This is a photo of me at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. I
had just heard one of the most politically motivating speeches of my
life from a candidate for president. I was moved to tears, joyous, and
inspired. This candidate not only filled me with hope about the future
of our nation, but said he would not interfere with access to legal
medical cannabis.
As Executive Director of Americans for Safe Access
(ASA), I was ecstatic to be shedding the dark days of the Bush
Administration’s war on medical cannabis patients. As a patient myself, I
felt counted and part of the Change that would be coming to Washington,
and I was proud to support and volunteer for Barack Obama’s victorious
campaign.
For his 2008 campaign, I donated money, I went to rallies to show
support, I knocked on doors in VA, and on election night I joined
thousands in D.C. who descended on the White House to celebrate and sing
"Na, Na, Na, Na, Good bye" to President Bush. I went to sleep that
night excited about a new direction for this country that would include
me as a recognized medical cannabis patient.
From the beginning, the new administration made supportive statements
about medical cannabis, including that the President was "not going to
be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws."
On October 19, 2009, we got the policy document we had been waiting for.
Then-Deputy Attorney General David Ogden issued a memorandum,
now know as the "Ogden Memo," instructing U.S. attorneys to limit
marijuana enforcement to those operating out of compliance with state
law.
With this legal guidance, the medical cannabis movement went to work to
pass new state laws protecting patients and those who provided their
medication. Advocates, community members and officials spent thousands
of hours drafting legislation and regulations in at least eleven states.
But when legislators and other state and local officials came close to
passing or implementing these laws, they received letters from U.S. attorneys, threatening federal arrest and prosecution.
Dismayed by this apparent reversal in the Obama Administration’s policy,
patients demanded the president rein in the US Attorneys. Instead we
got the "Cole Memo,"
issued by Deputy Attorney General James Cole, laying out a new
interpretation of the Obama Administration’s policy. The memo gave the
Justice Department free rein in medical cannabis states, to undermine
state laws and coerce local lawmakers. The Cole Memo launched an
unprecedented attack on the medical cannabis community unprecedented in
its scope.
In fewer then fours years of President Obama, we have seen more raids on dispensaries
than during the Bush Administration’s entire eight-year tenure. The
Obama Administration has taken property from landlords, threatened local
officials, forced the release of patient records, used the Internal
Revenue Service to bankrupt legitimate dispensaries, told banks to purge
medical cannabis clients, evicted patients from low-income housing and
denied a petition to recognize the well-established medical value of
cannabis.
Now as President Obama approaches the vote on his reelection, other
medical cannabis patients and I are finding it impossible to renew our
support. How can I vote for someone who has broken his promise? How can I
vote for someone who can’t see very real public health needs? How can I
vote for someone who wages war on my fellow patients and me?
There are more than one million
legal medical cannabis patients across the country and millions more
waiting to become legal. We have friends and family in every state, and
there are many of us in states that are key to the Obama reelection
campaign: Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico.
I care a lot about this country and my fellow Americans, and I have
always volunteered for candidates during election years. Now, instead of
going to rallies or buying tickets to fundraisers, I will be protesting at campaign stops
like the one today in downtown Oakland. Instead of working to elect a
president, I’ll be joining thousands of medical cannabis advocates at Camp Wakeupobama, a virtual summer camp during which we will press our case to the President.
President Obama, you can move medical cannabis policy forward and win this election — 74% of voters disagree with your attacks on state compassionate use laws.
Medical cannabis patients will be on the campaign trail, however you can still determine what our signs will say.
