Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2003
Subject: #278 Ed Rosenthal Blasts Feds
ED ROSENTHAL BLASTS FEDS
*********************PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE*************************
DrugSense FOCUS Alert #278 September 27, 2003
Ed Rosenthal is recognized worldwide as an authority on marijuana. In
his thirty-plus years as a cannabis expert, he has written or edited
more than a dozen books about marijuana cultivation and social policy,
that cumulatively have sold over one million copies. Rosenthal has
also been active in promoting and developing policies of civil
regulation for medical marijuana. Since the passage of California’s
pioneering Prop 215 in 1996, which authorizes medicinal use of
marijuana, he has worked with the state’s growers, dispensaries, and
local governments to standardize and implement the delivery of
pharmaceutical grade cannabis to patients.
On February 12, 2002, Ed was arrested by federal agents for applying
his knowledge and helping patients to use medical marijuana. He has
since been convicted of three counts of cultivation and conspiracy. In
a stunning setback for the federal government, he was sentenced on
June 4th, 2003 to one-day in prison and a $1,000 fine. Thanks to the
efforts of Green Aid and a crack legal team, Ed now faces probation
instead of a statutory maximum of 100 years imprisonment and possible
fines up to $4.5 million.
Most people would steer clear of controversy after facing the wrath of
the federal government’s drug war machine. Not Ed Rosenthal. Ed has
refused to tone down his outspoken criticism of the war on marijuana.
Less than a week after kicking off the Marijuana Policy Project’s new
medical marijuana Political Action Committee (PAC) in the nation’s
capital, Ed lambasted the feds in an excellent Sep. 26th op-ed in the
San Francisco Chronicle. Although the op-ed has inspired legal debate
on drug policy lists as to whether probation results in the loss of
voting rights (some experts say only parole does), there is no denying
that Ed is a hero to the movement.
The Bush administration picked the wrong high-profile activist if they
thought Ed Rosenthal would go away quietly. Write the San Francisco
Chronicle today to show your support for Ed – and your disgust for the
federal government’s ongoing efforts to undermine voter-approved
medical marijuana legislation.
Thanks for your effort and support.
It’s not what others do it’s what YOU do
**********************************************************************
PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID (Letter,
email messages, etc.)
Please post a copy of your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list (sentlte@mapinc.org) if you are subscribed, or by
E-mailing a copy directly to MGreer@mapinc.org if you are not
subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others
can learn from your efforts and be motivated to follow suit.
This is _Very_ Important as it is one very effective way of gauging
our impact and effectiveness.
Subscribing to the Sent LTE list (sentlte@mapinc.org) will help you to
review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or
approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing
efforts.
To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm
and/or http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form
**********************************************************************
CONTACT INFO and TARGET ANALYSIS
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Contact: letters@sfchronicle.com
While the Chronicle recommends that letters to the editor be
restricted to 200 words, our own analysis of published letters shows
that the average printed letter is 146 words. These appear to fall
into about two equal groups, slightly under 100 words and in the 200
word range – the largest being 236 words. The Chronicle will often
print three or four letters if well written and different in content
that respond to the same editorial or OPED. And they do print letters
from out of state, indeed from as far away as Canada.
**********************************************************************
ORIGINAL OPED
Pubdate: Fri, 26 Sep 2003
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2003 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: letters@sfchronicle.com
Author: Ed Rosenthal
THE CANNABIS CRUSADES:
MEDICAL MARIJUANA AND THE RECALL ELECTION
The California gubernatorial recall is the first election in which I
will not be voting since I turned 18, 40 years ago. It’s not my
disgust with what I consider a “coup attempt” by the extreme right
that keeps me from the polls. It’s my three felony convictions related
to cultivating medicinal marijuana.
Although I was spared prison time, the loss of my voting rights is
cruel punishment for me, because I have always been politically and
civically active.
It is remarkable that I ended up with the felonies, since I had been
deputized by the city of Oakland and promised immunity from
prosecution for providing medicine to qualified patients.
Still, I feel a certain satisfaction about the recall campaign. I
watched one of my daydreams come true in the first debate. Medical
marijuana was the only issue that all the candidates agreed upon: all
pledged to uphold California’s marijuana laws. State Sen. Tom
McClintock, R-Northridge, the most conservative, was the most ardent
— stating that the federal government should stay out of the state’s
business.
