Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 19:19:30 +0000 To: drc-natl@drcnet.org From: DRCNet <drcnet@drcnet.org> Subject: ALERT: DC Med Mj Vote Passes, Congress May Overturn Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-UIDL: a015fed0d5879fad0f000e3f38404458 Sender: owner-drc-natl@drcnet.org X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.2.08 -- ListProc(tm) by CREN Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
VISIT: http://www.drcnet.org/medmjaction/ 9/22/99 Dear friend:
On a cold November day last year -- Election Day -- I stood outside a downtown polling station, leafleting and speaking with fellow Washington, D.C. residents about I-59, a ballot initiative to legalize medical use of marijuana in the District of Columbia and prevent medical marijuana patients from being sent to prison. That night, I waited with my fellow activists for results of similar initiatives taking place in several states across the nation.
The news was good -- medical marijuana passed everywhere, and comfortably. But the results of D.C.'s own medical marijuana initiative -- the one I had volunteered and voted for myself -- were kept ecret, and would be kept secret for more than ten months. Congress had passed a law, introduced by Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), that prohibited the D.C. government from spending any funds to count or certify the results of the medical marijuana vote -- not even the estimated $1.74 of staff time it would have taken to push the button and have the computer print them out.
Last week, a federal judge ruled that the Barr amendment is unconstitutional, and ordered D.C. election officials to count and certify the vote, an order with which they happily complied. The results were overwhelming, though not unexpected -- 69% of D.C. voters voted yes for medical marijuana, the same percentage found in an exit poll commissioned by Americans for Medical Rights.
But Barr and his fellow hard-liners haven't given up, and even now are plotting to overturn D.C.'s long-awaited medical marijuana law -- and the U.S. Constitution gives them that power, if they act within 30 working days. That's why we need you to take action, and tell your U.S. Representative and your two Senators to respect the will of the voters and let D.C.'s medical marijuana law stand!
Please visit http://www.drcnet.org/medmjaction/ to send an e-mail or fax to Congress. You can also use our site to find out your reps' phone numbers, to call them, for even more impact. And please forward this alert, or use the "tell-a-friend" page on the web site, to let as many people know about this important issue and how they can help. And please take action now -- thugh Congress has 30 working days, they could vote on this at any time, so please write Congress today!
Sincerely,
David Borden (borden@drcnet.org) Executive Director Drug Reform Coordination Network http://www.drcnet.org
P.S. For further information, please visit the web sites of two organizations that worked hard to pass I-59 by a wide margin: ACTUP DC, the initiative's sponsors, online at http://www.actupdc.org>, and the Marijuana Policy Project, online at http://www.mpp.org>. For extensive information on the evidence relating to medical marijuana, visit the AMR- affiliated web site http://www.medmjscience.org>