IV. Resources

A. ASA Online Resources

Political

Online Action Center
Online action items to make our voices heard. Identify your representative and send a free message using our online action center.

10 WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
Ten ways you can get active in the campaign for medical cannabis patients' rights.

Resources for Organizers
Everything you need to be an effective activist: handbooks, outreach materials, graphics and more.

Campaigns
Here are the different strategic campaigns we use to achieve our goals of safe and legal access.

Medical

Join a Patients Union!
ASA is working with patients to form Medical Marijuana Patients Unions based on shared diagnosis. Condition-based groups are now forming across the U.S. Patients Unions are a support network for patients and caregivers fighting for the use of cannabis as medicine as well as a vehicle for lobbying and public education.

Condition-based booklets
We have produced a number of highly informative booklets on the use of cannabis to treat specific conditions. You can download free pdf's of booklets on HIV/AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis, Aging, Arthritis, Gastro-Intestinal Disorders, Movement Disorders, Cancer and Chronic Pain.

Legal

Upcoming Court Dates
Here is a list of upcoming court dates of medical cannabis pateints, caregivers, or doctors. Please support these members of your community.

Write to Medical Cannabis Prisoners
Show solidarity and support for incarcerated medical cannabis patients by writing to people on our list of Medical Cannabis Prisoners.

Media

Media Resources for Grassroots Organizers
Helping local ASA affiliates get the message out is part of how we keep the issue before the public, with guidance on writing press releases, OpEds and letters to the editor, as well as getting media to events.

B. Allied and Potential Allied Organizations (an incomplete guide)

AARP
AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for people age 50 and over. AARP is dedicated to enhancing quality of life for all as we age. They lead positive social change and deliver value to members through information, advocacy and service.

AIDS Action
AIDS Action is a national organization dedicated to the development, analysis, cultivation, and encouragement of sound policies and programs in response to the HIV epidemic. They do this through the dissemination of information and the building and use of advocacy on behalf of all those living with and affected by HIV.

American Academy of HIV Medicine
The American Academy of HIV Medicine is an independent organization of AAHIVM HIV SpecialistsTM and others dedicated to promoting excellence in HIV/AIDS care. Through advocacy and education, the Academy is committed to supporting health care providers in HIV medicine and to ensuring better care for those living with AIDS and HIV disease.

American Civil Liberties Union
The works daily in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Their job is to conserve America's original civic values: the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

American Public Health Association
The American Public Health Association (APHA) is the oldest and largest organization of public health professionals in the world, representing more than 50,000 members from over 50 occupations of public health. APHA brings together researchers, health service providers, administrators, teachers, and other health workers in a unique, multidisciplinary environment of professional exchange, study, and action.

Drug Policy Alliance
The Alliance is a high profile organization working to end the war on drugs. The organization envisions new drug policies based on science, compassion, health and human rights and a just society in which the fears, prejudices and punitive prohibitions of today are no more.

Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative
The Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative was established in November 2003 to mobilize people of faith and religious groups behind more compassionate and less coercive alternatives to the war on drugs.

International Association for Cannabis as Medicine
The International Association for Cannabis as Medicine (IACM) is a scientific society advocating the improvement of the legal situation for the use of the hemp plant (Cannabis sativa L.) and its pharmacologically most important active compounds, the cannabinoids, for therapeutic applications through promotion of research and dissemination of information. The IACM declares that it is the right of doctors to be able to discuss the medicinal use of cannabis with their patients.

International Cannabis Research Society
The ICRS is dedicated to research in all fields of the cannabinoids, ranging from biochemical, chemical and physiological studies of the endogenous cannabinoid system to studies of the abuse potential of recreational cannabis. In addition to acting as a source for impartial information on cannabis and the cannabinoids, the main role of the ICRS is to provide a forum for researchers to meet and discuss their results.

Lymphoma Foundation of America
Lymphoma Foundation of America is the national organization devoted solely to helping lymphoma patients and their families. They are dedicated to helping you find the best care available for your type of lymphoma. They offer support, experience, advice, and a helping hand. All programs and services are free.

Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is a membership-based non-profit research and educational organization. They assist scientists to design, obtain approval for, fund, conduct and report on research into the healing and spiritual potentials of psychedelics and cannabis.

National Association of People with AIDS
The National Association of People with AIDS is a non-profit membership organization that advocates on behalf of all people living with HIV and AIDS in order to end the pandemic and the human suffering caused by HIV/AIDS.

National Multiple Sclerosis Society
The mission of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society is to end the devastating effects of MS. The Society and its network of chapters nationwide promote research, educate, advocate on critical issues, and organize a wide range of programs— including support for the newly diagnosed and those living with MS over time.

The November Coalition
The November Coalition is a non-profit organization of grassroots volunteers educating the public about the destructive increase in prison population in the United States due to our current drug laws. They alert their fellow citizens, particularly those who are complacent or naive, about the present and impending dangers of an overly powerful federal authority acting far beyond its constitutional constraints.

