole revocation, racial justice, felony disenfranchisement, juvenile justice, and higher education in prison.
 
Highlights from the report include:

• Arizona established a probation revocation and crime reduction performance incentive system to encourage counties to reduce commitments to prison.

• Kentucky amended parole release policies and expanded home incarceration for persons convicted of certain offenses, created a committee to study the state's penal code and made recommendations for reform, and rescinded certain requirements for persons seeking to have voting rights restored after the completion of sentence.

• Mississippi amended parole release policies, and expanded eligibility for compassionate release.

Americans for Safe Access
Monthly Activist Newsletter

Defending Patients' Access to Medical Marijuana

ASA accuses Solano County of violating state law

Medical marijuana advocates went to court in California last month asking local officials to respect state law. Six years after the state legislature established an ID card program for medical marijuana patients, ASA has filed suit against one of the counties that has refused to implement the program.

The 2003 law mandates that all counties in California implement a voluntary identification card program meant to assist law enforcement and provide greater protections for medical marijuana patients and their caregivers, but Solano County officials have failed to comply.

"Solano County cannot flout its obligation under the law," said Joe Elford, ASA Chief Counsel. "This lawsuit is aimed at forcing all counties to fully implement state law and stop denying medical marijuana patients their legal rights and protections."

ASA's action follows a landmark decision from the California Fourth District Court of Appeal, rejecting San Diego County's challenge to the law. ASA's Elford was among those arguing on behalf of patients in that case.

After that July 2008 decision, ASA sent letters to officials from Solano and 15 other counties warning them that lawsuits could result if they did not take action on the ID card program. Letters were sent again in October after the state Supreme Court declined to review the case.

Since 2003, 40 of California's 58 counties have implemented the medical marijuana ID card program. As a result of ASA's letters and the new court mandate, 11 additional counties (Alpine, Fresno, Kings, Mariposa, Modoc, Nevada, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Siskiyou, Stanislaus, and Ventura) have made ID cards available or have pledged to do so.

California law directs each of the state's counties to provide medical marijuana patients and their caregivers ID cards that help law enforcement identify qualified patients and caregivers and provide those individuals protection from arrest and prosecution.

Staff Combines Policy Support with Political Pressure

Change has come to Washington, D.C. with the inauguration of Barack Obama as our 44th President, and ASA will be working with his administration and the new Congress to ensure that change comes to federal policy on medical cannabis as well.

ASA's D.C. office, lead by Director of Government Affairs Caren Woodson, has provided members of the Obama transition team and members of Congress with detailed policy agendas and specific recommendations for lawmakers to take action on that can help meet the immediate needs of medical cannabis patients, their providers, physicians, and researchers.

During the confirmation hearings for Attorney General nominee Eric Holder, ASA lobbied committee members to ask questions about how enforcement policies will be changed to respect state laws and protect patient rights. ASA members also contacted their U.S. Senators on the issue, using the January newsletter action alert as a guide. The action may not have elicited new commitments, but it got the attention of Washington insiders, including mention in Marc Ambinder's influential politics blog for the Atlantic Monthly.

President Obama has promised to instill new respect for science in policymaking, and medical cannabis is a key area of public health where research has been ignored or blocked. And the new administration is already hearing about it.

The Obama transition team's "Citizen Briefing Book" project was designed to create a virtual white paper, authored by engaged citizens, to pitch ideas, information, and expertise to the incoming administration on a variety of topics. The issues voted the most popular were compiled and provided to President Obama upon being sworn in. Ranking third among thousands of suggestions to the transition team was a recommendation to "Stop using federal resources to undermine states' medicinal marijuana laws."

That recommendation is one ASA is working to hold President Obama accountable for, particularly since he pledged during the campaign to end federal interference in state medical cannabis programs (see this month's action alert).

After Bush loyalists in the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) staged yet another raid on a medical cannabis patient dispensary in California, just two days after President Obama was sworn in, and another in Colorado, ASA organized an immediate response, enlisting members and supporters to call the White House to register their outrage. Volunteers answering the phone reported receiving hundreds of calls, ensuring the voice of patients are being heard on Pennsylvania Avenue.

