Fundraising Appeal

Dear Friends:

MPP is moving medical marijuana bills forward in Illinois, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and New York, with very real chances of each passing this year. This would be the most progress we've ever made in state legislatures in a single year … and if all four bills pass, a full 38% of Americans would live in states with medical marijuana laws (up from 25% currently).

This spring, MPP needs to keep pushing hard to propel these bills to passage. Would you please consider automatically donating $5 or more on your credit card each month to support our long-term state legislative efforts?

• In Minnesota, MPP's medical marijuana bill has made significant progress: The bill was recently passed by the toughest committee it had to face in the Minnesota House, despite local law enforcement's efforts to stop it. The bill is now on the brink of being sent to the full House for consideration — and on the Senate side, it's heading for a vote from the full Senate, where its chances of passing are strong.
• In Illinois, for the first time ever, a medical marijuana bill passed out of the House committee, and we expect the full Senate to vote on the bill within weeks. We have legislative leadership on our side: Last year's Senate sponsor is now the Senate president, the current Senate sponsor is a former prosecutor, and the primary House sponsor is the deputy majority leader.
  
  We have a real shot of enacting the law this year, but we don't yet have all the votes we need. We've generated more than 1,500 calls from supporters, put up hundreds of yard signs, and generated more than 1,300 e-mails to legislators. We need to ramp up the pressure with TV ads and even more grassroots support, but we need to raise the funds to do it. You can watch a video of some of the patients who are counting on our help here.
• In New Hampshire, for the first time ever, a medical marijuana bill has passed the House. The bill, sponsored by a legislator who is a former medical marijuana patient herself, passed with 63% of the vote. MPP has retained a top lobbying firm and funded a skilled grassroots organizer who has debated the attorney general's office, generated compelling patient testimony, and mobilized hundreds of supporters. Now, the bill will make its way through the Senate.
• In New York, in both 2007 and 2008, the state Assembly overwhelmingly passed MPP's medical marijuana bill, but the Senate's then-Republican leadership refused to bring it to a vote. However, control of the Senate has shifted to the Democrats, who overwhelmingly support the bill, so we're pushing hard to get it passed. Additionally, virtually the entire state medical community, including the state medical society, nurses' association, and the deans of the state's medical schools, support medical marijuana access. And 76% of New Yorkers also support the bill, including 55% of Conservative Party members (the state party to the right of Republicans).

As you can see, MPP has been extremely busy — and making progress — this legislative session. Our lobbying efforts in Minnesota, Illinois, New Hampshire, and New York are costing quite a bit of money, but it's all paying off. Would you please donate today so we can continue pushing hard in these states?

Make a one-time donation to our work

Become a monthly pledger to provide us with ongoing funding for our work

Together, we're on the path to victory, but we need your help to keep going.

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 $2.35 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2009. This means that your donation today will be doubled.

Dear Friends:

Yesterday, MPP's Aaron Houston testified before Congress, urging lawmakers to rein in the DEA. You can read his testimony (posted on the House Appropriations Committee's Web site) here, or watch him discuss it below.

Each year, Congress passes a spending bill that funds the Justice Department, including the DEA. At yesterday's hearing about next year's budget, MPP asked Congress to tell the DEA to:

• Stop interfering with state and local law enforcement in California and other medical marijuana states;
• Immediately stop the practice of sending letters to landlords of state-legal medical marijuana dispensaries, threatening to seize their assets; and
• Stop blocking medical marijuana research and approve the application for a medical marijuana research facility at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

MPP was the only reform organization to provide expert testimony at the hearing yesterday. In fact, MPP is the only marijuana policy reform organization with a full-time lobbyist on Capitol Hill. Would you please support this important work by making a contribution today? We appreciate anything you can give.

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 $2.35 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2009. This means that your donation today will be doubled.

 

Dear Friends:

A record 7.3 million people — or one in every 31 American adults — were behind bars, on probation, or on parole at the start of last year, according to a new report from the Pew Center on the States' Public Safety Performance Project.

Of these 7.3 million people, an astounding 2.3 million are actually in prison or jail. That's 1 in every 99 adults.

The report also highlights how the U.S. criminal justice system inordinately penalizes people who are not white. Black adults are four times as likely as whites and nearly 2.5 times as likely as Hispanics to be under correctional control. While one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, the figure is one in nine for black males in that age group.

Who are our nation's drug laws helping by locking up so many young black men — or by forcing so many people into the criminal justice system? True drug addicts? Nonviolent drug offenders? Their families?

If you're as outraged by these statistics as I am, please turn your anger into action by helping MPP restore some sense to our nation's laws by ending marijuana prohibition. With the help of our 26,000 dues-paying members, MPP has already achieved or funded significant progress — see www.mpp.org/history for some of our victories — but we need your help to continue making progress.

And if you have a few minutes, please watch this MPP documentary about the human costs of this war, told by those who have been caught in the crossfire. In just the time it takes you to watch the video, 28 more Americans will be arrested for marijuana.

