Medical Marijuana

[mdmc]

Do you think that support for medical marijuania will be helpful or harmful to Presidential Candidates?

Dear Friend:

New Hampshire voters delivered a strong victory for the Marijuana
Policy Project and medical marijuana patients last week. U.S. Sen.
John Kerry (D-MA), the major candidate who is most supportive of
medical marijuana legislation, won the primary over former Gov. Howard
Dean (D-VT) by a double-digit margin.

MPP was very active in the primary. Granite Staters for Medical
Marijuana, MPP's grassroots organization in New Hampshire, attended
town hall meetings all over the state, peppering the candidates with
questions. MPP also called approximately 10,000 Democratic voters in
January, urging them to call Gov. Dean's campaign to ask him to pledge
to end the DEA's raids on medical marijuana patients and their
caregivers. And MPP leafleted the campaign events of candidates
opposed to medical marijuana, including Gov. Dean, U.S. Sen. John
Edwards (D-NC), and U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT).

In the past week, MPP escalated its effort to educate voters about the
candidates' positions on medical marijuana through 35,000 candidate
score cards and a TV commercial that highlighted those candidates who
refused to pledge to end federal attacks on patients. Please visit
http://www.mpp.org/NH/news_6003.html to read more about this campaign.

"Our goal was to change the political dialogue on medical marijuana,
and we succeeded beyond our wildest dreams," said MPP's Aaron Houston,
who coordinated the campaign since April from Manchester, New
Hampshire. Please consider visiting http://www.mpp.org/donate0906 to
help defray the costs that MPP incurred because of this campaign.

Medical marijuana proponents should be pleased with the results of the
New Hampshire primary. Not only did Kerry win, taking 39% of the vote
to Dean's 26%, but Wesley Clark (D-AR) -- also a medical marijuana
supporter -- took third place with 12% of the vote. Edwards and
Lieberman, both of whom support the DEA's raids on cancer patients,
finished in fourth and fifth places with 12% and 9%, respectively.

On the campaign trail, Kerry said he favored federal medical marijuana
legislation and pledged to end the DEA's raids on patients and
caregivers in states with medical marijuana laws. This stand earned
him an "A-" in MPP's voter guide. Dean, by contrast, killed MPP's
medical marijuana legislation when he was governor of Vermont and
failed to pledge a permanent end to the DEA raids. Dean earned a "D-"
for these positions.

Clark pledged to end the raids and received a "B+". MPP flunked
Sen. Edwards and Sen. Lieberman for their opposition to medical
marijuana. Go to http://www.GraniteStaters.com/guide to read more
about all the candidates' positions.

MPP's focused efforts over the past nine months likely affected the
outcome of the election by a few percentage points. And, more
importantly, our work vaulted the medical marijuana issue into the
realm of prominent campaign issues that the candidates had to address
day in and day out.

Of course, the presidential primary race isn't over, and MPP does not
have the resources to launch New Hampshire-style campaigns in other
states. If you live in a state other than Iowa or New Hampshire,
please attend the town hall forums that the various candidates are
staging in your state, being sure to ask them whether they would end
or continue the DEA's raids on medical marijuana patients and
providers. If you make contact with any of the presidential campaigns,
please e-mail MPP at [e-mail] to let us know what happened.

If you like what MPP has been doing to influence the presidential
primaries, please visit http://www.mpp.org/donate0906 to make a
financial contribution. Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

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

[blondeatlast]

1. Not a big enough issue to matter either way.

Once the Dems get a margin in both houses of Congress, then it might come about. Until then, this definitley has to take a back seat to the bigger issues.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

4. yep

[Terwilliger]

2. I think it's a wash

Firstly, Dems won't bring it up if they don't have to.

Secondly, being in favor of safeguarding med. MJ patients could help a candidate, but he'll have to walk the line and keep the subject on medical applications

Thirdly, someone will call for more studies "The data isn't in yet"

So, I don't think it would help or hurt this year.

[mdmc]

6. Dean says, "More study" needed

but really, doesn't this prove the belief that Kerry is more liberal? Couldn't Kucinich, Sharpton, Braun, and Nader supporters look to Medical Marijunia as a litmus for an electable liberal candidate?

If I was between Clark and Edwards, all things the same, I would choose Clark for his medical marijuania support.

[Terwilliger]

11. Kerry says "More study needed"...they all do

b/c that's the way to avoid taking a hard position on the issue

[blm]

16. Kerry is ready to direct drafting of legal language

to allow the use of medical marijuana.

He will eventually get to the decriminalization of marijuana. First he intends to direct the Justice Dept. to stop prosecuting users. That will pave the way for a public discourse on decriminalization

[Terwilliger]

18. well, that's great rhetoric

let's see what actually changes

Tell me, is Kerry willing to condemn Bill Clinton's actions against Prop. 215 in California?