During his election night victory speech, President Obama told the country that "victory alone is not the change we seek; it is only the chance for us to make that change." By applying public pressure at all levels and providing lawmakers with detailed policy recommendations as well as political support, ASA is working to bring to medical cannabis policy the change we've been waiting for.

"The opportunity for real change is here," said Caren Woodson. "But we are counting on our members to support our legislative efforts in Washington, DC by reinforce our work in their local communities."

Among the actions ASA hopes to see the Obama Administration and the 111th Congress take are new policies that:

(1) suspend the federal resources used to interfere with state medical marijuana laws,

(2) encourage advanced clinical research trials that meet accepted scientific standards,

(3) permit affirmative defense for individuals authorized by state and local law to use or provide cannabis for therapeutic use.

With your help, ASA will be working to ensure that our government takes action.

To view ASA's recommendations and policy agenda, go to: National Policy PDF and Presidential Recommendations PDF.

As a grassroots organization, ASA gets its power from the people. In addition to its almost 60 chapters and affiliates working for medical cannabis laws across the country, ASA also has a dedicated network of concerned citizens. While they are not part of any chapter, they can be counted on to take action when they're called. It's these "after-work" activists that ASA is mobilizing with the launch of the new ASA Ambassador Project.

The ASA office gets calls everyday from people who don't live close to a chapter or don't have the time to start one up. But they still want to do their part - and now they can.

By signing up with ASA's new Ambassador program, they'll work on their own and with other Ambassadors in their region to educate and engage their communities. They are ASA's representatives to their families, friends, neighborhoods, political organizations, social clubs, support groups, and the communities in which they live. And they also act as important liaisons with their local, state, and federal elected officials.

"The program is taking off," said George Pappas, ASA's Field Coordinator. "People from across the country seem to have been waiting for just this opportunity. They are signing up to take the reins in representing ASA's goals."

ASA Ambassadors are already making an impact, meeting with elected officials and taking the responsibility of passing on ASA's actions to their networks.

"ASA members know that the actions we take in the next few months will help shape President Obama's medical cannabis policies for the next four to eight years," said Pappas. "It is going to take a commitment from every one of us to make real change at the Federal level."

To make that commitment, pledge to become an ASA Ambassador and join ASA's new campaign for 2009: MAKE IT SAFE. MAKE IT LEGAL. MAKE IT HAPPEN!

To sign up as an ASA Ambassador, send an email to [email protected], or visit www.Americans forSafeAccess.org/Ambassador to receive an Ambassador Packet with info on how to get started.

Dear friends:

You've seen the ads — the ones telling you that you'll shoot your friend in the head or get your fist stuck in your mouth if you use marijuana. Or the one warning that marijuana might turn you into a rapist.

During his campaign, President Barack Obama promised to curb government waste by cutting funding for programs that didn't show results. These ads — run by the White House drug czar's office — should be first on the chopping block. Not only are they ridiculous on their face, but every independent assessment of the ads has shown them to be a failure, with a government watchdog agency finding that the ads actually increased use among teens.
 
Would you take one minute to write your members of Congress today to urge them to eliminate funding for these wasteful, ineffective, and plain silly ads? MPP's online action system makes it really easy; just enter your name and address, and we do the rest.

MPP's lobbying work has resulted in a 66% reduction in funding for these ads since 2002 — including a nearly 40% reduction between 2007 and 2008 alone. With the ads' funding now at its lowest level ever — $60 million — we're optimistic that we can finally get them eradicated altogether.

Would you please help by sending a letter to your members of Congress 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 $2.35 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2009. This means that your donation today will be doubled.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   
FEBRUARY 3, 2009

Vermont Lawmakers to Consider Bill to Make Small Marijuana Possession a Civil Penalty

Recent Poll Shows 63 Percent Support for Modest Reform; Plurality of Vermonters Would Go Further, End Marijuana Prohibition Completely

CONTACT: Nancy Lynch, Vermont Alliance for Intelligent Drug Laws (VALID), 802-279-2486

MONTPELIER, Vt. — A bill to replace criminal penalties for personal possession of small amounts of marijuana with a simple fine was introduced in the statehouse today, coming on the heels of a recent poll showing overwhelming support among Vermonters for the reform.

