Fundraising Appeal

Dear Friends:

Ten years ago yesterday, the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its landmark report that forever changed the public debate on medical marijuana.

In November 1996, California became the first state to pass a medical marijuana ballot initiative. The following month, the Clinton administration struck back, threatening doctors if they recommended medical marijuana to patients. But the American Medical Association and the American public responded with outrage and condemnation, throwing the Clinton administration off-balance. The next month, in January 1997, the White House drug czar's office attempted to deflect attention by awarding $1 million in taxpayer money to the Institute of Medicine to conduct a two-year study of medical marijuana.

In 1997 and 1998, MPP brought dozens of patients to a series of IOM hearings to testify about their fear of being arrested. Indeed, many of the patients had already been arrested and/or incarcerated for using medical marijuana.

Then, on March 17, 1999, the Institute of Medicine finally released a report that was not at all what the drug czar's office had hoped for. The report contradicted the claims of the drug czar and other federals officials on a number of fronts:

1. It showed there is scientific evidence indicating that marijuana has medical uses.

2. It recommended that people with AIDS, cancer, and chronic pain who have an urgent need for marijuana be provided with immediate legal protection while further research is done on marijuana's medical uses.

3. It debunked the "gateway theory," saying that there is no evidence that using marijuana will "lead" someone to use cocaine and other drugs.

4. It said there is no evidence that allowing sick people to use medical marijuana will cause an increase in the recreational use of marijuana.

That report has been used as the intellectual foundation of most medical marijuana efforts in the decade since.

MPP co-founder Chuck Thomas with IOM investigators in 1998

The release of that report was the first time that MPP received a barrage of national media coverage, all over the course of just two weeks. But that media coverage pales in comparison to the coverage that MPP and the broader marijuana policy reform movement has been receiving over the last four months.

This is now a lesson in "be careful what you wish for." As the marijuana issue continues to explode across the political landscape in nearly all 50 states, MPP and our allies are getting stretched more and more thin ... as we attempt to capitalize on the opportunities that are presenting themselves in the news, in state legislatures, in Congress, and at the ballot box.

Anything you can give to help fund these exploding efforts would be greatly apprecated.

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:

If you've ever wanted to go to the Playboy Mansion, here's what could be a once-in-a-lifetime chance.

MPP will be holding a star-studded party at the Playboy Mansion in L.A. on June 4 — and we're offering you a final chance to buy discounted tickets at an early-bird rate of $700. That rate is only good for a few more ticket purchases — because once we've sold 100 tickets, the price for the next 100 tickets will increase to $800, and all tickets remaining after that will cost $900. So reserve now to lock in the lowest rate.

As a guest at the party, you'll be able to explore the Playboy Mansion's famous grounds. Playmates will give personal tours as you mingle with VIPs and enjoy fire performers by the pool area, waterfalls, and the legendary grotto.

You can see photos and video from last year's party here and here.

Be a part of MPP's biggest charity event and help us raise much-needed funds for our work: Please reserve your tickets today.

Thank you,

Dear friends:

After MPP passed the medical marijuana ballot initiative in Michigan and the marijuana decriminalization ballot initiative in Massachusetts — both on November 4 — I thought the MPP staff might get a little downtime to regroup for the 2009-2010 election cycle. Not so.

In the last four months, the MPP staff and our allies have been working almost nonstop to respond to — and take advantage of — the many opportunities that have been presenting themselves across the country. I've never seen so much evidence of positive change in such a short amount of time ...

1.  MARIJUANA THE BIGGEST ISSUE:  Two huge surveys of citizen activists across the country — one on Change.gov on December 12, and one on Change.org on January 15 — showed that the number-one issue on people's minds is ending the government's war on marijuana users.

2.  BONG HIT SEEN AROUND THE WORLD:  On February 1, the world learned that Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps had used marijuana a few months before, demonstrating yet again that using marijuana is compatible with being wildly successful in our society. When Kellogg's dropped its endorsement contract with Phelps — and MPP and other organizations responded by calling for a boycott of Kellogg's — the public's perception of Kellogg's took a nose dive.

3.  EL PASO RESPONDS TO MEXICAN VIOLENCE:  Responding to the prohibition-caused violence just over the border in Mexico, on January 6 the El Paso City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for "an honest, open national debate on ending the prohibition of narcotics," which drew the ire of some Texas politicians but also sparked a great deal of positive media coverage nationwide.

