Tell Attorney General Holder:
Stop federal raids
of medical marijuana dispensaries
» Sign the petition
Friend,
28 raids in 24 hours. That's the unfortunate reality for medical marijuana patients in Montana and California.
Federal agents shutdown 26 dispensaries across Montana and 2 in the medical marijuana sanctuary city of West Hollywood, California this month in their latest attack on patients and legitimate businesses.
The DEA isn't even supposed to be conducting these raids in the first place. In 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder issued a memo ordering an end to federal raids of medical marijuana dispensaries. Yet, despite his memo, federal agents have continued these operations sporadically for years, without regard for patients', states' or business' rights.
Attorney General Eric Holder clearly doesn't have control of his own cavalry. This assault on patients rights has to stop now.
Sign our letter telling Attorney General Holder to enforce his memo and prohibit federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries.
Click here to sign the letter: http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/fedraids
But is Holder being dishonest and hypocritical? Or does he simply lack strong leadership among US Attorneys General?
A memo issued on February 1st by US Attorney Melinda Haag (who, ironically, represents Northern California) directly contradicts Holder’s edict. She declares that ANYONE engaging in the buying or selling of marijuana, regardless of their protection under state laws, will be punished by the federal government.
That doesn’t just mean dispensaries and the patients who rely on them, but goes as far as to include landlords, financiers and property owners as well. It’s a full-court press designed to intimidate supporters of reform and ostracize patients seeking their prescribed medications.
This attitude puts lives in jeopardy and undermines our democratic institutions by foiling state attempts to provide solutions for their own people. We need to put an end to the federal harassment of medical marijuana patients now.
Tell Attorney General Holder to enforce his own memo banning federal raids of medical marijuana dispensaries and take a stand for patients rights.
Click here to add your name: http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/fedraids
This kind of official hypocrisy at the expense of our most vulnerable citizens is a disgrace to the notion of basic human rights everywhere. Thank you for standing up for a patients’ basic rights to treatment.
Thanks for all you do.
Brian Sonenstein
Just Say Now.com
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
California 2012
Posted to the MassCann/Norml activist listserve by: "Scott" samortimer@comcast.net
Mon Mar 21, 2011 7:55 am (PDT)
Marijuana legalization advocates organize to put new measure on California
ballot
March 18, 2011 | 12:34 pm
http://latimesblogs .latimes. com/lanow/ 2011/03/new- medical-marijuan a-initiative- in-california. html
The campaign behind a failed initiative to legalize marijuana in California
announced Friday it had formed a new committee to put another measure on the
ballot.
The Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform 2012 aims to build on the unusual
support that coalesced around Proposition 19, which would have allowed
adults to grow and possess marijuana and authorized cities and counties to
legalize and tax sales.
That campaign drew backing from the California NAACP and the Latino Voters
League, which saw it as a way to end disproportionate arrests of African
Americans and Latinos for marijuana crimes. Labor leaders in the Bay Area
also got behind it, bringing endorsements from some major unions, which saw
a legal pot industry as a potential source of union jobs.
The committee announced Friday included Alice Huffman, who heads the
California NAACP; Antonio Gonzalez, who formed the Latino Voters League; and
Dan Rush, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union official who worked
during the campaign to build labor support. It also includes several key
players behind Proposition 19, including Dale Sky Jones, who was the
campaign's spokeswoman and will be the chairwoman of the new coalition.
"The purpose of our organization is to learn from our experiences in 2010
and take the lead toward victory in 2012," Jones wrote to supporters in an
e-mail sent Friday. "We will expand our coalition, raise the necessary funds
to move toward a possible 2012 campaign, and conduct polling and other
opinion research that will guide the drafting of a new initiative."
Proposition 19 lost 46%-54% in November, but it drew worldwide media
attention and stimulated a vigorous debate over the nation's drug policies.
Polls have shown growing support for marijuana legalization nationwide, and
a post-election poll in California suggested the measure might have passed
if proponents had had the money for a campaign to reach swing voters.
Many activists are convinced that, with more money and broader support, a
similar initiative could pass during a presidential election year when the
turnout tends to be more liberal. The coalition includes several
representatives who will be critical to raising money, including Stephen
Gutwillig, the California director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which has
close ties to the major donors who have supported past medical-marijuana and
legalization initiatives.
