RE: Jan 22 DEA "Pill Bottle Dump" at your local federal building
----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From:
Jack Herer
Date: Jan 22, 2007 1:15 AM
Monday, January 22nd, patients and advocates will gather at their local federal buildings to demand an end to federal raids on medical cannabis patients and providers.
Ask the DEA to Help You Find Your Medical Marijuana!
Be part of the January 22 DEA "Pill Bottle Dump" at your local federal building!
Medical cannabis patients and providers are under attack! Over the past month, the DEA conducted raids on three dispensaries and several medical cannabis grow facilities across California, restricting safe access to cannabis for bona-fide patients statewide. In response, ASA is organizing a national day of action on Monday, January 22nd, 2007. When the 110th Congress convenes, patients and advocates nationwide will assemble at their local federal buildings to demand an end to DEA raids on patients and providers who are abiding by their state law.
Tell the DEA to stop their assault on medical cannabis patients and their providers!
Please read on to find out how YOU can take action.
Take Action to Defend Safe Access:
Demand an End to the DEA Raids on Monday, January 22nd
No Access is Not a Solution! On Monday, January 22nd, thousands of patients and advocates will gather at their local federal buildings to demand an end to federal raids on medical cannabis patients and providers. No access is not a solution! And to drive that message home, advocates will dump wheelbarrows full of empty prescription bottles at the federal buildings, demanding the DEA re-fill these bottles if they continue to undermine state medical cannabis laws by raiding patients and their providers.
ASA will create flyers for advocates to pass out to the public that ask, "Do you know where I can find medical marijuana?" It is time to engage with the public and explain that the DEA finally has given in and realizes that medical marijuana is legitimate, but the continued raids have attacked providers. Patients are left to wonder where they can procure their medicine.
It is time to stand together and demand a meaningful solution to the crisis created by federal raids. Safe access to medical cannabis can improve health care outcomes, including adherence to conventional medical treatment. Limited access can threaten health and well-being. Patients need safe access to cannabis now. No access is not a solution. Demand and end to DEA raids now!
Join patients and advocates throughout the country on January 22nd at noon to call on the federal government to solve this problem now!
We need YOU to help organize an action.
It's easy and fun - ASA will provide ALL the tools you need.
All you need to do to organize a local action is to contact Rebecca: Rebecca [at] SafeAccessNow.org or (510) 251-1856 x 308.
Background Information:
Here's what's happened so far
A month ago, the DEA conducted raids on facilities in Modesto, Granada Hills, and the San Francisco Bay Area. These raids resulted in federal charges against nearly twenty individuals. These defendants will not be able to use a medical marijuana defense in their trials, since medical marijuana is illegal federally.
These raids triggered ASA's Emergency Response Project, resulting in statewide demonstrations on Friday, September 29th at DEA headquarters in Los Angeles, Modesto, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco and Santa Ana. Hundreds of patients and advocates rallied statewide, raising awareness and demanding an end to the attacks on safe and legal access!
On the following Friday, October 6th, patients and advocates nationwide took action against the DEA again. Hundreds of calls were made to DEA Administrator Karen Tandy, calling her to stop the raids on medical marijuana providers.
On October 19th, local and federal agents stormed the Green Cross, a medical cannabis collective in Torrance. Reporting weeks of investigation, local law enforcement agents claimed that this was not an act of retaliation on the part of the city, which had made an aggressive attempt at banishing the collective. In a sloppy attempt to continue the "this is not medical marijuana" message, law enforcement cited police surveillance of the collective as substantiating the need for federal intervention. On October 10th, officers pulled over 25 patients leaving the collective for questions. One of the patients who was pulled over called the ASA office and reported the incident. The patient, an older brain cancer survivor, who did not want to be named for privacy reasons, reported scolding the officers for pulling her over and inducing a spasm attack. Contrary to her reports, Special Agent Joseph Bryson wrote in an affidavit used to acquire the federal search warrant, "Of the 15 customers I observed, none appeared to be seriously ill or physically impaired."
http://safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=3747
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/01/21/18349966.php
