Title:
Ask Governor Brown to support efforts to reclassify marijuana
Message:
As you may
have heard, Governors Christine Gregoire of Washington and Lincoln Chafee of
Rhode Island recently
submitted a petition asking the federal government to change its policy
with respect to medical marijuana. Marijuana is currently considered a “Schedule
I” drug, with a high potential for abuse and “no currently accepted medical use
in treatment in the United States.” As the roughly 500,000 California medical
marijuana patients can tell you, that is patently false.
Unfortunately,
the petition only asks that marijuana be moved to Schedule II, which would
still leave it very difficult for patients to obtain medicine. And
regrettably, Chafee and Gregoire have used the petition as cover for their
failure to implement laws passed by their state legislatures that would have
made medical marijuana available to patients through well-regulated channels.
Nonetheless, moving marijuana out of Schedule I is an important step in the
right direction that other governors should support.
Please ask California Governor Jerry Brown
to join other governors in asking the federal government to reclassify
marijuana.
Fortunately, California’s network
of dispensing collectives and co-operatives allows patients to safely obtain
marijuana, but there are 34 states with no medical marijuana laws at all.
Moreover, reclassification would make it possible for marijuana to be
prescribed and dispensed through traditional channels. Governor Pete Shumlin in
Vermont has already
said he will join the rescheduling effort, and you can ask Governor Brown to
do the same by emailing him now.
