[ASA Field]

ASA California Weekly Alert: May 4, 2007
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*Weekly Round Up*
1. Bakersfield Raid Update, Visiting Stephanie Landa, Van Nuys Protest
and Political Action
*
ASA Chapter and Affiliate Meetings*
2. Saturday May 5, Modesto: Central Valley Patients Coalition Meeting
3. Tuesday, May 8, San Francisco: San Francisco ASA Meeting
4. Tuesday, May 8, San Diego: San Diego ASA Meeting
5. Thursday, May 10, Lakeport: Lake County ASA Meeting
6. Saturday, May 12, Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara ASA Meeting
7. Saturday, May 12, Los Angeles: Los Angeles ASA Meeting
8. Thursday, May 17, Newport Beach: Orange County ASA Meeting
9.Tuesday, May 15, Sacramento: Sacramento ASA Meeting
10. Thursday, May 17, Fort Bragg: Mendocino ASA Meeting
11. Thursday, May 17, Guerneville: Sonoma ASA Meeting
*
City and County Hearings*.
12. Monday, May 7th, Pleasant Hill: City Council to Vote on Banning
Medical Cannabis Dispensaries
13. Wednesday, May 9th, Fairfield: Planning Commission to Vote on
Banning Medical Cannabis Dispensaries
*
Court Support*
14. Monday, May 14th, San Francisco: Ed Rosenthal's Trial Begins

*Special Events*
15. Saturday, May 5th, Bakersfield: Marijuana March at Beach Park
16. Saturday, May 19th, Newport Beach: Medical Cannabis Activist Town Hall
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* Weekly Round Up CA Icon*
*
1. Bakersfield Raid Update, Visiting Stephanie Landa, Van Nuys Protest
Update
*/
Bakersfield Raid/*

*DEA agents and local law enforcement officers raided Bakersfield
dispensary, Nature's Medicinal, and the owner's home Tuesday, seizing,
according to officials, some 50 pounds of marijuana and thousands of
dollars in cash. The raid on Nature's Medicinal was the first DEA raid
on a locally licensed dispensary.

Managers say their premises were ransacked, all of their medicine and
cash taken, their bank account frozen, and computers and patient lists
seized. No one was arrested, but federal officials promised an
investigation.

Nature's Medicinal says that it "jumped through all the hoops" to
comply with local regulations. They were paying $54,000 per month in
sales taxes, plus corporate taxes, etc.

DEA spokesmen emphasized the fact that the club was selling edibles, but
offered no clear rationale for the raid. The Kern Co. Sheriff's office,
which was involved through an inter-agency drug task force, admitted
that it was confusing to be raiding a dispensary that they were also
regulating.

Nature's Medicinal has re-opened. The DEA has promised to return.
/
Van Nuys Protest and Political Action at City Hall

/ Over 200 patients, providers, and advocates took to the streets in
front of the LAPD Van Nuys Police Station to demonstrate against the
LAPD's assault on The Karma Collective last Monday. Because the LAPD
claimed the edibles they found inside Karma Collective were illegal,
activists chanted "Make No Mistake, We'll Still Bake! Make No Mistake,
We'll Still Bake!" and held signs that read "Cannabis to Eat, Eat to
Live" and "Let Them Eat Cake!" At one point, the crowd sent a
representative into the Police Station to ask for a representative of
the LAPD to come out and explain exactly how edibles are illegal. The
LAPD declined.

When the mass of demonstrators were done in front of the Police Station,
they marched the length of the Erwin St Mall, past the Criminal
Courthouse, past the DEA in the Korman Federal Building, to Van Nuys Blvd.

The amazing support from the community continued on throughout the week
as medical cannabis activists voiced their opposition to the raid at
City Hall. The speakers criticized last Thursday's raid at the Van Nuys
collective and called on the city council to reign in the LAPD. A
collective employee read a moving statement from one of the operators
who could not attend due to family obligations.

The City Council has been slow to move on regulating medical cannabis
collectives or offer any guidance to LAPD Chief Bratton on this issue.
Councilmember Zine's motion to study regulations for collectives has
been bouncing around committee and commissions since 2005, while a
separate motion for a moratorium on new facilities has been waiting most
of a year.

In order to address the situation, the grassroots must persuade the City
Council that the LAPD needs guidance now - while we debate regulations.
Patients and advocates need to contact their representative on the
Council to ask for an end to LAPD raids right away. Find your
councilperson on: http://www.LACity.org.

/Visiting Stephanie Landa
/Written by Don Duncan, ASA Southern California Coordinator

Yesterday, LA County Field Coordinator Chris Fusco and I had the
pleasure of spending a few hours with 61-year old medical cannabis
prisoner Stephanie Landa at the federal work camp in Dublin where she is
four months into a forty-one month sentence for growing medicine. You
may remember that Stephanie, her partner Tom, and actor Kevin Gage were
arrested in 2002 by the DEA after a dually-deputized SFPD officer
"inspected" their medical garden in San Francisco, then called in the
DEA to arrest all three.

The work camp is located in dilapidated military barracks and houses
over 500 women, most of whom are serving sentences for drug related
convictions. There are no walls or fences around the facility. Work
camps like this one operate on a kind of honor system. Inmates agree to
work in the camp doing laundry, food service, cleaning, and other manual
labor at this low cost interment camp in exchange for some basic
creature comforts that those of us outside the prison system consider so
ordinary as to be rights. They get to go outside in the sunlight, take
classes, have magazines, etc. Best of all, Stephanie, reports, "They
mostly leave us alone."

