McCool Comments

Colleen,------------------------------------------------------10/19.2007

I just returned from Los Angeles where I attended the national conference for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana laws, NORML.org.

While there I learned that the DEA was raiding a cannabis dispensary on the edge of downtown LA. I grabbed a taxi and got there in time to see a platoon of about 18 LAPD officers standing guard while the DEA stole the cash and cannabis from this state sanctioned facility.

Thousands of taxpayer dollars were frittered away, LAPD was kept from their real job of protecting us from aberant behavior and after the DEA and the cops left the cannabis club began selling their wares again.

I invite you to peruse a series of videos I produced while in Los Angeles. The videos include a look at the police tactics, a gathering of protesters from Americans for safe access and a look at the wreckage left behind by the DEA. I have also produced 3 other videos from interviews conducted with national and California activists working to end the war on some drugs.

The link to the DEA bust is here:

Cannabis Dispensary video one features Land Use Atty. James Anthony of Green-Aid.com and Cliff Schaffer of MarijuanaBusinessNews.com discuss the burgeoning medical marijuana industry.

Cannabis Dispensary video two features a discussion of cannabis dispensaries by Jeff Jones who runs a dispensary, Steve Dillon, chairman of NORML and Superior Court Judge James P. Gray, author of Why our Drug Laws have Failed, a Judicial Indictment of the war on drugs.

Cannabis Dispensary video three features Dr. Mitch Earleywine, author of Understanding Marijuana and Rebecca Saltzman Chief of Staff of Americans for Safe Access discuss medical marijuana.

I invite you to watch the videos and to realize that the war on marijuana is over for most of California where it is said to be the number one cash crop. California cities and counties have embraced the idea of cannabis dispensaries and willingly accept the taxes generated. The populace sees it as no big deal.

Sincerely,

Dean Becker
Producer - Drug Truth Network
Member - Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
713-849-6869

More current letters

Dear Colleen, ----------------------------------------------------------December 13, 2007

The following is a shocking and horrifying story about how an internationally known company is using a mandatory binding arbitration clause in an employment contract to hide the truth and prevent a woman who was raped to have her day in court and hold her attacker accountable.

“Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone (of Iraq), the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job.” – ABC News, 20/20

What is just as appalling is that Jamie will never have an opportunity to hold her rapists or her employers accountable in a court of law. Her employment contract, like millions of other Americans, includes a Binding Mandatory Arbitration clause. So instead of having her day in court, she’ll be forced into a privatized justice system with no public record. “Since no criminal charges have been filed, the only other option, according to Hutson, is the civil system, which is the approach that Jones is trying now. But Jones' former employer doesn't want this case to see the inside of a civil courtroom. KBR has moved for Jones' claim to be heard in private arbitration, instead of a public courtroom. It says her employment contract requires it.” – ABC News, 20/20

The Arbitration Fairness Act (H.R. 3010/S. 1782), would ban Binding Mandatory Arbitration clauses in contracts like Jamie’s, and also in most other consumer, franchise, and securities contracts. Tell Your Representatives To Cosponsor the Arbitration Fairness Act Today Join me in making sure that America never has to see another case like Jamie Leigh Jones, please take a moment and contact your Representatives today.

As always, thank you for your continued support,

Sean Peter Flaherty
People Over Profits Campaign Team----------------More Current Letters

Restore Habeas Corpus -- the fundamental constitutional right that allows citizens to challenge the lawfulness of their imprisonment. President Bush currently has the power to declare anyone, including U.S. citizens, "enemy combatants" and throw them in jail indefinitely without any explanation for their imprisonment.

In October of last year, the Republican-controlled Congress passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA), which suspended the right of habeas corpus for the first time since the Civil War.

Without habeas corpus, we've taken the first step on a very slippery slope towards dictatorship. So e-mail your senators today..

Please share this message with anyone you know who cares about saving our Constitution.

Thank you for working to build a better world.

Will Easton, Manager
ActForChange.com/Working Assets

Throughout history people have found ways to alter their conscienceness. In primitive societies psychoactive plants were sacred and ingested with care, with supposed spiritual intent, but use was often limited to a corrupt powerful few who used fear and superstition to control the masses.

