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

Vioxx Reversal Illustrates the Danger of Immunity for Drug Companies
June 10, 2008

Recently the Supreme Court held that any medical device approved by the Food and Drug Administration was immune from lawsuits no matter how badly the product injured the consumer. The Court will soon be hearing a similar case in which the drug companies are also seeking immunity for their products.

In May, a court in New Jersey overturned a jury’s verdict against Merck & Co., the makers of the withdrawn painkiller Vioxx, leaving victims of that harmful drug without justice. Like the Supreme Court, the New Jersey court strangely found that FDA approval, no matter how flawed, gave the manufacturer immunity. Results such as this show how harmful this immunity (based on what’s often called ‘federal preemption’) is to victims who are harmed by negligent drug and device manufacturers.

Vioxx was withdrawn from the market after a study showed the drug increased the risk of heart attack and stroke. Merck ignored persistent warnings from its own researchers that Vioxx presented unnecessary dangers to its users yet delayed placing a warning label on the drug because executives calculated the wait would earn the company an extra $229 million. In testimony before the U.S. Congress, an FDA official said that Vioxx was responsible for as many as 55,000 deaths.

Even with all that, by finding “federal preemption” the court was able to ignore the verdict of a jury which, unlike the Supreme Court, heard all the evidence first hand. Complete immunity results in even less incentive for corporations to ensure the safety of their products, because they know they only need to meet the minimum federal safety requirements.

The Senate is planning to hold a hearing in the Judiciary committee on Wednesday, June 11th at 11:00 am, which will examine the Supreme Court’s recent penchant for placing the interests of big business over consumers. Among those testifying will be Bridget Robb who was violently shocked by her malfunctioning

(Continue)

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

It was revolutionary! The real visionaries, who laid down our laws, those who defined what an American patriot would be, were rebels with just cause. They made it not just our right but our patriotic duty to rebel against big government corruption. Our founders knew big government would always mean a gang of evildoers.

They were good Christian men led by the holy spirit but money the root of all evil was part of it. They wanted to create the land of abundance. They knew ethics would have to rule for it to work. The Spirit of '76 is the Holy Spirit and our true north.

One of my 2008 Rebel with Just Cause Awards goes to Dr. Ron Paul for the Love Revolution he helped generate that is sweeping America, returning us to our roots of self-government, free of tyranny and big government oppression. Our founders believed the best way to spread the freedom philosophy is by being a shining example.

"I love every concept the Statue of Liberty stands for - that individual
liberty is held above the objectives of government - that, as Washington and Jefferson said, America imparts good will toward all and threatens no one - that this country is so big-hearted and prosperous it can welcome people from all over the world fleeing oppression or poverty. " - Harry Browne

Our flag is a symbol of liberty, justice and freedom! It is a beacon for hope in a troubled world. Don't let its reputation be tarnished by incidents of torture. Recapture the Flag by demanding a government that respects human rights, leadership that rejects all forms of (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

June 18, 2008

Dear Colleen,

I have been traveling back and forth to California this year, working on a ballot initiative that represents the most significant reform of prisons and sentencing in the history of the United States. We’re calling it the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act or “NORA” for short and we’ve just heard from the California Secretary of State that it has officially qualified for the ballot.

We wrote this measure and we are spearheading the campaign. I’m telling you about it because, as with past campaigns, our success in California, the most populous state, will have a national impact.

Now I need you to make a donation to help us build our fund for voter education and television advertising in the days leading up to the election.

Our research shows a substantial majority of Californians really like what’s in NORA. It provides a solution to the state’s prison overcrowding crisis through a combination of measures that will simultaneously and safely reduce the size of the prison population, provide effective treatment and rehabilitation, reduce recidivism and crime, and save taxpayers billions of dollars.

It would be great if NORA could be enacted into law by the State Legislature, but our friends in Sacramento tell us the only way to get it done is through the ballot initiative process. That’s why I need your help. I’ve raised millions from wealthy folks -- including some who live outside California and regard this as a fundamental issue of human rights, smart public policy and/or fiscal responsibility -- but we can’t get to the finish line without lots of support from people across the country who care. Please make a donation now.

I should tell you that NORA isn’t just about solving California’s prison overcrowding crisis and saving taxpayers billions of dollars. It’s also about reforming California’s prison industrial complex in ways that will transform the state into a leader in sensible drug and sentencing policy, and serve as a model for other states.

