Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999
Subject: Renee Boje Case Glamour Magazine
DrugSense FOCUS Alert # 136 November 17,1999
Renee Boje Case Could Bring Scrutiny to American Marijuana
Policy
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DrugSense FOCUS Alert # 136 November 17,1999
NOTE: Glamour Magazine has a circulation of 2.2 million
demographically important readers. If your letter is published it will
have an equivalent advertising value of $1,320 fore every inch of text
published! Go for it!
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The publicity surrounding Renee Boje was pushed up a notch last week
as Glamour Magazine published an in-depth and sympathetic report on
her case. Renee is the American woman who is now seeking asylum in
Canada after being charged in the same federal marijuana “conspiracy”
case that involves activists/medical marijuana users Todd McCormick
and Peter McWilliams.
The Glamour article (below) offers an excellent summary of Renee’s
story, and Renee offers some priceless wisdom to all who are fighting
against the cruelty of the drug war: “At first I was just in total
shock. Then suddenly I lost my fear a few months ago. I was sitting
on the beach and meditating, and felt myself change from victim to
warrior. I thought, You vote on a law, and it passes, and then the
government just ignores it?” (To learn more about Renee and her case,
visit her website at http://www.thecompassionclub.org/renee/ or use
the MAP shortcut to articles about Renee at http://www.mapinc.org/renee.htm)
Please write a letter to Glamour expressing support for Renee and
amazement that the federal government would use so many resources to
persecute a person who has hurt no one.
Thanks for your effort and support.
WRITE A LETTER TODAY
It’s not what others do it’s what YOU do
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CONTACT INFO
Source: Glamour Magazine (US)
Contact: Letters@Glamour.com
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NOTE: This is an exceptionally long article. An excerpt has been
provided below giving the basic details. Those interested in reading
the entire article are welcome to visit the URL below:
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n1226.a03.html
Pubdate: Dec 1999
Source: Glamour Magazine (US)
Copyright: 1999 Conde’ Nast Publications, Inc.
Contact: Letters@Glamour.com
Address: 350 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10017
Fax: (212) 880-6922
Author: David France
Cited: Renee’s website:
http://www.thecompassionclub.org/renee/
MAP’s: shortcut to articles about Renee is:
http://www.mapinc.org/renee.htm
Drug Queenpin or Innocent Victim?
When Illustrator Renee Boje Naively Agreed To Help A Friend Prepare
A Book About Medical Marijuana, She Never Dreamed She’s Become A
Fugitive. Glamour Caught Up With Her In Canada To Find Out Why
She’s Facing And Fighting A 10-Year-To Life Sentence.
Nearly two years have passed since Renee Boje kissed her kitten,
Yoda-the-Zen-Master, good-bye and told her friends and family a lie –
that she was walking away from her life as a Los Angeles – based
freelance illustrator to embark on a mystical journey to find herself.
“I didn’t want to let them know that I was going to leave the
country,” says the 30-year-old redhead, a shy beauty who wears a
dusting of glitter around her spirited eyes. “I didn’t want to
endanger anyone.”
Nobody suspected a thing. “If you know Renee, she’s – a unique
spirit,” Jason Boje, 23, says about his sister. “It wasn’t weird to
me that she wanted to travel around.”
But the truth was beyond weird. She was on the run from federal drug
authorities, and to tell her loved ones that she was heading to Canada
could have put them in an awkward position if U.S. Marshals came
questioning.
This spring, they found her anyway. Now, in a test case that has
gained international attention, Boje finds herself at the center of a
bitter, high-profile legal feud that pits the state of California
against the U.S. Government over the legality of smoking pot for
medicinal purposes. She has been charged with growing and possessing
marijuana with the intent to distribute it – and she faces a possible
prison term of l0 years to life as a medical-marijuana queen pin. But
Boje contends she was just helping a friend illustrate a book called
How to Grow Medical Marijuana and hanging out at his Los Angeles
house, where, after the passage of a new California law, he was
growing pot – legally, he believed – for his own medicinal use.
Federal authorities are demanding that Canada return Boje to
California so that she can stand trial, and have begun extradition
proceedings against her. “I thought that his growing marijuana was
all perfectly legal,” Boje says one August day during an exclusive
Glamour interview at the isolated house she calls Zen Central, tucked
in the woods on the coast of British Columbia. “I can’t even think
about serving time.”
[snip]
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SAMPLE LETTER (sent)
I just read David France’s excellent story on Renee Boje (“Drug
Queenpin or Innocent Victim?” December), but I am still baffled. Why
is the federal government spending such enormous resources to hunt
down a woman who has victimized no one? Average citizens are being
protected from nothing. Instead a message is being sent to average
citizens that if they challenge the federal government, even with the
support of a majority of voters, the government will exact a price.
Renee’s bravery should be a wake-up call to all Americans who still
believe government exists to serve the people, and not the other way
around.
Stephen Young
IMPORTANT: Always include your address and telephone
number
Please note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please modify it
at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive numerous copies of the
same letter and so that the original author receives credit for his/her work.
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Letter Writers Style Guide http://www.mapinc.org/style.htm
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Prepared by Stephen Young – http://home.att.net/~theyoungfamily Focus
Alert Specialist