Clinic Edition Internal Mayo Medicine Review Seventh

We found out this weekend that Connecticut's Compassionate Use medical marijuana bill will be heard in its next committee on Tuesday. Your faxes and phone calls got the bill through the General Law Committee last week--let's apply the same kind of pressure to the Public Health Committee for tomorrow's hearing!

Take action now.

A phone call can also make a big impression on legislators. You can call the Public Health Committee before 9 a.m. on Tuesday to express your support for HB 6715. The number is 860-240-0560.

And please, forward this email to five people you know—the more of us who take action, the more likely we’ll win Compassionate Use in Connecticut this year.

Thank you for all your work to keep this bill moving forward. We can do it!

Sincerely,

Gabriel Sayegh
Director
State Organizing and Policy Project
Drug Policy Alliance

More Information:

HB 6715 would allow seriously ill patients access to medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation. A 2004 University of Connecticut poll found that 83% of Connecticut residents support allowing patients to access medical marijuana for relief of symptoms associated with debilitating conditions such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, and multiple sclerosis.

Recently, we hosted a successful press conference with Montel Williams in March 2007 and Connecticut Governor, M. Jodi Rell, has indicated possible support for Compassionate Use legislation. In addition, the Hartford Advocate recently featured Compassionate Use activist Mark Braunstein, in an article decrying opposition to HB 6715.

I'm excited to report that Rockefeller Drug Law reform has picked up real momentum in the legislature. The Real Reform New York Coalition, of which DPA is a member, had a great press conference and film screening earlier this month--and the New York State Assembly passed A.6663, an important Rockefeller reform bill, the very same day!

Your calls and faxes to legislators helped make that victory possible, so thank you for your commitment to reform.

Now the bill has moved to the Senate under the bill number S.4352. This is the perfect time to build on the momentum from our success in the Assembly--please urge your state senators to pass real reform!

S.4352 is in the Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Corrections Committee right now, and we need to make sure it gets approved and on the Senate floor for passage. We can make it happen! Please, forward this email to five other New Yorkers, and contact your senators now. The more of us who take action, the more likely we'll win real Rockefeller reform this year.

After you take action, I invite you to read more about the press conference and film screening. I wish you could have been there to hear the impassioned words of the lawmakers, family members and others who spoke in support of ending the draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws.

Thanks for all you do,

Gabriel Sayegh
Director, State Organizing and Policy Project
Drug Policy Alliance

 

Irrespective of how well the individual Democratic candidates did in their first job audition before a select American audience (those who have cable and are enthusiastic enough about an election that is more than eighteen months away to devote ninety minutes of primetime TV time to the likes of Biden, Hillary, and that Gravely guy...), the debate largely failed to address one of the most costly and destructive wars in our nation's history.

Even as the candidates took turns condemning the war on Iraq, and stressed the need for the United States to withdraw from this conflict, the war on drugs was a non-issue.

Well, it almost was. If it weren't for an e-mailed question from an MSNBC viewer, Sen. Christopher Dodd would have never been prompted to suggest that the practice of drug testing individuals for social control purposes has gone too far.

Sen. Chris Dodd disagreed with the viewer's e-mailed suggestion that welfare recipients should be drug tested in order to receive compensation in the same manner that some employees are subjected to drug testing in order to keep a job. Sen. Dodd suggested in his response that there is too much drug testing going on.

And then there was former U.S. Senator Mike Gravel, who one political blogger likened to that uncle who lives in the attic.

Gravel largely dismissed a question posed to him by Jennings on whether the United States lags behind European nations in its use of nuclear energy. Instead, Gravel asserted that: "we are mischaracterizing terrorism. Terrorism has been with civilization from the beginning and it will be there until the end. We will be as successful fighting terrorism as we are fighting drugs with the war. It doesn't work."

Well said. Too bad these perceptive words came from such a brash spokesperson.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a champion of the drug policy reform movement who most recently signed legislation that made New Mexico the 12th state to legalize marijuana for medical purposes, and the first state to provide limited immunity from drug possession charges when a witness or victim of a drug-related overdose calls 911 for help, subtlety managed to signal his concern about the growing problem of law enforcement encroaching upon doctor-patient relationships and prosecuting pain physicians. As part of his response to a question about his plans for implementing universal health care coverage, Richardson conveyed that he "would also make sure that we would re-establish the doctor-patient relationship."

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, another candidate with a strong drug policy reform platform, made a strong case for his positions on war and foreign policy, but never highlighted his opposition to certain aspects of the war raging here at home. Similarly, Sen. Joe Biden, a noted drug policy extremist, had nothing to say about our nation's failed drug laws.

Read more general information about the debate.

Thanks to your help, last Wednesday's "Prop. 36 Works!" rally was a great success. Generous donations from drug policy reformers enabled hundreds of Prop. 36 graduates to travel to Sacramento to advocate for the six-year-old, voter-enacted treatment-instead-of-incarceration program.

The event kicked off with a rally outside the Capitol, where the Secretary of State, Deborah Bowen, and several legislators spoke to the crowd about the importance of recovery and of continuing Prop. 36. Senator Jack Scott and Assembly Member Mark Leno jointly declared April 18, 2007, "Prop. 36 Graduates Day," and their staff presented awards to several community organizers.
 
After the rally, 300 Prop. 36 graduates flooded the Capitol Building wearing "Prop. 36 Works!" shirts and dropping off letters of support for the program. With Governor Schwarzenegger calling for drastic funding cuts to Prop. 36 this year, it was more important than ever for the graduates to meet with California legislators face to face to talk about their achievements and what the program has meant to them.
 
Volunteers handed out “Prop 36. Works!” buttons to many people in the Capitol, including staff and other advocacy groups. Community support for the rally and advocacy event came from the Coalition for Effective Public Safety, Progressive Christians Uniting, California Coalition of Churches, All of Us or None, and the recovery community statewide. 
 
Check out these pictures, and read coverage of the event in the Sacramento Bee.
 
Thank you again for your commitment to protecting this successful reform. We couldn't do it without you.
 
Sincerely,
 
Margaret Dooley
Prop. 36 Statewide Coordinator
Drug Policy Alliance

After a contentious hearing, the Connecticut General Law Committee passed House Bill 6715 (H.B. 6715), The Palliative Use of Marijuana, by a vote of 11 to 6 on Tuesday.

No changes were made to the bill despite several negative amendments being introduced. The amendments would have eviscerated the spirit of the bill, but DPA and community partner A Better Way Foundation worked with supportive legislators to fend off those detrimental changes. 

The next stop for HB 6715 is another committee—-the bill must pass through two or possibly three more committees before it reaches the floor of the House for a full vote. The next committee hearing will be scheduled in the next week.

Connecticut legislators feel increasingly empowered to support access to marijuana for seriously ill people in the wake of New Mexico's recent medical marijuana victory, so advocates are optimistic about the future of the bill. "The science is clear, and the need is great.  For the sake of patients and their families, it’s time for the Connecticut Legislature to pass Compassionate Use," said Gabriel Sayegh, director of DPA's State Organizing and Policy Project.

Medical marijuana access has tremendous support among voters in Connecticut. A 2004 University of Connecticut poll found that 83% of Connecticut residents support allowing patients to access medical marijuana for relief of symptoms associated with debilitating conditions such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, and multiple sclerosis.

If HB 6715 passes the full House of Representatives, it will move to the Senate.