Fundraising Appeal

2011: Fighting Hard for Our Rights!

Americans for Safe Access (ASA) started the new year strong. We are working in statehouses, city halls, courtrooms, and communities nationwide with one common goal – to protect and expand safe access for medical cannabis patients. ASA needs your support right now to keep the momentum and keep making a difference.

Can you take a minute to make a special contribution to help ASA keep fighting?

January was a busy month for ASA. In Washington, DC, our staff welcomed each of the new members of the Congressional delegation. This is an important step in building needed capacity in Congress. We also worked with the Mayor’s office in the ongoing effort to implement the District’s medical cannabis law.

Your support in January helped ASA do all this and more:

In California, Senator Mark Leno (D-san Francisco) introduced ASA-sponsored legislation that will protect patients from employment discrimination.
We also filed an appeal on behalf of Jovan Jackson, a medical cannabis provider facing prosecution in San Diego. This strategic appeal will help stop the ongoing prosecutions in the state!
And as part of our 2011 effort to re-energize and retrain our grassroots base, ASA kicked off the first of many “Putting Patients First” trainings for medical cannabis professionals in Oakland.
In Michigan and Nevada, ASA Chapters organized high-profile rallies to oppose federal interference and intimidation, including new DEA raids and threats to patients’ privacy – a top priority for ASA nationwide.
ASA filed an amicus brief in Michigan to stop the federal government from confiscating patient records.
ASA provided suggested improvements to correct troubling provisions in Colorado’s law.
I published an op-ed on patient privacy in the Huffington Post and elsewhere, reaching millions of readers.

These are all important steps in fulfilling our goal of ensuring safe access to medical cannabis for everyone who needs it. That is exactly what the nation’s largest medical cannabis advocacy organization should be doing – and you can help make it happen! ASA needs your help today to make sure we can take advantage of opportunities and overcome challenges every month in 2011.

Thank you in advance for helping us help medical cannabis patients nationwide. Your support has brought us this far, and I know you can help us win this fight once and for all.

Sincerely,

Steph Sherer

Executive Director

PS – Don't forget to register for our "National Call to Action: Activist Boot Camp" February 19-20 in cities nationwide!

Our chance to win!

For too long the medical marijuana movement has been forced into a defensive position, constantly pushing back against law enforcement and unjust legislation. Our movement has been so busy fighting what we don’t want, we haven’t had the time to fight for what we need. That ends today.

Our movement has come to a crossroads. For the first time we have a political climate that is ripe for this victory, but without your support we’ll miss this historic opportunity. We will be forced back to treading water, back to spending our time and resources fighting state-by-state, city-by-city, and case-by-case. This is our chance to end all of that. This is our chance to win.

ASA has always known that the best way to win—the only way to win—is with you at the helm. When we have your voice, your story, your fervent commitment to safe access with us in Washington, DC, we stand 400,000 strong against our opponents - and we stand to win!.

We have always tried to make membership easy for you, and today we’re going to try and make it fun. If you donate $50 in January, we’ll send you an ASA t-shirt. Donate $100 and we’ll send you that t-shirt and a DVD of the groundbreaking documentary, Waiting to Inhale. Contribute $150 and we’ll send you an ASA hoodie, the DVD and our unending gratitude.

We need your membership to win, plain and simple. We know that, so we’re giving some incentives for joining this month only. We know that $150 is a lot of money for you, but it’s a lot of money for us too. If you can agree to donate it, I promise we’ll put it to good use right away.

As always, we couldn’t do this work without you!

Steph Sherer

PS
To check out these exciting incentives, click here to donate, and then click here to see the t-shirts and hoodies.

Americans for Safe Access

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"Gear up" for medical cannabis activism with ASA's new T-shirts, hats, stickers, bags and more! All proceeds go to ASA advocacy

re:Form -- Art Auction and Cocktail Reception

An art auction and cocktail party is being held in Los Angeles to benefit the Drug Policy Alliance. For more information and to register, please see http://www.reformartauction.org/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/.

re:Form -- Art Auction and Cocktail Reception

An art auction and cocktail party is being held in Los Angeles to benefit the Drug Policy Alliance. For more information and to register, see: http://www.reformartauction.org/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/

A Personal Plea from Sensible Colorado

FROM THE DESK OF SENSIBLE COLORADO

Dear Friends,

As we begin 2011, I wanted to ask you to join me in becoming a monthly donor to Sensible Colorado. I, like many people across Colorado and the nation, have a monthly contribution deducted from my credit card-- even $5, $10, or $50 a month makes a huge impact. This allows me to benefit from a tax deduction and, more importantly, to support one of the strongest and most effective advocacy groups in the country.

I often receive calls from media members and friends who are astounded by the progress Colorado has made in terms of marijuana and medical marijuana reform. They are amazed that our state licensing board safely regulates over 1200 medical marijuana businesses, or the fact that over 2% of our state population (over 116K people!) now hold medical marijuana cards protecting them from criminal prosecution.

