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Sen. Bill Morrisette (D-Springfield) has introduced legislation that would authorize the Department of Human Services to launch a medical marijuana dispensary program. SB 767 would create a state-operated program that produces and dispenses medical marijuana to registered patients. If enacted, the law would sunset in nine years. SB 767 offers an alternate method of obtaining medical marijuana to patients who are in immediate need of their medicine, but for whatever reason are unable to acquire it from conventional sources. A few of the circumstances that commonly make it difficult for patients to obtain medical marijuana include: housing restrictions that make it impossible for patients to grow their own medicine; sudden medical emergencies that render a patient unable to tend a garden; destruction of a patient or caregiver's garden by insects, fungus or nature; and price. To better assist Oregon's low-income patients, registration fees will not be increased if SB 767 is enacted. In fact, revenues obtained after the pilot project becomes operational could eventually lower patients' registration fees. SB 767 has been assigned to the Health and Human Services Committee with a subsequent referral to Ways and Means. Please call the members of the Health and Human Services Committee today and urge them to set SB 767 for a hearing: Bill Morrisette — chair (D) — (503) 986-1706 Jeff Kruse — vice chair (R) — (503) 986-1701 Gary George (R) — (503) 986-1712 Laurie Monnes Anderson (D) — (503) 986-1725 Joanne Verger (D) — (503) 986-1705 After you have called the committee members and requested that SB 767 be set for hearing, please call you senator and let him or her know that SB 767 is good legislation that should become law. You can contact your senator by calling 1(800) 332-2313, or (503) 986-1187 if you are in the Salem area. If you are not sure who your senator is, click here to find out. Remember to be courteous and respectful when speaking with your senator or a staffer. If you are sent to voicemail, be sure to include your name and address when leaving your message so your senator knows you are a constituent. A message could be something along the lines of: "Hello, my name is _______ and I am from _________. I wanted to ask that you support SB 767. This bill would create a state-run medical marijuana dispensary program. Please do everything you can to make sure this legislation becomes law." After you have called your senator, take a few minutes to follow up with an e-mail or letter. Although we have provided you with templates, please personalize your note as much as you can — legislators will be more likely to remember a voice that tells a unique story. We also encourage you to write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper supporting SB 767. Talking points are supplied and ready to be cut and pasted into the body of an e-mail that goes directly to the newspapers you select! Getting positive opinions about SB 767 in the news is a crucial step in making sure this legislation passes. A state-operated garden can make Oregon's medical marijuana program even better than it already is. Not only would such a program ease the burden on patients with low incomes, it would also cater to patients in assisted care or with other disabilities that make them incapable of providing for themselves. Accommodating patients who need help is the main goal of SB 767. Please ask your legislators to support it. Thank you for supporting the Marijuana Policy Project.

California medical marijuana fee increase decreases — help prevent future increases

Facing mutiny from counties and complaints from hundreds of advocates, the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) decided to raise the state portion of the medical marijuana ID card fee to $66 ($33 for Medi-Cal recipients) rather than to $142 ($71 for Medi-Cal patients). Thank you to the more than 360 of you who took the time to write Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and the CDHS to urge them to abandon the counterproductive increase. Well done!

Although a major crisis in the program has been averted, the medical marijuana ID card program budget is still strained. S.B. 420 — which instituted the ID cards — requires that the ID card fees cover the program's operating budget. The program will also have to pay back a $1.5 million loan. But the ID card program is running a substantial deficit: Although CDHS anticipated issuing 150,000 ID cards, it has only issued about 10,000 as of this month. One of the major reasons for the shortfall is that more than half of all counties — including several major ones — have yet to implement the program (seven more have approved it but are not yet issuing cards). While participation in the ID card program is voluntary for patients, counties are required to offer them.

If your county hasn't implemented the ID card program yet, please contact your county board of supervisors or department of health to ask them to do so without further delay. Click here to see what stage your county is at in implementing ID cards, and to find out who you should contact if they haven't yet been implemented. For talking points to use with your county health departments and supervisors, please click here.

This partial victory resulted from pressure from counties, state legislators, and advocates. County supervisors in San Francisco and Lake Counties considered abandoning the state ID card program completely, realizing that with the full fee increase, most patients would not have been able to afford the cards. Given that about one-third of all of the ID cards that have been issued are to San Francisco patients, it quickly became apparent that the fee increase could spell the demise of the entire ID program.

At the same time, the Marijuana Policy Project joined Safe Access Now, Americans for Safe Access, and the Drug Policy Alliance in mobilizing supporters to oppose the fee increase, which was scheduled to take effect on March 1. In all, more than 1,000 emails from patients and advocates protesting the increase were sent to the CDHS and Gov. Schwarzenegger. Additionally we were able to generate several letters from county supervisors throughout the state, expressing their concern over CDHS's proposed increase. Assemblymember Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) worked to persuade the Department of Health Services to find a solution. In addition to being lower than was initially announced, the fee increase will take effect a month later — on April 1.

