Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2007
Subject: #349 Common Sense Marijuana Policy
COMMON SENSE MARIJUANA POLICY
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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #349 – Monday, 9 July 2007
On Friday, July 6, a pair of common sense Opinion items hit North
American newspapers, with one being reprinted in numerous newspapers
across the country. This creates an excellent opportunity for those
who endorse smarter public policies for dealing with marijuana in the
21st century.
Gone should be the days of Reefer Madness – the late 1930s attitudes
which have remained entrenched in federal government marijuana
policies for over 70 years now.
Friday’s Los Angeles Times featured an OPED authored by Tony Newman of
the Drug Policy Alliance. He emphasized the need to either offer help
and appropriate treatment options for Americans with true drug
problems. And he also noted that we should not waste criminal justice
or valuable treatment resources on Americans who are only casual drug
users without a problem.
Newman also illustrated the disparity in our society where certain
people of note receive easy access for alternatives to jail – using Al
Gore III, Noelle Bush and Patrick Kennedy as prime examples.
Read Newman’s LA Times piece here: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n802/a04.html
Also on Friday, Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post Writers Group
released her latest column in which she aptly notes that the younger
Gore’s high-profile arrest offers Americans an opportunity to get real
about drug prohibition, especially about marijuana laws. MAP has over
a dozen placements of Parker’s column. A continually updating link to
her columns may be seen here:
http://www.mapinc.org/author/Kathleen+Parker
Please consider sending a Letter to the Editor to the Los Angeles
Times sharing your personal support for Newman’s OPED.
And please consider also creating a letter in response to Kathleen
Parker’s column and then direct it to the newspaper closest to your
hometown. If you elect to write to more than one newspaper, we
strongly suggest at least some modification of your message so that
each newspaper receives a unique letter.
MAP has archived numerous clippings on the arrest and pending
prosecution of Mr. Gore III. They may be easily be viewed here:
http://www.mapinc.org/people/Al+Gore
Letters of 200 words or less have the best chance of print unless
otherwise noted in MAP headers.
Thanks for your effort and support.
It’s not what others do it’s what YOU do
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Contact: The Lost Angeles Times http://www.dailynews.com/writealetter
Contact links for sending letters on Parker’s column are displayed in
the header for each of the MAP clippings.
Learn more about how you can help deliver the messages of The Drug
Policy Alliance http://www.drugpolicy.org
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Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center:
http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides
Or contact MAP’s Media Activism Facilitator for personal tips on how
to write LTEs that get printed.
heath@mapinc.org
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PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER
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 heath@mapinc.org if you are not
subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others
can learn from your efforts.
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#form
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Prepared by: The MAP Media Activism Team www.mapinc.org/resource
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