Today to celebrate, to relax, to just feel better, to live without pain, fear, uncertainty, depression and doubt we use our favorite legal or illegal drug. Nationally, globally, enmasse, we are a High Society!

Dr. Albert Hoffman, LSD inventor, is dead at 102, a son died at 53 of alcoholism. Dr. Hofmann called LSD "medicine for the soul," and believed LSD could be "used to awaken a deeper awareness of mankind's place in nature and help curb society's ultimately self-destructive degradation of the natural world." Before his death, he said, "I go back to where I came from, to where I was before I was born, that's all."

When we stand in awe of the wonders of creation, all the animals, all the plants and are struck with the magnificent power and beauty of nature, our spirit connects with our source. This feeling of oneness or love gives us more self control, more compassion for others. It heals our spirit. If some carry on the ancient tradition of using drugs as a sacrament, to enhance spiritual growth, it is cause for rejoicing not incarceration.

The Almighty Creator is the source of all creativity. Our individual dreams, the American dream and all dreams of freedom around the world come from our source. The Holy Spirit has the power to make them manifest.

What kind of life, what kind of world do we want to create? Focusing on the true nature of creativity as a spiritual issue, not an ego issue, can help us transform ourselves and our world. This simple shift in focus creates the nurturing atmosphere needed to work together to overcome obstacles and solve problems. (Continue)

URGENT ALERT; 10/18, 2007

Bonnie Raitt: There's something happening here. Watch The Video -- Sign The Petition!

Working Assets has joined with musicians Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Ben Harper and Bonnie Raitt on a petition to Congress to prevent a costly bailout of the nuclear power industry.

Please act now to help us remove a clause from a pending Energy Bill that could force taxpayers to underwrite construction of an unknown number of new nuclear power plants. Instead, the bill should fund the renewable and efficiency technologies that can solve global warming, guarantee a secure economy, and create millions of jobs.

Sign the petition to Congress and stop the pending nuclear power industry bailout.

Guantánamo Bay: Help Amnesty tear it down.
You can make Guantánamo Bay disappear –- and help tear down detention camps that have become synonymous with torture, injustice, and an utter betrayal of human rights. Tearitdown.org is a powerful new Amnesty International project dramatically visualizing the commitment of 500,000 people to tear down Guantánamo Bay.

See for yourself. Act right now to tear down a piece of Guantánamo Bay!

Join Amnesty International in this powerful display of commitment to human rights. Strike the final blow to the Administration's failed policies at Guantánamo Bay. Get your pixel today.

More current letters!

Ethan Nadelman letterhead

March 13, 2008

Dear Colleen,

I am excited to announce that the Drug Policy Alliance Network (DPA’s lobbying arm) is sponsoring a ballot measure in California that represents the biggest sentencing and prison reform in United States history.

The Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act (NORA) is unprecedented in scope and magnitude. It will transform California's dysfunctional, $10-billion-a-year prison system, reversing its rampant and costly expansion. NORA will, within just a few years, reduce by tens of thousands the number of people unjustly and unnecessarily incarcerated, while maintaining public safety. At the same time, it will provide a comprehensive model for a public health approach to substance use.

Success in California will transform the drug policy reform landscape nationwide!

At a time when one in 100 adult Americans is in prison, California faces a prison overcrowding crisis that may be the worst in the nation. The system is at 175% of capacity. This is due in large part to excessive incarceration of nonviolent offenders, many of whom are drug law violators. Overcrowding has been exacerbated by the state's failure to provide meaningful recidivism-reduction programs, including addiction treatment and other rehabilitation services.

NORA will change that. First, the measure builds on California's successful treatment-instead-of-incarceration program, Proposition 36. That law, which DPA Network helped to write and pass in November 2000, generated more than $1.5 billion in net savings in just seven years, reduced the number of nonviolent drug law offenders behind bars, and was not associated with any increase in crime. Tens of thousands of additional nonviolent offenders would qualify for similar diversion programs under NORA, dramatically reducing the number of people unnecessarily locked up while decreasing the likelihood of recidivism.