Proposition 19, the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act, was the
brainchild of Richard Lee, an Oakland medical-marijuana entrepreneur who led
the effort to draft it, paid for a signature-gathering effort to qualify it
and footed the bill for most of the campaign. He and Jeff Jones, an Oakland
activist who co-sponsored the measure, are on the coalition's board.
Lee's singular role in the campaign led some drug-policy- reform activists to
keep their distance initially, but as the initiative sparked a nationwide
conversation, they decided to embrace it. Although still involved, Lee has
stayed behind the scenes as the new effort gets underway.
The Proposition 19 campaign struggled to win support among medical-marijuana
activists, growers and dispensary owners, many of whom worried it would
disrupt their lucrative business. Marijuana legalization activists held a
conference in Berkeley recently to reach out to medical-marijuana activists
and will host a second one Saturday in Los Angeles.
The new campaign plans to hold a series of meetings to draft a new
initiative and expects to launch a new website soon. "What many thought was
an unlikely dream in 2010 is poised to become reality in 2012," Jones wrote
to supporters of the previous initiative. "We will need your ideas, your
passion and your support going forward."
Members of the new organization are:
Executive director: Mauricio Garzon, Proposition 19 campaign manager
Board of directors: Tom Angell, media director, Law Enforcement Against
Prohibition; Graham Boyd (honorary), visiting fellow, Stanford Criminal
Justice Center; David Bronner, president, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps; Antonio
Gonzalez, president, William C. Velasquez Institute; Stephen Gutwillig
(honorary), California director, Drug Policy Alliance; Alice Huffman,
president, California NAACP; Dale Sky Jones, Proposition 19 spokeswoman;
Jeff Jones, Proposition 19 proponent; Richard Lee, Proposition 19 proponent;
Jim O'Neill, managing director, Clarium Capital Management; Perry
Rosenstein, consultant, Trilogy Interactive; Dan Rush, special operations
director, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5.
Key advisers:
Doug Linney, president, the Next Generation; Chris Lehane, Fabiani and
Lehane; Dan Newman, partner, SCN Strategies; Dave Fratello, Coast Campaign
Group; Marjan Philhour, fundraising consultant, California Group; Anna
Greenberg, pollster, Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner Research; Ruth Bernstein,
principal, EMC Research; Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director,
Drug Policy Alliance.
http://latimesblogs .latimes. com/lanow/ 2011/03/new- medical-marijuan a-initiative- in-california. html
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Medical Marijuana Advocates March in Missoula
MISSOULA COUNTY
POSTED: 10:58 pm MDT March 19, 2011 |
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Feds Threaten State Dispensaries Nationwide
Read the Department of Justice's "Haag Memo" here:
http://www.
For more information, contact the:
Cannabis Therapy Institute
877-420-4205
In a little-publicized memo, the federal government has indicated that the
gloves are off with regards to medical marijuana dispensaries, "regardless
of state laws." Previous memos had indicated a loosening of federal
prosecutions of medical marijuana, however the new memo states very clearly
that the feds consider all dispensaries illegal under federal law and that
their prosecution is a "core priority" of the feds.
The "Haag Memo" was written on Feb. 1, 2011 from United States Attorney
Melinda Haag (Northern District of California) to John A. Russo, Esq.,
Oakland City Attorney, in response to an Oakland City Council request for
guidance regarding medical marijuana and federal law. The memo was written
with consultation and approval from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
The "Haag Memo" clarifies the "Ogden Memo", which was written by former
Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden on Oct. 19, 2009 for the Department
of Justice. The "Ogden Memo" seemed to indicate that the new Obama
administration would restrict federal prosecution of medical marijuana
providers in states that had medical marijuana laws. This was heralded by
many as giving them the green light to pursue medical marijuana activities,
as long as they were in compliance with state law.
The "Haag Memo" clears up that misconception with some very unambiguous
statements. The memo says clearly that the feds will not look the other way
on medical marijuana. The "Haag Memo" states very clearly that the feds
will continue to investigate, arrest and prosecute medical marijuana
dispensaries in every state "regardless of state laws."
In addition, the memo calls prosecuting medical marijuana dispensaries a
"core priority" for the feds.
According to the memo, medical marijuana commercial activity is still
considered by the Department of Justice to be "a violation of federal law
regardless of state laws permitting such activities."
The memo may be the cause of the recent increase in federal raids at
medical marijuana dispensaries. Only 4 days after the memo was issued, the
DEA raided 4 dispensaries in California Just this week, the DEA raided
more dispensaries in California and Montana. They arrested dozens of
people, and seized the assets and bank accounts of several dispensaries.