4.  NATIONAL POLLING HIGHEST EVER:  Between January 11 and February 14, three different national polls indicated that either 40%, 41%, or 44% of the American people now support ending marijuana prohibition.  This is the highest level of support since marijuana was first prohibited in 1937, with support having risen by 1% a year since 1995.

5.  REVOLT IN LATIN AMERICA:  On February 12, a commission led by three former presidents from Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico released a long-awaited report that blasted the U.S. drug war and called for the decriminalization of marijuana.

6.  ENDING THE DEA's RAIDS IN CALIFORNIA:  On February 25, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the DEA would no longer be raiding medical marijuana clinics in California and the 12 other states where medical marijuana is legal.

7.  MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILLS MOVING:  MPP's medical marijuana bills are moving through the Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and New York Legislatures, and the Drug Policy Alliance's similar legislation is moving in New Jersey. We have a real chance of making medical marijuana legal in four of these six states this year and — in the meantime — it's very possible that Montana and Rhode Island will expand their existing medical marijuana laws, too.

8.  BROADER MARIJUANA BILLS MOVING:  California shook the nation when a bill to tax and regulate marijuana was introduced on February 23. And even before that happened, the Hawaii, Montana, Vermont, and Washington Legislatures had already begun considering bills to decriminalize marijuana.

9.  MPP DOMINATING ON YOUTUBE:  As of today, MPP's channel on YouTube.com is the 10th most subscribed of all nonprofit channels, and MPP's videos are consistently in the top 10 most-viewed of all nonprofit videos in any given week. (And our 65,000 friends on MySpace.com places MPP among the top 10 most popular nonprofit organizations there, too.)

10.  ONGOING MEDIA EXPLOSION:  According to the weekly reports we get from Google, MPP has been getting its message into the news in the last month at 10 times the volume of previous months. And four different national TV specials are tentatively scheduled to look at marijuana over just a two-month span: CNBC looked at the marijuana industry in northern California on January 22, NBC's "Dateline" covered the Rachel Hoffman tragedy in Florida on January 23, ABC's "20/20" with John Stossel will be looking at medical marijuana on March 13, and MSNBC with Al Roker will be looking at the multi-billion-dollar marijuana industry on March 15.

Thank you for anything and everything you've done to help bring all this attention and success to our movement. If you'd like to help even more, please make a donation today so that we may continue with the onslaught of work that continues to pile up on our plates.

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 $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:

On Monday, a California state legislator introduced historic legislation that would end marijuana prohibition in California. The bill — authored by Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) — would eliminate criminal penalties for responsible marijuana use and set up a system to regulate and tax marijuana sales similarly to alcohol.

Last night, I appeared on "Glenn Beck" on the Fox News Channel to discuss the legislation. You can watch the segment here:

As the nation's largest state, California's serious consideration of ending marijuana prohibition is making huge waves. Within hours of the bill's introduction, it made national headlines and has since generated media coverage across the country, including the Associated Press, USA Today, Washington Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, MSNBC, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox News, and much more. MPP has already been featured in at least 20 TV, radio, and print stories about the bill. For instance, one of California's most respected political columnists, Dan Walters, opined in support of the bill in his Tuesday column, quoting MPP's Aaron Smith.

While the legislation isn't likely to become law this year, it's a strong signal that we're making tremendous strides. And California has a reputation for leading the way for other states. When I co-founded MPP in 1995, most people thought medical marijuana wasn't going to become legal anytime soon, but a year later California approved the nation's first medical marijuana law, and since then a dozen other states have followed suit.

MPP is the leading organization working on this and other efforts to end the government's war on marijuana users. Would you please consider investing in this important work by making a contribution today so that we can continue changing laws across the nation?

Thank you in advance for anything you're inspired to give.

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 $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:

More than 10,000 of you have written President Obama and Congress to ask that the president send a clear signal to Bush holdovers at the DEA about their continuing raids against medical marijuana dispensaries in California.

It worked:

On the front page of the Washington Times today, a White House spokesman said:

“The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind."

Your letters paid off. Would you take one minute to use MPP's easy online system to e-mail the president and thank him for his commitment to protecting medical marijuana patients?

Change is happening, and you're a part of it.

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 $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 — with the leadership of the Department of Justice in flux while Attorney General-designate Eric Holder awaits confirmation by the Senate — Bush administration holdovers raided a medical marijuana dispensary in South Lake Tahoe, California.

