LOS ANGELES – October 20, 2009 – Medical cannabis patients and their
advocates are holding rallies and conducting actions in Los Angeles, San
Francisco, San Diego and Riverside, California, on Thursday, October 22,
2009. Patients are responding to local elected officials and rogue law
enforcement for impeding regulations and violating patients’ rights.
Patients are also working with Congressional offices to move the issue
further forward on the federal level.
They will be thanking President Obama for the recent memo to California
Attorney General Jerry Brown and others, that includes language which has
helped reduce fear of DEA raids and federal prosecution of patients from
the US Department of Justice. While patient advocates applaud this memo
many feel it falls short and changes little in California.
“President Obama’s memo is welcome and a reasonable first step but
patients and providers need much stronger protection and clear language
under federal law,” states Shona Gochenaur, Executive Director of Axis of
Love San Francisco, a medical cannabis patient advocacy and social
services organization serving San Francisco. Patient advocates in San
Francisco will call on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for a review of the pros
and cons HR 2835, the Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act -
Search Results – THOMAS (Library of Congress). Gochenaur states,
“We have to keep up this momentum.”
In Los Angeles, District Attorney Steve Cooley and City Attorney Carmen
Trutanich are calling all medical cannabis dispensaries “100% illegal” and
have promised busts. “Patients feel threatened in a new way in Los
Angeles,” states Degé Coutee, director of Patient Advocacy Network, a
medical cannabis patient advocacy and educational organization serving
Greater Los Angeles. “They [Cooley and Trutanich] are recreating reefer
madness and are out of step with the will of the people. We want
acceptable rules not raids. Los Angeles has created a dangerous situation
and patients want to let our officials know we that,” continues Coutee.
Day of Action List of Events and Contacts:
Los Angeles – Degé Coutee (contact info above)
Rally at Los Angeles City Hall – 200 N. Main St. Entrance, Downtown LA –
2:15 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
San Francisco – Shona Gochenaur (415) 240- 5247 axisoflovesf@gmail.com
Rally at Congressional Office of Nancy Pelosi – 90 7th Street, San
Francisco, 94103 – Noon to 1 p.m.
San Diego – Kim McCue kim_cue@sbcglobal.net or Wendy Christakes (619)
723-6572
Rally at CA Narcotic Officers Assoc. Awards Ceremony – Double Tree Hotel –
7450 Hazard Center Drive – 5:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Riverside – Ryan Michaels (760) 707-7661 neotruth@hotmail.com
Rally at Riverside County Courthouse – Corner of 10th and Main Streets,
Riverside Civic Center – 5 p.m. to 6:15 p.m.
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