California used to be known as the State of Higher Education. Now it’s known as the State of Higher Incarceration. NORA can change that with your help.

You might also be interested to know that NORA includes a provision that changes the penalty for marijuana possession from a misdemeanor to an infraction -- like a traffic ticket. This single change will protect some 40,000 people a year convicted of simple marijuana possession from the serious and life-long collateral consequences of a criminal record.

So, if you want to know more about the details of NORA, click here, but please also take the opportunity to make a generous donation to ensure NORA wins on Election Day. There are still millions of people in California and across the country who think the best solution to every problem is to lock people up. Don’t let them win the day.

And after you’ve made your donation, please forward this email to everyone you know and encourage them to support NORA as well. There’s never been an opportunity like this to accomplish so much good for so many people.

One in eight Americans lives in California, and a victory in November will send a clear message to policy makers across the country that the American people want a public health approach to drug problems, not more wasteful prison spending. Your support of this California initiative will mean similar reforms will be more likely to pass across the country.

We’re talking about freedom, compassion and responsibility. Smart drug policy. Smart crime policy. And good government for a change.

Many thanks,

Ethan Nadelmann
Executive Director
Drug Policy Alliance Network

P.S. I need to raise the remaining money to run a powerful campaign through Election Day. Please give now to help me build a war chest for NORA.

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

Get a PDF copy of the Donation Form.

More Currant Letters

..

MPP Marijuana Policy Project

Washington, D.C. - June 11, 2008

Dear Colleen:

The Marijuana Policy Project is thrilled to announce that we are working closely with members of Congress to propel a brand new piece of legislation in Congress this year. The legislation will prohibit
the federal government from prosecuting terminally ill medical marijuana patients.

Dubbed the "terminally ill patients amendment" by MPP and supporters on Capitol Hill, this legislation provides narrower protections than what we would ultimately like to see. However, its effects would be
nationwide and it would protect the most vulnerable members of the medical marijuana community, those with little time to live.

Due to the amendment's narrow scope, it has garnered significant support in Washington, D.C., but we need your help to get it passed. Your member of Congress sits on the Appropriations Committee and will be voting on this legislation next week.

Would you please visit MPP's online action center and send a letter to your member of Congress today?

If you would, please also make a call to your congressperson's office and ask him or her to support this important legislation. You can
reach your member's office through the congressional switchboard at (202) 225-3121. A staff member will answer your call and pass your
message on. You can say: (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

June 6, 2008

Dear Colleen ,

The candidates for the General Election are close to being set. Now, it is time for you to tell the candidates that ending the Iraq war - completely ending it - is a top concern of American voters. Click here to write the candidates.

Senator Obama won the Democratic nomination this week and Senator Clinton plans to concede on Saturday. Senator McCain will be the Republican nominee. Ralph Nader is moving forward with his independent campaign getting on ballots throughout the country. The Libertarians have nominated former Congressman Bob Barr as their standard bearer. And, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney has a majority of delegates for the Green Party which holds its convention on July 10-13th in Chicago.

Where does Iraq fit in with the General Election?

Senator McCain, who is trying to live down his comment that he would not mind if the U.S. were in Iraq for 100 years, is now predicting an end to the war during his first term. He is the candidate more likely to escalate the war rather than stop it.

Senator Obama continues to call for beginning to withdraw combats troops from Iraq during his first year as president, but is not calling for the removal of more than 140,000 mercenaries or tens of thousands of non-combat troops. While his rhetoric talks of withdrawal, his plan actually does not end the war. His campaign released a detailed position statement on Iraq.

The three non-duopoly candidates, Barr, McKinney and Nader, are all calling for a rapid end to the Iraq occupation a position more in-line with the views of a majority of Americans. If any of them gain steam it will pull the two establishment party candidates toward the view of the American people.

Americans got to see the similarities between senators Obama and McCain when they both spoke to the right wing Israeli lobby this week.

While there were some differences they pledged complete fealty to Israel, to continue to build the Israeli military, U.S. military in support of Israel and gave virtually no criticism of the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands. Ralph Nader put out a critique of them, McKinney has also been critical of the Israeli lobby and blind U.S. support for Israel.

Where does U.S. militarism fit into the General Election?