Will you please join with MPP in working to end the persecution and destruction of people just like you? We can end our government's cruel war on its own citizens — but we must stand and fight.

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 $2.35 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2009. This means that your donation today will be doubled.

Dear Friends:

We're in a new era.

Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the federal government will now defer to state governments on medical marijuana — a 180-degree reversal of the Bush administration's anti-democratic policies.

The impact was immediate. On the day of Holder's announcement, New Mexico announced that it had issued the first license that any state government has ever issued to a medical marijuana producer in any state. That first nonprofit provider will be able to grow and sell medical marijuana to card-carrying patients without being harassed or raided by local, state, or federal law enforcement officials.

Additionally:

• Rhode Island is poised to expand its existing medical marijuana law to allow for three nonprofits to dispense medical marijuana to registered patients.
• This November, Maine voters will consider a ballot initiative similar to what Rhode Island envisions. MPP's polling shows the initiative is supported by 66% of likely voters.
• The Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota legislatures are debating bills to create new medical marijuana laws that allow for licensed dispensing from day one.
• In Arizona, MPP's campaign committee will be placing a similar proposal on the statewide ballot in November 2010. That initiative is supported by 65% of likely voters.
• In California, medical marijuana is dispensed at approximately 400 collectives that are generating approximately $100 million annually in state tax revenues. They operate under a state law that allows their activity but doesn't provide for state licensing. With federal policy improved and clarified, we expect the California Legislature to pass legislation similar to our Arizona proposal.

To fully appreciate the changes we're seeing, compare the Obama administration's policy to the Bush administration's policy. In the fall of 2001, after executing the first of what would be dozens of medical marijuana dispensary raids over eight years, a spokesperson for Bush's Justice Department said, "The recent enforcement is indicative that we have not lost our priorities in other areas since September 11. The attorney general and the administration have been very clear: we will be aggressive."

As the World Trade Center was still literally smoldering and our country was about to launch two foreign wars, the Bush administration was crowing about how it was arresting medical marijuana patients. That policy was not only cruel, but stupid. Good riddance.

Now that the Obama administration has taken the Drug Enforcement Administration out of the business of busting pharmacy-like establishments, MPP will be lobbying the federal government to also do the following:

• Congress should remove the federal ban on the District of Columbia enacting a local medical marijuana law. In November 1998, 69% of D.C. voters passed a medical marijuana ballot initiative, but every year since then Congress has attached a rider to its D.C. spending bill that prevents this law from taking effect. Even former Republican Congressman Bob Barr, the author of the federal ban, now supports lifting it — and has lobbied on MPP's behalf to do exactly that.
• The DEA should stop preventing the University of Massachusetts from growing medical marijuana for research purposes. A privately grown, regulated supply of marijuana is a prerequisite to getting marijuana approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a prescription medicine.
• The Obama administration should reopen the existing federal program that currently provides medical marijuana to only three patients nationwide but that was closed to new enrollment in 1992. This could be a huge boon to patients in states without medical marijuana laws.

As you can see, it's an exciting time, with some of the best possibilities for change that I've seen since I cofounded MPP 14 years ago. But we're 100% dependent on supporters like you to help us fund our lobbying efforts ... so would you please help us take advantage of this newly receptive political atmosphere by making the most generous donation you can afford today?  I personally appreciate anything you can give to help our work.

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 $2.35 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2009. This means that your donation today will be doubled.

Dear ASA Supporter,

ASA was born in the midst of the federal government’s attacks on medical cannabis dispensing collectives in 2002. On January 22nd of this year we were all shocked and disappointed to see the DEA raid another dispensary during the first days of the new administration. Thousands of us voiced our outrage by calling the White House. Less than two weeks later, the White House responded by issuing a strong statement to the Washington Times, clearly indicating that the raids would soon end. It was a day so many of us will never forget.

Just a few weeks after the White House made its initial statement, Attorney General Eric Holder followed up to assure the public that policy would be changing. "What the president said during the campaign, you'll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we'll be doing in law enforcement," Holder said. "What he said during the campaign is now American policy."

And so far, President Obama and Attorney General Holder have held true to their words. The DEA has not raided a medical cannabis provider since February 4th.

But that does not mean that our fight is over. There are still dozens of defendants awaiting federal trial on medical cannabis charges, several others who are already serving time and hundreds of thousands of Americans that live without safe access to their medication. There is obviously a lot of work left to do to protect safe access in this country and we need your help to do it! Please make a commitment now to the next phase of our fight by donating now.

I am excited to present a limited offer that will help you remember the day the White House came to its senses. The first 40 people to donate $1,000 will receive one of the last copies of the issue of the Washington Times featuring the White House statement in a front page story and a copy of the Los Angeles Times editorial supporting Attorney General Holder’s statement.

Act now!

Sincerely,