The measure would also make low-level marijuana possession an infraction--equivalent to a traffic ticket--rather than a misdemeanor, a sentencing change that could affect 40,000 people a year and conserve millions of dollars in court resources for other, more serious cases. To further help young people struggling with substance abuse, NORA provides dedicated funding of about $65 million per year to build a system of care that would offer treatment to at-risk youth.

Besides helping youth and people who have been arrested for nonviolent drug offenses, NORA would dramatically expand rehabilitation services for people in prison and on parole, and prohibit the return to prison of nonviolent offenders who commit minor violations of parole. Spending on these programs, which are proven to reduce crime and recidivism, will be more than paid for by reductions in prison and parole costs. NORA is projected to save at least $2.5 billion on future prison construction costs, too, by rendering new prisons unnecessary.

This comprehensive and cost-effective reform package, with a focus on a public health approach to substance use problems, would do more than benefit California--it would serve as a model for states across the country.

Years of research, experience and insight went into the drafting of the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act. Daniel Abrahamson, DPA Network’s director of legal affairs and co-author of the initiative, led the collaborative effort. DPA Network thanks the many individuals and agencies who worked with us on its creation, particularly the Campaign for New Drug Policies, co-sponsor of the measure with DPA Network.

We encourage all reformers to learn about and support the measure by visiting DPA Network's website or by contacting Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, DPA Network’s Southern California regional director.

Sincerely,

Ethan Nadelmann
Executive Director
Drug Policy Alliance

and

Stefanie Jones
Conference Coordinator
Drug Policy Alliance

Drug Policy Alliance
70 West 36th Street, 16th Floor
New York, NY 10018

Get a PDF copy of the Donation Form.

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..

MPP Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C. - Nov. 7, 2007

Dear Colleen Minter-McCool:

Teenagers who smoke marijuana but not cigarettes are more likely to get good grades, play sports, and live with both parents than those who use both marijuana and tobacco, according to a new Swiss study.

The researchers concluded, "Cannabis-only adolescents show better functioning than those who also use tobacco."

Of course, this study isn't generally something you'll see on CNN or other U.S. mainstream media outlets, unlike U.S. government-funded studies that purport to show marijuana's harmful effects, which always seem to get extensive news coverage.

That said, Fox News has an online story , which you should "Digg" to make it one of the biggest news stories of the day. If you have a moment right now, please do so without delay.

Other than the Fox News story, only Reason Magazine's blog and United Press International have covered the study — which was just published in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. You can view the abstract of the study (and purchase the full study).

The study compared teens who (1) smoked both marijuana and cigarettes, (2) smoked marijuana but not cigarettes, and (3) used neither.

The study found that teens who smoke marijuana were more likely to have a good relationship with their friends than teens who didn't use marijuana or cigarettes.

(continue)

Quote of the Day:

"Frankly, it is too easy to pass bills. Bills flow through this body like water."
-- Sen. Jeff Sessions

In our system of government, Senators have longer terms than Representatives. In theory, this gives them freedom to be more far-sighted and more statesmanlike than Representatives, who are constantly seeking re-election. Sometimes, democratic passions cause the House to pass popular but seriously flawed bills, and the framers of the Constitution created the Senate so that cooler heads would prevail. It seemed to work: for generations the Senate was considered the "world's greatest deliberative body."

But today, the Senate passes most bills unread and without any deliberation. In fact, bills are often rushed through without Senators even knowing about them. Their "consent" to a bill is assumed, and this leads to bills being passed by "unanimous consent." It is a process called "hotlining." Paul Jacob has a good column on it this week.

