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[Courtesy of Berkeley Patients Group] Friends, Tomorrow night (1/29/08), the Berkeley City Council will be considering a very important resolution. Co-sponsored by Kriss Worthington and Darryl Moore, this item would: 1. declare Berkeley a "sanctuary city" for medical cannabis in the event that the DEA raids any of our dispensaries, 2. call on the Berkeley Police Department, the County District Attorney, the Alameda County Sheriff's Department, and the State Attorney General not to cooperate with the DEA in its efforts to undermine state and local medical cannabis laws, 3. urge Governor Schwarzenegger to publicly stand with the more than 200,000 medical cannabis patients in the state and to let Congress and the Bush Administration know that DEA interference is uncalled for and will be resisted by local and state government, and 4. encourage the City to plan for continued safe access in Berkeley in the event of a DEA raid on one or more of our dispensaries. See the draft text at: http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/agenda-committee/agendaindex.htm Click on the pdf for the 1/22 meeting, and look for Item 22. ASA and others have worked extensively with Councilmembers Moore and Worthington, and with many other supportive city staff, to craft this resolution, and we expect the full support of the Council, the City Manager and the City Attorney tomorrow night. Obviously this is a VERY important moment for medical cannabis patients, and I want to encourage you to attend tomorrow's City Council meeting if at all possible. We plan to have a rally at 6:45 p.m., before the Council meeting, on the steps of Old City Hall. Wear your ASA shirt, sport a medical marijuana pin, and let's fill the hall with supporters to celebrate the moment--and thank our Berkeley elected officials for taking this significant step to defend patients' rights! City Council Meeting - 1/29/2008 7 p.m. - 10 p.m. 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way Be well, Becky DeKeuster Community Liaison Berkeley Patients Group 2747 San Pablo Ave. Berkeley, CA 94702 510-540-6013 ext. 0

[Courtesy of vflog.com] Call CBS4-Denver at 303-830-6464! CBS4-Denver has been attacking medicinal marijuana patients and their caregivers in Colorado. The last person to be the focus of a CBS4 medicinal cannabis "investigation" (Ken Gorman) ended up murdered less than a week after the story aired. Now they are trying it again by attacking a disabled veteran. These attacks have to stop. This Thursday (Jan. 31), CBS4 is scheduled to air an "investigation" of Kevin Dickes, former Marine and disabled Gulf War veteran. Dickes was prescribed cannabis for a war injury and has a valid Medical Marijuana Registry identification card issued by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. In 2000, Colorado voters approved an amendment to the state constitution that allows patients to legally use cannabis as medicine with their physician's approval. Dickes was arrested in Aurora in March 2007. He was charged with felony cultivation and faced 6 years in prison. Because he was a registered patient, all charges against Dickes were eventually dropped. Colorado law says that police shall return the cannabis "unharmed", so Aurora police were forced to return his medicine to him. The CBS4 "investigation" scheduled to air this Thursday allegedly shows a former Marine who served with Dickes in the Gulf War who says Dickes' injury was not caused in the Gulf War. The fact that Dickes was injured is not in question. In the promotion for the CBS4 story, it clearly shows the 36-inch scar on Dicke's leg. Apparently, all that is in question is the cause of that injury. Dickes has provided medical records to CBS4 proving he was injured in the Marines, but CBS4 is still airing the story. Read the letter from Dickes' attorney, Robert Corry, here: http://www.vflog.com/action/dickes.corry.let.html This is a blatant attack on a law-abiding citizen for using a plant he grew himself to ease his pain. The cause of his injury is none of CBS4's business! This is an invasion of medical privacy. This sensational story is designed only to boost ratings at the expense of a disabled veteran. Kevin Dickes has already suffered with his arrest, prosecution and destruction of his medicine. This "investigation" serves no purpose other than to attack Dickes' and make him suffer more for his use of a legal medicine. All citizens should be outraged! In Feb. 2007, CBS4's Rick Sallinger aired a story about medical marijuana caregiver, Ken Gorman. Less than a week later, that caregiver was found brutally murdered in his home. Denver police have made no arrests and have no suspects in the case. See the story that aired one week before Ken was murdered: http://cbs4denver.com/investigates/Denver.Colorado.medical.2.556420.html. See the story about Ken's death: http://cbs4denver.com/local/Ken.Gorman.Murder.2.556598.html "I don't want to end up dead in my own home like Ken Gorman because of Rick Sallinger," Dickes says. What's next for Rick Sallinger? Will he start investigating all Gulf War veterans and their private medical histories? Is he going to continue to attack other medicinal cannabis patients just to boost his ratings? Why doesn't he do an investigation of Ken Gorman's murder and find out why the Denver Police refuse to investigate this case? Please call CBS4 to protest this attack on sick patients. Ask them not to air the story on Thursday: CBS4-Denver 303-830-6464 [email protected] If CBS4-Denver does not pull the story, there will be a protest at their offices (1044 Lincoln Street) at 3pm on Thursday (1/31). Please check this website for updates before you go http://www.vflog.com Bringing the 1st Amendment into the 21st Century...