President Obama vowed repeatedly during his campaign to stop such raids if elected, and we have every reason to believe he will make good on that promise. However, four top positions at the DEA are still filled by Bush cronies, who are attempting to undercut the president's pledge.

Would you please take one minute to use MPP’s easy online system to e-mail the president and ask him to get his new leadership in place at the DEA quickly, so that these cruel and outdated policies finally end? 

President Obama has promised that arresting patients and raiding clinics in states where medical marijuana is legal won't be acceptable on his watch. Getting political appointees in place takes time, but yesterday the Bush holdovers showed that we must move swiftly.

Please write the White House today to urge the president to quickly place his new leaders at the DEA.

You can see some of the statements the president has made about medical marijuana (generally in response to questions from MPP) here.

Please send your e-mail right away. (You can also call the White House at 202-456-1111.)

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.

Friends,

An SSDP member found herself in the midst of a national news story last week.

The City Council of El Paso, Texas had just unanimously passed a resolution calling for a national discussion of drug legalization. The mayor swiftly vetoed it, calling proponents of the resolution "pot heads." As the council prepared to override the veto, members found threatening letters from state and federal officials in their mailboxes, while Lou Dobbs criticized the resolution nationally on CNN.

Nubia Legarda had a personal stake in ensuring that the City Council didn't back down. Her family lives in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juárez -- a city where gruesome murders have become commonplace because of the cartel violence created by drug prohibition. That's why Nubia joined Students for Sensible Drug Policy last year, and why she called our national staff for help preparing her remarks to the City Council last week.

Nubia's comments to the council and the local news were spot on. Beto O'Rourke, the lead proponent of the resolution, told me that Nubia's testimony was "among the most effective in showing how destructive and unproductive our current drug policy is."

After watching the online broadcast of her testimony, I didn't think I could be more inspired by Nubia's commitment to this cause. That was until I saw that she donated $10 through SSDP's website that afternoon. Even though she had just spent the day volunteering her time to speak out on this issue, she knew that this struggle takes time, dedication... and money.

I've put together a web page where you can watch Nubia's testimony and news interview, and you can find out how the council ultimately decided to vote. If you're motivated by Nubia's courage and conviction, I invite you to turn that motivation into action by matching Nubia's contribution to SSDP (while including a note to Nubia if you like). http://www.ssdp.org/elpaso 

Each and every donation helps ensure that we can be at the right place at the right time, like we were last week in El Paso. So thank you so much for helping us open a national dialogue on one of the most important issues facing our nation. We can't do it without you.

Best,

Micah Daigle, Associate Director
Students for Sensible Drug Policy

Dear friends:

“The fact is, today, people don't go to jail for possession of marijuana. I know you like to pretend it does, and there's a lot of misinformation about that. But finding somebody in jail or prison — for a first time nonviolent offender — for possession of marijuana is like finding a unicorn ... It doesn't exist.”

--John Walters, Bush White House drug czar
September 4, 2008

Drug warriors love to claim that marijuana prohibition doesn't cause harm to otherwise law-abiding citizens — because if they acknowledge the truth, their public support falls apart.

When we're able to present the stories of real people who have suffered under marijuana prohibition, we find that public indifference to the issue dissolves — and laws change.

If you yourself have been a victim of the war on marijuana users, I'd like to ask if you're willing to share your story. For instance...

• Have you ever been arrested or jailed for marijuana possession?
• Have you ever been arrested for marijuana possession and later charged with a more severe crime, like intent to distribute?
• Did your arrest result in additional suffering, such as losing your job, home, custody of your children, or school loan?
• Have you ever taken a drug test that resulted in a false positive? 
• Are you a patient in one of the 13 states where medical marijuana is legal who has been arrested or harassed by law enforcement agents despite your state-legal status? 
• Do you lack safe access to or are too afraid to use medical marijuana because of state or federal laws, although it could alleviate symptoms of your serious medical condition?

If so, please e-mail me at [email protected] to share your story. Please be sure to indicate what state you live in. We will not use your story or your name without your permission, and if you'd like to be anonymous, just indicate that when you e-mail.

While MPP can't offer individual legal help, we can turn your experience into ammunition as we campaign to change laws. Many Americans truly don't realize the impact that marijuana prohibition has on their neighbors, and individual stories are a powerful tool in helping change minds — and laws.

And if you don't have a personal story to share, but you'd like to support our work, please consider becoming a member of MPP today. We're 100% dependent on contributions from people like you to continue our work.

Thank you,

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