Fundraising Appeal

 

 

 

Dear friends:

When it comes to changing bad marijuana laws, I don’t want to let anything stand in the Marijuana Policy Project’s (MPP’s) way.  Especially not money!  Donate Now, and your gift will be doubled.

In our short 15-year history, the number of medical marijuana states has increased from zero to 14, we’ve helped lay the groundwork for a change in federal law, and set the stage for the first state to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol, because of your generous support.

As we move closer to achieving our goal — no more marijuana arrests — our budget is straining to keep up with our needs.

Won’t you help us meet our goal of raising $13,000 by Friday, so we can keep all of our projects on target, and so we can take advantage of a wealthy philanthropist’s promise to match the first $2.4 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2010?

This means that your donation today will be doubled.  It also means full steam ahead for our projects.  Here's where and how we are spending your donations:

California  Your donations have made a huge impact here, where MPP worked closely with California NORML, DPA, and other advocates to ensure successful hearings and advocacy for A.B. 390, which would legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana. MPP will be working hard to build upon the success of A.B. 390 and to gain further support for taxing and regulating marijuana in the state as citizens prepare to vote on the “Tax Cannabis” initiative.  Keep up the momentum.  Donate Now.

Arizona   MPP, with your support, is about to successfully finish our signature drive to place a medical marijuana initiative on the November 2010 ballot, which would make the signature drive one of the earliest to be completed in the history of the state.   Keep up the momentum.  Donate Now.

Nevada  With your support, MPP submitted finalized initiative language to the Secretary of State. Three weeks later, we emerged from the 15-day challenge period unchallenged.  This is an indication that opposition to the initiative is not strong within the political establishment.  Keep up the momentum.  Donate Now.

South Dakota  Donations from you and other supporters allowed MPP to help draft a medical marijuana initiative for the November 2010 ballot and has been providing guidance to activists on the ground throughout their just-completed signature drive.  Keep up the momentum.  Donate Now.

Illinois  MPP donors' support helped get Illinois' medical marijuana bill on the House floor, but we have a lot more work to get the 60 votes it needs. The Senate already passed the bill last year, so this could be the year it heads to the governor, who has publicly said he's open to signing it.  Keep up the momentum.  Donate Now.

New York  After seven years of lobbying, and thanks to our donors who have stood by us all these years, this may finally be the year that medical marijuana becomes law. Keep up the momentum.  Donate Now.

Colorado  MPP put your donations to good use by drafting a constitutional amendment ballot initiative on behalf of local stakeholders, which would guarantee Coloradans the right to cultivate marijuana for patients and to distribute it at dispensaries. Keep up the momentum.  Donate Now.

New Hampshire  Your support helped a bipartisan, MPP-drafted bill to tax and regulate marijuana come very close to passing committee last month -- 8-10, with a ninth supporter not in the room.  Rather than killing the bill, the full House approved the committee's plan to study it, 272-76. Working closely with local partners and other supporters, MPP has led the advocacy both for that bill and for a bill to decriminalize possession of up to one quarter ounce of marijuana, which passed committee 16-2 on February 11.   Keep up the momentum.  Donate Now.

Iowa  As a result of a lawsuit filed by an Iowa advocate, the state Board of Pharmacy held a series of hearings on whether to reschedule marijuana’s legal classification. With your support, MPP helped mobilize patients, physicians, researchers, and local advocates to speak out, and just last week the board recommended rescheduling marijuana and setting up a task force to recommend a medical marijuana access program. Help us keep up the momentum.  Donate Now.

Massachusetts  Our team used your donations wisely to build support for medical marijuana legislation in the health and medical community, securing support from four sheriffs, and building support among key legislators. MPP is working closely with patients, physicians, and local advocates to show legislators how strong support is for the issue.  Keep up the momentum.  Donate Now.

Rhode Island  MPP has invested your donations wisely to educate a study commission on marijuana prohibition about what a miserable failure prohibition has been. MPP and local allies are hopeful about the prospects of a bill to decriminalize up to an ounce of marijuana. Keep up the momentum.  Donate Now.

Washington, D.C.  Whatever happens in the nation’s capital is highly visible across the nation and to our lawmakers, so any donations we invest in our work here is reflected across the nation. MPP has been working with other allied organizations and the D.C. City Council to make sure D.C.'s medical marijuana law is implemented responsibly and in a manner that is true to voters' intent. Keep up the momentum.  Donate Now.

