Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Action alert - Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment Responding to growing conflict between states and the federal government over the issue of medical marijuana, Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) will offer an amendment later this month to the Science, State, and Justice spending bill to forbid the U.S. Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from spending any federal tax dollars to target and prosecute patients who possess or use medicinal cannabis in compliance with their state laws. Eighty percent of the American public supports the physician-supervised use of cannabis as a medicine, and they do not wish to see their tax dollars wasted by those in Congress who would target the sick and dying in their overzealous war on drugs. Last year, 161 members of Congress voted in favor of Hinchey-Rohrabacher, but we need 57 more members to join with them to stop Washington's war on patients. Sincerely, Allen St. Pierre Executive Director Member, Board of Directors NORML/NORML Foundation This is the fourth attempt for this provision in as many years. Write your representative now! Here's the result of the vote on this amendment from 2005. [does M. Simon care to comment?] 4:42:22 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Back from New York I had an exhilarating and exhausting time in New York, seeing 7 shows and giving walking tours, while hosting a tour group of 74 people. I'm back now and trying to recover. Obviously, it was a bit difficult to keep up with posting during that time, but a big thanks is due to the regular commenters who did a marvelous job of watching out for Drug WarRant in my absence. In particular, check out the comments from my last post, with Sandra LaCagnina's complaint about my involvement in Vigil for Lost Promise. While I wasn't available to immediately respond, everyone else has done a wonderful job. And Sandra, I don't delete comments simply because they disagree with my views. As you can see, I don't even delete them when they accuse me of things I don't do. You are welcome here, and I encourage you to join in the dialog. 4:03:40 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []