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DC: Mayor to implement medical marijuana Thanks to everyone who took action on our alert and contacted the mayor’s office! Dear friends: We did it! Mayor Vince Gray announced today that the District will be implementing its medical marijuana program. The calls you made and the emails you sent in response to last week’s alert no doubt played a role in today’s announcement and helped illustrate the power of getting involved with local government. The final regulations are scheduled to be included in the April 15 issue of the DC Register. Shortly thereafter, those interested in opening one of the five dispensaries and 10 cultivation centers in the District will be able to submit applications to the Department of Health. Seriously ill patients whose doctors recommend marijuana will also be able to send in their applications to become registered patients, although they will not be able to legally possess marijuana unless it was purchased from a licensed dispensary. MPP, with your support, has been fighting for years to see this law take effect. Thanks to the District of Columbia Patients’ Cooperative, and to everyone who took the time to reach out to the mayor’s office, and congratulations to the patients who have waited all too long for this day. It’s been a pleasure working by your sides to make sure patients will finally be protected in the District. Sincerely,
Dan Riffle |
Our friends at the International Harm Reduction Association are holding their 22nd international conference -- this time in the Arab wor
Tell Attorney General Holder:
Stop federal raids
of medical marijuana dispensaries
Friends,
28 raids in 24 hours.That's the unfortunate reality for medical marijuana patients in Montana and California.
Federal agents shutdown 26 dispensaries across Montana and 2 in the medical marijuana sanctuary city of West Hollywood, California this month in their latest attack on patients and legitimate businesses.
The DEA isn't even supposed to be conducting these raids in the first place. In 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder issued a memo ordering an end to federal raids of medical marijuana dispensaries. Yet, despite his memo, federal agents have continued these operations sporadically for years, without regard for patients', states' or business' rights.
Attorney General Eric Holder clearly doesn't have control of his own cavalry. This assault on patients rights has to stop now.
Click here to sign the letter: http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/fedraids
But is Holder being dishonest and hypocritical? Or does he simply lack strong leadership among US Attorneys General?
A memo issued on February 1st by US Attorney Melinda Haag (who, ironically, represents Northern California) directly contradicts Holder’s edict. She declares that ANYONE engaging in the buying or selling of marijuana, regardless of their protection under state laws, will be punished by the federal government.
That doesn’t just mean dispensaries and the patients who rely on them, but goes as far as to include landlords, financiers and property owners as well. It’s a full-court press designed to intimidate supporters of reform and ostracize patients seeking their prescribed medications.
This attitude puts lives in jeopardy and undermines our democratic institutions by foiling state attempts to provide solutions for their own people. We need to put an end to the federal harassment of medical marijuana patients now.
Click here to add your name: http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/fedraids
This kind of official hypocrisy at the expense of our most vulnerable citizens is a disgrace to the notion of basic human rights everywhere. Thank you for standing up for a patients’ basic rights to treatment.
Thanks for all you do.
Brian Sonenstein
Just Say Now.com
Contribute to Just Say Now to support marijuana legalization. Click here:
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 28, 2011
Medical Marijuana Study Bill Passes Maryland House
Panel of Experts to Advise Legislature on State Medical Marijuana Policy
CONTACT: Morgan Fox, communications manager………………………….202-905-2031 or [email protected]
ANNAPOLIS – By a vote of 105-29, the Maryland House of Delegates passed HB 291 today, a bill that would create an 18-member panel to advise the legislature on the best way to create a medical marijuana program in 2012. HB 291was amended from an earlier version of the bill, which would have set up a comprehensive medical marijuana program, protecting state-registered patients from arrest and allowing pharmacies and state-regulated dispensing centers to provide patients with medical marijuana. The bill, sponsored by the only physician in the General Assembly, Del. Dan Morhaim, was amended after Health Secretary Josh Sharfstein advocated a “yellow light” approach to medical marijuana.
The panel would be comprised of doctors, patients, law enforcement officials, and experts on medical marijuana policy. They will make recommendations to the legislature on how to safely and effectively implement a well-regulated medical marijuana program. Last Thursday, the Maryland Senate passed SB 308, which included the study language, as well as immediate protections for patients. SB 308 would allow patients who use marijuana to treat medical conditions to use a medical necessity defense in court. The Senate approved the bill by a 41-6 vote, which included a majority of both Democrat and Republican senators.
