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Dear Friend:
The Marijuana Policy Project's initiative campaign in Nevada has done
the impossible: We have secured the endorsement of the Nevada
Conference of Police and Sheriffs. With more than 3,000 members
statewide, NCOPS is the largest police association in Nevada.
"As a former law-enforcement officer, I know that a simple marijuana
arrest takes me off the street for half my shift," said NCOPS
President Andy Anderson today as he announced his organization's
ground-breaking endorsement. "Passage of Question 9 will ensure that
more cops are on the streets to protect our citizens from violent
crime and the threat of terrorism."
If you are a student of marijuana policy reform, you know that
law-enforcement officials are usually the primary opponents of reform.
Now, with the police on our side in Nevada, it's hard to imagine who
our opponents will be. (Indeed, the Nevada Secretary of State couldn't
even find anyone to debate our campaign manager during two live
call-in TV shows on July 22 and 23!)
Our campaign operation in Nevada is doing everything right. So it's
important that we all pitch in to ensure that they have the $100,000's
they need in order to be able to run hard-hitting TV ads at the end of
this campaign.
If you have not yet become a part of this historic campaign, would you
please donate $10 or more at http://www.NRLE.org
? "Nevadans for
Responsible Law Enforcement" is the name of our PAC in Nevada.
Dear friend:
A statewide public opinion poll in Nevada -- released yesterday by the
Las Vegas Review-Journal -- shows that the Marijuana Policy Project's
ballot initiative campaign is in a dead heat!
Fully 44% of the voters say they plan to vote for the initiative, 46%
say they are opposed, and 10% are undecided. And this poll described
our initiative simply as providing that "possession of three ounces or
less of marijuana by a person aged 21 or older is not a cause for
arrest." The results would have tilted our way if the voters would
have also been told that our initiative imposes penalties for driving
dangerously while under the influence of marijuana, distributing
marijuana to minors, and smoking marijuana on public transportation.
In a political campaign where both sides are running neck-and-neck,
the side with the most money wins. Would you please visit
http://www.NRLE.org to donate $10 or more to
the Nevada initiative
campaign? "Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement" is our PAC in
Nevada.
If we run a professional campaign and the polling remains close until
mid-October, we will win on Election Day if we can afford to run hard-
hitting TV ads at the end of the campaign. Your donation will be used
to pay for these ads.
DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson has already spoken out against our
initiative when he was visiting Reno on July 11, saying, "That would
leave Nevada with one of the most liberal policies on drugs -- what
kind of tourism will Nevada attract?" The Las Vegas Review-Journal --
the largest newspaper in the state, which had already endorsed our
initiative -- responded by lampooning him with a second editorial.
Please see http://www.NRLE.org for an archive
of this news coverage.
Please help us defeat Asa Hutchinson, U.S. Attorney General John
Ashcroft, Drug Czar John Walters, and other cruel federal officials
who like the fact that more than 700,000 Americans are arrested every
year on marijuana charges.
Would you please donate $10 or more at http://www.NRLE.org
?
Dear Friend: July 20th 2002
Sixteen weeks from today, an historic initiative to end the war on all
marijuana users will be on the statewide ballot in Nevada.
Until last week, the Marijuana Policy Project had been running a
stealth campaign in Nevada, avoiding media coverage and nationwide
fundraising because we did not want to incite our opponents to start
raising money and organizing against us.
One week ago, however, the Nevada state government announced that our
initiative has officially qualified for the ballot, and we have been
receiving extensive, positive news coverage ever since.
On November 5, our initiative to end marijuana prohibition in the
first state in the nation will either pass or fail. In order to
achieve victory on Election Day, we will need to receive monetary
support from many thousands of allies and supporters from all across
the country.
Will you please visit http://www.nrle.org to
donate $10 or more to
this historic campaign? Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement is
our PAC in Nevada. Please play a part in this dramatic, landmark
campaign by donating $10 or more today.
WHAT WOULD OUR INITIATIVE DO?
If approved by a majority of the voters, our ballot initiative would
eliminate the threat of arrest and all other penalties for adults who
use and possess up to three ounces of marijuana. Second, it would
require the state government to implement a system whereby adults
could obtain marijuana through a legally regulated market, rather than
from the criminal market. Third, it would allow seriously ill patients
to obtain marijuana at a lower cost than non-medical users. And,
fourth, it would impose common-sense restrictions that the voters
demand, such as imposing penalties for driving dangerously while under
the influence of marijuana, smoking marijuana in public, and providing
marijuana to minors.
