MAPP Newsletter for Oct. 29, 2012: by Lanny Swerdlow, R.N.
Lanny's MAPP Newsletter
October 29, 2012
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Not much more than a week to go and the three marijuana legalization measures need your help. Colorado and Washington??s are still polling in our favor, but the margin of safety is decreasing. Oregon??s is not doing as well but it still statistically has a chance for success.
You can actually help pass these seismic initiatives and you can do it from the comfort of your own home by participating in each initiative??s phone banks. Click here to go to a webpage where you can access all three legalization initiative websites and get the latest updates on how the initiatives are doing and how you can join the phone bank to contact voters and encourage them to vote YES. There is a special phone bank outreach being made to women voters so women are especially needed to phone.
You can also make a donation to any or all of these initiatives at their websites. It??s not too late to make a contribution. All three initiatives have a very well organized get-out-the-vote voter drive ?? many aimed at college students and other young people. These are the folks who are going to put these initiatives over the top so we need to get them to the polls. Your donation now insures that the money will be there to carry out this oh-so-critical stage of these initiatives.
Clicking here will also allow you to easily go to the websites of states with medical marijuana initiatives plus the website for the initiative modifying California??s three strike law so that a person cannot get a third strike and 25 year to life in prison for marijuana possession or some other non-violent offense.
Be a part of history in the making and be able to tell your grandkids that you were one of the people who helped end marijuana prohibition. Click here now and make 2012 the year you helped to demolish the marijuana prohibition house of cards.
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It??s official ?? a ruling by the 4th District Court of Appeals unequivocally states that it is not required by law that every member of a collective has to roll up their sleeves, put their fingers in the dirt and sing Kumbaya in order for the collective to operate legally under California law.
This everyone cultivates or else mantra has been preached by the dynamic duo of San Diego??s lesbian District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and Los Angeles??s no-one-wants-to-know District Attorney Steve Cooley.
It has always pissed me off that Dumanis has been such a hard-nose on this ?? marijuana and the LGBT community are in an extremely healthy and beneficial symbiotic relationship and as a member of that community she should know it and be doing everything she can to advance it.
I would truly love to have been a fly on the wall in their offices (and that of Riverside City Attorney Greg Priamos as well) when they learned of this rational and humane ruling. I can just see them now jumping up and down and stomping on the floor and thundering ??WE SHALL APPEAL.? I am sure they will continue to deprive school children of after-school arts programs by squandering the public??s money on their reefer madness campaign to overturn Prop. 215.
This not-so-surprising decision came as a result of the trial and conviction of collective operator Jovan Jackson. In that case, Jackson was operating a collective in San Diego which was raided by a Narcotics Task Force team. A year long trial ensued with Jackson eventually being found not guilty. A thoroughly outraged Bonnie Dumanis had the cops raid Jackson??s collective a second time and re-filed all the charges.
Manipulating the court system as only a County District Attorney can, Dumanis was able to get the case before Judge Howard Shore, a staunch opponent of medical marijuana who promptly denied Jackson a medical marijuana defense. With no testimony being presented that Jackson was doing anything legal under state law, the second jury convicted Jackson.
The dynamic Americans for Safe Access took the case up on appeal with their attorney Joe Elford successfully arguing that this was all BS. The result was a unanimous ruling reversing Jackson??s conviction and affirming the common sense that bedridden cancer patients don??t have to dig in the dirt to get their medicine.
In summation, this decision does three things:
1. Guarantees the right to have a medical marijuana defense in state court
2. Patients do not have to participate in the cultivation of marijuana to get some marijuana.
3. Just because a collective has a whole bunch of members (like Harborside??s 100,000+) that doesn??t mean it is operating outside of state law.
Unfortunately Ms. Dumanis doesn??t think the decision applies to here as she orchestrated a raid on a collective in San Diego just a couple hours after the 4th District Court of Appeals ruled against her.
One of the reasons we get people like Ms. Dumanis into office lording over us and threatening us is because too many marijuana consumers, medical and/or recreational, don??t vote. In my next email I will be putting out links to various websites where you can get information on many candidates?? views on medical marijuana, marijuana law reform and the War on Drugs.
So VOTE and get your friends and family members to vote as well. Just be sure and let them know who the candidates are that support us.
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Cancer and politics are the focal point of the Monday, Oct. 29 broadcast and simulcast of Marijuana Compassion and Common Sense. Our first featured guest is Roxanne Brown, author of Chemo: Secrets to Thriving. Based on her own experiences as a breast cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy, the book is a blueprint for living life to the fullest while undergoing this life-saving but severely debilitating treatment. Of interest is that this book includes advice on using marijuana to mitigate some of these debilitating effects.
Our 2nd guest, Richard Eastman, is running for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council Richard is longtime activist dating back to the 1990s where he, along with Dennis Peron and others, opened up the first cannabis buyers club in the nation.
An HIV/AIDS patient, Richard knows that his use of marijuana is why he is still alive and kicking today. One of the most colorful and outspoken medical marijuana advocates anywhere, Richard will explain why his running for City Council, what he will do if elected to the L.A. City Council and provide some insight into what it is like to be a medical marijuana activist running for the LA City Council.
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Are you looking to earn some extra cash and help the movement at the same time? I am looking for a Sales Rep for our radio show Marijuana Compassion and Common Sense. If you are interested in this and want to know more, contact me by sending me an email or calling me at 760-799-2055.
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MAPP MEETING UPDATES
[align=left] Here??s the upcoming MAPP meetings. Mark your calendars now so you won??t miss the one near where you live.
Palm Springs/Coachella Valley MAPP meeting ?? Saturday, Nov. 3 at 11:30 a..m. ?? Crystal Fantasy, 268 N. Palm Canyon in downtown Palm Springs 92262.
Yucca Valley/Upper desert area MAPP meeting ?? Saturday, Nov. 3 at 2 p.m. at the cannabis friendly JTOPIA Artist Residential Colony located at 61850 Chollita in Joshua Tree 92252.
Riverside/Western IE MAPP meeting ?? Wednesday, Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m. ?? Presto Quality Care (formerly THCF Medical Clinic), 647 Main St., Riverside CA 92501.
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[HR] MAPP was founded in 1999 and is one of the most active public advocacy groups in the Southern California region. This group and the volunteers donate a tremendous amount of time, resource and funds to help educate the public, local politicians and even law enforcement agencies that the people who use medical marijuana need a viable, safe and affordable access. There are so many miss-perceptions to the use, results and concerns over the use of medical marijuana. Many of these false hoods have been prompted by government reports with some as old as the 1940's. MAPP is dedicated to help educate and inform the pubic so they can Educate to Activatefor the cause.
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Non Profit group and all of our efforts are funded by private contributions and donations.
[HR] Please take a moment to go to our website, www.marijuananews.org, and make a donation.
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[align=left] WATCH my latest videos HERE or click icon above.[/align]
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Click HERE to see all MAPP events[/align]
[HR] MISS THIS WEEK'S RADIO PROGRAM? No problem, click HERE to access the latest Marijuana Compassion & Common Sense Radio Program.