Delaware  Now that the legislature has reconvened, MPP's medical marijuana bill, which includes nonprofit dispensaries, will pick up where we left off in June -- on the Senate floor after having passed committee in a 4-0 vote. We've also picked up a new Republican cosponsor.  Your support made this possible.  Keep up the momentum.  Donate Now.

Maryland  Your donations are financing our efforts, combined with MD Safe Access, and other allies, at encouraging the legislature to improve Maryland's medical marijuana law, which currently only reduces the penalty for possession to a $100 fine in case of medical necessity, and does not protect from arrest or criminal conviction, or provide for access. Keep up the momentum.  Donate Now.

Vermont  MPP's lobbyist and organizer are using your support to build support for twin decriminalization bills that carried over from 2009. MPP’s team qualified a non-binding referendum on decriminalization for the March 2 town meeting day in Montpelier, the state capital. At the same time, our team is working with patients, physicians, and pharmacists to enact a bill adding dispensaries to the state’s medical marijuana law.  Keep up the momentum.  Donate Now.

Minnesota  After a lobbying effort backed by your support helped MPP guide a medical marijuana bill through the legislature last year, it was vetoed by Gov. Pawlenty. MPP is now launching a campaign to make sure the next governor signs a bill.  Keep up the momentum.  Donate Now.

Pennsylvania  Thanks to your generous support, MPP was able to travel to Harrisburg to testify, along with a strong lineup of witnesses, on the first medical marijuana bill to be introduced there in recent memory. Keep up the momentum.  Donate Now.

Federal  Because your support finances lobbying, the best way to change laws, our lobbying team can focus on building a coalition of participants from across the political spectrum who will urge Congress to end marijuana prohibition.  We're also working to follow up on our victory with the Justice Department guidelines by pushing for legislation that would protect patients in all 50 states.  Keep up the momentum.  Donate Now.

Getting the best results from every dollar — that’s how we treat your donations.

Won’t you please help us raise $13,000 by Friday by donating now?  Your donation will keep our projects on track and bring us closer to the day we can proclaim, No More Marijuana Arrests.  And, your donation will be matched by a wealthy philanthropist who promised to match the first $2.4 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2010. 

Sincerely,

Dear friends:

Hi there. My name is Teresa Skipper, and I use marijuana to stay alive. I wrote to you last week — but maybe my message slipped your attention — to ask you to support MPP with a contribution. For those of us who, for whatever reason, believe that bad marijuana laws need to be changed, MPP is our best hope. Here is why I support MPP.

When I found out in 1995 that I had HIV, my doctors gave me many different medications, and I'm grateful for them because they have kept me alive!

But the side effects are awful. One of my meds comes with a warning that it's sometimes fatal. My stomach feels like a raw egg most days, which is strange because I can't eat most foods. I have no appetite, and it's hard to keep my weight up.

But I've been lucky enough to find something that makes me feel better, restores my appetite, and is the reason I still have good days. That something is marijuana.

Unfortunately, my marijuana also makes me a criminal, because medical marijuana is illegal where I live. In fact, only 14 states allow medical marijuana. MPP is working hard to increase the number of medical marijuana states by changing laws all across the U.S.

MPP is successful because of its strategic approach and its top-notch lobbyists. MPP has a strong track record of actually changing laws, but that work is expensive and MPP is financed by donations from individuals like you and like me. That's why I’m telling you my story and asking you, from the bottom of my heart, to help MPP fight marijuana prohibition, because marijuana use should not make criminals of sick people.

Like many other marijuana users, I have a husband, two children, and one beautiful grandson. I have a bachelor's degree in financial management. I just want to go to work and have a normal life.

But my marijuana use makes me a criminal, and who wants to hire a criminal? If I give up using marijuana, my health deteriorates to the point that I can't work anyway.

MPP is fighting to change marijuana laws so that sick people won’t become criminals when they use marijuana to get relief from pain and suffering. If you share my vision for the future, where medical marijuana will be available in every state, please help MPP today with a donation.

Thank you for letting me tell you my story.

Best wishes,

Teresa Skipper

Dear friends:

A couple of weeks ago, we told you about a district attorney in Nevada who obnoxiously said that making marijuana legal in Nevada would turn the state into Sodom and Gomorra. When we said the MPP-supported campaign in the state, Nevadans for Sensible Marijuana Laws, wasn't going to let that attack go unanswered, we weren't kidding.

