Lanny's MAPP Newsletter
January 9, 2013

[HR] [align=left] [align=left] [align=left] [align=center] [align=left] Itâ??s been over two years since the city of Riverside hauled the collective I founded, the Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center, into court attempting to close the collective down for violating their zoning ordinance that bans medical marijuana collectives from operating.

Winding its way through the labyrinth of the convoluted court processes, this long road for the collective and patients throughout California will be coming to an end not a moment too soon as oral arguments in the case of City of Riverside vs. Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center will be argued in a special session of the California Supreme Court on Tuesday, February 5, 2013 at 10:15 a.m. at the University of San Francisco School of Law.

Our only state sanctioned distribution system is on the line here. This is the case that will decide for the entire state of California and for every collective - store-front, delivery or small home based - whether cites can ban them under their zoning ordinances.

This is truly the BIG ONE! This is all the information I have now, but more will be forthcoming in the next newsletter.

In the meantime . . .

If you havenâ??t seen it yet, you will. A new anti-marijuana organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) has been founded by ex-ONDCP Drug Warrior Kevin Sabet. It is receiving a lot of attention because U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy has been trumpeting his new position on SAMâ??s Board of Directors to the media.

U.S. Rep. Kennedy, whose family made-a-more than significant part of their fortune selling alcohol, says we should not incarcerate people who use marijuana, rather they should be sent into drug addiction treatment. Thatâ??s right â?? if you get caught smoking marijuana, you donâ??t go to jail â?? you go into drug treatment. Sort of like the re-education camps of Maoist China.

To justify what they see as their more enlightened treatment of marijuana consumers, SAM is rolling out all the reefer madness of yesteryear â?? itâ??s as bad as tobacco, it causes mental illness, it causes crime, gangs and violence, a new one has been concocted claiming marijuana legalization will cause a greater degree of inequality between the upper one-third and lower two-thirds of American society, and of course children, children, children. Children are to the anti-marijuana crusaders like patriotism and the American flag are to scoundrels.

If you canâ??t believe this is being seriously resurrected check out their website at learnaboutsam.com.

Let us celebrate now for it is great news that SAM is being formed. We have backed the drug warriors into the corner so completely that they now feel they must organize to defeat us. They use to rely on the government to do it for them, but the people in Colorado and Washington have taken the reins of power over marijuana out of the hands of cops and turned it over to state bureaucrats to set up a licensing and distribution system.

For a Drug Warrior, thatâ??s very scary.

Consequently, they have formed SAM as a public face to counter our awesome progress. They have come out from under the skirts of government and have been forced to enter the public arena. WE ARE FINALLY GOING TO HAVE THE PUBLIC DEBATE ABOUT MARIJUANA THAT WE HAVE BEEN DENIED FOR 70 YEARS.

ONDCP publishes booklets advising drug warriors not to debate us in public cause they know they will lose when the public is given the facts and not the lies they have been shoving down our throats for decades. The Drug Warriors have always avoided any public debates by branding us stoners, freaks, miscreants and worse as a way to demean and belittle us.

With a slim majority of Americans finally agreeing that marijuana prohibition has been a failure and should be replaced with some form of legalization, the prohibitionist drug warriors can no longer sit aloofly aside refusing to recognize that we exist. They correctly surmise that if they donâ??t counter our arguments, our slim majority will turn into a super majority and they and their organizations will surely lose the billions of marijuana prohibition enforcement taxpayer dollars that now go into their pockets.

With the vote in Colorado and Washington and the polls showing majorities in favor of legalization, many politicians are beginning to rethink their knee-jerk negative reaction to marijuana legalization. Bills are being introduced in congress like HR 6066 which would allow states with marijuana legalization laws to be exempt from the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) which currently makes marijuana federally illegal everywhere in the U.S.A.

Of far more concern is that Senator Patrick Leahy, (D-Vt.), chairman of the ultra-powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, has announced that hearings will be held on how to deal with the differences in federal and state marijuana laws. Sen. Leahy even boldly offered a solution by stating â??One option would be to amend the Federal Controlled Substances Act to allow possession of up to one ounce of marijuana, at least in jurisdictions where it is legal under state law." Richard Nixon must be spinning in his grave.

Holding high profile public hearings into what would amount to the federal decriminalization of marijuana causes Drug Warriors to defecate in their pants.

Make no mistake the Drug Warriors will be well armed. They will have millions of dollars to spend courtesy of law enforcement organizations, the alcohol industry and the giant pharmaceutical corporations. They will lie, defame, smear and even use what police powers they can muster to defeat us. Their livelihoods and that of hundreds of thousands depend on it.

Although there may be hundreds of thousands of them, there are millions of us. We will no longer allow government to treat us as criminals and constant stress out about about losing our jobs, our children and our freedom. We will win this coming debate and we will â??free the weed,â?ť but we need to be engaged, we need to be active and we need to be supportive.

Here in the Inland Empire, the drama continues to unfold and there are two things you can do right now to play your part in this all too real life drama.

Like Senator Leahy sends terror into the Drug Warriorsâ?? cold hearts with talk of decriminalizing marijuana, we need to inoculate our local elected officials with the courage to do the same. We can give them that courage by demonstrating that marijuana legalization is the moderate position and that marijuana prohibition is the extremist position.

One way we do that is by getting endorsement for marijuana legalization from political organizations in the elected officialsâ?? local communities. We succeeded in December 2012 when the Riverside County Democratic Central Committee passed a resolution asking President Obama to allow Colorado and Washington to implement their initiatives without any federal interference. I am pleased to report that same resolution was passed at the January 7, 2013 meeting of the Southwest Riverside County Democratic Club.

While other Democratic groups look into passing the resolution, we need to get this resolution into the big time by incorporating its intent into the California Democratic Party platform. To do that we need to get people onto the convention floor who will push for it and make it happen. I would like to be one of those people and would surely appreciate your support this Saturday, January 12 from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. to elect me as a delegate.

Democrats in the 42nd State Assembly District will be selecting six men and six women as delegates to the California State Democratic Party Convention. If you are a Democrat in the 42nd State Assembly District, please take the time this Saturday to come out and vote for me. I can also use help from people (you donâ??t have to be a Democrat) to hold signs at the voting site encouraging people who come out to vote to cast one of their six votes for me.

Voting will be at the offices of the California Teachersâ?? Association at 75084 Gerald Ford Drive, Palm Desert, CA 92211. Voting is between 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. this Saturday, Jan. 12.

As a thank you to all of you who make the drive out to Palm Desert, I will be holding a kickback and relax party at my house in White Water after the voting ends.

That was thing number one you can do, now for thing number two.

Paul Chabot and his drug warrior sycophants will most assuredly jump on the SAM bandwagon. Over the last few years he has formed at last half-dozen drug warrior organizations in the Inland Empire, none of which has ever secured significant funding. But hope springs eternal within the prohibitionist breast and Chabot will continue forming organizations until one finally hits pay dirt. I have no idea whether he will succeed with SAM, but $$$ signs beckon.

We need to be equipped to fight him and his ilk. Like the national Drug Warriors, our local Mini-Mes will raise money mainly from law enforcement, local alcohol distributors and purveyors and possibly from pharmaceutical companies who, to fight the threat of marijuana to their bottom lines. may chose to distribute money to local prohibitionist organizations as prodigiously as they distribute pills to local doctors.

You can give us the resources we need to fight the good fight by committing to provide a monthly donation to MAPP so that we may engage successfully in the upcoming public debate. Join our 420 Club by signing up HERE to donate $4.20 (or any other figure) every month. Until you inform us to stop doing it, your donation will be automatically deducted from your credit card every month so you donâ??t have to worry about doing it and you can ignore all my future pleas for financial support.

Just CLICK HERE to sign up for a monthly donation. If you are not quite ready to commit to a monthly donation, but are all fired up to make a single donation, then make a one-time only donation by CLICKING HERE.
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painretreat Reviewed by painretreat on . Lanny's MAPP Newsletter: Dec. 09, 2102 Lanny's MAPP Newsletter January 9, 2013 Itâ??s been over two years since the city of Riverside hauled the collective I founded, the Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center, into court attempting to close the collective down for violating their zoning ordinance that bans medical marijuana collectives from operating. Winding its way through the labyrinth of the convoluted court processes, this long road for the collective and patients throughout Rating: 5