A Senator's office is notified by phone of a bill that both the majority leader and minority leader would like to see passed without debate. The Senator's staff is given a deadline to place a "hold" on the bill. A hold can be placed for any number of reasons - the Senator may want to obstruct passage of the bill, as Sen. Stevens famously tried to obstruct the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act last year. Or, a Senator may place a hold if he or she wants to introduce an amendment. Or maybe the Senator just wants time to read and consider the bill. But there are many occasions when Senators aren't even given a fair chance to place a hold. As Sen. Sessions of Alabama tells it:

"In each Senate office there are three telephones with hotline buttons on them. Most evenings, sometimes after business hours, these phones begin to ring. The calls are from the Republican and the Democratic leaders to each of their Members, asking consent to pass this or that bill--not consider the bill or have debate on the bill but to pass it. Those calls will normally give a deadline. If the staff do not call back in 30 minutes, the bill passes. Boom. It can be 500 pages. In many offices, when staffers do not know anything about the bill, they usually ignore the hotline and let the bill pass without even informing their Senators. If the staff miss the hotline, or do not know about it or were not around, the Senator is deemed to have consented to the passage of some bill which might be quite an important piece of information." Source: Sessions' website

Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma elaborates:
"During the 109th Congress (2005-2006), 341 bills and joint resolutions were passed by the Senate. According to the Congressional Research Service, only 21 of those bills received a roll call vote on the Senate floor. That means 94 percent of law making measures that were passed through the Senate were passed by UC or by voice vote. A large majority of these were hotlined and therefore excluded from full and open debate and the amendment process. In the 109th Congress, 1,408 bills, resolutions, or nominations were attempted to be hotlined, with as many as 40 measures being hotlined in a single day." Source: Coburn's website

No wonder government grows so quickly. A Senator may have a headache and call it a night, and when he returns to his office the next day he finds out he "consented" to several bills he knew nothing about. Calling the Senate a "rubber stamp" is an insult to rubber stamps.

And it is we the people who suffer. We are the ones who must pay for the government's wasteful programs and obey its unnecessary laws. The least we should expect is that our representatatives in Congress read and understand the bills they pass. The least we should expect is that all bills actually come to a floor vote, and are not "passed" via telephone messages. That is why we must pressure Congress to pass the Read the Bills Act.

Tell Congress you are disgusted by procedures such as the Senate's hotlining process. Tell them that they should read and understand every bill they want passed, and that bills should actually be voted on in both chambers. Tell them to pass the Read the Bills Act.

Finally, last week the Senate passed 8 bills amounting to 462 pages of legislation. The House passed 17 bills and 295 pages. Almost all of them are worthy of comment, but we just don't have the time. The list of bills can be found at the bottom of the blog version of this Dispatch.

Thank you for being a DC Downsizer.

Sincerely,

James Wilson
Assistant to the President
DownsizeDC.org

March 21, 2008

Dear Colleen,

On the Fifth Anniversary of the U.S. attack on Iraq there was a lot happening. The peace movement focused its attention on Winter Soldier where vets from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars spoke out describing the dehumanizing atrocities of these wars. More than 100 people were arrested in protests in Washington, DC. All over the country Iraq forums were held. I participated in an event in Baltimore where the focus was on the economic impact of the war.

The presidential candidates were also active on Iraq.

John McCain went to Iraq on the Fifth Anniversary with two strong campaign supporters, Senators Joseph Lieberman and Lindsay Graham. McCain focused on the success of the surge and the need to stay the course. He got caught up in a gaffe for claiming al Qaeda was working with Iran, when in fact, they are enemies.

Hillary Clinton took the opportunity of the anniversary to put forward a major speech on the Iraq War and re-stated her promise to begin the exit of combat troops sixty days after her inauguration. She did not promise to remove all troops, private military contractors or U.S. corporations from Iraq.

Barack Obama was dealing with the controversy of the remarks of his pastor but his campaign put out an advertisement that took Clinton to task for her vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq, gave a speech on the Iraq occupation and described how every American is economically impacted by the war. Like Clinton, Obama calls for only a partial withdrawal of troops.

Nader-Gonzalez put out a Fifth Anniversary statement describing the military attack and occupation of Iraq as illegal and unwarranted. Nader-Gonzalez pledged a complete withdrawal within six months and urged people to join their peace train. They also compared the lies of Bush-Cheney to Elliot Spitzer.

