ASA, your leading medical marijuana patient advocacy group, stepped up our effort to oppose Steve Cooley in his bid to become California’s next Attorney General.   Steph Sherer, ASA’s founder and executive director, has deemed the Attorney General’s race the most important race for medical marijuana advocates in California this November.

This week ASA re-launched the website www.NotCooley.com with new videos that highlight why Steve Cooley is bad for medical marijuana patients and their providers, bad for the environment, and bad for marriage equality.  There is also a poster, and, believe it or not, the campaign has inspired this song!

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Hey California Voters!  Have you heard the news?

A Virginia-based political action group known as the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) has invested more than $1 million to fund negative ads against Democrat candidate for Attorney General, Kamala Harris.   Here’s the catch: more than half that dough came from American Crossroads.  What’s American Crossroads?  Well, according to the Sacramento Bee:

The group’s chairman is Ed Gillespie, who was counselor to President George W. Bush. Gillespie and Bush’s chief political strategist, Karl Rove, helped create American Crossroads, which is spending millions to help Republicans take control of the House and Senate.

You remember these guys; Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie and President George W. Bush! They were responsible for unleashing an unprecedented level of federal enforcement and prosecutions against individuals who were using or providing medical marijuana in strict compliance with state law.

Now they want to help elect Steve Cooley to California’s top law enforcement spot!  California is leading the nation in adopting some of the coolest laws in the nation, like safe access to medical marijuana.  But Steve Cooley wants to stop all that progress.

Tell your friends and family in California to vote NOT COOLEY on Nov 2.

In what appears to be yet another attempt by New Jersey to create the most restrictive medical marijuana program in the country, yesterday the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services luanched the physician registry for the state’s Medical Marijuana Program. Not only will physicians have to “certify that they have completed medical education in Addiction Medicine and Pain Management within the past two years,” but they will also have to attest that they “have provided education for the patient on the lack of scientific consensus for the use of medical marijuana.” Physicians will also have to be approved by DHSS before they can be added to the registry.

Access matters, and so does your vote!

The mid-term election is on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010, and the stakes are high for medical cannabis advocates across the nation!  It is more important than ever that we go to the polls and vote for the candidates and ballot measures that will promote safe, legal, and affordable access to marijuana for therapeutic use and research.

Americans for Safe Access has released 2010 Election Voter Guides to help medical cannabis advocates make informed choices about the candidates and ballot measures that advance the safe access agenda.

Please VOTE! on Tues., November 2nd.

In a recent editorial published in the San Diego Tribune, Dr. Igor Grant reminds medical marijuana advocates that even with the hotly debated Proposition 19 on California’s ballot this November, we have to keep our eyes on the prize. In this case, that means “thoughtful, continued research” into the therapeutic properties of marijuana.  Dr. Grant, a professor and Executive Vice-Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine, cites three recently published studies that indicate ”marijuana effectively blunts neuropathic pain in some people.” He acknowledges that while this is a limited number of small studies, the results of these studies argue for more testing in the future. And to get there, we can’t let ourselves or our cause get mired in the politics of legalization.

The following is a guest blog by Marcus Boyd and Eugene Davidovich, San Diego Chapter of Americans for Safe Access.

District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and her ‘fierce fight’ against medical marijuana patients suffered another devastating defeat this week. Advocates from the local chapter of Americans for Safe Access (SDASA), the nation’s largest advocacy group promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research, successfully obtained an order from the courts for the release of five large impounded medical cannabis plants. The judge ordered the plants released to a representative of SDASA for their safe keeping.

On Wednesday afternoon of this week, Marcus Boyd of SDASA retrieved the plants from San Diego County Sheriff’s evidence locker. (more…)

Special Assistant City Attorney Jane Usher told the Los Angeles Times that medical cannabis collectives in Los Angeles are experiencing “impatience and frustration” due to ongoing legal controversy surrounding the city’s tough new regulations. That may be the first thing Ms. Usher and medical cannabis advocates have agreed on in years. Don’t expect the amity to last long. The City Attorney Carmen Trutanich is trying to close more than one hundred legal collectives deemed ineligible to register under the city’s ordinance based on broad interpretive leaps. Los Angeles Times reporter Sandy Banks said she understands why the collectives feel like this is an “underhanded trick.”

READ: LA Timnes - ”Some compassionate pot shops caught in L.A. law’s red tape” (Sandy Banks, October 19, 2010)

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On October 6, the NJ Department of Health released its plan for the implementation of New Jersey’s medical marijuana regulations. To say these regulations are restrictive would be putting it mildly – NJ seems to be aiming for the most restrictive regulations of any medical marijuana state out there. These regulations have sparked outrage on both sides of the aisle and a press conference and a peaceful demonstration are scheduled for today, October 18 from 12:00pm to 2:00pm on the front steps of the State House in Trenton.

Americans for Safe Access (ASA) urges everyone to register to vote on or before Monday, October 18, the deadline to register for the November mid-term elections in most states. You can get a voter registration card in most Post Offices, or contact local officials. We need everyone out at the polls this year!

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On November 2, medical cannabis patients in California will make an important choice at the polls – one that will shape the fight for safe access to medicine for years to come. I am not talking about Proposition 19, the voter initiative that is garnering headlines nationwide. I am talking about the race for California Attorney General.

If Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley wins, it will mean tough times for patients and providers all over the state.

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