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! More Current Letters

JUNE 26, 2008

Sunglasses…beach towel…freedom to take action? Take this summer’s challenge and gain more than just a great suntan.
Bring hope to human rights defenders around the world by writing letters on their behalf.

Dear Colleen,

The extraordinary thing about human rights defenders is just how ordinary their desires are. They want what so many of us take for granted – A safe place to live and work. Free and fair elections. The right to speak out without the fear of arrest or torture. This summer, your mission is to bring hope to human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience around the world.

Recently, a women’s rights group, Women of Zimbabwe Arise! (WOZA) organized a peaceful demonstration to protest the worsening social, economic and human rights conditions in their country. Members of this group frequently report harassment, intimidation and other extreme treatment from police officers. Right now, Jenni Williams and Magadonga Mahlangu, leaders of WOZA, are in prison. Other members of WOZA face charges against their peaceful activities. Send a letter of support to the members of WOZA as a part of our Summer Solidarity Action.

The struggle for human rights continues even during what is for most, a relaxing season – summer. For our summer solidarity action, you can provide moral support to human rights defenders in Zimbabwe, China, Belarus, Mexico, and Libya. Your action can help bring much-needed support and justice to these courageous men and women.

When people ask you what you’re doing for summer vacation this year, tell them you’re bringing hope to where it’s needed most.

Sincerely,

Michael O'Reilly
Campaign Director
Individuals at Risk
Amnesty International USA

More Current Letters

movement we need to end the war and prevent future wars of aggression.

Freedom is Golden! "As the Olympics wind down, I am amazed at how things change every four years. Many Americans were glued to their televisions to watch the excitement from Beijing, and also heard announcers wax nostalgic with memories of times when the Soviet Union was the USA's biggest competitor for Olympic gold. There was a time when it was unthinkable that a government as powerful as that of the Soviet Union's could possibly crumble, yet crumble it did. The irony is that the strength of the Soviet government was also its weakness, as no country, no economic system can remain strong under the crushing burden that is central planning." - Ron Paul

Unlike Dr. Paul some politicians are like bad horsemen who are so preoccupied with staying in the saddle that they can't bother about where they're going. Some are outright servants of tyranny definitely not servants of the people. Can you tell the difference?

Will the 2008 election be an an exercise in futility? McCain is more of the same! Obama has picked a drug warrior vice president and his "change" about war also sounds wimpy now. Are they giving us anyone who can possible win who isn't just more of the same?

Here's a wakeup call for corruption! During a small 2003 protest in Manhattan against the fledgling Iraq war the ironfisted crowd-control tactics the NYPD have cost them a cool $2 millon court settlement. The department would later employ the same tactics in even more shocking mass arrests at the Republican convention in 2004. The moral of the story: "In the United States of America, you don't arrest people simply because they assemble to protest government policy." Warnings to convention city police this year.

Mexico's drug war violent blood baths are triggered by our insane policy. Prohibition creates the black market supporting blood thirsty terrorist, dispicable people who sell drugs to children and recruit them to sell to their peers.

Save the children, just say NO to prohibition!

Trigger less violence, racism, tyranny and ruined lives!

Stories of violent attacks, hate crimes and murder fill the media. Two young women were found killed execution style in Granbury and three Dallas children were shot in the back seat of their mom's Mercedes recently.

Atlanta police killed 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston in a botched drug raid not long ago and the carnage continues. An Ohio SWAT team killed Tarika Wilson and shot her one-year-old son.

Prohibition's legacy is legend in the waste of our precious lives and resources. Deaths and needless injuries happen too often in botched paramilitary drug raids. Overzealous, unconscionable to the extreme, situations are occurring!

Ashley Villarreal: in San Antonio DEA agents shoot innocent 14-year-old girl in the head, but deny any wrongdoing.

Rachel Hoffman: a young college grad, coerced by police to act as an informant after she was arrested for marijuana possession and then killed by drug dealers following a botched drug sting.

We all want, "Resilient Teens, Empowered Parents, Strong Communities!" This is Joy Strickland's Mothers Against Teen Violence organization's motto, following the tragedy of losing her son Charles
Christopher Lewis (Chris), 19, and his friend, Kendrick Demond Lott, 18, who were robbed and brutally murdered in Dallas. Joy believes the war on drugs undermines the safety of our children.