IMPLICATIONS FOR COLORADO
"Maybe this will wake people up who think that it can't happen here," says
Kathleen Chippi of the Colorado-based Patient and Caregiver Rights
Litigation Project (cannabislawsuits.com), who is trying to raise money to
file lawsuits to uphold Colorado's Constitutional right to cannabis
medicine. Many legal observers agree that Colorado has the best chance of
fighting the feds in court because Colorado is the only state whose medical
marijuana law is actually in the state Constitution.
However, last year the state of Colorado set up a regulatory scheme that
required caregivers to surrender their Constitutional rights. The state
created a new entity called a Medical Marijuana Center (MMC). However, in
order to apply to become an MMC, the applicants had to surrender their
Constitutional rights to be caregivers, leaving them with no Constitutional
protection.
MMC applicants also had to sign their power of attorney over to the state
Department of Revenue for extensive investigations of every aspect of their
lives, including family, spouses, children, and bank accounts. Over 700
people applied to become MMCs last July 1, 2010. The investigations on
these applicants are in full swing, and no licenses to applicants have yet
been granted.
MORE QUOTES FROM THE HAAG MEMO
"We will enforce the CSA vigorously against individuals and organizations
that participate in unlawful manufacturing and distribution activity
involving marijuana, even if such activities are permitted under state
law."
"Others who knowingly facilitate the actions of the licensees, includmg
property owners, landlords, and financiers should also know that their
conduct violates federal law."
"As the Attorney General has repeatedly stated, the Department of Justice
remains fumly (sic) committed to enforcing the CSA in all states."
READ THE DOJ MEMOS:
"Haag Memo" (Feb. 1, 2011)
http://www.
"Ogden Memo": Oct. 19, 2009
http://blogs.usdoj.gov/blog/
DONATIONS NEEDED:
Please donate to CTI to help us continue to bring you this important
information:
http://www.
Please copy and redistribute this announcement.
--
Re-distributed as a Public Service by the:
Cannabis Therapy Institute
P.O. Box 19084, Boulder, CO 80308
Phone: 877-420-4205
Web: www.cannabistherapyinstitute.
Email: info@cannabistherapyinstitute.
RI Health Dept. picks 3 medical marijuana dispensaries
3:14 PM Tue, Mar 15, 2011 
Email
Dr. Seth Bock, who owns the Newport Acupuncture & Wellness Spa at 850 Aquidneck Avenue, Middletown, is among three applicants selected to open the state's first marijuana dispensaries. Bock intends to open Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center in Portsmouth.
PROVIDENCE -- The state Health Department has selected three dispensaries to sell medical marijuana to the growing patient population in the state.
They are: Summit Medical Compassion Center in Warwick, The Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center in Providence, and Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center in Portsmouth.
The annoucement was made in a 3 p.m. news release.
"After a thorough and thoughtful review of all applications, health (officials) determined that these three applicants were best able to offer safe, conveniently located options for patients currently enrolled in the medical marijuana program,'' said Interim Director of Health Michael Fine.
The principals in each dispensary are Mark J. Berergon, at Summit; Gerald J. McGraw Jr., at Slater; and Seth Bock, at Greenleaf. Cuttino Mobley, the former NBA basetball player and ex-University of Rhode Island great, is the sole financier of the Summit project.
Last fall, 18 applicants submitted detailed proposals to open marijuana dispensaries across the state. The vast majority of them planned to open in the Providence metropolitan area, but there were also proposals for centers in North Kingstown, Coventry and Portsmouth.
Rhode Island is one of 15 states, along with the District of Columbia, that has legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes. It will soon join Maine, Colorado and New Mexico as the only states with state-regulated dispensaries. Other states, such as California and Montana, have dispensaries, but they are not under state control.
Read the applications selected:
Summit Medical Compassion CenterThomas Slater Compassion Center
Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center
Extra:
Current rules and regulations governing medical marijuana dispensaries
Form to designate a medical marijuana dispensary as a "caregiver"
~Light Up the Sky~
Thursday, March 17, 2011 2:35 AM
If we are unable to fund the Light up the Sky project in time, any donations received will be put towards our next project and help Moms for Marijuana become a charitable organization.
Thank you!
