The Compassionate Coalition

From: Aaron Smith
Sent: Saturday, March 8, 2008 3:43pm
To: asmith@mpp.org
Subject: Support medical marijuana: write a letter to the Bee today!

Dear Friends in Sacramento County,

Today, the Sacramento Bee published an editorial calling on the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors to implement the medical marijuana ID card program. Fortunately, there's time for patients and other Sacramento County residents who support medical marijuana to write letters to the editor and have them published before the Board of Supervisors votes on the ID card program on March 18. You can read it here: http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/769554.html .

Will you please write a letter to the editor of the Bee, thanking them for taking a stand for local patients and urging the county Board of Supervisors to implement the medical marijuana ID card program?

Letters to the editor must be no more than 200 words and can be submitted using the Bee's online form: http://www.sacbee.com/326/story/19629.html .

Please make sure to fill out all the fields in the form (only your name and city will be printed), and reference today's editorial entitled, "Like It or Not, It's the Law."

Talking points supporting the ID card program are posted below. Feel free to contact me at asmith@mpp.org or (866) 287-6792 for tips on letter writing.

Please act fast because time is of the essence in the newspaper business!

After you submit your letter, please pass this message on to others in Sacramento County, so that they too can write letters in support of medical marijuana patients and our state's medical marijuana ID card program.

Thank you for supporting MPP and Sacramento's medical marijuana patients.

Sincerely,
Aaron Smith
California Organizer
Marijuana Policy Project

P.S. The Sacramento ID card hearing is currently scheduled for March 18 at 3:00 p.m. Please save the date so that you can attend and speak out in support of the program. Stay tuned: more details to follow.

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Why we support implementing California's medical marijuana ID card program in Sacramento County:

- Most California counties (including neighboring Amador, El Dorado, Placer, and Yolo) have already implemented the ID card program. In order to provide for uniform application of the law, Sacramento County should follow its neighbors and begin program implementation without further delay.

- The ID card program will greatly assist law enforcement officers in identifying bona fide medical marijuana patients, freeing up their time to focus on genuine criminal activity.

- The ID card protects patients and caregivers from lengthy
detainment, arrest, seizure of property, and unnecessary court proceedings. While patients are not required to participate in the ID card program, many choose to because they cannot afford the personal risk of wrongful prosecution that those without ID cards face.

- The county has a legal responsibility to implement the program, as a requirement of Senate Bill 420, passed into law in 2003 and upheld by a San Diego Superior Court ruling in December 2006.

- The county will not incur any additional costs by implementing the ID card program because the county is allowed to set its own fees to recoup the start-up and operating costs.

- Voters' support of safe and legal access to medical marijuana has only grown stronger since the passage of the Compassionate Use Act (Prop. 215) in 1996. According to an independent poll conducted in 2006, nearly three out of four Californians support the state's medical marijuana laws - including most Republicans.

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F. Aaron Smith, California Organizer
Marijuana Policy Project
www.mpp.org
asmith@mpp.org
Ph: (866) 287-6792

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"Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary, and capricious for the DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of the substance."
-- Francis L. Young, DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge, 1988