Medical Marijuana

 

For Immediate Release: May 12, 2008

[Courtesy of Marijuana Policy Project] 

Dear friends:

On the verge of becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) has renewed his commitment to protecting medical marijuana patients from arrest and jail.

Here is a quote from Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt from an article in today's San Francisco Chronicle:

"Voters and legislators in the states — from California to Nevada to Maine — have decided to provide their residents suffering from chronic diseases and serious illnesses like AIDS and cancer with medical marijuana to relieve their pain and suffering. Obama supports the rights of states and local governments to make this choice — though he believes medical marijuana should be subject to (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) regulation like other drugs.”

With Sen. Obama now widely expected to win the Democratic nomination and in a year when Democrats are favored to win the White House, this means we might be only eight months away from having a White House that stands with us on medical marijuana access.

You can also watch a video of Sen. Obama talking about medical marijuana here.

In the months leading up to the New Hampshire Democratic primary election, MPP helped persuade all of the Democratic presidential candidates and three of the Republican candidates to pledge to end the arrest of patients in states with medical marijuana laws.

In response to questions from MPP on the campaign trail, Sen. Obama stated that arresting medical marijuana patients is not a good use of resources and promised to end the federal raids on state medical marijuana patients and their caregivers.

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) has also promised MPP that she would end the raids.

Unfortunately, the Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), earned a grade of “F” from MPP for his inhumane stance on medical marijuana. In response to repeated questions from MPP on the campaign trail, Sen. McCain incorrectly stated that a majority of medical experts oppose medical marijuana, and he also gave a patient who was politely questioning him a glimpse of McCain's famous temper.

Congressman Ron Paul (R-Tex.), who also remains in the Republican race, has been an outspoken opponent of marijuana prohibition and has consistently voted in favor of legislation to end the DEA's raids on patients.

Please visit MPP's campaign site, www.GraniteStaters.com/candidates, for statements from each of the candidates.

MPP is the only drug policy reform organization that's systematically influencing the presidential candidates to take positive positions on medical marijuana — and punishing those who don't. Would you please consider making a donation to support our work today?

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 2008. This means that your donation today will be doubled.

California Medical Marijuana Employment Rights Bill Advances

Legislation Moves to Assembly with Committee Approvals, Union support

An ASA-sponsored bill that would establish employment rights for medical marijuana patients in California advanced through the state Assembly last month. With support from three unions representing nearly 1 million workers in California, AB 2279 passed through both the Assembly's Labor and Employment and Judiciary committees on party-line votes. The bill will be voted on next by the Assembly, before passing to the state senate and then the governor's desk.

The new employment rights bill prohibits discrimination against patients but leaves intact existing state law prohibiting medical marijuana consumption at the workplace and protects employers from liability by allowing exceptions for jobs where physical safety could be a concern.

California joins Oregon and Hawaii in considering laws to protect medical marijuana patients from employment discrimination.

ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford

"We're grateful for the support of the state legislature in preserving the rights of patients to work and be productive members of society," said ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford. "With the jobs of thousands of sick Californians hanging in the balance, we are hopeful that the full Assembly will act in similar fashion to the Labor and Judiciary Committees."

ASA lobbying for the bill helped garner the endorsement last month of the statewide California Labor Federation, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), all powerful unions whose voices in defense of workers are listened to in California's capital. ASA also secured support from the National Lawyers Guild and several HIV/AIDS advocacy organizations.

Introduced in February by Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and sponsored by ASA, AB 2279 is designed to rectify a January ruling by the California Supreme Court that found employers can fire patients for using medical marijuana, even when they are entitled to do so under state law. That landmark case, Ross v. RagingWire, was argued before the supreme court by ASA's Elford.

Gary Ross, speaking to the media

Assemblymember Leno and the other authors of California's Medical Marijuana Program Act (SB 420) had filed a 'friend of the court' brief in support of Gary Ross, the engineer who lost his job at RagingWire Telecommunications in 2001 after failing a drug test. Ross had told his employer that he used medical cannabis on his doctor's advice to treat injuries sustained during his military service, but RagingWire terminated him anyway.

The legislation that would reverse the Ross decision has moved quickly because Assemblymember Leno and ASA were prepared for an adverse ruling by the court, having begun drafting the bill last year. In addition to Assemblymember Leno, the bill's co-authors are Patty Berg (D-Eureka), Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) and Lori Saldaña (D-San Diego). More about the bill can be seen at www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org/AB2279.