Cynthia McKinney spoke at anti-war rallies in Los Angeles and San Francisco urging a rapid end to the war and describing the need for an overall change in direction for U.S. foreign policy. She blamed Bush-Cheney, as well as the Congress, for the Iraq occupation.

The links above are to the Voters For Peace collection on each of the presidential candidates. The collection includes news Continue

October 21,2007

Dear Colleen and Leonard,

You are right about Ron Paul, man I wish I was out there to help him. He amazes me with his honesty and truthfulness. I'd like to see his campaign catch on. Send info on him if you can. Put my address on the web.

Your friend,

Thomas Thompson*

#1271133

Ellis Unit T/C

1697 FM 980

Huntsville, TX 77343

*Dear Reader, through our years of correspondence I have learned: Thomas is in prison for robbing banks because he became so frustrated by the corruption in law enforcement in the Permian Basin area. He claims he was targeted for his alleged help in busting his cousin, a crooked sheriff. When he found out these same people had made sure he received 75 years for 2 joints and seven pain pills, he ran, living underground around Austin for 19 months pulling bank jobs. He alleges his wife (now deceased) was raped by a member of law enforcement and at one point his probation was revoked for an overdue library book!

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Join the Global
Write-a-thon today!
© Amnesty International ----------------------------11/8/2007

"Because of Amnesty International ten years became ten months." --Jennifer Latheef, a photojournalist from the Maldives, was sentenced to ten years in prison for photographing a peaceful protest.

Dear Colleen

"A letter brings an unimaginable amount of hope.... to keep fighting, because whatever happens you know those people who sent the letters know your story."

Jennifer Latheef's story is not unique. She is one of the thousands of prisoners of conscience who received letters from people like you, just when she needed it, when all hope was lost. We know from experience that your letters can help stop torture, improve prisoner's treatment, and even lead to their freedom. Your letters truly make a difference.

Join the Global Write-a-thon December 7-10 and help us send over 70,000 letters on behalf of individuals like Jennifer Latheef.

Participation is easy. You can either pledge to write letters by yourself, or, you can plan a letter writing event, at your home, school, church or even at your local cafe. Although many events will take place the weekend of December 7-10, you can hold your event anytime during that week. Register to host an event or pledge your letters and we'll provide everything you'll need to take action.

Your letters are the watchdogs, putting perpetrators of abuse on notice. Your letters are the light that shines through the despair prisoners of conscience face on a daily basis. Your letters are tools of freedom, paving the way for the abused and battered to finally find freedom.

This December, please join us in the Global Write-a-thon. Your letters may change someone's life.

In solidarity,

Larry Cox
Executive Director

More Current Letters

Our Founders were not into forcing people to be good, they were into self-government and instituted the people are grand and government is small plan! They separated church and state to keep the government out of moral issues. Yet, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of '76 is still our true north.

The tool we need to fight drug abuse is compassion. Treat nonviolent abusers as patients not criminals. Fight use with factual evidence! We are diminishing the use of tobacco with the campaign, Knowledge is Contagious, so Infect Truth!

The cumulative effect of current policy is becoming obvious; while we police individual recreational and medicinal use of drugs, murderers and violent sexual predators roam free. Get tough on violent crime! Restore justice! Warriors can earn their pay and get their adrenaline rush solving homicides, molestations and rapes.

Psychiatric drug use is soaring in the UK and the US. American children take anti-psychotic medicines, mostly to treat autism and hyperactivity, at about six times the rate of children in the United Kingdom.

It seems the anti-addiction 'super pills' aren't. They block pleasure, raising the risk of depression and suicide!

It should be a crime for prosecutors to intentionally withhold evidence. If they cause a grave injustice they should be prosecuted, duh. Right here in Big D, the battle for justice turns to ethics! Craig Watkins is a Dallas County district attorney who has a national reputation for freeing the wrongfully convicted. His Texas jurisdiction leads the nation in DNA exonerations.

Tim Garon's death due to being denied a liver transplant for using medical marijuana is shocking! It is testimony to the ignorance and bigotry of our medical establishment!