[blm]

24. We'll see. I know he's an unashamed past user of pot, himself.

And when he was running the prosecutor's office in Mass. he made pot cases a lowest priority and rarely pursued them.

[mdmc]

20. I don't know Kerry's position, to be honest.

But I do know that MPP is a great advocate group for medical marijuana, and that they felt Kerry was better than Dean on this issue.

Dean, as Governor, vetoed a MPP initiative in VT. Perhaps there is some bad blood, or historical Dean statements on record with the MPP that cast Kerry in a better light. Kerry never officially had to deal with medical marijuana as a Senator in DC, did he?

[Mairead]

23. Kucinich doesn't. He knows better.

He's for treating it like alcohol.

[slackmaster]

9. I think the subject is best left alone

Medical MJ has popular support in some places and popular scorn in others. It's too polarizing to make a good campaign issue.

Thirdly, someone will call for more studies "The data isn't in yet"

Which IMO makes a candidate's best possible response to direct questions about it. Whether or not medical MJ is a good idea really ought to be treated as a medical, technical, scientific issue and not a political one.

[Terwilliger]

12. but it is political

the only way that Prop 215 passed in California was b/c nothing was being done on the "medical, technical, scientific" side...people had to introduce the issue to political circles in order that any laws might change

And, if it truly is a "medical, technical, scientific" issue, then it shouldn't be illegal.

[slackmaster]

15. It was outlawed for political reasons

I know you already knew that, but if you haven't seen this article I recommend it:

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/whiteb1.htm

[Terwilliger]

17. yes, and?

you just said it wasn't a political issue :shrug:

[slackmaster]

22. I'm saying we should rise above the politics

If we are to attack the prohibition on political grounds the attack should focus on the fraudulent basis for that prohibition. But it happened so long ago I don't think that strategy will be effective. Best bet IMO is to say "let's allow science to decide" and go with that.

My point is that there are so many people who are violently opposed to MJ that coming out on the side of decriminalization, legalization, medical compassionate use, etc. is bound to backfire.

You were right in saying it's a wash. I think washes are best left out to dry all by themselves.

:D

[mdmc]

3. Leiberman, Gephardt, Edwards and Dean all "failed"

"There was a time when the federal government was arresting very sick people, and some Democrats running for president refused to say they would stop it," an announcer says in MPP Political Fund's 30-second spot. Grainy photographs of former Gov. Howard Dean, D-Vt., Sens. John Edwards, D-N.C., and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., appear on screen as the announcer says that cancer and AIDS patients, "just trying to relieve their pain, were being arrested" while "these Democrats refused to say they would stop it."

[Terwilliger]

5. marijuana

(you can edit subject lines)

Dems are just trying to be (somewhat) kinder, gentler Republicans

[mdmc]

13. Thanks for the spelling heads up

I've always spelled marijuana creatively, as it is a manufactured word to demonize hemp and cannabis.

Tewilliger, do you have a candidate of choice?

[Terwilliger]

19. yes

he looks like the little guy standing on the truck :hi:

[Monte Carlo]

7. Rounding-up terminally ill patients isn't exactly a plus for Bush...

... come election time. People in this country are slightly hysterical about drugs, but denying a dying patient the substance that they say helps their pain and nausea makes for a devastating campaign commercial.

[Terwilliger]

14. It does

the counter commercial comes from Bush "Bill Clinton actively attacked the medical marijuana issue in California, going so far as to instruct his "drug czar" Barry McAsscrack to sabotage the Prop. 215 campaign and threaten medical doctors for even THINKING about writing actual prescriptions"

Too bad Democrats truly suck on this issue.

[Monte Carlo]

21. Oh come now, that's the wrong attitude.

If the GOP is just going to run 'Blame Clinton' ads to counter it, I'm not too worried.

The Democrats have sinned mightly along the GOP in the Drug War, but they at least seem ready to redeem themselves, and they've got to start somewhere.

[Terwilliger]

25. well

it would be nice to see "opposition" to Bush and Repuke policies on this issue

That's all I'm asking...OPPOSITION

[Jerseycoa]

8. I actually think this is a positive issue

Even the most conservative voters have family who suffer or have suffered with cancer, and would go to any lengths to alleviate the pain of their loved ones. This is like the prescription drugs from Canada issue. It looks like a negative, but in the hearts and minds of voters, it's a positive.

[rucky]

10. The net gain/loss of support will cancel itself out.

n/t

[MercutioATC]

26. A RESPONSIBLE position on MM would be helpful.

...like requiring FDA testing before approving it.