Patients Out of Time
The mission of Patients Out of Time is the education of health care professionals and the public about the therapeutic use of cannabis. Their leadership is composed of medical and nursing professionals with expertise in the clinical applications of cannabis and five of the seven patients (two wish to remain anonymous) who receive their medical cannabis from the US government.

Students for Sensible Drug Policy
Students for Sensible Drug Policy is committed to providing education on harms caused by the War on Drugs, working to involve youth in the political process, and promoting an open, honest, and rational discussion of alternative solutions to our nation's drug problems.

C. Arts & Direct Action Groups

Puppetry & Street Theatre Resources

The Puppeteers Cooperative

This web page has tons of thumbnail sketches showing how to make various kinds of puppets

Wise Fool Puppet Intervention

Wise Fool Puppet Intervention is a theatre project dedicated to community, celebration and change. They make some of the most beautiful puppets around, as well as masks, stilts, and other street theatre props, and a handbook is available through the website.

Direct Action Resources

Black Cross Collective

First Aid for Activists: Fight the power, do no harm. Downloadable handbooks on street medic preparation.

Just Cause Law Collective

Downloadable handbooks for direct action legal and jail preps, legal observer handbooks, & activist handbooks.

Papers on Nonviolent Action and Cooperative Decision-Making

This website has a wealth of information, including very detailed agendas. Most of the material was developed in the 1980's.

The Ruckus Society

This site has training manuals for action planning, media, climbing, scouting, video taping, and hanging from a billboard. The orientation is high-profile small actions.

D. Working together: anti-oppression principles and practices

In order to build a non-discriminatory world, we suggest the following principles and practices in our lives and in our work.

PRINCIPLES

• Power and privilege play out in our group dynamics and we must continually challenge when and how power and privilege in our practice.
• We can only identify how power and privilege play out when we are conscious and committed to understanding how white supremacy, patriarchy, heterosexism and all other systems of oppression affect each one of us.
• Developing an anti-oppression practice is life-long work and requires a life-long commitment. No single workshop is sufficient for learning to change one's behaviors.
• Dialogue and discussion are necessary and we need to learn how to listen non-defensively and communicate respectfully if we are going to have effective anti-oppression practice.

PRACTICES

Personal Practices

• Challenge yourself to be honest and open and take risks to address racism, sexism, and homophobia head on.
• When you witness or experience an abuse of power or oppression interrupt the behavior and address it on the spot or later, either one on one, or with a few allies; this is about ways to address oppressive behavior that will encourage change.
• When challenging people's behavior, try to be sensitive to promote open dialogue.
• Don't generalize feelings, thoughts, behaviors, etc to a whole group.
• Don't make people "prove" their experience of oppression by challenging, calling them divisive or diminishing what they say. Give people the benefit of the doubt and don't make assumptions.
• Be willing to lose a friend but try not to "thrown away" people who fuck up because you don't want to be associated with them. Help them admit what they did and help them take responsibility for making reparations for their behavior.
• Challenge "macho bravado" and "rugged individualism" in yourself, your friends and in activism.
• Take on the "grunt" work of cooking, cleaning, set up, clean up, phone calls, e-mail, taking notes, doing support work, sending mailings. Take active responsibility for initiating, volunteering for and following through with this work.
• Understand that you will feel discomfort and pain as you face your part in oppression, and realize that this is a necessary part of the process of liberation and growth. We must support each other and be gentle with each other in this process.
• Don't feel guilty, feel motivated. Being part of the problem doesn't mean you can't be an active part of the solution.
• Maintain these practices and contribute equal time and energy to building healthy relationships, both personal and political.

Organizational Practices

• Commit time for organizational discussions on discrimination and oppression
• Set anti-oppression goals and continually evaluate whether or not you are meeting them
• Promote an anti-racist and sexist message and analysis in everything we do, in and outside of activist space
• Remember these are complex issues and they need adequate time and space
• Create opportunities for people to develop skills to communicate about oppression
• Respect different styles of leadership and communication
• Don't push people of color to do things because of their race (tokenism); base it on their work, experience, and skills
• Make a collective commitment to hold people accountable for their behavior so that the organization can be a safe and nurturing place for all.

Meeting Practices

• It is the role of the facilitator to make the space safe and welcoming for everyone.
• Become a good listener
• Don't interrupt people who are speaking
• Be conscious of how your use of language may perpetuate racism, sexism, homophobia or ageism
• Try not to call people out because they are not speaking
• Be conscious of how much space you take up or how much you speak in a group
• Be careful of not hogging the show, speaking on every subject, speaking in capital letters, restating what others say or speaking for others
• Respect different views and opinions
• Balance race, gender and age participation
• People who haven't yet spoken get priority
• Racist, sexist, ageist, homophobic remarks must not be tolerated

This document is compiled from the "Anti-Racism Principles and Practices" by RiseUp DAN-LA, Overcoming Masculine Oppression by Bill Moyers and the FEMMAFESTO by the women of Philadelphia.

9/9/01 by Lisa Fithian