"I think people in this country, when they see a patient in pain, will not deny that person a medication just because the drug has abuse potential," said Dr. John Halpern, a Harvard psychiatrist who is testing the effect of MDMA - assisted psychotherapy in late-stage cancer patients. MDMA, LSD and other psychotropics may yet prove to be be of tremendous value in psychotherapy.

The Greatest Story Never Told is smoking cannabis doesn't cause cancer instead data suggests a possible protective effect.

US Representative Barney Frank has filed a bipartisan federal bill to legalize "small amounts" of marijuana and make room for serious criminals. Dr. Ron Paul, is a cosponsor. This Texas straight talker says we are "politicizing pain." Ask your Congressperson to cosponsor, "The Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act"- HR 5843.

If they are hard line drug warriors, ask them to at least support HR 5842 which would allow the medical use of marijuana in states that have chosen to make its use for medical purposes legal with a doctor's recommendation. The debate over medical marijuana or cannabis is really a scandalous controversy over whether this very easy-to-grow herb should be allowed to compete with pharmaceuticals for pennies on the dollar.

Harassing the sick and dying is an un-American activity.

Big business and big government have a scandalous mutually beneficial love affair going on! The Constitution doesn't authorize Congress to subsidize industries or grant special favors for particular businesses, Congress will have an impossible time justifying special-interest legislation. Tell Congress to pass the Enumerated Powers Act

US Representative Ron Paul says, "Big Government Responsible for High Gas Prices!"

Special interest money has a huge influence on our resident bully, Uncle Sam, and it has a tremendous effect on both foreign and domestic policy. Members of Congress, without ethics, effectively sell their votes to those who can give them money and keep them in office. The best, true solution to this is to return to constitutional or small government and a free market or not trying to control our economy.

The real cause of this huge quagmire of failed policy is the beast, big government, that money hungry beast, Uncle Sam! Ma Freedom tells it like it is! The beauty of it is when we focus on downsizing our government we regain our roots of self-government and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and future generations.

Compiled and written by Colleen McCool

Dear Colleen, -------------------------------------------Dec. 14,2007

I was a drug user. My friends, musicians and artists in southern California, were drug users. So I saw firsthand what happens when people who use drugs are denied access to health care and drug education. Two talented, creative people I knew died.

At that time, there was no voice out there advocating for us to have basic harm reduction services—services that would have saved the lives of my friends. I feel passionately about changing that, which is why I work as DPA’s harm reduction coordinator in Los Angeles, implementing a program to provide access to clean syringes in pharmacies, which prevents diseases like HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C and saves us all money in health care costs.

When you’ve lived this experience, you can’t ignore it. And that’s why I love DPA. We’re a sane, rational voice working against the de-humanization of drug users and fighting the prejudice systemic to the war on drugs. I believe educating people about harm reduction is one of the first steps in creating change, because until we break down stereotypes and stigmas about people who use drugs, we can’t fully embrace a public health response to drug use.

This is the most meaningful work I’ve ever done, and I feel blessed that I get to do it. I care so much about the value of the life of a person who uses drugs because I walk around every day with the ghosts of people I knew and loved.

But in order to keep doing what I do, I need your help. I have so many ideas—I want to build partnerships with organizations and people who can bring harm reduction messages back to their own communities. I want to do an ad campaign to raise awareness of the fact that a person can be both an injection drug user and a contributing member of society. I want to bring our message to people who don’t already agree with us.

But the only way I can do those things is with the financial support of people who believe in what I do. As you’re deciding on your year-end contributions, please think about my work and make a donation to DPA.

Thank you,

Meghan Ralston
Harm Reduction Coordinator
Drug Policy Alliance Los Angeles

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January 18, 2008

Dear Colleen,

As I wrote to you in December, momentum is building in Congress to eliminate one of the worst excesses in the war on drugs: the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity. This disparity treats crack offenses one hundred times more severely than powder cocaine offenses.

Not only does the disparity create enormous racial inequities in the federal criminal justice system, it gives federal law enforcement agencies the incentive to waste taxpayer resources on low-level, nonviolent offenders instead of disrupting organized crime.

