Last week, ASA brought you exciting news that our friends at CannabisPlanet.tv were to sponsor a NASCAR sanctioned race car at kick off of the K & N Pro Series West. 

Unfortunately, we caught word over the weekend that NASCAR said “NO!”

CannabisPlanet.tv spokesperson Brad Lane thinks the logos weren’t allowed because of the marijuana leafs, but according to this article, NASCAR says it never received the paperwork required to approve Cannabis Planet as a sponsor.

Whatever the case, we hope Dynamic Motor Sports and CannabisPlanet.tv will try again!

(From YouTube) Co-founders of Patients Out of Time, host of the Sixth National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics, coming up on April 15 – 17, 2010 in Warwick, Rhode Island, Mary Lynn Mathre, RN and Al Bryne highlight the organization’s goals and speakers at the April conference, including keynote speaker Raphael Mechoulam, PhD, of Hebrew University in Israel. Also of note, a teleconferenced presentation by noted author Andrew Weil, MD, at a Bensfit Dinner and auction.

The conference is part of a Continuing Medical Education series, partnering with the University of California.

Join ASA for “Preparing for Victory,”  a special series of ASA workshops following conference April 17-18.  At the National Clinical Conference, you will learn the science behind medical marijuana.  At Preparing for Victory, you will help build the political skills and strategies to make safe access a reality. Please register in advance.

Virgil Grant, a loving husband and father, was sentenced Monday to 6 years in prison for lawfully providing medical marijuana to patients in accordance with California law. Grant, who operated dispensaries in some of the poorer and Black neighborhoods of Los Angeles, is the victim of a bygone federal policy, which is still needlessly ruining lives. Although there is a back-story to Grant’s persecution, make no mistake he was targeted by a hostile Bush Administration and now sentenced under President Obama despite a policy that should deter such needless and harmful punishment.

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Our friends over at Change.org are sponsoring an online petition to The President of the United States and Veterans Affairs Secretary, Eric K. Shinseki, asking to lift the ban that restricts VA physicians from recommending the use of medical cannabis to U.S. Vets who may benefit from its use — even in states that have adopted Compassionate Use Laws.

A few more signatures is all they need to reach their goal — can ASA count on the support of our readers?

Help a Vet — Sign the Petition!

Hey NASCAR Nation…. We’ve got some news for you!

Our friends at CannabisPlanet.tv will sponsor a NASCAR sanctioned race car at the All-American Speedway in Roseville, CA when the K & N pro series west kicks off their season this coming Saturday, March 27, 2010. Cannabis Planet sponsors on the NASCAR include: MedicalGro.com, Green Garden Directory, Advanced Nutrients, LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition), and Americans for Safe Access!

Photo: CannabisPlanet.tv NASCAR

Check out the full I-report for more information.

See you at the races!

Volcano Vaporizer

California Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) has introduced a bill that will exempt supplies used to grow or ingest medical cannabis from the state’s drug paraphernalia laws. These supplies are currently sold to medical cannabis patients under the pretense that they are being used to grow other plants or for smoking tobacco. The bill would exempt testing supplies, grow equipment, pipes, bongs, vaporizers, and more – so long as they are used for legal medical purposes. Amminao’s AB 1811 would let vendors, legal patients, and primary caregivers openly discuss the proper use of the supplies without fear of prosecution under the antiquated paraphernalia laws.

This is a common sense improvement is state law. Legal medical cannabis patients and merchants who sell accessory products to them should not have to play games in grows stores, smoke shops, and other retail outlets. AB 1811 lets them behave like other ordinary buyers and sellers in the marketplace. Let’s hope that Assemblymember Ammiano’s colleagues support this easy fix to state law when his bill is heard before the Assembly Public Safety Committee in Sacramento on March 23.

In the spring issue of the journal Democracy, John J. DiIulio Jr., the former White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under President George W. Bush, underscored the need to “legalize marijuana for medically prescribed uses,” as part of his “Six Steps to Zero Prison Growth.” DiIulio should be applauded for his statements calling for a federal medical marijuana policy, not just because it will reduce prison growth, but also because it is a public health issue that must be addressed.

