GO TO: Sonoma County Free Press Home Page | Columns | Features | SCRAP Index

California Medical Marijuana or Bust by Carol Miller

In spite of the United States' continued prohibition of the cultivation of cannabis hemp, the international hemp movement is growing by leaps and bounds. Sonoma County hempsters, including HEMP WORLD's Mari Kane of Forestville, have just returned from an international hemp expo in Frankfurt Germany, where European industrial leaders presented high-tech advances in hemp paper, textiles, and building materials.

Here in California the hemp industry suffered a devastating blow when the Wilson administration destroyed HempTech's U.S. Department of Agriculture approved"Field of Dreams" in the Imperial Valley last fall. Locally, the Redwood Hemp Collective, in cooperation with the new Hemp Industry Association (H.I.A.), is taking their newly developed products to the Eco-Expo in Los Angeles, with high hopes.

But, the most exciting development in the hemp movement is the support being shown for the Compassionate Use Initiative of 1996, which proponents plan to have ready for circulation this summer. Because the California presidential primaries have been moved up to early spring of 1996, the schedule for filing initiatives which will appear on the November, 96 ballot has also moved up. We used to gather signatures through the winter and spring for a fall election, but this year we will begin gathering signatures in August and filing the signatures before Christmas.

This means we have only a few months to develop the network we need for this campaign . Alan Silverman of Santa Rosa has agreed to coordinate the Sonoma County signature drive, and if you want to help with this campaign, please call him and let him know how you want to help. You can reach Alan at 579-8443. Alan has just returned from the statewide organizing conference in Santa Cruz, and will report on the enthusiasm there.

We need all you Free Press readers to let us know you want to help!!! SCRAP suggests that you begin by talking with you close friends and planning a networking gathering to discuss how to best cover your area of the county for signatures. If you want to help raise funds, give us a call, and we can help you organize an intimate fundraising dinner with hemp-seed treats, fashion shows, information, hemp products, and even legislative letterwriting packages for the seriously motivated!! We need to outreach and raise funds now so we are prepared to gather signatures and take on the press this Summer and Fall. If you want to make a donation to help get the information out here in Sonoma County, please send a Check to SCRAP, Box 410, Cazadero, CA 95421.

I mention the legislative letter writing because there are several important bills both in the Federal and State legislatures which need to be addressed. The government needs to hear from YOU! They hear plenty from the religious "right" and from the well-paid lobbyists of the Tobacco, Alcohol, and Pharmaceutical industries ( who finance DARE and Partnership for a Drug Free America). Local polls show that up to 90% of the public favors medical legalization of marijuana. But Wilson still vetoed legislation last year that would have allowed compassionate use of marijuana for medical purposes.

Senator Vasconcellos (D. San Jose) has sponsored a California medical marijuana bill, AB 1529, which would exempt patients from existing laws against possession and cultivation of marijuana for personal use. Please write to your Assembly members and suggest they co-sponsor this legislation. Also write to the Assembly Health Committee key votes, Chair, Doris Allen, and Brett Granlund, Jim Morissey, Susan Davis, Steve Baldwin, Curtis Tucker, and Martin Gallegos. You can mail to all of these assemblymen/ women c/o State Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814.

Another important piece of State legislation is SB1198 which would opt out of the "Smoke a Joint, Lose Your License" law. This legislation is introduced by State Senate Transportation Committee Chairman, Quentin Kopp, and you can send letters of support to your State Senators as well as State Transportation and State Criminal Procedure Committee key members: Dan Boatwright, Tom Campbell, Richard Polanco, Ruben Ayala, and Robert Beverly.

In the Assembly, legislation has already been introduced ( AB1304) which would extend the "Smoke a Joint" law. So you should write the Transportation Committee and Public Safety Committee opposing this legislation.

A really frightening piece of Federal anti-drug legalization legislation is H.R. 135 which would forbid the government from financing or conducting any study or research of potential drug legalization. This would reverse the mandate established last year establishing the National Commission on Crime Prevention and Control which called for a study to reevaluate national drug policy.

In a more sweeping reform package presented by the new Republicans in the Senate, legislation called "Taking Back the Streets" would reverse the "Safety Valve" in last year's Crime Bill which exempted certain non-violent crimes and drug offenders from harsh mandatory minimums.

Please write to our California Senators and tell them we do NOT want to increase mandatory minimums for drug offenders, and do not want to increase spending on prisons or DEA budgets, or to overload the criminal justice system with non-violent drug offenders. Write to:

Sen. Barbara Boxer, 112 S.H.O.B., Washington DC 20510 - (415) 4030-0100

Sen Dianne Feinstsin, 331 S.H.O.B., Washington DC 20510 - (415) 249-4777

This legislative lobbying must be done by folks like us who understand what a travesty against freedom and civil rights these anti-drug laws are, and how dangerous it is to allow the right wing to control the personal lives of consenting adults. Please be both courageous and energetic in your effort to retain and regain personal freedom and to end the War on Drugs, especially marijuana. And please help us prepare for a successful medical marijuana initiative drive! If you don't do this for yourself and those you love, who will?

March 1995

GO TO: Sonoma County Free Press Home Page | Columns | Features | SCRAP Index