Over a thousand people die each day due to tobacco use! Close to 300 a day die from prescribed pharmaceuticals. The tobacco, alcohol and
pharmaceuticals gangs deal drugs that kill many more annually than all illicit drugs. We tolerate their salesmen!

"Record numbers of citizens arrested for marijuana possession have been forced into treatment by the criminal justice system. The resulting distortion of treatment statistics is used by shameless drug warriors to make the misleading claim that marijuana is 'addictive'." - Robert Sharpe,Policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy

Science shows that withdrawal symptoms from caffeine are much worse than those for cannabis. Cannabis is one of the most benign chemicals we can ingest. Arresting nonviolent people for making a safer health choice in a medicinal/recreational drug is scandalous reefer madness.

The other 2008 portrait is awarded to Steph Sherer, the powerhouse Director of American's for Safe Access who organized protesters against the 2007 DEA raids of state sanctioned medical marijuana dispensaries. "We're patients, not criminals!" They chanted. (Continue)

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

More Current Letters

August 20 ,2008

Dear Colleen,

Question: Who’s safe from the brutal tactics of the zero-tolerance drug war?

Answer: No one, apparently.

A couple weeks ago, a D.C.-area sheriff's office SWAT team and county police narcotics officers in Maryland burst into the house of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo after they saw Calvo take a suspicious package inside. (The package, which contained marijuana, was intended to be intercepted by a drug smuggling ring that exploits unsuspecting addressees.) During the raid, they shot and killed the mayor's two Labrador retrievers.1 In the ensuing investigation, it was discovered that the police did not even possess a "no-knock" warrant for the botched SWAT-style raid.2

In November 2006, the Atlanta area was shocked when 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston was gunned down by narcotics officers who kicked down her door (an incorrect address was supplied by an informant) in another bungled “no-knock” drug raid. Protecting her home from the sudden intrusion, Ms. Johnston fired one round before being shot 39 times by police; they then handcuffed her and, as she lay dying, planted marijuana in her basement to cover up their mistake.3

Each year, SWAT teams across the country conduct an estimated 40,000 raids, many of them directed at people suspected of nonviolent drug law violations.4 These brutal tactics -- heavily armed police in military-style attire breaking down doors and tossing flash-bang grenades -- have become routine. But it’s obvious such tactics are not justified for routine drug raids.

Send a note to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a national organization that unites mayors around policies and goals, and ask them to support an end to these tactics. Now that one of their own has been vicitimized, urge our nation's mayors to start a conversation in their communities about "no-knock" warrants and routine SWAT-style raids for drug investigations.

Take action now. If you are as outraged as we are, please take another moment to forward this request to your friends and family. Thank you so much for your support!

Sincerely,
Bill Piper, Director National Affairs ----Drug Policy Alliance

MPP (continues)

Hello. My name is [your name] and I'm calling from [your town, your state]. I understand Representative [last name] is a member of the Appropriations Committee. I wanted to ask him/her to support the
terminally ill patients medical marijuana amendment that will be offered in committee this year.

The amendment will only apply to patients who are terminally ill and who use medical marijuana with their doctor's approval.

Thank you.

Please take action today and help protect terminally ill patients from arrest. These sick and dying people are some of the medical marijuana
community's most vulnerable members. Please help them by taking these simple actions right now.

Sincerely,

Ben Morris
National Field Coordinator
Marijuana Policy Project

We are required by federal law to tell you that any donations you make to MPP may be used for political purposes, such as supporting or opposing candidates for federal office.

More Currant Letters

VotersForPeace Continues

The military has become much larger and more deeply embedded throughout the federal government. Neither of the establishment party candidates is calling for shrinking the U.S. military indeed, both are calling for expanding the military with tens of thousands of more troops. Obama is calling for 92,000 additional troops to bring the military while McCain wants even more. The three insurgent candidates are calling for reductions. All three oppose the U.S. having 700 military bases around the world. Nader and McKinney are calling for dramatic reductions of the bloated military budget. Once again, they will be able to pressure Obama and McCain if they start to get some traction.

What can peace advocates do? No matter whom you are planning to vote for you can take action today. Write to all the candidates Urge them to end the occupation of Iraq and prevent future wars of aggression. Tell them it is time to invest in the civilian economy by rebuilding U.S. infrastructure, responding to climate change and providing for the basic necessities of the American people and to reduce the investment in the military economy. The candidates need to hear from you.

