Marijuana Policy

Dear friends:

Last week, I sent you MPP's new video about the lies being spread about marijuana by the Drug Free America Foundation (DFAF).

DFAF is now taking its lies into Massachusetts, where a measure to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana is on the ballot this Election Day. Its new radio ad — which you can listen to here — claims that the initiative will “put marijuana, a dangerous and addictive drug, into the hands of our children.”

If you want to fight back against the dishonorable attempts to keep Massachusetts voters from passing a far more sensible law, please give what you can to the campaign today. With just three weeks remaining until Election Day, every dollar you can give will help. 

Bizarrely, the ad criticizes the campaign for accepting “out-of-state” contributions — yet the opposition ad itself is sponsored by the Florida-based Save Our Society from Drugs (SOS). SOS is DFAF's lobbying arm.

Even more disgustingly, DFAF was previously known as Straight Inc., one of the most notorious drug war abominations: It ran a network of “treatment facilities” that were shut down amid lawsuits and investigations regarding horrifying physical and emotional abuse of the young people in its care.

That's the sort of shady opposition that the campaign is up against in Massachusetts. They're willing to say and do anything to keep the initiative from passing on November 4. Would you please consider donating $10 or more today so that the campaign has the resources to continue fighting back?

Sincerely,

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

Dear friend:

“Saying that marijuana is harmless is like saying that a dog is a cat.”

“Scientific research does not indicate marijuana is medicine.”

“All major national medical associations have rejected it.”

Sound wrong to you? It is. Blatantly so. But these lies, and others like them, are being spread by the Drug Free America Foundation, in a cynical campaign to undermine the enormous progress that marijuana policy reform has made. As we rack up more and more victories, our opposition gets more and more willing to lie outright.

Watch MPP's new video fact-checking these lies — and send it to your friends:

And as always, we need the help of people like you to continue fighting lies with the truth. If what you see in this video angers you, would you fight back against it, by making a donation of $10 or more to MPP's 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.

Dear friends:

I get a lot of questions about what the presidential candidates have said or done on marijuana policy.

There are a lot of rumors about what Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. John McCain, and the other candidates may or may not have said about marijuana — and MPP specializes in that.

In fact, during the presidential primary campaign, MPP helped persuade all of the Democratic candidates and three of the Republican candidates to pledge to end the arrest of patients in states with medical marijuana laws.

If you're interested in knowing what the candidates have said and done, please watch our new video:

MPP is the only 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.

Dear friends:

Opponents of Massachusetts' marijuana decriminalization ballot initiative just can't stop lying.

Here are some the lies they're flooding the media with, in a cynical attempt to scare voters into defeating the measure on November 4:

• Marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol or tobacco — because tobacco takes a long time to kill you and alcohol has health benefits. (Yes, you read that right.) That's according to Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter.

And here are four gems from the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association:

• “By empowering drug dealers with decriminalization of marijuana, we would be empowering them to continue their violent ways: carrying and brandishing weapons; ripping off kids who get in over their heads; engaging in bloody turf wars; and indiscriminately assaulting or murdering when things don't go the way they want.”
• “Marijuana arrests are strongly associated with violent crime — dangerous criminals who make the wrong choice time and time again.” (In reality, research shows unmistakably that marijuana — unlike alcohol — is almost never the cause of aggression or violence.)
• “Very few arrests involving marijuana charges are for simple possession.” (In reality, according to FBI statistics, a full 89% of marijuana arrests are for simple possession.)
• The initiative “will allow drug dealers to operate with impunity and make it easier for them to do business with your children.”

You and I know this is outrageous. Don't sit by and let law enforcement officials get away with this blatant lying and fear-mongering — help the campaign fund an aggressive response.

This is the first time in history that an initiative to decriminalize marijuana will be on any statewide ballot, and the campaign needs our help to fight back hard in the little time that remains. Will you please visit www.SensibleMarijuanaPolicy.org/donate to donate $10 or more today?

As always, thank you for your generous support of MPP and our allies.

Sincerely,

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

Dear friends:

Want to take part in a groundbreaking experiment?  The background ...