In short, this ballot initiative would end the government's war on
responsible marijuana users, thereby allowing the police in Nevada to
focus their time and resources on murder, rape, robbery, and property
crimes. Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement is the right name for
our campaign committee.
To see the text of the initiative, please visit http://www.nrle.org.
And, if you like what you see, would you please use the contribution
form on that Web site to donate $10 or more to this historic campaign?
NEWS COVERAGE HAS BEEN PHENOMENALLY POSITIVE
After the Nevada government certified on July 9 that our initiative
will be on the November 5 ballot, CNN Headline News ran a story about
our campaign on its 30-minute rotation for an entire day. And on
Saturday, the national FOX News Channel hosted a live debate between a
supportive Nevada state legislator (Chris Giunchigliani) and an
extreme prohibitionist (David Evans) who believes that everyone --
including seriously ill people -- should be put in prison for using
marijuana.
The Washington Post ran a story on page A2 on Sunday, and the
Associated Press, Reuters, and U.S. News & World Report also ran
stories in the past week, as did every newspaper in Nevada. Even
Jay Leno cracked a joke about our initiative on The Tonight Show
last night!
Perhaps most significantly, the largest newspaper in Nevada -- the
conservative Las Vegas Review-Journal -- endorsed our initiative.
Please see http://www.nrle.org for a catalogue
of the print media
coverage our marijuana proposal has received so far. If you agree
that our campaign is on the right track, would you please donate
$10 or more?
WOULD YOU PLEASE CHOOSE ONE OF THREE OPTIONS?
An incredibly hectic signature drive -- which involved more than 200
campaign workers -- cost $357,000, all of which was underwritten by a
handful of major philanthropists. We weren't trying to break any
records, but the 109,048 signatures we collected broke the all-time
record for the greatest number of signatures collected by any
statewide petition drive in Nevada, and we broke a second record by
doing this in the shortest amount of time ever -- only 40 days!
The aforementioned philanthropists were willing to provide all of the
seed money for this campaign because we wanted to avoid a public
fundraising drive for as long as possible. Why? Because we did not
want to incite our opponents to start organizing and raising money
against us.
However, now that this campaign has gone public, it is time to
ask you and the other 45,000 friends and allies on this e-mail
list to pitch in.
If you and most of the other subscribers on this list each donate $10
or more between now and Election Day, this would generate
approximately $500,000 ... all of which would be used to run
hard-hitting TV ads in Nevada at the end of the campaign ... which
would catapult our initiative to an historic victory on November 5.
Would you please make one of three choices with regard to your
participation in this campaign?
1. Please visit http://www.nrle.org to
play an important role in
this dramatic, landmark campaign by donating $10 or
more today.
2. If you don't want to donate anything to this campaign, please let
me know this simply by taking a few seconds to visit
http://www.nrle.org/remove
so that I do not bother you with
additional fundraising solicitations for this campaign.
3. If you want to remove yourself permanently from MPP's e-mail
lists, please visit
http://www.mpp.org/cgi-bin/subscription.pl?u=exodice@hotmail.com
or simply e-mail me with the word REMOVE in the subject
line.
If you do not choose any of these three options, I will e-mail you a
follow-up message to ask how you want to proceed. Over the next four
or five weeks, I hope to receive answers from all 45,000 subscribers.
BACKGROUND
There have been only three statewide initiatives in the history of the
country that have sought to end marijuana prohibition. In the 1970s,
California voters rejected a marijuana initiative by a 2-to-1 margin.
In the 1980s, Oregon voters rejected a similar initiative by a 3-to-1
margin. And in November 2000, Alaska voters rejected yet another
marijuana initiative by a 41-59 vote.
Our confidential polling indicates that Nevada voters believe that
adults should not be arrested for using marijuana. Support for
marijuana policy reform has been surging across the country for the
past six years, and it is time we capitalize on this cresting wave by
scoring our first broad-based initiative victory -- in Nevada.
I hope you will seriously consider visiting http://www.nrle.org
to
donate $10 or more, so that MPP can amass the $500,000 that is
needed to blanket the Nevada airwaves with our TV ads in October and
early November.
Thank you for anything you can do to throw your support behind this
important campaign.
Sincerely,
Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.
P.S. With only 112 days left in this campaign, we don't have much time
to raise the substantial sum of money that is needed to
run
hard-hitting TV ads at the end of the campaign. Please
visit
http://www.nrle.org
right away to donate $10 or more. Thank you!
