[ASA Field]

ASA Helps Avert Crisis in the ID Card Program!
Victory due to grassroots pressure

Dear ASA Supporter,

Over the past two months, ASA has been hard at work to halt the proposed fee hike in the Medical Marijuana ID Card program (MMIC) from $13 to $142 from going into effect on March 1, 2007. Because of ASA's work and mounting pressure from the grassroots and public officials, the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) decided yesterday not to implement the proposed fee hike! Instead, a more modest fee increase to $66 will be implemented on April 1, 2007 ($33 for MediCal patients).

Have no doubt about it, this victory was due in large part to the tireless work of many patients and advocates since late last year to reverse the unreasonable fee increase proposal. ASA, in coalition with Safe Access Now, California NORML, Drug Policy Alliance, and Marijuana Policy Project, used various tactics to ensure the enormous ID card increase would not go into effect:

• Supervisors across the state were lobbied to write letters to CDHS. County Supervisors that wrote to CDHS Director Sandra Shewry include: Ross Mirkarimi and Gerardo Sandoval from San Francisco, Ed Robey and Anthony Farrington from Lake County, Paolo Maffei from Tuolumne County, Tom Tryon from Calaveras County, and **** Reilly from Sonoma County.
  
• We issued alerts to urge Governor Schwarzenegger and CDHS Director Shewry not to implement the fee hike. And, thanks to a huge response from you and the activist community, more than 1,000 people contacted their offices, including more than 500 letters sent through ASA's website.
  
• ASA worked directly with Assembly Member Mark Leno's office, keeping his staff up to date on our progress and strategizing with his staff on ways to make the ID card program succeed.

While ASA is dissatisfied with any fee increase -- we will continue to work to further decrease the amount patients have to pay for better protection -- this more modest increase is a huge victory! It is important now to encourage Boards of Supervisors in counties that have not yet implemented ID card programs to implement immediately, so that there is equal protection across the state regardless of where one lives. Check here for a list of counties with programs.

Fighting for a more reasonable medical marijuana ID card fee is just part of ASA's California Campaign for Safe Access. Some other facets of the campaign include working with dozens of localities to develop regulations for dispensing collectives, answering hundreds of legal calls from patients monthly, fighting for patient rights in the courts, and organizing grassroots activists statewide to implement safe access locally.

We need your help to continue our work to protect patients in California. I would like to ask everyone to take a moment right now to make a sustaining monthly pledge to defending safe access. Your monthly pledge of $10, $25, $50, or even $100 will let us know we have the resources to keep fighting for you! Please visit ASA's website right now and make your pledge. We will put it to work in the California Campaign for Safe Access today!

Thank you for your support,

Kris Hermes
Legal Campaign Director
Americans for Safe Access

[Lix-A-Lot]

Originally Posted by ASA Field

ASA Helps Avert Crisis in the ID Card Program!
Victory due to grassroots pressure

Dear ASA Supporter,

Over the past two months, ASA has been hard at work to halt the proposed fee hike in the Medical Marijuana ID Card program (MMIC) from $13 to $142 from going into effect on March 1, 2007. Because of ASA's work and mounting pressure from the grassroots and public officials, the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) decided yesterday not to implement the proposed fee hike! Instead, a more modest fee increase to $66 will be implemented on April 1, 2007 ($33 for MediCal patients).

Have no doubt about it, this victory was due in large part to the tireless work of many patients and advocates since late last year to reverse the unreasonable fee increase proposal. ASA, in coalition with Safe Access Now, California NORML, Drug Policy Alliance, and Marijuana Policy Project, used various tactics to ensure the enormous ID card increase would not go into effect:

• Supervisors across the state were lobbied to write letters to CDHS. County Supervisors that wrote to CDHS Director Sandra Shewry include: Ross Mirkarimi and Gerardo Sandoval from San Francisco, Ed Robey and Anthony Farrington from Lake County, Paolo Maffei from Tuolumne County, Tom Tryon from Calaveras County, and **** Reilly from Sonoma County.
  
• We issued alerts to urge Governor Schwarzenegger and CDHS Director Shewry not to implement the fee hike. And, thanks to a huge response from you and the activist community, more than 1,000 people contacted their offices, including more than 500 letters sent through ASA's website.
  
• ASA worked directly with Assembly Member Mark Leno's office, keeping his staff up to date on our progress and strategizing with his staff on ways to make the ID card program succeed.

While ASA is dissatisfied with any fee increase -- we will continue to work to further decrease the amount patients have to pay for better protection -- this more modest increase is a huge victory! It is important now to encourage Boards of Supervisors in counties that have not yet implemented ID card programs to implement immediately, so that there is equal protection across the state regardless of where one lives. Check here for a list of counties with programs.

Fighting for a more reasonable medical marijuana ID card fee is just part of ASA's California Campaign for Safe Access. Some other facets of the campaign include working with dozens of localities to develop regulations for dispensing collectives, answering hundreds of legal calls from patients monthly, fighting for patient rights in the courts, and organizing grassroots activists statewide to implement safe access locally.

We need your help to continue our work to protect patients in California. I would like to ask everyone to take a moment right now to make a sustaining monthly pledge to defending safe access. Your monthly pledge of $10, $25, $50, or even $100 will let us know we have the resources to keep fighting for you! Please visit ASA's website right now and make your pledge. We will put it to work in the California Campaign for Safe Access today!

Thank you for your support,

Kris Hermes
Legal Campaign Director
Americans for Safe Access

Please, ask people in Ventura County to write a letter or send an e-mail to the Public Health Department and ask them to take part in the ID card program. Arguing over fees is a subject I would love to take part in, but I am currently unable to even get an ID card because Ventura County does not participate in the ID card program.

[ASA Field]

Originally Posted by Lix-A-Lot

Please, ask people in Ventura County to write a letter or send an e-mail to the Public Health Department and ask them to take part in the ID card program. Arguing over fees is a subject I would love to take part in, but I am currently unable to even get an ID card because Ventura County does not participate in the ID card program.

Safe Access Now is working with local activists to implement county ID card programs. I know Ventura has been resistant, but I'm not sure how much pressure has been applied to the Board of Supervisors (it's the supervisors who decide, not the public health department).

I recommend checking out their website and contacting their coordinator: http://safeaccessnow.net/cards06.htm

[herbboy]

I read in the local newspaper that Butte County Supervisors approved the card program. Any word on when it will be implemented and how we go about obtaining a card?

[weedtracker]

good work asa + norml + everybody else!

[herbboy]

found out in todays weekly newspaper that the cards that the new cards that are being issued in Butte Co. will be $187.15!!!! Wow..that seems like a lot for the card..i don't even pay that much for my reccomendation. NOt sure if i will be getting one any time soon