Marijuana Anti-Prohibition Project 760.799.2055

Hello Everyone,
No doubt this is going to be a momentous year – maybe even a make it or break it year. Legally there are so many court cases, voter initiatives and even quite a bit of legislation in our favor, we should most assuredly continue seeing progress. Even though there will always be some steps backward, overall we should continue to gain ground.
This is especially true with 2008 being an election year with medical marijuana being one of those issues that apparently divide Republicans from Democrats. Thanks to the relentless paparazzi-like efforts of the Marijuana Policy Project, we know that every current Republican presidential candidate, except for Ron Paul, wants the DEA to continue arresting medical marijuana patients and every Democratic presidential candidate publicly stating that the raids must stop – some more forcefully than the others, but they all agree on the general idea that the feds should not be doing this. For more info on the presidential candidates go to: http://granitestaters.com/candidates/
I don’t like making the suggestion that one of your new year resolutions could be to do something to enhance the status of medicinal marijuana because most new year’s resolution never get past the month of January before they are forgotten. But then again marijuana keeps on giving all year long and every time you experience the benefits of marijuana (either on your own or knowing about its multiple benefits), perhaps you will want to give to help marijuana so it can continue to help you and your community.
To keep you informed how you can give, I will continue to keep you informed on what I learn about our local officials positions on medicinal marijuana and marijuana law reform. One of the most important things you can do is to cast your vote for candidates who support our positions. And when you get the information you need to make an informed decision on a candidate, share that information with your family, friends, co-workers and the person at the drive-up window at your favorite fast-food outlet.
Calling an elected official is also something easy to do – it just takes a 60 second phone call. Writing a SHORT (under 200 words) letter to the editor of your local newspaper is phenomenal. They almost always get printed and are seen by tens of thousands of people who actively stay informed on the issues they will be voting on in the next election.
Critically important is to make the time to attend any one of the three monthly meetings of your local medical marijuana patient support group and law reform organization. That’s right – THREE. I am so proud to announce that in addition to meetings at the Cathedral City Library and at the Red Barn Feed Store above Yucca Valley, we will now be meeting in Riverside in patient center classroom of the THCF Medical Clinic.
We just had our meeting at the Cathedral City Library last Saturday and it was very well attended. JoAnn and Rich McCabe spoke about their arrest and their upcoming court dates (more about the McCabes later in this newsletter). Ed Disney presented an initiative petition authored by cannabis legend Jack Herer to legalize possession and cultivation of personal amounts of marijuana.
If you didn’t make that one, there are two more meetings this month and each one is dealing with important issues.
On Wednesday, Jan. 9 at 7 p.m., the High Desert Chapter of MAPP will be meet to discuss their planned Tuesday, January 29 presentation before the San Bernardino Board of Supervisors. With the arrest of JoAnn and Rich McCabe directly related to the Board’s refusal to allow the San Bernardino County Health Department to issue the state mandated ID cards, it is time to once again call our elected officials to task for not just failing to enforce state law, not just for wasting hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars in a frivolous lawsuit to overturn Prop. 215, but because their refusal to issue the ID cards means the dastardly San Bernardino DA’s office can continue to put great grandma and others in jail.
A planned fundraiser at a local high desert venue for JoAnn and Rich will also be discussed and planned. This and much more all takes place around the Red Barn Feed Store’s pot bellied stove at the meeting this Wednesday, January 9 at 7 p.m. The Red Barn Feed Store is located at 350 S. Old Woman Springs Road (Hwy. 247) in Flamingo Heights.
I am really excited by the meeting to be held on Sunday, January 13 at 1 p.m. We have made several attempts in the past to hold meetings in the Riverside area, but they always faltered. This time we have succeeded and everyone is encouraged to attend our first meeting in Riverside. The meeting will be held in the classroom located in the newly opened THCF Medical Clinic. The clinic is the only nearby medical facility providing medicinal marijuana recommendations to patients in western portions of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties.