ASA has received hundreds of reports of employment discrimination in California since 2005. Employers that have been accused of discriminating against patients include Costco Wholesale, UPS, Foster Farms Dairy, DirecTV, the San Joaquin Courier, Power Auto Group, as well as several construction companies, hospitals, and various trade union employers.

New Patient Bill in Congress

In other legislative news, a new bill to protect medical marijuana patients is also being considered in Washington, DC.

Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) introduced the "Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act," HR 5842 last month. The act would change federal policy on medical marijuana in a number of ways.

It would reclassify marijuana to make it available by prescription and create a regulatory framework for the FDA to begin a drug approval process for marijuana. The act would also prevent interference by the federal government in any local or state run medical marijuana program.

The bill is co-sponsored by Representatives Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Sam Farr (D-CA), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), and Ron Paul (R-TX).

[Courtesy of Marijuana Policy Project] 

Dear friends:

Timothy Garon's face and arms are hauntingly skeletal, but the fluid building up in his abdomen makes the 56-year-old musician look eight months pregnant. His liver, ravaged by hepatitis C, is failing. Without a new one, his doctors tell him, he will be dead in days.

But Garon's been refused a spot on the transplant list, largely because he has used marijuana, even though it was legally approved for medical reasons.
— Associated Press, April 26, 2008

If federal law allowed marijuana to be treated like a medicine and not a drug of abuse, Timothy Garon wouldn't be about to die. (Because donated organs are scare, hospitals use selection standards that include drug use — even if that drug is medical marijuana that was recommended by the patient's doctor and legal under state law.)

When we say that the federal government's marijuana policies actually kill people, it's no exaggeration. This is a wrenchingly outrageous example of federal marijuana laws being responsible for killing a patient ... for no other reason than that he followed the advice of his doctor and used medical marijuana, as permitted by Washington state, where he lives.

Would you take one minute to ask your member of Congress to put a stop to this cruelty? MPP's online action center makes it simple; just enter your name and address and we'll do the rest.

You can also watch news coverage of this awful story here and here.

Our thoughts are with Timothy Garon and others like him — but thoughts are not enough. Won't you please insist that Congress change federal law now?

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 $3.0 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2008. This means that your donation today will be doubled.

[Courtesy of Marijuana Policy Project] 

Dear friends:

Some members of Minnesota's law enforcement community are lying in order to kill MPP’s medical marijuana bill in the state — in other words, in order to keep patients in pain. This small but vocal contingent is claiming that marijuana has no medical value, that “every prosecutor in every medical marijuana state” opposes its use, that you can “overdose” on marijuana, and more than a dozen other outrageous lies.

We’re fighting back. Yesterday, MPP held a news conference at the Minnesota statehouse to refute the outright false testimony that law enforcement officials have been providing the legislature and the news media. And we distributed to reporters and legislators an 18-page booklet cataloguing the opposition’s litany of mistruths — along with facts and proof to the contrary — and we’re releasing to the public, legislators, and media one video clip each day showing law enforcement's lies about medical marijuana.

But we're relying on the generosity of supporters to ensure we have the resources to combat our opposition. Would you please give whatever you can today so we can fight back?

MPP's bill, which passed out of the Senate last year, is currently awaiting an historic vote on the House floor. The vote could happen any day now, so it is urgent that supporters like you donate what you can today.

Our campaign has generated an enormous amount of media coverage in Minnesota, which you can read here. And the two largest papers in the state — the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press — have editorialized in favor of the bill, which also has the support of the Minnesota Nurses Association, the Minnesota Public Health Association, the Minnesota AIDS Project, the Minnesota Senior Federation, and 2-to-1 support among Minnesota voters.

Also yesterday, MPP debuted the second in a series of hard-hitting TV ads featuring seriously ill Minnesotans who are pleading with Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) not to veto MPP’s medical marijuana bill. The new TV ad features Ely resident K.K. Forss, who suffers from excruciating, debilitating pain after a disc in his neck exploded, causing extensive nerve damage. "This doesn't have anything to do with culture wars," Forss says in the ad, noting that he is a registered Republican and a born-again Christian. "We have people suffering in horrible pain, and we talk politics — it doesn't have to be that way."

If you agree that K.K. and others like him shouldn't face the threat of arrest and jail for trying to alleviate their pain, would you please consider donating $10 or more today so that we can keep these ads on the air at this critical moment?

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 $3.0 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2008. This means that your donation today will be doubled.