Much love & respect,
Serra Frank
Founding Director
Moms for Marijuana
http://www.momsformarijuana.com/
Dear rachel,
Recently we sent out a letter to help raise awareness of Moms for Marijuana's lantern project and involvement with "Light up the Sky," a global act of unity and protest to end Cannabis prohibition that will take place on April 20th, 2011.
Thank you to all who have donated to help fund the project. We appreciate you!!
Thanks to the generosity of these donations we are starting to making progress towards the purchase of lanterns that we can make available on our site. Unfortunately, it will take a bit more to have the lanterns available for purchase by the beginning of April and delivered by April 20th.
This is a global event, and you are not required to purchase lanterns from us. If you would like a plain one, links to websites can be found at the face book event page linked above.
If you would like to help support Moms for Marijuana by purchasing from us, then first we need help to fund this project. As mothers, we understand the endless needs of the family budget, especially when insurance doesn't help cover choice in meds. So, whether it's $1, $10 or $100, every penny is appreciated. All funds collected at this time will be used to help fund the purchase of lanterns that will be given the Moms for Marijuana logo or similar and made available for sale on our site. This will allow us to raise the funds to become a tax exempt charitable organization and increase our ability to help spread Cannabis education.
This event is barely over a month away, and every moment counts. If you or anyone you know can donate, you can do so by:
-directly depositing money into our fundraising account through Wells Fargo bank (please email mom@momsformarijuana if you would like to know how to do this),
-mailing a check or money order made payable to Moms for Marijuana c/o Sarah Caldwell (our director of Finance), 1814 S. Latah, Boise, Idaho, 83704
Be sure to include your return address, so we can send a thank you card!
Moms for Marijuana does not charge dues for membership and we do not like to ask for donations. Every expense is usually paid for out of the pockets of our directors and chapter leaders so anything you can do to help is very much appreciated.If we are unable to fund the Light up the Sky project in time, any donations received will be put towards our next project and help Moms for Marijuana become a charitable organization.
Thank you!
Much love & respect,
Serra Frank
Founding Director
Moms for Marijuana
http://www.momsformarijuana.com/
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Call Obama! From ASA via Bill Downing on wmdp
Americans for Safe Access (ASA) needs your help right now to respond to a renewed federal attack on medical cannabis patients and providers. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents raided twenty-six medical cannabis facilities in Montana and two in West Hollywood, CA, in the last forty-eight hours alone! We must tell the Obama Administration to stop the raids and create a federal policy that protects legal patients!
Call the White House at (202) 456-1414 between 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM EST and send an email right now:
“I am outraged by the recent federal raids on medical marijuana patients and providers in Montana and California. Medical marijuana patients and providers should not be subject to harassment or arrest, especially when they are obeying state law. I demand the Administration stop the raids, allow states to regulate medical marijuana, and develop a federal policy that protects patients once and for all. Thank you.”
On the Near Hanging of a Medical Marijuana User
By
LESTER GRINSPOON, M.D.
On November 4, 1989, Kerry Wiley, a 35-year-old computer science lecturer on sabbatical, was apprehended in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the possession of marijuana. He was accused of mailing himself a package containing marijuana from Thailand, and an informant tipped off the police who searched his apartment and found more marijuana. He was charged with the possession of over 500 grams of cannabis. Death by hanging is the prescribed penalty for possession of more than 200 grams (7.05 ounces) under Provision 39b of the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1983. One particularly chilling part of this law reads:"In any proceedings under this Act the provisions of this Act shall be construed and interpreted so as to give effect to the purpose of this Act without regard for ambiguities, or infirmities of language, or other defects or deficiencies therein..."More than a hundred people had been hanged in Malaysia under this law, including eight young Hong Kong residents the preceding summer. Bail is not allowed in such cases, and the prisoner may wait two to five years for trial. By the time Kerry came to trial he had spent over a year in the cruelly overcrowded Pudu prison, sleeping on a blanket on a cement floor in a small cell with several other prisoners, bathing in dirty water. Whereas the diet of the other prisoners was rice-based, his was restricted almost exclusively to potatoes apparently because he was an American. His nutritional state was poor and it was not surprising that his teeth were rotting. Nor was it surprising that he had become seriously depressed.