Dege Coutee, President and Education Director of the Los Angeles based Patient Advocacy Network, will present an informative afternoon covering the nuts and bolts of patient organizations and protecting patients rights. It is hoped that people attending the meeting will build upon her presentation to create an effective and viable organization right in the belly of the beast that is able to defend, protect and enhance patient rights while developing safe, reliable and affordable access to medicinal marijuana.
It’s a tall order but harping back to the beginning of this newsletter – this is going to be a momentous year and one of the reasons it can be is because of this new group. With ten times the population base of the Coachella Valley and High Desert, major accomplishments can be achieved if we can activate the activists to take charge.
That’s what the meeting is all about and I encourage everyone who can make the trip into Riverside, to do so. Plus you will be at the newly opened THCF Medical Clinic and Patient Center. One of the most exciting parts of the clinic is the patient classroom equipped with state of the art multi-media capabilities including large screen video and audio presentations. Their patient classroom is designed to educate the general public about the health and medical benefits of cannabis as well as provide patients with classes on cannabis cooking, making medicinal preparations such as oils and balms, cultivation instruction, preparing the various forms of marijuana such as hashish (which is especially important if you do not want to exceed the eight ounce limit on the amount of marijuana you can possess) and other cannabis related issues.
It may be an hour or so drive for many of you, but you know it will be well worth your time to take a Sunday drive and come on out to the beautiful northern part of the city of Riverside for this meeting. Mark your calendar now – Sunday, January 13 at 1 p.m. at the THCF Medical Clinic at 647 N. Main Street.
I have discussed a lot of things you can do in this newsletter – voting, phoning, writing, and attending meetings. These are things you can do in the future – the not to distant future I hope. There is, however, something you can do RIGHT NOW. You can help keep a 74-year-old great grandma out of jail by going to our website at www.marijuananews.org and scrolling down the home page to the picture of JoAnn and Rich McCabe. By clicking on the picture you can view an interview I did with the JoAnn and Rich for our TV show.
After viewing the video (or before or during or anytime you want), you can click on the DONATE button located below their picture and send a generous donation to their defense fund. JoAnn and Rich need a good defense and they won’t get it from the overworked, underpaid and understaffed public defender’s office.
Like many of you and like many high desert senior citizens, JoAnn and Rich McCabe find that marijuana provides safe, effective symptomatic relief for the ailments of advancing year and use it specifically to manage their arthritis, insomnia and chronic back and joint pain. For following state law and doing what the voters of California said they could do, they are now paying a terrible price – a price they cannot afford.
The San Bernardino District Attorney’s office wants to put them in jail for up to three years and has assigned a special prosecutor to the case to make sure the 74-year-old great grandma does time. JoAnn and Rich McCabe live in the high desert in a mobile home near Old Women’s Springs road on the way to Landers. It is not an area known for the density of upper income residences. With a special prosecutor assigned to the case, they will need a lawyer steeped in medical marijuana law – a specialty sorely lacking in the public defenders office that is more use to defending robbers, car thieves, prostitutes, drug prohibition violators and drunk drivers than elderly medicinal marijuana patients.
Unfortunately lawyers with the knowledge to defend medical marijuana patients do not come cheap – reasonable maybe, but not cheap. We need to raise $5,000 immediately to retain a lawyer. That is why we need your help right now. We need you to go to www.marijuananews.org and click on the DONATE button located below JoAnn and Rich’s picture and send a generous donation to their defense so that they do not get sent to jail.
Please note that when you make the donation on the website via PayPal there will be a shipping and handling fee added to the donation. None of this fee goes to PayPal – it all goes to the defense fund. Our webmasters having been trying valiantly to get it deleted but have not figured out how to do it yet (if anyone out there knows how to correct this, let me know and I will forward them the information).