"While we had hoped to see a comprehensive medical marijuana law on par with those in 15 other states, it’s encouraging that the legislature will at least make measured but real progress toward the goal of protecting patients from arrest and providing legal access to doctor-recommended medicine,” said Dan Riffle, legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project. “We're also relieved to see that the Senate has decided to remove criminal penalties from patients who are currently using medical marijuana while they wait for a comprehensive program to be put in place. It’s imperative that the House do the same."
Medical marijuana is permitted in 15 states and the District of Columbia, and many more are currently considering legislation to allow its use under tightly controlled conditions, including Delaware and Connecticut. Such laws already exist in Rhode Island and New Jersey, where medical marijuana distribution centers were recently licensed by the states and should be up and running later this year.
With more than 124,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. For more information, please visit www.mpp.org.
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Ask Mayor Gray: What’s the hold up? Dear Friends: It’s been over a decade since Initiative 59 was passed and almost a year now since the D.C. Council passed legislation to implement D.C.’s medical marijuana program, but you’d be forgiven if you haven’t noticed. That’s because the mayor still hasn’t signed off on the regulations that were issued last November and approved by the Council in January. Ask the mayor when we can expect to see the District’s medical marijuana program up and running. We’re willing to give the mayor some slack here. I’m sure he had a steep learning curve and a lot of very important issues to grapple with in his first couple months on the job. But now that he’s settled in and had time to review the proposed rules, there’s no reason District residents should have to wait any longer – they’ve already been waiting over 12 years. It’ll take less than a minute of your time to send an email to the Mayor's office asking when patients in the District will finally have access to medical marijuana. In the mean time, I’ll let you know if we hear any announcements from the mayor. Thanks everyone! Sincerely,
Dan Riffle
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The New Directions New Jersey conference will examine the decades-old ramifications of President Nixon’s declaration of the “war on drugs” in urban communities like Newark.
Drug policy experts from across the country and around the globe will discuss topics including: reducing crime and incarceration, effectively addressing addiction, treating drug use as a health issue, communities of color and the war on drugs, and drug policy lessons and models from abroad.
When asked about the war on drugs on the campaign trail, President Barack Obama said, “I believe in shifting the paradigm, shifting the model, so that we focus more on a public health approach [to drugs].” Polls show the American people agree. President Obama’s drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, told the Wall Street Journal last year that he doesn’t like the term “war on drugs” because “[w]e’re not at war with people in this country.” Yet for the tens of millions of Americans who have been arrested and incarcerated for a drug offense, U.S. drug policy is a war on them—and their families. What exactly is a public health approach to drugs? What might truly ending the war on drugs look like? This conference will serve as a model for those looking for new directions and strategies for ending the war on drugs.
“We see the impact of the ‘drug war’ first hand, where so many people are incarcerated for being economically disadvantaged by the disappearance of work,” says Bethany Baptist Church pastor, Reverend William Howard. “Afterwards, they are virtually permanently barred from the legal workforce for the rest of their lives. We must take our stand against the destructive scourge of drug abuse and trafficking by developing new, sensible strategies that solve more problems than they create.”
The conference will be guided by four principles:
Panel members and conference speakers include:
· Rev. Dr. M. William Howard, Jr., pastor, Bethany Baptist Church
· Ethan Nadelmann,executive director, Drug Policy Alliance
· Paula T. Dow, New Jersey Attorney General
· Garry F. McCarthy, police director, City of Newark
· Michelle Alexander, Esq., associate professor, Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law and the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity; Author, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
· Beny Primm, MD, executive director, Addiction, Research and Treatment Corporation, Brooklyn, New York
· Todd Clear, dean, School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University
· Donald MacPherson, former drug policy coordinator, City of Vancouver
· Alex Stevens, professor of Criminal Justice, School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent, Chatham, UK
· Stephanie Bush-Baskette, Esq., Author and Director of the Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies at Rutgers University
· Deborah Peterson Small, Founder and Executive Director, Break the Chains: Communities of Color & the War on Drugs
For a full list of panel members, go to: http://www.drugpolicy.org/docUploads/DPA_New_Directions_NJ_final_prog_REFERENCE.pdf
Please RSVP to: [email protected]
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