As a 12-year-old boy, while hiking alone on Christmas eve in the San Jacinto mountains, Kerry had slipped and fallen 60 feet down a ledge to sharp rocks below. He was not found until the next morning. Newspaper headlines described his survival as a "Christmas miracle" but he was left with serious disabilities, of which the worst was painful muscle spasms in his left shoulder and arm. Over the course of the next few years he was given a variety of analgesics, none of which he found satisfactory. At one point he became addicted to one of the opiate derivatives. Like many other people, including victims of quadriplegia, paraplegia and multiple sclerosis, Kerry, now a young adult, discovered that cannabis was far more useful for this kind of pain and had fewer side effects than any of the medicines doctors could prescribe. He began to use it regularly, and like anyone who needs a medicine for the relief of spasm and pain, he wanted to have assurance of an uninterrupted supply. There is no evidence that he ever abused cannabis or sold it.
I first heard about Kerry’s plight when I received a call in February of 1990 from his mother, Dr. Helen Wiley, a retired psychologist from Sacramento, California. Helen is a remarkable woman who, among other things, spent eight months living alone in a hotel in Kuala Lumpur to assist in her son’s defense. She called me because she had read "Medical Uses of Illicit Drugs," a chapter James B. Bakalar and I wrote for the book Dealing With Drugs, which she believed would be useful in the trial if I would redraft it as an affidavit. I replied that much more would be needed for her son’s defense and put her in touch with Ramsey Clark, former Attorney General of the United States, who shortly thereafter went to Malaysia and talked with Kerry’s Malaysian lawyer. Ramsey and I believed that a defense of medical necessity was the best and perhaps only hope for preventing a tragedy. Karpal Singh, the Malaysian lawyer, was understandably skeptical, since that defense had never been used in Malaysia.
By the time I arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Kerry’s defense was in the hands of another Malaysian lawyer by the name of Mohammed Shafee Abdullah. On technical grounds, he had prevented the admission of evidence concerning the cannabis Kerry allegedly mailed to himself from Thailand, but the cannabis found in his apartment (265.7 grams) would be enough to condemn him to death.
I arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, December 10th, 1990. I examined Kerry in Pudu prison for three hours that day, and again for two-and-a-half hours on Wednesday, December 12th. Before I examined him, I had an opportunity to see the x-rays of his left shoulder and arm; his humerus had not healed properly. In examining him, it was obvious that he had what must have been quite painful muscle spasms in and around the deltoid area of his left shoulder. He told me that the pain was not bad then because he had had a smoke just before he was brought to the room used for this type of examination. I was surprised -- --
"You use marijuana in here?"
"Pudu prison is the easiest place in Kuala Lumpur to buy marijuana. The guards sell marijuana to the prisoners.""It’s the only thing that controls the pain and spasms."
"But how do you get it in here?"
Once I recovered from my disbelief, I realized that it made sense: the guards earn extra money by selling marijuana and at the same time they make their jobs easier; people who are high on cannabis are generally not trouble-makers and they are not violent. I wondered to what extent this was practiced in U.S. prisons. I also spent an hour with the prison psychologist who had been treating Kerry for his depression.
I spent many hours with Shafee preparing the medical necessity defense, with which Shafee had no experience. This bright and affable man arranged for me to give a lecture on the evening of Thursday, December 13th to a group of influential Malaysian physicians and lawyers. I spoke of the serious confusion embodied in the Malaysian concept of "dadah," a generic term which treats opiates and cannabis as though they were identical. Most of my remarks were about the history of cannabis as a medicine. I started by pointing out that Dr. W. B. O’Shaughnessy’s groundbreaking work, published in 1839, was based on his observations of the medicinal use of cannabis among Indians and Malays. Seldom have I lectured to an audience that expressed so much interest in cannabis. They seemed starved for up-to-date, reliable, realistic information about the drug.
I was called to the stand at 9 AM on Friday, December 14th. Judge Shaik Daud Ismaill, who sat without a jury, immediately expressed his irritation at my presence by asking Shafee, as he tried to introduce me, "Why have you brought this man halfway around the globe to testify when it has been established that the defendant possessed 265.7 grams of cannabis and the punishment is prescribed?"
Shafee then introduced the notion of medical necessity and, after the judge reluctantly agreed to let me testify, he pursued the direct examination. Like so many people in the previous night’s audience, the judge became increasingly interested in the medical uses of cannabis in general and Kerry Wiley’s use of it in particular. The direct examination ended at 11:50 AM. The judge then asked the prosecutor whether the ten minutes remaining before the break for noon prayers would be enough for cross-examination. He replied: "Oh no, my Lord! It will take two or three hours for me to get the truth out of Dr. Grinspoon." I had heard from several sources that the prosecutor, Abdul Alim Abdullah, believed it would advance his career to convict and hang the first American under Provision 39b.
