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From: Rob Kampia
Date: 6/4/2003
Time: 7:24:20 PM
Remote Name: 67.64.41.67
Dear Friend:
Yesterday, the Marijuana Policy Project debuted to the national news media our new Web site which grades all nine Democratic presidential candidates and President Bush on the medical marijuana issue. (We will add the Libertarian, Green, and other presidential candidates at a later date.)
I think we all agree that Bush deserves an F, but how would you grade the nine Democratic candidates? Do you agree with MPP's rankings? We gave one candidate a "?" and another an A, and the remaining seven ranked from C to F+.
Please visit the "voter guide" link at http://www.GraniteStaters.com and see for yourself. If you have any marijuana-related information on any of the 10 candidates that does not appear on our Web site, please reply to this e-mail message to tell us what you know.
The release of this Web site is the public debut of the behind-the- scenes work we've been doing for the past three months in New Hampshire, the first state to hold a presidential primary. The stated goal of this project is to maximize the number of Democratic presidential candidates who take public positions in favor of medical marijuana by the time of the New Hampshire primary, which will be held on January 27, 2004.
Our efforts have already begun to pay off: On May 27, partly in response to MPP's lobbying, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio became the first presidential contender to publicly call for an end to the war on medical marijuana patients. Please read MPP's news release about Kucinich's stand at http://mpp.org/releases/nr052803.html .
Two days later in The San Francisco Chronicle, Congressman Kucinich said that as president, "I'd sign an executive order that would permit its use." See http://www.mpp.org/states/site/quicknews.cgi?key=4267 for the full story, which also quotes me as saying, "This is a natural issue for the Democrats: The Bush administration is completely out of step with the public, which doesn't want to see sick people hauled off to jail for taking their medicine."
We are focusing on New Hampshire because it is the site of the first state presidential primary. New Hampshire is a small state with a tradition of "retail politics" that presents a great opportunity for ordinary citizens to make an impact. MPP already has a full-time staffer on the ground in Manchester -- the state's largest city -- where he is organizing medical marijuana patients and supporters under the name Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana. The coalition we are putting together will be an unstoppable force all along the campaign trail, at debates and candidate forums as well as in local newspapers, pressing the candidates to take a stand on behalf of patients -- and turning up the heat on those who refuse.
Please visit http://www.GraniteStaters.com for a complete list of contact information for all 10 campaigns. Please consider calling and e-mailing each campaign office to let them know your views. Our Web site will be updated regularly as the campaign progresses, so please check back frequently.
We hope that our work in New Hampshire over the next few months will inspire a majority of Democratic candidates to take a positive position on medical marijuana, so that this may happen ...
It is October 2004, and the major party presidential candidates are debating on national TV. The Democratic nominee holds up an elderly woman's picture.
"Mr. President," the Democratic candidate says, "this is Suzanne Pfeil. She's a paraplegic, disabled by polio. Two years ago your Justice Department sent armed federal agents to storm the hospice where she was staying in California. They woke her up, pointed automatic rifles at her, and demanded that she stand up. When she couldn't, they handcuffed her to the bed, leaving her there for over an hour while they took away her medical marijuana. Mr. President, Suzanne Pfeil is just one of hundreds of seriously ill medical marijuana patients whom your administration has persecuted. If I am elected, I will stop this cruel war on the sick and dying."
Impossible? I don't think so.
Most of the candidates have yet to take positions, so now is the time to flex our strength in New Hampshire, where each candidate will be visiting again and again until the primary election in January 2004.
MPP's New Hampshire project, which I predict will cost $120,000 -- including staff time, public opinion polling, paid advertising, billboards, and office expenses, all in New Hampshire -- is completely unfunded. I was unable to persuade any major funders to support this project. But we are persevering anyway, because I don't want to wake up in December wishing MPP would have done something to make medical marijuana a prominent issue in presidential politics.
If you support our New Hampshire plan, I would very much appreciate your financial support -- see http://www.GraniteStaters.com/donate -- so that MPP does not run a deficit because of this campaign. Thank you in advance for anything you can do to help.
Sincerely,
Rob Kampia Executive Director Marijuana Policy Project Washington, D.C.