Thank you for supporting the Marijuana Policy Project. Please pass this on to other compassionate Californians. For more information on how you can bring this important program to your county, contact Safe Access Now at safeaccessnow@gmail.com.

A medical marijuana patient whose doctor says marijuana is the only medicine keeping her alive does not have a constitutional right to stay alive, a federal appeals court ruled today.

Angel Raich, a California mother of two, uses marijuana to treat life-threatening wasting syndrome, seizures, an inoperable brain tumor, and severe chronic pain. "The court has just sentenced me to death," she said after the ruling. "My doctors agree that medical cannabis is essential to my very survival, and the government did not even contest the medical evidence ... If we don't have a right to live, what do we have left?"

Raich's lawyers argued that because her doctors believe medical marijuana is essential to her survival, prosecuting her would violate the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment guarantee that no person may be "deprived of life ... without due process of law."

In its decision, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that there is not yet a constitutional right "to make a life-shaping decision on a physician's advice to use medical marijuana to preserve bodily integrity, avoid intolerable pain, and preserve life, when all other prescribed medications and remedies have failed."

But — significantly — the court suggested that a right to medical marijuana could eventually be recognized as fundamental. The ruling says: "For now, federal law is blind to the wisdom of a future day when the right to use medical marijuana to alleviate excruciating pain may be deemed fundamental. Although that day has not yet dawned, considering that during the last ten years eleven states have legalized the use of medical marijuana, that day may be upon us sooner than expected."

MPP's grants program has paid for much of Raich's litigation. Visit www.mpp.org/news to read some of the news coverage of the decision.

Because the federal courts have refused to protect medical marijuana patients from arrest, it's all the more imperative that Congress act to change federal law. MPP has led the fight in Congress over the last four years, with a record 163 House members voting for a medical marijuana amendment last summer. And, since the Democratic takeover of Congress in November, the congressional outlook for medical marijuana is now better than it has been since I co-founded MPP 12 years ago.

In fact, we have a real chance of passing federal legislation to protect medical marijuana patients this year, but we need you to stand with us. If you agree that seriously ill people should not have to live in fear of armed federal agents breaking down their doors to take away their medicine, would you please make a financial contribution to our lobbying work today?

Our track record of success is growing every year, and we can get the job done. But we're 100% dependent on supporters like you to fund our work.

Rally: Patient Day in Salem, Monday, April 2nd, 2007,
Salem Capitol Building, Salem, Oregon, 10 AM to 4 PM
So come and Educate your Legislators, Educate the
Public, Educate the Media and Educate Yourself.

We will be on the front steps of the capitol building
in the morning, with patient speakers starting at 10
AM.

From noon to 4 PM we will have expert speakers on drug
policy in HR-50. Bring a bag lunch. MAMA will supply
beverages and dessert.

There will be a No-Host Pizza Party at Lefty's Pizza,
starting at 4 PM.

For information, to participate as a speaker, or to
donate to the costs, contact MAMA at 503-233-4202 or
mama@mamas.org .

OR: Hearing on a marijuana policy reform bill — S.B. 327 — this Wednesday

On Wednesday, the Oregon Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on a sensible bill that would give district attorneys the option to treat manufacturing small amounts of marijuana as a Class A misdemeanor rather than a felony. Now, registered medical marijuana patients who inadvertently fall out of compliance with state law would be guilty of a felony for growing small amounts of their medicine. Please act now so that prosecutors will have the discretion not to make otherwise law abiding citizens convicted felons for cultivating a small amount of marijuana.

Please call the Senate Judiciary Committee members today to urge them to pass S.B. 327. The hearing will be on Wednesday, February 28, at 1:00 p.m. (in room 343), so time is of the essence.

Sen. Ginny Burdick — chair (D-18^th District) — (503) 986-1718
Sen. Roger Beyer — vice chair (R-9^th District) — (503) 986-1709
Sen. Jeff Kruse (R-1^st District) — (503) 986-1701
Sen. Floyd Prozanski (D-4^th District) — (503) 986-1704
Sen. Vicki Walker (D-7^th District) — (503) 986-1707

If you are directed to voicemail, you can leave a short message such as: "I am calling to ask that you support S.B. 327, which would allow district attorneys to treat manufacturing small amounts of marijuana as a Class A misdemeanor. S.B. 327 would not only give district attorneys more discretion in how to prosecute minor marijuana offenses, it would also free up invaluable court time and jail space for more serious crimes." To find out if one of the committee members is from your district, click here. If one of the members is, be sure to mention that you are a constituent, and, if you voted for him or her, please say that, too.

After you have called the committee members, please take a few minutes to send your senator an e-mail supporting S.B. 327. This is a great way to get the word out around the Capitol that this is legislation needs to be passed.

Thank you for supporting the Marijuana Policy Project. Please pass this on to other Oregonians who support marijuana policy reform.