Three bi-partisan reform bills have been introduced in the U.S. Senate, and two reform bills have been introduced in the House with a third in the works. We believe that reform will move this year--if members of Congress feel significant pressure to act.

That’s where you come in. There are four things you can do to make this campaign successful:

1) Fax or email your members of Congress if you haven't already.

2) Write a letter to the editor of your local paper.

3) Plan an event in your area for the month of February--a rally, teach-in, panel discussion, etc. If you would like to pull an event together, please contact Jasmine Tyler for resources and more information.

4) Join us in Washington, DC on February 26 for a national lobby day on this issue, and bring friends and community leaders with you. If you can’t make it to DC, set up meetings with members of Congress (or their staff) in their district offices. For more information check out this toolkit or contact Jasmine Tyler.

You can find fact sheets, talking points and articles about crack/powder reform here.

Imagine being able to reduce the federal prison population, eliminate racial disparities, cut government waste and fight violent crime instead of sentencing nonviolent drug law offenders to long prison sentences.

We can do it with your help.

Thank you,

Bill Piper
Director of National Affairs
Drug Policy Alliance

MPP (continues)

Compared to those who smoked cigarettes in addition to marijuana, the marijuana-using group was also less likely to have been drunk in the past 30 days, less likely to have used marijuana before the age of 15, less likely to have smoked marijuana more than once or twice during the previous 30 days, and less likely to use other illegal drugs.

Other differences between marijuana-only users and abstainers were pretty minor. For instance, the marijuana-only group was more likely to skip class but still had the same level of good grades as the abstainers. And the marijuana-only group wasn't any more likely than the abstainers to be depressed.

To be clear, MPP doesn't recommend that teens use marijuana, but we do think that public policies that put teens and adults in prison for using marijuana are misguided and therefore should be reformed.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

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VotersForPeace Continues

articles, columns, speeches and other materials that describe their views on Iraq, Iran, Israel, war and peace.

Peace Voters need to take action now to let the candidate know that Iraq remains a top issue with voters. Our power is not just in our vote, it is in acting together as a voting bloc to pressure candidates to end the warWe need take action now while the candidates are seeking our votes.

Pressure the candidates to make ending the Iraq War a top priority. In just a couple of minutes you can write the presidential campaigns. Click here to send the campaigns a letter.

Build the peace voter movement into an effective political power both before and after the election. Invite your friends to join our efforts by clicking here.

Together, we can move this country toward a more effective policy that does not rely on dominance and militarism.

Sincerely,
Kevin Zeese
Executive Director
VotersForPeace

Take the VotersForPeace Pledge! "I will only vote for or support federal candidates who make a speedy end to the war in Iraq, and preventing any future war of aggression, a public position in his or her campaign."

VotersForPeace
2842 North Calvert Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
301-270-2355

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3/27/2008

Colleen:

The "war on drugs" is a propaganda slogan to divert attention away from the war over who is going to control and profit from the international trade in designer drugs and natural drugs.

I recommend you see a film entitled Amazing Grace, about the slave trade of Western powers of the 17th and 18th centuries. It shows what nations will do for commerce and economic security, only the objects, the commodities of trade change. Look at the arms races of this century and the ideologies and propaganda that created and justified them.

Only the slavishly obedient to our current drug policies buy the idea that there is anything like a war on drugs. The warfare emerges from dividing up the drug trade into the wild west version of "the good drugs" and the "bad drugs" and them going to war over who gets the money.

I send this in the possibility of making the last 100 years of drug scams and protection rackets that sustain such division and destruction comprehensible; and we have a way of seeing the big picture and informing other people who could have that policy and that warfare ended.

How could people who have nothing but propagada to inform themselves be able to be responsible for their own health, safety and well-being?

If you want more information, let me know.

War is a way of having.....

Peace is a way of being....