Everyone in the courtroom was surprised by the first question he put to me after the recess. He asked whether, in completing my disembarkation form for visitors to Malaysia, I had indicated that I was here for business or pleasure. I responded, "For business."
He interrupted me to say, "You mean the accused! And how many times did you examine the accused?""And what is your business here, Dr. Grinspoon?"
"My business is to examine the patient and appear as a witness at this trial."
Puzzled, I told him I knew nothing about this law. It was clear from their reactions that neither Shafee nor the judge knew about it either. Alim then said that he would charge and arrest me for the violation. The judge, after reading a page from a law book that Alim carried to the bench, satisfied himself that the law existed. He hesitated and then said, "You are within your right to arrest this man now, but if you do, you will not be able to cross-examine him and you said that you needed two to three hours of cross-examination." Alim, after a short conference with the head of the small contingent of men in uniform, decided to put the charge on hold and cross-examine me."Twice."
"How many hours did you spend examining the accused?"
"Five and a half hours."
"Good. And now you will kindly produce for the court the written authorization from the Ministry of Health as required by law for a foreigner to medically examine a prisoner in Malaysia."
He had a long list of questions that he crossed out one by one. The more he asked, the more ground he lost. Eventually, exasperated, he said, "Dr. Grinspoon, all that you have reported here about the capacity of cannabis to relieve suffering of one type or another comes from papers and journals. What has been your experience in observing this for yourself?" In response I told the court how smoking cannabis had given my son, who had suffered from lymphocytic leukemia, extraordinarily effective relief from the pernicious nausea and vomiting caused by some cancer chemotherapies. As someone from the American Embassy later said, "You could hear a pin drop in that courtroom." As I spoke, the prosecutor began to shuffle and rustle papers intrusively. The judge, who was obviously deeply interested in my story, raised his voice and said, "Mr. Alim, are you listening to Dr. Grinspoon? Are you getting this? Do you want him to start from the beginning?" Alim stopped shuffling papers. When I finished he pursued a few more questions and abruptly stopped, although he had only asked about two-thirds of the questions on his list. He then conferred with some other government people, including the above-mentioned man in uniform. It seemed clear that they were deciding whether to arrest me. Finally he told the judge that he had concluded his cross-examination, and the court was dismissed.
We were fairly sure that, given his comments during the cross-examination, the judge would not sentence Kerry to death. We also believed that Alim had decided not to arrest me because the publicity might damage his case (or career) even further. However, as we were preparing to leave the courtroom, Allen Kong, legal counsel to the American Embassy, told Shafee and me that I was not out of danger yet, that Alim (the government) might arrest me at Subang Airport that night as I left Kuala Lumpur. He also said that it would be wise for me to destroy any papers I did not want to fall into Alim’s hands and he gave me a telephone number where he could be reached. That evening Shafee accompanied me to the airport, where he obtained an airport security badge and walked me through customs and immigration, down the jet way, never leaving my side until the door to the airplane was closed.
The judge issued his ruling on January 17th, 1991. He said that "on the balance of probabilities there was enough evidence adduced from the accused to show that the cannabis was for his own consumption"—specifically, "to relieve pain from injuries he suffered in a fall off a mountain." He was sentenced to five years in jail, of which 26 months remained to be served, and, as a mandatory part of the sentence, ten strokes of the rattan. The cane used in Malaysia is particularly cruel and burdens the recipient with some motion limitation and pain for the rest of his life. The sentence was to be appealed.
On the advice of Ramsey Clark, I wrote to the Prime Minister, who was a physician. I pleaded with Dr. Mohamad Mahathir to spare the rattan. After reminding him that the rattan used in Malaysia cuts right to the periosteum of the bones in the spinal column and, as a consequence, burdens the victim with pain, particularly when he sits or lies on his back, which he has to bear the rest of his life. It was because he was already suffering from chronic pain that Kerry Wiley began to use marijuana in the first place. Did it make sense to impose another increment of chronic pain? Dr. Mohamad Mahathir never answered my letter but several months later, on February 24, 1993, as his appeal was pending, Kerry was quietly released from prison before the 26 months had expired and without the application of the rattan.