Yesterday, in the lobby of the building where district attorney Richard Gammick has his office, MPP's Dave Schwartz, who serves as NSML's campaign manager, unveiled a TV ad attacking Gammick for his irrational stance. We really love the ad and wanted to share it with you. Take a look:

 This is just an opening salvo in what will be an ongoing campaign to highlight the hypocrisy of law enforcement officials who know that alcohol causes more societal problems than marijuana, yet advocate for the continued persecution of anyone who chooses to use marijuana instead of alcohol.

We're mad as hell, and we're not going to take it any more. If you feel the same and want to see more ads like this — in Nevada or in other parts of the country — would you please make a contribution today? We're 100% dependant on contributions from people like you, and we really need your help today.

Sincerely,


Steve Fox
Director of State Campaigns
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

Dear friends:

By any measure, 2009 was the best year for marijuana policy reform in U.S. history. Check out these 10 signs of progress, most of which have been spearheaded by MPP:

1.     The governments of Massachusetts and Michigan implemented the ballot initiatives we passed in these two states on November 4, 2008. As a result, marijuana possession is now a $100 ticketable offense in Massachusetts, and the possession and cultivation of medical marijuana is now legal in Michigan.

2.     On October 19, the Obama administration announced that the DEA and the Justice Department would de-prioritize any new raids of medical marijuana establishments in California and elsewhere that are abiding by state law. This is the most significant, positive change in federal marijuana policy in 31 years!

3.     On November 10, the American Medical Association rescinded its previous support of classifying marijuana alongside LSD, PCP, and heroin under federal law.

4.     MPP has made significant progress on medical marijuana bills in Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and New York. If we succeed in seven states between now and the summer of 2011 — which is actually looking likely at this point — the number of medical marijuana states will jump from 13 to 20.

5.     We've already collected 200,000 of the 250,000 signatures that are needed in Arizona to place on the November 2010 ballot an initiative to legalize medical marijuana, including authorizing 120 dispensaries statewide, which would give Arizona the best medical marijuana law in the country. Fully 65% of Arizona voters support this initiative.

6.     In California, a bill to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol is pending in the state Assembly, the introduction of which generated a huge wave of positive news coverage nationwide, which we followed up with a TV ad that generated an even bigger wave of news coverage. We're working to build support for this landmark piece of legislation, which has a chance to pass out of committee in January.

7.     MPP opened an office in Las Vegas, for the purpose of building a statewide coalition to pass a ballot initiative to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol. We plan to pass this initiative in November 2012, which would give Nevada the best marijuana law in the world.

8.     Other than California and Nevada, there are at least four other states that are now in play for being the first to end marijuana prohibition entirely: (1) Colorado, which has seen an explosion of medical marijuana dispensaries since January and is now polling at 48% in favor of regulating marijuana like alcohol; (2) Rhode Island, which recently overrode its governor's veto in order to legalize medical marijuana dispensaries in the state, and which has since launched a study commission to draft a bill to regulate marijuana like alcohol; (3) New Hampshire, where a bill to regulate and tax marijuana has been introduced for the 2010 session; and (4) Washington state, where six representatives have prefiled a bill to tax and regulate marijuana.

9.     After 11 years of MPP's congressional lobbying efforts, the U.S. Congress finally removed the federal ban on implementing Washington, D.C.'s medical marijuana law. Medical marijuana could be available in our nation's capital starting this spring.

10.   And it looks like, finally, we'll soon have a bill introduced in Congress that would wipe out marijuana prohibition entirely on the federal level, which is our ultimate goal in Washington, D.C. This will take years to pass, so we might as well get started now.

Our accomplishments in 2009 were made possible by the generous support of our 29,000 members. Please help us kick off 2010 with a bang by making a donation today. 

Sincerely,

Dear friends:

Our 15th Anniversary Gala, on January 13 in Washington, D.C., will honor the dedicated legislators, celebrities, and patients who have fought for an end to marijuana prohibition. Have you reserved your ticket yet?

Here are just a few highlights from our program for the night:

• Comedy icons Cheech and Chong will be honored with the Trailblazer Award for drawing attention to the movement.
• Former Gov. Gary Johnson of New Mexico — a fierce advocate for medical marijuana access — will speak about his vision for ending marijuana prohibition.
• We'll present awards to legislators, a patient, and a physician for outstanding advocacy and leadership in marijuana policy reform.

Please join us in toasting 15 years of remarkable progress. Reserve your ticket to our 15th Anniversary Gala today.

I look forward to seeing you on January 13.

Sincerely,

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

P.S. There are only eight days left in our matching campaign! A major philanthropist has committed to match the first $2.35 million that MPP can raise in 2009. Make twice the impact and donate today.