When Dennis Peron opened San Francisco’s first medical marijuana
dispensary nearly 10 years ago, there was virtually unanimous
agreement among politicians and the criminal justice community that
marijuana wasn’t a medicine. Furthermore, the risk was too great for
the medicine to be permitted. What a difference a decade makes. In
1994, no reporter would have asked the question, but if they had,
every candidate would have pledged to redouble efforts to eliminate
“the assassin of youth.”
All the candidates agreed that medical marijuana should be “legal,”
but there are definite differences in their attitudes toward what
legal means and who should decide. This is significant, because some
California state agencies are still at war against this popular
medicine. The California attorney general’s Medical Board is
prosecuting doctors based on complaints. Neither patients, their
caregivers, nor their loved ones are complaining. No, all the
complaints are being filed by officers or prosecutors thwarted when
they attempt to arrest or prosecute a patient. Police and prosecutors
in some counties have declared war on medical patients, spending an
inordinate amount of time and taxpayers’ money to harass people whose
only crime is that they are ill.
State probation and parole orders sometimes limit use of medical
marijuana, even in life-threatening cases. Could you imagine the
uproar if a judge denied a diabetic the use of insulin?
These actions are being fueled by the inflammatory rhetoric of the
California Narcotic Officers’ Association. The organization denies
that marijuana has any medical use and encourages police and
prosecutors to view all medical cases as bogus. Its lobbyists use
obstructionist tactics and threaten legislators inclined to vote to
implement provisions of Proposition 215, California’s medical
marijuana law. CNOA functions as a clique of verbal terrorists
fighting against patient’s rights.
The problem with the implementation of Proposition 215 is that it is
based on the “stakeholders theory,” where all the interested parties
reach a compromise. This policy may work for water rights, but it is
insane when patients’ health is compromised. The idea that the
criminal justice system is a stakeholder in a health and medical issue
is ridiculous on its face. The police have training only in
identifying marijuana and arresting its owners. They have no
cultivation expertise, know next to nothing about the herb’s medical
use and have no sociological knowledge to lend to the discussion. The
police’s only vested interest in marijuana is using tax dollars to
arrest and incarcerate users of any type, recreational or medical. The
police industry’s influence in this medical and sociological debate is
inappropriate, since their representatives mostly deny marijuana’s
medical benefits and view arrests as an employment issue.
That’s why this recall campaign is such a watershed. All the
candidates accept marijuana as medicine. How each one would implement
the law is of prime importance to the 70,000 Californians holding
medical marijuana recommendations. Will patients using this
exceedingly safe herbal medicine continue to be held hostage to
“stakeholders” whose interest is a high arrest count? Ironically,
though I am now barred from voting, the issues that were brought to
the surface in my case are reverberating through this campaign. I am
hopeful of winning my appeal and having my rights restored. I would
like to vote again soon.
**********************************************************************
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Editor,
Few Americans realize that the United States is one of the few Western
countries that uses its criminal justice system to punish otherwise
law-abiding citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis. Evidence of the
U.S. government’s reefer madness is best exemplified by the Bush
administration’s prosecution of marijuana expert Ed Rosenthal.
The federal government’s paramilitary raids on voter-approved medical
marijuana providers in California says a lot about our government’s
bizarre sense of priorities. The very same federal government that
claims illicit drug use funds terrorism is forcing cancer and AIDS
patients into the hands of street dealers. Apparently marijuana
prohibition is more important than protecting the country from terrorism.
Sincerely,
Juan Costo
Please note: This is a sample letter only. Your own letter should be
substantially different so that it will be considered. Please provide
your name and telephone number along with your letter. You will be
called if your letter is being considered for publication.
**********************************************************************
ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts, Please See:
Writer’s Resources http://www.mapinc.org/resource/
**********************************************************************
TO SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS:
Please utilize the following URLs
http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm
http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm
We wish to thank all our contributors, editors, Newshawks and letter
writing activists.
**********************************************************************
Prepared by: Robert Sharpe
= Please help us help reform. Send drug-related news to
editor@mapinc.org