Let me assure you this amazing progress would not have been accomplished without the work of Sensible Colorado. Since 2004, Sensible has served as the primary resource for the state's medical marijuana patients-- fighting in the courtroom, the state house, and the streets. In that time, Sensible has achieved unparalleled success in fostering patent's rights and protecting safe access to medicine. We've also run successful campaigns to rewrite local marijuana laws for adults in Breckenridge and beyond, and our work has been highlighted in virtually every mainstream media outlet in America, including last month in Time Magazine! In addition to our medical marijuana advocacy, over the next two years we are gearing up for our biggest challenge yet-- putting a measure on the Colorado ballot to regulate and tax marijuana for adults over 21 statewide. We've already begun putting a stellar team together to push-- AND WIN-- this fight and forever end the disastrous policy of marijuana prohibition.

Please lend a hand in this crucial fight by donating, forwarding this email, and volunteering today.

In solidarity,

Brian Vicente

Executive Director

Sensible Colorado

I Will Double Your Gift to DPA

We're making great progress! Have your gift matched to help us reach our goal of $100,000!

Donate Now!

Dear friends,

A major donor to DPA believes in this cause so much that she will match your year-end donation right now. She asked me to forward you this note. Please donate today.

— Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director, Drug Policy Alliance

Dear Friend,

I give to DPA every year, and I know that they are accomplishing a lot with my donation. Let's come together to help them out. Give today.

I will match your tax-deductible donation to the Drug Policy Alliance if you give right now through the end of the year. And I’ll keep matching gifts like yours until we reach $100,000.

Why? For me, the choice is easy. DPA is a smart, tough, effective organization, and with my support—along with yours and thousands of others who want to end the war on drugs—DPA can get us there.

That's why I'm challenging you today—by offering to double your gift—to be as generous as possible.

Sincerely,

A fellow reformer

P.S. I know that these kinds of decisions are tough. Rest assured that your contributions to the Drug Policy Alliance are making a big difference. Please donate today.

SAFER: Time to Double Down

2010 was huge. 2011 will be even bigger...

Thanks to your support SAFER was able to accomplish quite a bit this past year. Here are just a few of the highlights:

• We started the Women's Marijuana Movement, whose launch and educational activities -- as well as its actions to support California's Prop. 19 -- put women front and center in the public debate surrounding marijuana.

• We expanded the SAFER Campuses Initiative, helping students carry out actions on 80+ college campuses and work to bring about actual policy changes at schools where students have adopted SAFER referendums.

• We continued to build momentum and support for marijuana reform in Colorado, setting the stage for an unprecedented campaign to legalize marijuana statewide in 2012.

With your help we can do even more in the new year. A generous supporter has offered to match any donations we receive this week, so if you can help SAFER with a tax-deductible end-of-year donation, whatever you give will be DOUBLED! Just click the button below or visit http://www.SAFERchoice.org/donate and lend us twice the support heading into 2011.

The coming year promises to be our busiest and most important since we got started in 2005. And with your continued support we can ramp up all of the above projects and have a huge impact on the direction and success of the marijuana reform movement.

Whether it's a one-time donation or a monthly pledge, your contribution will lend tremendously to our work in 2011. Just click on the button above or visit http://www.SAFERchoice.org/donate to make a contribution and have it doubled today. And if you give $25 or more we will send you your choice of SAFER T-shirt or a copy of Marijuana is Safer: So why are we driving people to drink?

Thank you again for being a part of the SAFER movement and making our work possible. And from all of us at SAFER, we wish you a safe and happy new year.

Invest in the Future of Drug Policy Reform

Happy New Year Friends!

This was an amazing year for Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

We helped bring the issue of marijuana legalization into the national spotlight by launching the Just Say Now campaign, a project with our friends at Firedoglake, that provided important tools like a free online phone banking system for activists around the country to call voters in four states with marijuana reforms on the ballot.

Make a tax-deductible donation to help SSDP continue our important work.

Our chapter network continues to expand throughout the U.S. and with the addition of an international liaison, SSDP is now rapidly expanding outside of the states and into key places like Mexico City. And for the first time, we hosted our international conference on the west coast and with over 500 people, it was our largest conference to date! Now that 2010 is behind us, we're looking forward to 2011.

This is the last chance to give a tax-deductible gift in 2010, so please consider donating today. Our goals in 2011 are ambitious, and we couldn't do what we do without the generous support of people like you.

Sincerely,

Aaron, Jon, Stacia, Patrick, Garret & Edward
National Staff

www.SchoolsNotPrisons.com

P.S. There's still one day left to get your early-bird discount when you register for our 2011 Training Conference & Lobby Day at the University of Maryland, March 17-19, 2011. More details at conference.ssdp.org

Connect with SSDP

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Please Make a Year-End Gift for Our 2011 Campaigns

Help bring about the brighter future that awaits us beyond prohibition, by making a tax-deductible educational donation or a non-deductible lobbying donation before year's end.

Tax Deductible Donations Support Reform in 2011

Help bring about the brighter future that awaits us beyond prohibition, by making a tax-deductible educational donation or a non-deductible lobbying donation before year's end.

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