Kerry Wiley returned to the United States a broken man. His health was poor and he had lost his teeth. He became reclusive and he never returned to teaching.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
New Directions: A Public Safety and Health Approach to Drug Policy
For Immediate Release: Contact: Tony Newman (646) 335 5384
March 15, 2011 Reverend William Howard (973) 623-8161
Bethany Baptist Church and the Drug Policy Alliance Host New Directions Conference, March 19th in Newark , NJ
National and International Leaders in Law Enforcement, Public Health, Drug Treatment and Criminal Justice Reform will Meet to Chart A Public Safety and Health Approach to Drugs
On Saturday, March 19th, an unprecedented collection of community advocates, service providers, public safety personnel and public health professionals will come together at a day-long conference to chart a new course in drug policy that could serve as a model for the nation. The New Directions conference will examine the decades-old ramifications of President Nixon’s declaration of the “war on drugs” in urban communities like Newark and African American communities in particular.
One of the unique themes of the conference will be how the war on drugs has increased prohibition-related violence, leading to declines in property values, the evaporation of local businesses, and an array of social ills in urban areas. Convened at Bethany Baptist Church , one of the oldest and largest African American churches in Newark , the conference will speak to the unique concerns and viewpoints of communities of color as they look for new ways to reduce the harms of drug use and drug prohibition. The conference will serve as a model for cities across the nation looking for new directions and strategies for ending the war on drugs.
Drug policy experts from across the country and around the globe will discuss topics including: reducing crime and incarceration, effectively addressing addiction, treating drug use as a health issue, communities of color and the war on drugs, and drug policy lessons and models from abroad. The keynote address will be given by Michelle Alexander, whose book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, has sparked a national discussion about the drug war’s disparate impact on communities of color.
When asked about the war on drugs on the campaign trail, President Barack Obama said, “I believe in shifting the paradigm, shifting the model, so that we focus more on a public health approach [to drugs].” Polls show the American people agree. President Obama’s drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, told the Wall Street Journal last year that he doesn’t like the term “war on drugs” because “[w]e’re not at war with people in this country.” Yet for the tens of millions of Americans who have been arrested and incarcerated for a drug offense, U.S. drug policy is a war on them—and their families. What exactly is a public health approach to drugs? What might truly ending the war on drugs look like?
“We see the impact of the ‘drug war’ first hand, where so many people are incarcerated for being economically disadvantaged by the disappearance of work,” says Bethany Baptist Church pastor, Reverend William Howard. “Afterwards, they are virtually permanently barred from the legal workforce for the rest of their lives. We must take our stand against the destructive scourge of drug abuse and trafficking by developing new, sensible strategies that solve more problems than they create.”
The conference will be guided by four principles:
- The war on drugs has failed and it is time for a new approach to drug policy.
- Effective drug policy balances prevention, harm reduction, treatment and public safety.
- Alcohol and other drug use is fundamentally a health issue and must be addressed as such.
- Drug policies must be based on science, compassion, health and human rights.
Panel members and conference speakers include:
· Rev. Dr. M. William Howard , Jr., pastor, Bethany Baptist Church
· Ethan Nadelmann, executive director, Drug Policy Alliance
· Paula T. Dow, New Jersey Attorney General
· Garry F. McCarthy, police director, City of Newark
· Michelle Alexander, Esq., associate professor, Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law and the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity; Author, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
· Beny Primm, MD, executive director, Addiction, Research and Treatment Corporation, Brooklyn , New York
· Todd Clear, dean, School of Criminal Justice , Rutgers University
· Donald MacPherson, former drug policy coordinator, City of Vancouver
· Alex Stevens, professor of Criminal Justice, School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent, Chatham, UK
· Stephanie Bush-Baskette, Esq., Author and Director of the Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies at Rutgers University
· Deborah Peterson Small, Founder and Executive Director, Break the Chains: Communities of Color & the War on Drugs
For a full list of panel members, go to: http://www.drugpolicy.org/docUploads/DPA_New_Directions_NJ_final_prog_REFERENCE.pdf
The Drug Policy Alliance is co-hosting the 2011 New Directions conference with the Bethany Baptist Church . For more information on the conference visit:
# # #
Yolande Cadore | Director of Strategic Partnerships
Drug Policy Alliance
70 West 36th Street, 16th Floor | New York, N.Y. 10018
Phone: 212-613-8051 | Fax: 212-613-8021
Cell: 646-281-2804
Think the drug war is doing more harm than good? Join us!
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