    H. 150, sponsored by Rep. David Zuckerman (P-Burlington) and 18 other representatives, would end the arrest of adults caught with an ounce or less of marijuana, instead treating the infraction as a civil violation punishable by a $100 fine. Zuckerman said that under the bill, marijuana possession would still be illegal, but the punishment would more reasonably match the violation. He said the reform would also save tax dollars and law enforcement resources that would otherwise be wasted arresting those with small amounts of marijuana.

    "There is no reason an otherwise responsible adult should face the life-altering consequences of a criminal arrest for what amounts to a minor indiscretion," Zuckerman said. "This modest reform will allow our police to quickly deal with these situations so that everybody can move on to more important matters."

    According to a Mason-Dixon poll of 625 Vermont voters commissioned by the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C., and conducted by phone Jan. 9 and 10, 63 percent of respondents supported "a change in the law to provide for a $100 civil fine without jail time for those who possess an ounce or less of marijuana for personal use." This past Election Day, Massachusetts voters passed a law similar to the one introduced in Vermont today with 65 percent of the vote.

    The poll, which has a margin for error of plus or minus 4 percent, suggests that a plurality of Vermont voters would actually go much further in reforming the state's marijuana laws. Forty-nine percent of the respondents said they would favor "making marijuana legal for adults over 21, and regulating it similarly to alcohol," while only 37 percent said they would oppose the idea.

    "This poll supports what we've known all along," said Nancy Lynch, executive director for VALID. "Vermonters don't want to see people ensnared in our criminal justice system for possessing a small amount of marijuana, and they see decriminalizing these violations as a modest, uncontroversial solution. Our representatives should take note – passing this bill quickly is not only responsible, it's politically popular."

    If the bill passes, Vermont would become the 13th state to decriminalize small marijuana possession. According to government figures, marijuana use rates in decriminalized states are indistinguishable from those in states that arrest those caught with small amounts of marijuana.

###

Dear Friends,

George W. Bush may be relaxing at his ranch in Texas, but many of his friends are still waging a war on public health at home and abroad.

Believe it or not, the day after President Obama took his oath of office, Bush-appointed cops raided a medical marijuana collective in California, despite our new president's pledge to end those cruel attacks on patients!

And right now, U.S. delegates to the United Nations are stonewalling efforts to include life-saving, harm reduction measures in the new global drug strategy, even though Obama publicly supports those measures. (This includes needle exchange programs, which have been proven to drastically reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS.)

If successful, these remnants of the Bush administration could set global drug policy back ten years, since this strategy will not be reviewed again until 2019!  And we risk further alienating our European and Latin American allies who strongly support the inclusion of harm reduction in this new global drug strategy.

Clearly, our delegates need to fall in line with the new administration or lose their jobs. But the President has a lot on his plate right now. And that's why he needs to hear from Americans like you who want to see an immediate change in drug policy.

Please take a moment to send a letter to the President and Secretary of State Clinton urging them to order our U.N. delegates to advocate for public health instead of "zero tolerance" policies. The letter is pre-written for you, but you can edit it if you like: http://www.ssdp.org/publichealth

Students for Sensible Drug Policy was one of 25 North American organizations to participate in a global forum last year that resulted in the formulation of recommendations that embraced harm reduction and recognized the fundamental human rights of drug users. We won't let our voices be silenced because of a few of rogue Bush administration appointees who are blatantly ignoring the will of the current administration. 

Fortunately, we're not the only ones who are concerned about this. Just today, the New York Times published an editorial criticizing our delegates' opposition to harm reduction. And a few days ago, Congressman Henry Waxman (D - CA) and others sent a letter to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, warning against "crafting a U.N. declaration that is at odds with our own national policies and interests… as we needlessly alienate our nation's allies in Europe."

If they can send a letter, so can we. http://www.ssdp.org/publichealth 

Sincerely,

Kris Krane, Executive Director
Students for Sensible Drug Policy

P.S. After you've sent the letter to Obama and Clinton, check out SSDP's Obama Drug Policy Action Center for more info on how you can help influence drug policy in the new administration: http://www.ssdp.org/obama

P.P.S. Like the work SSDP is doing to influence President Obama and the United Nations to change drug policy? If so, please let us know by making a donation today. http://www.ssdp.org/donate