Press Releases

SACRAMENTO – A candlelight vigil tonight on the north steps of the California state capitol building in Sacramento commemorates the anniversary of the incarceration of Bryan Epis, who was sentenced to ten years in federal prison for helping patients in Chico get marijuana to treat their suffering.

 

Part of a national day of remembrance for Mr. Epis and other patients and providers lost to the struggle for access to medical marijuana, today’s vigil is the prelude to an afternoon rally tomorrow, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.

Los Angeles – Americans for Safe Access has launched a campaign to educate Los Angelenos about U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft’s attacks on their medical rights. “Coming to a Courtroom Near You” reads the headline over an image of a gagged doctor with a heavily armed DEA agent standing at the ready in the background.

In a hearing with momentous implications for federal drug laws, four medical marijuana dispensaries challenging the constitutionality of federal laws prohibiting their operation will have their chance in front of a federal appeals court on Wednesday morning.

Thursday, August 28, 2003 – The leading candidates for governor in California’s hotly contested recall race were given surveys and briefing books on medical marijuana today. Americans for Safe Access, the nation’s leading organization of patients, doctors and advocates, is seeking to find out how many other candidates will join Arnold Schwarzenegger and Arianna Huffington in publicly defending California’s Compassionate Use Act.

Santa Ana – A “bold, precedent-setting decision” is what U.S. District Judge David O. Carter had said he would make yesterday in the sentencing of an Orange County man who had been growing in his garage the marijuana he used to treat his chronic back pain. Instead, the judge continued the sentencing hearing for the third time, giving federal prosecutors a fourth chance to produce any evidence that Michael Teague was selling the herb to others at the time of his arrest in April, 2002.

Santa Ana – A “bold, precedent-setting decision” is what U.S. District Judge David O. Carter has said he will make today in the sentencing of an Orange County man who had been growing in his garage the marijuana he used to treat his chronic back pain. Federal prosecutors want five years in prison for Michael Teague, 33, but Judge Carter has challenged them to produce evidence that Teague ever sold any of it. Otherwise, he says he’s ready to set precedent for Southern California.

San Francisco – Members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors have signed a letter requesting leniency for three medical marijuana patients appearing in federal court tomorrow for an unprecedented third day of sentencing hearings.  The Supervisors ask Judge William Alsup to take into consideration the city’s “resolution declaring San Francisco a sanctuary for medical cannabis use, cultivation, and distribution,” which urges “the San Francisco Police Department not to assist in the arrest of any patients, physicians, dispensaries, and caregivers.

Washington, D.C. – After a dramatic hour of debate that saw amendment co-sponsor Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) in tears, more than one-third of the U.S. House of Representatives voted today in favor of stopping the federal prosecution of medical marijuana patients and providers.

 

After appealing to the principles of “compassion and freedom,” Representative Rohrabacher broke down when talking about his mother’s struggle with cancer. He said the federal law that would send her to prison if she used marijuana to relieve her pain was “immoral.

Washington, D.C.– For the first time in five years, the U.S. House of Representatives is voting on the right of states to regulate the medical marijuana issue, an issue that has increasingly pitted the state of California and nine others against the Bush Administration.

In the first federal sentencing since Ed Rosenthal walked out of court a free man, three medical marijuana defendants, including a noted Hollywood actor, will be sentenced tomorrow in a case which has drawn allegations of San Francisco Police misconduct and caused the judge to order an investigation of SFPD involvement.