Also, please donate to Voters for Peace today. We need your support to continue to do the work we do. Visit here to donate.

Thank you for your efforts.

Kevin Zeese, Executive Director VotersForPeace
2842 North Calvert Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
301-270-2355

Take the VotersForPeace Pledge!

More Current Letters

Colleen: --------------------------------------------------------------------3/27/2008

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

More Current Letters

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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That's what the TRUTH 08 CAMPAIGN is about and why I'm asking you for support.

The Truth 08 Campaign -- is a multi-pronged strategy from StoptheDrugWar.org to educate more people about the Drug War and to:

* Expand StoptheDrugWar.org resources so more people can get online, read Drug War Chronicle (the world's leading drug policy newsletter), participate in Speakeasy blogs and take immediate action through our Alerts and Latest News postings.

* Bring more elected officials on board through targeted lobbying efforts.

* Empower more grassroots organizations by giving them the tools, materials and exposure they need to strengthen the drug policy reform movement.

* Reach out to local and national media with the "other" side of the story -- prohibition does more harm than good.

There is no better time to open people's minds than during this election year when almost everyone is focused on change. As people are taking a long, hard look at the policies that are NOTworking in this country, the TRUTH 08 CAMPAIGN will prove that the Drug War should be included at the top of that list.

Will you please contribute to the TRUTH 08 CAMPAIGN today? Your gift will be used to get the word out to more people, attract more media attention and build greater momentum for policy change. Visit today.

We'll send you a free TRUTH 08 CAMPAIGN notepad to show you our appreciation, and so you can spread the word, too. If you send $36 or more, we'll also send you a free padded folder with clasp. And for a gift of $60 or more, you'll also receive a free copy of Dying to Get High, a new book by Wendy Chapkis and Richard J. Webb about the right to use physician-recommended marijuana that will be released, appropriately, on July 4th.

Your help is needed to capitalize on the tremendous progress we've already made getting the TRUTH out: this past year over 140,000 people each month visited StoptheDrugWar.org -- that's a lot of visitors.

Several months the number of visitors topped 180,000 and the trend is continuing upward. We are very excited about the new campaign and the new momentum we're generating.

Colleen, thank you very much for your interest in changing this country's drug policies and for being a part of
StoptheDrugWar.org. And thank you for giving your support to the TRUTH 08 CAMPAIGN. Your contribution has never been more important.

David Borden
Executive Director, StoptheDrugWar.org (DRCNet)
News & Activism Promoting Sensible Reform

P.S. It's time to stop the senseless tragedies like those experienced by Tim Garon and Rachel Hoffman -- and to bring an end to countless injustices occurring every day. Your donation to the TRUTH 08 CAMPAIGN today will help spread the word to more people than ever and build the momentum we need to change our country's drug policy and end prohibition.
Thank you! More current letters

Do you know how to- LOVE America? (Continues)

We are punishing people because servants of tyranny ignore science in naming their choice unwise when in fact it is a scientifically proven safer, wiser health choice, compared to legal alternatives. Taking children from the homes of parents who made a safer health choice in a medicinal or recreational drug is insane policy.

Taking property from these same, destroyed by government families, is legalized extortion ! States seized $1.52 billion in 2007 End asset forfeiture! We owe reparations to people for all this tyranny.

Research shows little or no overdose deaths before prohibition. Currently bodies pile up like cordwood or holocaust victims (more than 33,000 precious lives lost in 2005).

Treating AIDS is expensive, providing sterile syringes to addicts is a cheap and effective way to curb the epidemic. Yet, the United States has used its influence in the United Nations to prevent countries that receive UN aid from distributing sterile syringes for disease prevention.

We can see where our laws are causing more harm than good and change accordingly; with modern unbiased, science based statistical reporting.

Snipers, killers and violent sexual and other hate-filled predators roam free, while we use up limited resources policing individual medicinal and recreational drug use. Drug warriors don't have to look far for something better to do.

The countless daily injustices mean it's time to ramp up efforts to end the Drug War, repeal prohibition! European harm reduction policy works so much better than our current response.

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

No Walls, No Fences, No Tyranny, No Propaganda, No Secrets, No Fear!

Leaders responsible for current quagmire will one-day answer to a higher power for their crimes against humanity. It's time to end the terror by changing our intrusive, big-bully policies, both foreign and domestic. The monetary and environmental costs are staggering and the human suffering unconscionable.

