Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004
Subject: #289 Cultivating Compassion
CULTIVATING COMPASSION
*********************PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE*************************
DrugSense FOCUS Alert #289 Sunday, 25 April 2004
Today the Salt Lake Tribune printed the editorial, below, ‘Cultivating
Compassion’ which slams the U.S. Justice Department over last week’s
round of medical cannabis legal actions. The editorial, and others
like it, are worthy of your letters to the editor.
Friday, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin printed a similar editorial, ‘Let
Patients Grow Their Own Pakalolo’ on line at http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n619/a08.html
And there have been a number of other articles published about Judge
Jeremy Fogel’s decision, all worthy of letters to the editor, which
can be found at http://www.mapinc.org/people/Jeremy+Fogel
Need More Facts for Your Letters? See:
Medical Marijuana http://www.drugwarfacts.org/medicalm.htm
Distortion 9: Cannabis As Medicine http://www.drugwardistortions.org/distortion9.htm
Making Medical Marijuana Legally Available http://www.mpp.org/med_mj.html
Medical Use http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3376
Medical Marijuana http://www.drugpolicy.org/marijuana/medical/
**********************************************************************
ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE:
Write a LTEs to the papers in your state about this issue. This is a
good example of a topic that may result in a printed letter without
the need to tie it to any other specific item the papers may have printed.
To find your state/local newspapers, go to MAP’s media links page
at:
http://www.mapinc.org/media.htm
Using the ‘List by Area” dropdown find and bring up the list of
newspapers in your state and their LTE contact. Note those with the
higher numbers of Clippings or Excerpts as this tends to indicate a
higher interest by the paper in our issues, and thus should be your
first targets.
Also consider sending the editorials to your local newspapers. Ask
your papers to please print similar editorial page items.
Let your members of congress know about how you feel about this issue.
If you can, visit with the members, or visit their state/local
offices, as telling them or their staff directly always shows a deep
concern, stronger than any other message. Or give them a phone call.
You can use MPP’s Take Action page to send your concern to your
Senators. Just go to this link, personalize the message with your own
thoughts and facts, and send. It is easy and fast:
http://www.mpp.org/USA/index.html
NORML also has related action pages at:
http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=2204601&type=CO
Last, but not least, cannabis is a topic before the legislators, or an
initiative issue, in a number of states and cities. Please make the
appropriate contacts for your states. It does not take many folks like you
to make a real difference! See:
http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/action/moreactions.asp
http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/
http://www.mpp.org/campaigns/index.html
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
**********************************************************************
The Editorial:
Pubdate: Tue, 20 Apr 2004
Source: Salt Lake Tribune (UT)
Copyright: 2004 The Salt Lake Tribune
Contact: letters@sltrib.com
Website: http://www.sltrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/383
CULTIVATING COMPASSION
Whenever folks over at the U.S. Justice Department were feeling blue
about anti-American terrorists, uppity librarians or naked statues
standing behind the attorney general, they could always take a deep
drag on the anti-drug drug by busting a few terminal cancer patients
in California.
But now some derned activist federal judge has taken that simple
pleasure away from them. Some days it just doesn’t pay to be a
jack-booted thug.
It will be of great comfort to a few people, at least for awhile, to
be members of the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Santa
Cruz, Calif. That’s because a federal judge Wednesday ordered the feds
to stay away while the dispute over California’s medical marijuana law
plays out in the courts.
The co-op’s garden was shut down 18 months ago by a federal raid,
surely one of the ugliest acts of governmental bullying on record.
But U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel, echoing an earlier appeals court
ruling, found that the Wo/Men’s Alliance was protected by a state law
that allows people with a doctor’s recommendation to use marijuana to
ease the suffering attendant to cancer, cancer treatment, glaucoma or
other ills that, many believe, are eased by the drug.
The case is wending its way up to the Supreme Court. But, for now,
California co-ops run on volunteer labor and donated funds that do not
engage in anything resembling interstate commerce, may grow and
distribute free pot to suffering people.
Even if the medicinal benefits are oversold, medical marijuana laws in
California and eight other states are clearly motivated by the desire
to ease human suffering.
The administration’s actions seem motivated by baser instincts
including, perhaps, fear that someone might win relief from a
substance they can grow themselves rather than being at the mercy of
the price-gouging pharmaceutical industry.
The Wo/Men’s Alliance grows the marijuana, but the Justice Department
is full of weeds.
**********************************************************************
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: Richard Lake, Focus Alert Specialist