It’s true that DiIulio, currently a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, co-authored a book in 1996 with former Drug Czars William Bennett and John Walters, and wrote articles entitled, “Prisons Are a Bargain, by Any Measure,” and “Let ‘Em Rot.” However, DiIulio turned a new leaf before he even set foot in the White House to work for G.W. Bush in 2001. Contrary to the surprise recently expressed by other drug policy groups, Reason Magazine called DiIulio an “outspoken critic” of drug sentencing policies as far back as 1999. After DiIulio left the White House, Time Magazine published a story in 2003, noting that he “now opposes mandatory minimums for drug crimes,” and Rolling Stone published a story in 2007, claiming that DiIulio was:

…disgusted by the “perverse consequences” of harsh sentencing laws that had put millions of young Americans in prison, disbelieved the “sweeping scientific claims” made about the dangers of medical marijuana and wanted to expand “meaningful drug-treatment opportunities in urban areas.”

So, although it may not be a complete surprise that John DiIulio continues to forsake his pro-enforcement rhetoric of the past, we should still seize the opportunity to educate those in positions of power. DiIulio should work with Americans for Safe Access (ASA) to convince the federal government of developing a comprehensive policy on medical marijuana. While he’s at it, DiIulio should counsel Michele Leonhart, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), to end the ongoing raids in medical marijuana states, and urge Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to grant the pending petition to reschedule medical marijuana. Finally, DiIulio can satisfy part of his criminal justice goals by working with ASA to pass the “Truth in Trials” Act, which would give medical marijuana patients and providers a fighting chance, a defense in federal court.

Finally, nearly two weeks after Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich issued a press release announcing nuisance abatement actions against local dispensaries, Americans for Safe Access has unearthed one of at least 18 letters sent to medical marijuana providers and their landlords threatening imminent eviction.

Under the Bush Administration, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) used the similar tactic of sending letters to more than 300 dispensary landlords in California, threatening criminal prosecution and seizure of their property if they did not evict their tenants. Although this cynical tactic resulted in the closure of dozens of dispensaries across the state, the federal government’s effort to undermine the implementation of California’s medical marijuana law has thankfully failed.

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On behalf of ASA, and all of our members, supporters and chapters in the San Jose region: Thank You Congresswoman Lofgren!!

In the wake of new federal raid activity, U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren (CA-16) has added her name to the growing list of cosponsors on the Truth in Trials Act.  For those of you who are counting: that brings the total to 30 (and she is also the 8th member of the House Judiciary Committee to provide support)!!

What about your Congress-critter?  Has s/he joined as a cosponsor of Truth?  If you have 2 minutes, please call to your U.S. Representative’s office and ask for his or her co-sponsorship of H.R. 3939, The Truth in Trials Act. You can reach the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121. For ideas about what to say when you call, check out ASA’s Action page (and follow-up with an email while you’re there!).



Americans for Safe Access (ASA) filed a lawsuit today challenging the flawed medical cannabis ordinance recently adopted by the City of Los Angeles. We hope that City Councilmembers will still vote to change some of the most onerous provisions of that ordinance, but we must use every tool at our disposal to protect patients’ access – including litigation.

One plaintiff talked with reporters from the Los Angeles Times about the lawsuit:

The suit alleges the city ordinance violates state law, and it seeks a court injunction and restraining order to stop the measure from being enforced. In the suit, dispensary operators object to the “onerous restrictions” of the law that is scheduled to take effect March 14, such as a rule that gives them only seven days to relocate to 1,000 feet away from schools, parks and places of worship but does not provide maps to show where they are allowed under the law.

“We want to work with the city to comply with its regulations, but such unreasonable requirements make compliance impossible,” Yamileth Bolanos, operator of the PureLife Alternative Wellness Center, said in a statement.

ASA will keep fighting for patients in court and at City Hall. We have already scored big victories by persuading Councilmembers not to ban collectives or sales of cannabis. Now we have more work to do to make this ordinance work. I hope all of you will join me in asking City Councilmembers to make some big improvements in the ordinance in the weeks and months to come.