But like I said, none of it goes to PayPal so the shipping and handling fee is just part of your donation to the McCabe’s defense fund. How PayPal figures the amount of the shipping and handling charge is beyond me, but it seems to be somewhere around 10% to 20% of what you donate. So donate a little less than you want and the shipping and handling charge will bring it up to about what you want.
Hopefully we will have this corrected soon, but please don’t wait till then. JoAnn and Rich need the $$$ now because if we can’t get them the funds to retain a capable attorney, then they will be relying on the crapshoot public defender system and a great grandmother deserves better than that.
$5,000 may not sound like that much, but I have never tried to raise that much money before so I am very grateful that the owner, performers and staff of CopyKatz Showbar have volunteered to host a defense fundraiser to keep great grandma out of jail.
Elyse Del Francia-Goodwin, owner of CopyKatz Showroom and Backstage Bistro, is looking forward to hosting this fundraiser. I spoke with her the other day and she is aghast at the idea of arresting two senior citizens and a great grandmother at that. She want to do whatever she can to help and with the help of CopyKatz’s female and celebrity impersonators, a significant amount of funds can be raised.
Elyse is no stranger to the medicinal use of marijuana and says she owes a debt of gratitude to marijuana for the relief it brought her husband who suffered from Parkinson’s disease. She tells me that marijuana was the only thing that worked as it controlled his non-stop tremors. It also gave him relief from his agonizing muscle weakness and helped prevent falls that were always terrifying to her. Marijuana use by Elyse’s husband made life bearable for both of them. Elyse’s husband was not a criminal and neither are the McCabe’s.
In addition to the performers of CopyKatz, many of the merchants in downtown Palm Springs are helping to raise defense funds for the McCabes. One of our long time supporters, Joy Meredith, owner of Crystal Fantasy and president of the Downtown Business Owners Association, will be helping to coordinate donations of auction items as well as encouraging businesses to donate 10% of their proceeds on Sunday, February 3 to their defense fund. Joy tells me she “would have trouble sleeping at night if I didn’t do something to help keep grandma out of jail.”
The benefit defense fund fundraiser will be held at 3 p.m. on Sunday, February 3 at the CopyKatz Showroom and Backstage Bistro located at 210 South Palm Canyon in downtown Palm Springs. The event is open to the general public so everyone is encouraged to come. A $20 cover charge will be requested but it is worth every penny of it since every penny of the cover charge and auction goes directly to the McCabe defense fund.
But don’t wait till then – the defense needs your help now. Go to www.marijuananews.org. If you prefer, you can also make a donation by making a check out to MAPP (write in the memo portion – “McCabe defense fund”) and sending it to:
MAPP, PO Box 739, Palm Springs CA 92263.
This is my first email of the New Year. Make my day, make the McCabe’s day and ruin the SB DA’s day by making a donation today to the JoAnn and Rich McCabe Defense Fund.
If you have any questions, need more information or have some great ideas on how you can help the McCabe defense, send me an email or give me a call at 760-799-2055.
Lanny
P.S. Don’t forget about our radio and TV shows –
Marijuana – Compassion and Common Sense –The TV Show
Coachella Valley – Tuesday, Friday, Saturday night at 10 p.m. on cable channel 99.
Morongo Valley to 29 Palms - Tuesday night at 9 p.m. on cable channel 111.
Invite your friends who don’t have cable over for a Marijuana – Compassion and Common Sense Party.
Marijuana – Compassion and Common Sense – The Radio Show
Western Riverside and San Bernardino Counties – Thursday night at 7 p.m. on radio station KCAA, 1050 AM.
On the worldwide web at www.kcaaradio.com At the top of the homepage click on LISTEN LIVE button or if you want to listen and see me in the studio, click on the KCAATV button in the left hand column.
This is an interactive talk show so call in with you comments and questions anytime during the show at the toll free number of 1-888-909-1050 or the local line of 909-888-KCAA (5222).
Coming soon – Marijuana – Compassion and Common Sense – The Movie!
(but don’t hold your breath).