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Monday, October 29, 2001
There has been another series of attacks on U.S. citizens. But this time it
appears that the media and government are trying to keep it secret.
At a time when our country is in national crisis and mourning, the Federal
Government has elected to utilize its resources and manpower to seize the
medication that allows thousands of chronically and terminally ill patients
in Los Angeles County to alleviate pain, tolerate medication and simply
hold down food every day.
Last Thursday the DEA raided the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center.
According to one report:
"... assiduous self-policing apparently ran out yesterday at 4 pm
California time, when 30 DEA agents descended on the W. Hollywood site, a
former factory purchased in 1998 for the club by the city government. They
spent 8 hours hauling away cannabis from basement grow areas, scouring the
premises for patients records, computers, and anything else they could use
to prove conspiracy to enable patients to possess cannabis in violation of
U.S. law.
"As the evening progressed, the City Council, which was in session,
adjourned and joined the Mayor and hundreds of protestors on the street in
front of the club. The DEA did not relinquish the building until midnight."
ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE:
Your actions could contain these basic themes: Wage war on terrorists, not
medical marijuana patients. The government should focus on anthrax, not
medical marijuana. At this time of crisis, American medical marijuana users
are not the enemy.
First, the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center has asked for activists to
take three actions:
(1) Contact the L.A. Times asking them to cover this important story. A
page full of appropriate contacts, email and phone, are at
http://www.latimes.com/services/site/la-contactus.htmlstory
Make a toll free call to the LA Times City Desk 1-800-LATIMES (Enter 5 to
get to the right area after they answer).
(2) Contact Representative Henry Waxman, the congressman for the area
including the Center. He has expressed support in the past. Please urge him
to criticize the raid on the floor of the House and be every other means he
can. Contact information is at:
http://www.house.gov/waxman/Contact_Rep._Waxman/contact_rep._waxman.htm
(3) For those who can, join the LA CRC protest on Tuesday, 5 November - the
5th anniversary of the historic Prop. 215 vote - in the center's parking
lot at 7494 Santa Monica Blvd (corner of Santa Monica and Gardner Ave.)
starting at 5 p.m.
Second, Stop John Walters From Becoming 'Drug Czar' - phone and fax your
Senators Today! See http://www.stopjohnwalters.org/
Third, let the media know that you are upset about this lack of press
coverage about the terrorist attack on patients and their doctors who
recommend medical cannabis. Ask them when they are going to cover the story.
You can easily obtain verified contact information for Letters to the
Editor by using MAP's media contact database. At the following web address,
simply use the dropdown to select your state, then click on the word
'contact' - note that newspapers with more clippings have shown more
interest in drug policy - thus the best first targets:
http://www.mapinc.org/media.htm
Here are sample Letters to the Editor which you may wish to modify for use
with your target newspapers:
Los Angeles Times
To the Editor
Your failure cover the bust, by 30 DEA agents, of the LA Cannabis Buyers
Club that took place last Thursday afternoon in a setting of sharp
criticism from local elected officials is a clear sign that the Times is
either engaging in unacceptable self censorship on behalf of a noxious
federal policy, or is shockingly incompetent. There seems to be no third
possibility.
Since I don't think you are (quite) that incompetent; I see your omission
as an implicit attempt to protect our misbegotten drug war against adverse
publicity; a pattern your newspaper has, along with many others, engaged in
for years. When those guilty of prolonging this grotesque policy failure
are finally held to account, our nation's increasingly slipshod, venal, and
dishonest media will be near the top of the list.
-----
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Dear Editor,
I was horrified to learn that the Federal government has decided that the
wishes of the people of California and the residents of Los Angles County
do not matter when it comes to the issue of medical marijuana.
I wonder what DEA director Asa Hutchinson was thinking when he ordered the
LA cannabis resource center closed and all their records and medicine taken?
I hope more people like myself take a good hard look at what happened
there. As a patriot American this has hurt me to the bottom of my soul.
When state, county, and municipal government, including local law
enforcement, agree on the law, I think it is only right for the federal
government to abide by the will of the people.
Not inflict terror mandated from the other side of the nation by a man who
obviously has no regard for the quality of life for medical marijuana
patients in California.
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Dear Editor,
The other night, I learned through friends that the West Hollywood cannabis
club had been raided by DEA agents, although the community fully supports
Proposition 215 and the compassionate use of medical marijuana.
But more disturbing than the raids themselves is an apparent conspiracy of
silence on the part of the press, including the LA Times. In times like
these, when our few remaining civil rights are threatened by the tyranny of
the state, the free press is all that stands between sick and dying
patients and legal and medical annihilation. We are being told by our
government sources that we are fighting terrorism. Yet, terrorists seem to
be running our government, harassing and arresting patients to enforce
their edicts against the free will of those for whom marijuana provides relief.
What next? Will we be required to wear stars on our sleeves as they cart us
off to concentration camps? For those who think this statement
inflammatory, I say that this reality is only one step away. The first
step, that of silencing the press, has already occurred.
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PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE
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