[Courtesy of MPP] 

The DEA is continuing to terrorize medical marijuana patients and their caregivers. On November 20, DEA agents raided the Long Beach Compassionate Cooperative (L.B.C.C.), a medical marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles County. In addition to seizing assets, federal agents arrested the owner and warned that other area dispensaries could face the same fate. Read the news coverage here.

In recent months, MPP has raised $150,000 of the $180,000 that’s needed to launch our new project in California to fend off these raids. Please donate now to help close the $30,000 gap.

Since the beginning of the year, the DEA has executed dozens of raids in California, including:

• January 11: 11 dispensaries in West Hollywood
• March 29: Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers in Morro Bay
• May 1 and July 16: Nature's Medicinal Cooperative in Bakersfield
• June 13: Farm Assist Caregivers in Pomona
• July 17: Healing Nations Collective in Inland Valley
• July 25: 10 dispensaries in Los Angeles County
• August 29: 3 dispensaries in San Mateo
• October 11: Arts District Healing Center in Los Angeles
• October 30: Compassionate Caregivers of Alameda County
• November 1: C-3 Collective in Garden Grove
• November 2: 105/405 in North Hills

The DEA has also instituted a chilling new form of interference in California’s medical marijuana law: In July, the DEA began threatening landlords who lease space to medical marijuana dispensaries with prison time and forfeiture of their property — a move that was condemned in a Los Angeles Times editorial as a “deplorable new bullying tactic.” The L.B.C.C.’s landlord was a recipient of one of these letters.

Please fight for the will of California voters and for safe access to medical marijuana by donating to MPP’s California plan today.

In the coming year, MPP will be working with a coalition of reform organizations, dispensary owners, health care professionals, patients, activists, and state legislators to protect patients and dispensaries operating legally under state law, but we need your help. Would you please help fund a lobbyist in Sacramento to represent the medical marijuana community against the DEA’s reign of terror?

The situation in California is critical, and what happens in California matters to all of us: Just as California launched the modern era of the medical marijuana movement with the passage of Prop. 215 in November 1996, so, too, will it pave the way for state-recognized dispensaries with the legislation we will help pass next year. And, with your help, MPP and our allies will end state and local cooperation with federal law enforcement — which regularly utilizes local police for assistance during the DEA’s raids. Please join us in making sure that California resources will no longer be used to subvert the state’s own laws. This is important not only to Californians but to residents of every state seeking to enact compassionate medical marijuana laws.

We’re going to make medical marijuana access safe for seriously ill patients. Can I count on your help by making a donation to our California efforts today?

Thank you for your generosity during this critical time.

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.