Last year, the New Hampshire House of Representatives defeated — by an incredibly close 186-177 vote — a bill that would have legalized medical marijuana in the state. Just nine votes out of 400 members prevented this bill from passing.

Then, earlier this year, the New Hampshire House actually passed a bill — with a 191-143 vote — to decriminalize the personal possession of marijuana (and not just for medical use), before the state Senate snuffed the bill out.

New Hampshire is on the verge of passing medical marijuana legislation and marijuana decriminalization legislation.  With the November elections coming up in just six weeks, we need to ensure that good state legislators get reelected ... and some bad ones get unelected ... to increase our level of support in the New Hampshire Legislature.

THE EXPERIMENT

Is the marijuana policy reform community ready to become a serious player in state legislative races?

Because New Hampshire legislative districts are so small, it doesn't cost much to become a major player in these races and help good candidates win. This is a state where we could really make a difference by generating just a few dozen donations to each good candidate.

Intrigued? On this site, we've listed the supportive candidates who are in the tightest races — and whose campaigns are therefore the most crucial to passing our legislation early next year.  Our Web site also makes it easy for people to donate to their campaigns.

Other interest groups do this sort of thing all the time, in order to ensure that candidates who support their issues get elected. We're wondering if the marijuana policy reform community is interested in playing at this level, as well. (By the way, this is nonpartisan project that includes Democratic, Republican, and Libertarian candidates.)

Most candidates for the New Hampshire House raise and spend only a few thousand dollars on their entire campaign. So just a few dozen donations to each candidate from around the country will make a huge impression on the candidate — and a huge difference in the candidate's campaign.

If this experiment works and raises money to help these good candidates win their races, then MPP will likely roll this out in two or three states in the next election cycle. 

I want to thank you in advance if you choose to participate in this experiment!

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 any donation you make to MPP today will be doubled.

Dear friends:

You might think that the people who are paid to uphold the law would also follow the law themselves. In Massachusetts, you'd be wrong.

The Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy (CSMP) — which is running the campaign to pass a marijuana decriminalization ballot initiative in Massachusetts this Election Day — has uncovered at least 15 violations of Massachusetts campaign finance and election laws committed by the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association and other opponents of the initiative. You can read media coverage of yesterday's press conference calling for charges to be filed here.

If you support forcing marijuana policy reform opponents to follow the law, please help out the campaign today.

CSMP has filed official complaints with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance and the Office of the Attorney General, charging that opponents of the initiative participated in 14 counts of raising funds illegally, as well as one count of publishing false statements relating to the initiative, which are clear violations of the law. The campaign is calling on the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance to punish them to the fullest extent of the law. Each violation carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Specifically:

• Under Massachusetts law, it is illegal to solicit, receive, or spend funds to support or oppose a ballot initiative without first forming a political committee. CSMP has from its inception followed all of these rules, but the district attorneys solicited, received, and spent donations before they were legally allowed to — blatantly ignoring state law in a cynical attempt to conceal their campaign activity for as long as they could, undermining the very laws they have sworn to uphold.
  
• Additionally, the district attorneys used public funds to post and house a statement urging voters to reject the decriminalization initiative on its Web site ... clear, indisputable violation of Massachusetts election law, which prohibits public officials from using public resources to advocate for or against a ballot initiative.
  
• What's more, this illegal statement — itself an abuse of public office and taxpayer resources — is riddled with bald-faced lies ... like the claim that the initiative would permit any person to carry and use marijuana at any time. In reality, the measure simply changes the type of penalty for possession of less than an ounce and specifically reiterates that public use remains illegal.

It's past time for prohibitionist officials to be held to the same standards and laws as everyone else. If you support these aggressive tactics to hold our opponents accountable for their lies, deception, and lawbreaking, would you please consider donating $10 or more to the campaign today?

Thank you,

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

P.S. If convicted, the initiative opponents would risk more than fines and jail time. They'd also face loss of their driver's licenses, suspension of their licenses to practice law or medicine; and placement in a permanent database of offenders that employers, landlords, and schools can search and use to preclude offenders from getting jobs, housing, and school loans ... the same penalties that marijuana offenders currently face in Massachusetts and which the ballot initiative would remove.