Join the brotherhood of the good, join the easy revolution. Stop war, save the American dream! Restore justice in the world; construct science based drug policies about saving and rehabilitating instead of ruining lives. Warriors can get their adrenaline rush increasing public safety; chasing murderers and violent sexual predators.

Compiled and written by Colleen McCool

Prohibition Triggers Violence, Save the Children!

FYI…Below is Joy Strickland's (CEO, Mothers Against Teen Violence) rebuttal to James Capra’s article published in the Dallas Morning News last week. The News informed Joy that they cannot print the rebuttal below since they already published her article two weeks ago.

To read - Joy Strickland: Drug laws fertilize teen violence - the original article:

To read - James Capra: Legalizing pot in no way makes us safe - his rebuttal:

LEGALIZING POT MAKES US SAFER
By Joy Strickland - CEO, Mothers Against Teen Violence - July 29, 2008

James L. Capra, a Dallas Drug Enforcement Agent, asserted in his article last week, “The United States has had tremendous success in our fight against drug use and abuse.” Anyone vaguely familiar with the war on drugs will concede that Mr. Capra holds what is arguably a fantastic notion of success. His agency’s outdated arguments and misleading statistics are self-serving at best. Indeed, a DEA agent promoting the drug war is perhaps less remarkable than a ringmaster promoting the circus. Still, Mr. Capra’s arguments warrant a rebuttal.

Firstly, Mr. Capra refers to the specter of prisons filled with drug users as an “illusion”. Although an entire communtiy of African American men in Tulia, Texas and the Hispanic men victimized by the fake drug scandal here in Dallas could liken their experience to a bad dream, sadly these shameful stories are very real. The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) reveal that drug law violations skyrocketed to nearly 2 million in 2006, of which: 82.5% were for possession of a controlled substance; only 17.5% were for the sale or manufacture of a drug; 43.9 per cent were for marijuana; and 39% were for marijuana possession alone, shattering the myth that the drug war primarily targets drug smugglers and king pins. We cannot separate the rise of the prison industrial complex from our outdated an irrational drug laws.

Secondly, Mr. Capra inferred that favoring decriminalization and control could be construed as favoring underage use. Nothing in the original article warrants this disturbing inference. Perhaps the point that Mr. Capra missed can be clarified by posing the following questions: If a youth should exercise poor judgment by using a controlled substance, should he be barred from obtaining a federal loan for college? Should he be incarcerated? If he has a life-threatening reaction, should his friends risk letting him die because they fail to seek medical attention, fearing their own arrest? It must not be that the cure is worse than the ailment.

There is no accounting for those “studies” showing the harmful effects of marihuana on the body, since Mr. Capra cited no sources. There is ample evidence, however, that marijuana is less dangerous (to adults) in many respects than nicotine. In 2006 the largest case-controlled study ever conducted concluded that smoking marijuana, even regularly and heavily, does not lead to lung cancer. Donald Tashkin, a pulmonologist at the University of California at Los Angeles has studied marijuana for 30 years. FDA officials have widely used his previous work on marijuana to make the case that the drug is dangerous. Tashkin had hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use. "What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect," says Tashkin.

Finally, Mr. Capra alluded to the Netherlands as evidence that liberalized drug policies increase rather than reduce crime. A better informed DEA agent would know that marijuana remains illegal in the Netherlands. Large-scale dealing, production, import and export of all illegal substances are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The fact that Dutch policymakers make a distinction between hard drugs and soft drugs is a step in the right direction. This distinction has led to dispensing marijuana in coffee shops because a policy of non-enforcement has become common. The problem is that there is no way for coffee shops to access a legal supply of marijuana. By pursuing a schizophrenic policy coupling non-enforcement with the failure to control cultivation and distribution, the Netherlands has allowed illegal drug trafficking to remain a profitable venture—and that is the source of the criminal activity.

In the information age, drug war opponents and advocants alike could benefit from a public debate based on facts instead of fiction or scare tactics. Anything less is a disservice to the DEA and the citizens it purports to serve and protect.

Resilient Teens, Empowered Parents, Strong Communities

Joy Strickland - CEO, Mothers Against Teen Violence

2904 Floyd Suite F, Dallas, TX 75204

214-565-0422 - 214-565-0504 (FAX)

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