I also refer you to War Dance, a study of the psychology of way., by Dr. Eric Graham Howe

Russ Shaw, MA, Lt. Col., USAF(Ret)
303-440-7877

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Sherry Nance #544805
TDCJ Murray Unit K-2A-64
1916 N. Highway 36 Bypass
Gatesville, TX 76596

March 29, 2008

Ladies and Gentlemen:

My name is Sherry A. Nance, and I am serving a life sentence at the
Murray Unit in Gatesville, TX. Building K where I am currently housed is known as the "Old Ladies Dorm" because it is the dormitory where older women like myself, many of whom have various kinds of chronic illnesses and are disabled, are assigned to sleep. I am appealing to you for help because the Murray Unit has recently started what is the equivalent of a chain gang for elderly women. Until this newest form of state-sponsored torture was introduced, I, like many other older women at the Murray Unit, had a regular prison job inside the facility, but they changed the job assignments for many of us. And we are now being ordered to perform hard manual labor as an outside work gang as well as being forced to work in cold, wet, and unseasonable weather. This came as a total surprise not only to myself but also to the other women that live in the same dorm as I do.

There has been some conflict in Building K between staff and older
inmates who are disabled and can't respond during head count due to
being deaf, legally blind, speech impaired, and mentally challenged. Some older women who are senile were sleeping on each other's

bunks because they couldn't find the bed they were assigned to, and one mental case was sleeping under the bed of another inmate because she was paranoid and afraid to sleep by herself. There was another situation where one mental case was found setting in the shower area playing in her own menstrual blood after repeatedly creating numerous disturbances in the dorm. All these and other things are regular happenings in the so-called "Old Ladies Dorm," but they are incidents that need to be addressed as they apply to the problematic individuals, not to all of us just because certain inmates in here are prone to create problems.

What's happening with the elderly chain gang appears to be that TDCJ decided that all of us older ladies need to be assigned to hard labor so that we will be tired enough to sleep at night and not cause disruptions, but working us like dogs is not the answer to problems concerned with handling deaf, speech impaired, blind, senile and physically challenged inmates. We are being made to pull weeds, allegedly to be used for mulch fertilizer, when mowing would accomplish essentially the same thing. I have a bad back, and my medical profile states that I am not to do heavy lifting, work in a
squatting position, or work bending over for prolonged periods of time. When I told the CO in charge of the work gang about my the physical limitations outlined in my medical records, he told me to set on the cold, damp ground to pull weeds and push myself along on the wet grass. At least four other women I am closely acquainted with who are in their early 60s, and one who is 67-years-old, were told to do the same thing when they told the CO in charge about their various handicaps.

Besides the dire degradation, physical discomfort, ! and total disregard for our medical records, we are not being furnished with gloves and are being forced to pull weeds bare-handed in cold, wet weather. This constitutes cruel and unusual punishment because the elderly women's chain gang that we have been assigned to is apparently designed to punish us for being old, blind, and disabled. It represents nothing less than an attempt at state-sponsored euthanasia, which is a violation of our human rights, and it needs to stop immediately.

I would like to ask each of you to contact the officials whose information is listed below and demand that this abuse of prisoners in their custody stop and that they consider other methods of dealing with the problem of what to do with the growing number of elderly and disabled female inmates other than work us to death in inclement weather. The officials I would like for you to contact and their contact information are as follows:

TDCJ Ombudsman
P.O. Box 99
Huntsville, TX 77342-0099
Phone: 936-437-8035
Fax: 936-437-8097
Email! : ombudsman@tdcj.state.tx.us

Correctional Institutions Division Ombudsman
P.O. Box 99
Huntsville, TX 77342-0099
Phone: 936-437-6791
FAX: 936-437-6668
Email: ci.div@tdcj.state.tx.us

Deputy Director Rodney Cooper
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Correctional Institutions Division, Region VI
4616 West Howard Lane, Suit 200
Austin, TX 78728
Phone: 512-671-2575
FAX: 512-671-2579

Warden Lorie Willis
TDCJ Lane Murray Unit
1916 N. Highway 36 Bypass
Gatesville, TX 76596
Phone: 254-865-2000

Thank you for considering my request for assistance. Please keep my sisters and I in your prayers because many of us are getting sick from having to work outside in the cold weather.

In Solidarity,

Sherry Nance

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