P.P.S. By donating $250 or more now, you will receive a videotape of
all of the campaign's hard-hitting TV ads
in October, as well
as all of the TV news coverage of the
Nevada campaign.
P.P.P.S. Our first-ever national conference will begin two days after
Election Day in Anaheim,
California. To join us for what will
hopefully be a victory
celebration, please register at
http://www.mpp.org/conference
.
PROPOSED LAW COULD SUBJECT YOU TO 20 YEARS IN PRISON
Stop the Senate From Banning Marijuana Rallies and Other Events
Take Action at: http://ga1.org/campaign/rave
The Senate is poised to pass legislation that would give federal
prosecutors new powers to shut down hemp festivals, marijuana rallies
and other events and punish business owners and activists for hosting
or promoting them. The proposed law would also potentially subject
people to enormous federal sentences if some of their guests smoked
marijuana at their party or barbecue. It would also effectively make
it a federal crime to rent property to medical marijuana patients and
their caregivers.
The bill, known as the Reducing American's Vulnerability to Ecstasy
Act (RAVE Act), was just introduced in the Senate on June 18th and has
already passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. It is moving VERY
rapidly and could be passed by the Senate as early as this week. While
it purports to be aimed at ecstasy and other club drugs, it gives the
federal government enormous power to fine and imprison supporters of
marijuana legalization, even if they've never smoked marijuana.
It is urgent that you take action today!
ACTIONS TO TAKE
** Fax your Senators today. Go to http://ga1.org/campaign/rave
to find out more.
** Forward this alert to your friends, family, and co-workers.
** After you fax your Senators, please follow it up with phone calls.
Tell them you just faxed them a letter in opposition to S. 2633,
the Reducing American's Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act. Tell them
that innocent business owners shouldn't be punished for the crimes
of their customers. Tell them this bill has dangerous anti-civil
liberties provisions that they need to be aware of, and this bill
deserves serious debate.
You can contact your Senators through the Capitol Switchboard at
202-224-3121. To find out who your Senators are go to:
http://www.senate.gov/senators/senator_by_state.cfm
MORE INFORMATION
The Senate is considering legislation that would give federal
prosecutors new powers to shut down raves, marijuana rallies and other
events they don't like and punish businessmen and women for hosting or
promoting them. The bill (S. 2633), also known as the Reducing
American's Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act (RAVE Act), is moving very
rapidly and could be considered by the full Senate as early as this
week. (A similar bill is also pending in the House.)
S. 2633, sponsored by Senators Durbin (D-IL), Hatch (R-UT), Grassley
(R-IA) and Leahy (D-VT), expands the so-called "crack house statute"
to allow the federal government to fine or imprison businessmen and
women if customers sell or use drugs on their premises or at their
events. Property owners, promoters, and event coordinators could be
fined hundreds of thousands of dollars or face up to twenty years in
federal prison if they hold raves or other events on their property.
If the bill becomes law, property owners may be too afraid to rent or
lease their property to groups holding hemp festivals or putting on
all-night dance parties, effectively stifling free speech and banning
raves and other musical events.
The new law would also make it a federal crime to temporarily use a
place for the purpose of using any illegal drug. Thus, anyone who used
drugs in their own home or threw an event (such as a party or
barbecue) in which one or more of their guests used drugs could
potentially face a $250,000 fine and years in federal prison. The bill
also effectively makes it a federal crime to rent property to medical
marijuana patients and their caregivers, giving the federal government
a new weapon in its war on AIDS and cancer patients who use marijuana
to relieve their suffering.
Health advocates worry that the bill will endanger our nation's youth.
If enacted, licensed and law-abiding business owners may stop hosting
raves or other events that federal authorities don't like, out of fear
of massive fines and prison sentences. Thus, the law would drive raves
and other musical events further underground and away from public
health and safety regulations. It would also discourage business
owners from enacting smart harm-reduction measures to protect their
customers. By insinuating that selling bottled water and offering
"cool off" rooms is proof that owners and promoters know drug use is
occurring at their events, this bill may make business owners too
afraid to implement such harm-reduction measures, and the safety of
our kids will suffer.
The RAVE Act punishes businessmen and women for the crimes of their
customers and is unprecedented in U.S. history. The federal government
can't even keep drugs out of prisons, yet it seeks to punish business
owners for failing to keep people from carrying drugs onto their
premises. If this bill passes, federal authorities will have the
ability to scare business owners away from using or renting their
property for marijuana festivals, as well as any other "politically
incorrect" event.
For more information on this bill, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ and
under "bill number" search for S2633.
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