The Compassionate Coalition

Message from Aaron Smith, California Organizer for the Marijuana Policy Project:

The California legislature is beginning its Spring Recess and lawmakers are heading back to their districts. This presents a great opportunity for you to meet with your state legislators and talk to them about medical marijuana access. There are currently four bills pending in Sacramento which need to pass this year in order to provide patients safer and less expensive access to medical marijuana. Please help MPP to improve California’s medical marijuana law by taking some time to meet with your state legislators.

Please call me at (866) 287-6792 or e-mail asmith@mpp.org so that I can help you to set up an appointment with your state Assemblymember or Senator. Be sure to include the city or town where you reside in any e-mail correspondence to me, that way I can easily match you up to a legislative district. It is important that you coordinate the meeting through MPP so that we can ensure that the most important targets meet face-to-face with their constituents. Please let me know of any special connection you have to the issue, including if you’re a patient, a caregiver, or a medical professional.

With four pieces of legislation being considered in the State Capitol this year, this is an historic year for California’s medical marijuana patients:

SJR 20: A resolution authored by Sen. Carole Migden (D-San Francisco) that calls for an end to the DEA raids in California, the resolution also denounces the federal government’s recent tactic of threatening to seize the property of landlords who rent to medical marijuana facilities. Further, SJR 20 urges Congress and the President to enact federal legislation that would protect medical marijuana patients and providers from arrest and prosecution.

SB 1098: A bill authored by Sen. Carole Migden (D-San Francisco) that provides tax-amnesty to medical marijuana dispensing collectives for the period prior to October 2005, when the state was not accepting sales tax payments, making it impossible for dispensaries to pay.

AB 2743: A bill authored by Asm. Lori Saldaña (D-San Diego) that directs state and local law enforcement agencies to not cooperate with the DEA or other federal law enforcement agencies in their attack on sick and dying medical marijuana patients and their caregivers.

AB 2279: A bill co-authored by Asms. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), Patty Berg (D-Eureka), Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), and Lori Saldaña (D-San Diego), and sponsored by Americans for Safe Access, prohibiting employers from discriminating against employees and applicants for employment based solely on their use of medical marijuana while away from work.

Will you please contact me today about meeting with your legislator on these important bills? Thanks you for supporting MPP and California’s medical marijuana patients. Please don’t forget to forward this message to other Californians who support safe, affordable access to medical marijuana so that they too can advocate for reform in the State Capitol.