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Support SB 1193 in California – Americans for Safe Access
SB 1193 is a bill by California Senator Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) that would require that law enforcement return wrongfully-confiscated medical cannabis or plants or pay the owner reasonable compensation. The bill also simplifies the procedures for handling cannabis and plants seized as evidence. Americans for Safe Access (ASA) supports this bill because law-abiding patients have a right to get their property back.
Click here to sign this petition to support SB 1193 today.
ASA will hand deliver copies of this petition to lawmakers’ offices before key votes in committees and on the floors of the Senate and Assembly. We will also take it directly to the Governor’s office when the bill is ready for his signature.
Oppose Colorado SB14-177/178: Changing the definition of “Drug-Endangered Child”
Legislators in Colorado are rushing to pass harmful bills that would expand the drug war by allowing law enforcement to take children away from parents who are suspected of any legal or illegal drug use or possession. With no exemption for medical cannabis use, this could potentially make all parents who use medical cannabis criminals!
Don’t ban indoor cultivation in Sacramento County – Americans for Safe Access
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors will have a public hearing on Tuesday, April 22, to consider a motion to ban indoor cultivation of medical cannabis in the unincorporated areas of the county. The unincorporated areas are those inside the county, but outside the borders of any city. ASA is calling on members and allies to speak up in advance of this hearing and to speak in opposition to the ban on Tuesday morning.
Oppose AB 2500 in California – Americans for Safe Access
The California Assembly Committee on Public Safety will hear testimony and vote on AB 2500, a bill authored by Assembly Jim Frazier (D-Fairfield), on Tuesday, April 29. The bill will make it a crime to drive with two or more nanograms of THC (one of the active compounds in cannabis) in your blood – even if you are not driving while impaired. This limit is arbitrary and unscientific. Regular medical cannabis users will almost always test positive for two or more nanograms of THC, because cannabis is detectable in the blood for days after it is used. This bill could turn every legal patient who drives in California into a criminal!
Oppose AB 1588 in California – Americans for Safe Access
The California Assembly Committee on Public Safety will hear testimony on AB 1588, a bill authored by Assembly Member Connie Conway (R- Visalia), on Tuesday, March 11. Americans for Safe Access (ASA) would like to ask members and allies to speak up in opposition to this bill at or before Tuesday’s hearing. Please take a minute to call or email the Assembly Members listed below and ask them to oppose AB 1588. There is not much time to stop the bill in the committee, so do it today!
Ask your US Rep to sign Blumenhauer’s letter – Americans for Safe Access
US Representative Earl Blumenhauer (D-OR) is sending a letter to President Obama asking him to follow his recent comments on cannabis and its classification under federal law with action. Call your US Representative today and ask him or her to support this effort by signing Representative Blumenhauer’s letter.
Find your Representative & Contact them Today!
Support the CA Medical Marijuana Organ Transplant Act – Americans for Safe Access
A patient in California can be denied a life-saving organ transplant solely based on the fact that he or she uses medical cannabis! Legal patients have died after being removed from the organ transplant list, and others are in jeopardy right now. Americans for Safe Access, the nation’s leading medical cannabis patients’ advocacy organization, proposes legislation to prevent anyone from being denied a transplant because of medical cannabis. Sign this petition to let lawmakers know you support the Medical Marijuana Organ Transplant Act to provide equal access to health care for legal patients.
Federal: Third Time the Charm – Americans for Safe Access
On August 29, 2013, Attorney General Eric Holder and the DOJ announced a shift in policy regarding federal enforcement of state-sponsored marijuana programs. A memo was also issued by Deputy AG James Cole to US Attorneys that explained the new “trust but verify” approach as well as instituting new guidelines for prosecution.
This is great news for our community, but it is a shift in policy not a change in law which means cannabis is still illegal at the federal level in the US. Help us turn this shift in policy into actual law by reaching out to your Congressperson to support legislation like HR 689.
As of now, the federal government will permit states to regulate their own cannabis programs without interference so long as state law complies with the new DOJ guidelines. However, these guidelines are just recommendations to be taken into consideration by federal prosecutors and can be deviated from. To help answer questions about what this policy shift means and how the medical cannabis community should move forward, ASA has published our analysis as a report.
The report, “Third Time the Charm? State Laws on Medical Cannabis Distribution and Department of Justice Guidance on Enforcement,” shows that states have already enacted regulations that meet federal concerns, and some would have stronger regulations if it were not for federal threats that disrupted the legislative process. The report concludes with recommendations for how federal and state legislators can protect patients and harmonize state and federal policies.
Stop the Unnecessary Third Prosecution of Jovan Jackson – Americans for Safe Access
San Diego District Attorney and anti-medical cannabis crusader Bonnie Dumanis wants to put a patient-provider on trial for the third time. Americans for Safe Access (ASA) needs your help to stop this unnecessary prosecution and to keep fighting for patients’ rights statewide.
San Diego medical patient-provider and navy veteran Jovan Jackson was acquitted of all medical cannabis charges in his first trial in 2009, but District Attorney Dumanis opted to try him again later that year. His conviction in the second trial was overturned by a successful appeal filed by ASA. That appeal, People v. Jackson, now guarantees medical cannabis providers statewide a medical defense in court, something denied to Mr. Jackson in his second trial.
Our victory in People v. Jackson should have been the end of the story, but District Attorney Dumanis has decided to prosecute Mr. Jackson for a third time. This latest trial is unnecessary and harmful. ASA is asking medical cannabis supporters statewide to sign a petition asking District Attorney Dumanis and Superior Court Judge Louis R. Hanoian to stop the trial in the interest of justice and leave Jovan Jackson alone.
Wisconsin: Support the Jacki Rickert Medical Cannabis Act – Americans for Safe Access
Support the The Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act (AB 480/SB 363)
Sponsors: Sen. John Erpenbach; Rep. Chris Taylor
See ASA’s legislative analysis here.
What the bill does:
The Jacki Rickert Medical Cannabis Act would create a comprehensive medical cannabis access system for Wisconsin patients. The bill would allow physicians in a bona fide relationship with a patient to recommend medical cannabis for certain conditions or treatment of certain symptoms. Patients, caregivers, providers, and physicians are protected from arrest and prosecution for conduct allowed by the law. It authorizes the Department of Health Services (DHS) to issue regulations on the creation of compassion centers where regulations. Compassion centers may not operate within 500 feet of a school or park. Patients or their registered caregivers may cultivate their own medicine in an enclosed, locked space. DHS may impose a registration fee on patients and caregivers, as well as promulgate other rules related to the medical cannabis program. Patients or their caregivers would not be legally protected if they possess more medicine than is allowed by law or if the patient smokes their medicine in a school, on mass transit, or any other public place.
The bill appears to meet the 8 guidelines set forth in the August 29, 2013 memorandum from the U.S. Department of Justice, “Guidance for Marijuana Enforcement,” (A.K.A. the 2013 Cole Memo).