Action Alert

You Can Make a Difference

Dear friends,

Speak out in support of marijuana legalization.  This 4/20 you can make a difference. Sign our public pledge supporting marijuana legalization. 

Sign the Petition

This war won’t end if you stay silent.

4/20 is an important day for many people in our movement.  You may be one of the thousands of people gathering next week at rallies in Boston, Boulder, New York, Santa Cruz, Seattle and other cities.  Or maybe you just believe our country’s backwards marijuana laws need a major overhaul.

Whatever your plans on 4/20, let’s use the day to join together and declare our support for ending marijuana prohibition.  Click here to show your support for legalizing marijuana and help us reach 10,000 signatures by midnight, 4/20.

Maybe you smoke marijuana and are tired of being considered a criminal. Maybe you’re a teacher or public health advocate tired of politicians cutting money for education and health to pay for new jails and prisons.  Maybe you’re a civil rights activist appalled by racial disparities in marijuana law enforcement. Or maybe you just don’t want your tax dollars wasted on ineffective policies.

Now is the time to make your voice heard.  Sign our pledge and make a commitment to help legalize marijuana.  After you sign, tell 10 friends to add their voice.

Our movement includes people who love marijuana, people who hate marijuana, and people who don’t care one way or the other.  But we all agree on one thing – marijuana prohibition is doing more harm than good.

The tide is quickly turning against the war on marijuana.  Lawmakers across the country are introducing legislation to regulate marijuana like alcohol.  Newspapers are calling for major reform.  Sting and other prominent people are speaking out.  In November California voters will have the historic opportunity to vote on ending marijuana prohibition.

More Americans support legalizing marijuana than ever before, and it’s time for us to speak out.  Help us reach 10,000 signatures by midnight, 4/20 by signing our pledge to legalize marijuana.

Sincerely,

Bill Piper
Director, Office of National Affairs
Drug Policy Alliance Network

Dear friends:

Joseph Casias, a medical marijuana patient and cancer survivor in Michigan, has been fired by Wal-Mart simply for following his doctor's recommendation and trying to ease his pain.

Just 29 years old, Joe has already survived sinus cancer and now suffers from an inoperable brain tumor. He's spent the last five years working at a Wal-Mart in Battle Creek, Michigan and was honored as the store's Associate of the Year in 2008. Joe also happens to be a legal medical marijuana patient, registered with the state of Michigan. After a recent workplace injury, Joe was given a drug screen — which he failed because of his medical marijuana use.

Rather than having compassion and understanding for a model employee who was following the law, Wal-Mart fired Joe and has recently contested his unemployment benefits.

Will you help us send a message to Wal-Mart that punishing medical marijuana patients who are trying to get better, following their doctor’s advice, and adhering to state law is cruel and unacceptable?

MPP is calling on our members to boycott Wal-Mart until it abandons its discriminatory policy of firing employees who are legal medical marijuana patients under state law. Please help us send a message to Wal-Mart CEO Michael Duke that you don't support Wal-Mart’s policy and won't be shopping there until it’s changed.

Check out this video of local activists in Michigan protesting Wal-Mart’s actions. Together, we can let Wal-Mart and other businesses know that discrimination against medical marijuana patients will not go unchallenged.

Sincerely,

On Thursday, March 4, starting at 1:30pm, the Colorado State Legislature will hear the first reading of a bill which seeks to regulate dispensaries-- and weaken patient rights.  This bill, HB 1284, which was largely authored by law enforcement, threatens to cripple the state medical marijuana law in a number of ways. (Note a version of this bill will be posted on our website shortly.)

Here are a few of the most damaging provisions of the bill:

• Prohibits patients from living near schools.  Patients could not possess medicine within 1000 feet of a school, which means patients could not live near schools.

• Patients could not join together with family members or others to share grow space.

• Would allow cities and towns to ban dispensaries-- forcing sick patients to "get on the bus" to find medicine.

Here's how you can help fight HB 1284

Attend the Thursday Hearing.  Legislators need to hear from patients and professionals about how damaging HB 1284 will be.  This Hearing should begin around 1:30 at the State Capitol in Denver in the Old Supreme Court Chambers (2nd floor).  Please show up, dress nice, and spread the message to "vote no on HB 1284."

Call your state legislator

You Can Make a Difference

Dear friends,

Tell the president:  We need a new direction for U.S. drug policy, not the status quo. 

Email the President

President Obama is saying all the right things when it comes to drug policy reform, but not enough has changed since he took office.

You and I need to show President Obama that we won't stand for the status quo on drug policy.

After a promising start on drug policy issues, the Obama administration has gone astray.  The president’s proposed drug war budget looks a whole lot like the Bush administration’s drug war budget, with funding for failed enforcement policies far outweighing funding for treatment.

Tell the Obama administration you’re tired of Bush-era drug policy and ready for some change you can believe in!

Last month, President Obama nominated an anti-reform Bush holdover to head the DEA.  Under the Bush administration, nominee Michele Leonhart coordinated numerous medical marijuana raids and stood in the way of scientific research.  A new drug policy requires new leadership, especially when the nominee was so closely associated with the failed policies of the past.

The president has repeatedly said that science, not politics, should guide drug policy, and his drug czar called for an end to the war on drugs.  The Obama administration isn’t spouting drug war rhetoric, but it hasn’t abandoned drug war policies either.

Write to the president and urge him to deliver on his promise to improve U.S. drug policy.

Sincerely,

Bill Piper
Director, Office of National Affairs
Drug Policy Alliance Network