Drug Truth Network Update: 4:20 Drug War NEWS from 90.1 FM in Houston & on the web at www.kpft.org. We provide the "unvarnished truth about the drug war" to scores of broadcast affiliates in the US and Canada. - Rev. Dean Becker 4:20 Drug War NEWS 01/28/08 to 02/03/08 now online (3:00 ea:) Mon - CBS TV in Los Angeles announces pot vending machines. Tue - Poppygate Report with Glenn Greenway Wed - Official Government Truth with Winston Francis & Drug War Facts with Doug McVay Thu - Mike Gray produces new video: "Clergy Against the War on Drugs" Fri - Mike Gray produces new video: "Clergy Against the War on Drugs" 2/2 Sat - Charles Thomas, Dir of Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative Sun - Reverend Edwin C. Sanders II regarding "Black America - The Debate Within" (drug policy) Next - Century of Lies on Tues, Cutural Baggage on Wed (Now With Transcripts): - Cultural Baggage 12:30 PM ET, 11:30 AM CT, 10:30 AM MT & 9:30 AM PT: Pat McCann, Pres Harris Co Crim Lawyers Assoc - Century of Lies 12:30 PM ET, 11:30 AM CT, 10:30 AM MT & 9:30 AM PT: Paul Wright, Editor Prison Legal News Hundreds of our programs are available online at www.drugtruth.net, www.audioport.org and at www.radio4all.net. Check out our latest videos via www.youtube.com/fdbecker: Please become part of the solution, visit our website: www.endprohibition.org for links to the best of reform. "Prohibition is evil." - Reverend Dean Becker, Drug Truth Network Producer Dean Becker 713-849-6869 www.drugtruth.net

In the latest blow to medical marijuana rights, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that employers can fire workers who test positive for the drug, even when it is used under a physician's advice. "Nothing in the text or history of the Compassionate Use Act suggests the voters intended the measure to address the respective rights and duties of employers and employees," wrote Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar in the 15-page opinion. "Under California law, an employer may require pre-employment drug tests and take illegal drug use into consideration in making employment decisions...The Compassionate Use Act does not eliminate marijuana's potential for abuse or the employer's legitimate interest in whether an employee uses the drug." The decision is on line here: http://drugsense.org/url/NDVd3p20lJ "The majority's holding disrespects the will of California's voters, "wrote Justice Joyce L. Kennard, whose dissent was joined by Justice Carlos R. Moreno, calling the decision "conspicuously lacking in compassion." The voters "surely never intended that persons who availed themselves" of the medical marijuana act "would thereby disqualify themselves from employment," Kennard wrote. Thus five of the seven justices - who will never face a drug test - showed their contempt for the people of California. Daily newspapers throughout California, as well as major national newspapers, covered the story. Please write letters to the editor to your local newspapers giving your views about the decision. A sample of the coverage may be found at this link: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/RagingWire ********************************************************************** Style guides for writing effective letters to the editor are available at MAP's Media Activism Center: http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides ********************************************************************** Please Send Us a Copy of Your Letter Please send copies of your letters to the sent letter list ([email protected]) if you are subscribed, or email a copy to [email protected] if you are not subscribed.

Florida: "Slow Going" Registration Efforts May Keep Hundreds of Thousands of Eligible Voters from Polls As the election year heats up, so do the emotions of hundreds of thousands of Florida citizens who expected to register to vote after the state's clemency board last year moved to make voting easier for non-violent offenders. "It's a slow process. It's slow going," said Muslima Lewis, an attorney with the ACLU and director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. "Individuals who were initially very encouraged in April of last year are now seeing that it's taking them a bit longer and with this being an election year people are getting more and more impatient." As a result of the efforts of Gov. Charlie Crist - whose election platform included rights restoration of formerly incarcerated individuals - about 45,000 individuals' rights have been restored since April. There remain, however, approximately 900,000 individuals who continue to wait to find out if their rights have been restored. In fact, 130,000 of those citizens are still waiting for their cases to be reviewed and have been told the process will take several months to a year, according to NPR's "All Things Considered." "That's very problematic," Lewis continued. "We are concerned about whether folks will actually be getting on the rolls in time to vote in November." The ACLU and other organizations continue to sponsor seminars to educate and register formerly incarcerated individuals. Alabama: "Let My People Vote" The Rev. Kenneth Glasgow this week visited several jails in Alabama to register inmates by today's voter registration deadline. During his "Let my people vote" registration campaign, which began on the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, Glasgow brought voter re-instatement and registration forms for inmates to fill out, the Dothan Eagle reported. "Today, there are four times the amount of our people behind bars than the time Martin Luther King led the civil rights movement here in Alabama, but voter registration goes beyond just that. There's no better day to address this struggle than on his birthday," Rev. Glasgow, coordinator for the Alabama Alliance to Restore the Vote said. The state's primary is Feb. 5. Last year, Glasgow's registration efforts collected more than 10,000 applications. Prior to 2006, formerly incarcerated individuals who committed crimes of 'moral turpitude' were banned from voting. In 2006 Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Robert Vance Jr. ordered voter registrars in Alabama counties to register former offenders unless legislation was signed stating otherwise and until 'moral turpitude' was defined. Additional coverage by the Montgomery Advertiser reported that county jail inmates are allowed to vote absentee, but it's up to the inmates to fill out the application. For more coverage, see the Enterprise Ledger. National: Presidential Candidates Should be Pressed by Reporters on Voting Rights In the Columbia Journalism Review's new series "Eight Questions Reporters Should Ask," Todd Gitlin explains the need for his column by saying: "My goal with this series is to highlight questions that, to my mind and to the best of my research, the press has not asked (or at least not asked often or insistently enough)." As a result Gitlin feels journalists should ask of presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama the following question: Nearly five million Americans-some 2% of the American electorate-cannot vote today because they have been convicted of felonies. In this regard the US is unusual among the world's democracies, which think that the rights of citizenship should be restored once a felon has served his or her sentence. Do you agree that former felons should regain the right to vote? - - - - - - 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