The camp lacks the rigors of the traditional federal prison or county
jail across the street, but shares the same atmosphere of hopelessness
and wasted human potential. I wonder how many of these women, like
Stephanie, are here for no good reason at all. They are just marking
time, clicking off days and months on sentences handed down from federal
guidelines. Couldn't these women do better for the community raising
their children or being productive members of the work force? I watched
the line up of inmates line up for one of several daily counts and was
struck by how ordinary they looked. They looked like my mother's Sunday
School class.

Stephanie is so grateful for the letters she has received from hundreds
of supporters. The guards tease her that she needs her own post office.
Stephanie is proud of the fact that she has answered every single
letter, despite her physical limitations that make writing a chore.
Please keep those letters coming. She calls them her lifeline. She can
also receive visitors at the camp in Dublin, just a few miles from
Oakland. I was sorry to see that Chris and I were only the second a
third people to visit. If you are ever going to visit an inmate, this is
perhaps the easiest setting in which to do it. Visitors must be cleared
through Dept. of Corrections, so please plan ahead. I would be glad to
forward the necessary forms to anyone who wants them.

I would like to say a public thank you to Sarah Armstrong who has been
Stephanie's champion since her surrender in January. Sarah has worked
tirelessly on Stephanie's behalf - coordinating her legal defense,
giving her money out of pocket for vending machines so she can avoid the
inedible prison food, taking her calls, writing every day, and visiting
every month. Stephanie would have suffered much more in these early days
of her incarceration if it were not for Sarah's persistent advocacy for
livable conditions. Every medical cannabis prisoner should have a Sarah
Armstrong on his or her side. Thanks, Sarah!

You can read more about how to provide this compassionate support to
medical cannabis prisoners at
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/writetoprisoners_._ Please take the time
to write a letter, send a little commissary money, or make a personal visit.
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*ASA Chapter and Affiliates Meetings **Activist Fist*

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*2. Saturday May 5, Modesto: Central Valley Patients Coalition Meeting*

Please join central valley patients and supporters to help plan and
strategize for the defense of patients rights in Stanislaus County,
Merced County, and beyond!

The CVPC meets on the first Saturday of each month, at 11:00 AM.
New Location: These meetings will now be held at 1733 Yosemite Ave,
Modesto, CA, 95350.

For additional information, contact Shirley Cox, Public Relations
Officer for the Central Valley Patients Coalition:
shirley@CompassionateCoalition.org
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*3. Tuesday, May 8, San Francisco: San Francisco ASA Meeting*

Join SF ASA to discuss and plan for local, state and national issues.
Get active locally to protect safe access!

7:30 p.m.
CA Marijuana Party Bookstore
223a 9th St. @ Howard in San Francisco
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*4. Tuesday, May 8, San Diego: San Diego ASA Meeting*

Our San Diego chapter of ASA has been busy lately and needs you to get
involved. It is time to get involved and protect safe access!

For more info about the chapter, please visit their site:
http://sdasa.4mg.com/index.html

Twiggs Coffee House
4590 Park Blvd.
In the Green Room
7:00-8:00 p.m.
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*5. Thursday, May 10: Lakeport: Lake County ASA Meeting*

Lakeport and Lake County Medical Cannabis Patients and Caregivers must
unite in a nonviolent resistance to the war on Medical Cannabis in
Lakeport.

Join with others to organize a Local Chapter of Americans for Safe
Access (ASA).

Meeting will be held at Cafe Victoria, 301 N Main St in Lakeport on
Thursday, May 10, 2007 at 6:00 pm. Open menu will be available.

For more information or to get involved, please contact Donna:
LakeCoASA@msn.com
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*6. Saturday, May 12, Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara ASA Meeting*

Join the newly formed Santa Barbara ASA Meeting! We will be discussing
Vehicle code 23222 and Patients' Rights!

3pm-5pm @ Antioch University
801 Garden St. Room #203 Santa Barbara

For More Information, contact: Jennifer at (805) 637-5365
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*7. Saturday, May 12, Los Angeles: Los Angeles ASA Meeting
*
Join the LA ASA chapter to plan future emergency response plans and help
to regulate dispensaries in LA City.

1pm - 3pm @ California Patients Group
6208 Santa Monica Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90038

For more info, please call LA ASA: (323) 464-7719
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*8. **Tuesday, May 15, Sacramento: Sacramento ASA Meeting

*Please join Sac ASA to plan for the future of safe access locally,
statewide, and nationally!
7:00 p.m.

Crusaders Hall
320 Harris Avenue, Suite H
Sacramento, CA*

*For more information or to get involved, please contact Lanette:
cannacare@earthlink.net*
*
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*9. Thursday, May 17, Newport Beach: Orange County ASA Meeting*

Come to the OC ASA Meetings to discuss upcoming and current medical
marijuana issues in our community.

OC ASA Meeting
7-9 PM
Law Offices of WENTWORTH, PAOLI & PURDY, LLP
4631 Teller Avenue, Suite 100
Newport Beach, CA 92660*
*
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*10. Thursday, May 17, Fort Bragg: Mendocino ASA Meeting
*
If you have decided you can no longer sit back and watch the federal
government continue its campaign against cannabis therapies in this
country or if you want to engage your local government in creating sane
polices for cannabis patients and patient's access to cannabis, please
attend this meeting!

7:00pm at Herban Legends
18300 Old Coast Hwy # 3
Fort Bragg, CA 95437
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*11. Thursday, May 17, Guerneville: Sonoma ASA Meeting
*
When: Thursday from 7pm-9pm
Where: Marvin's Gardens 15025 River Road (towards Guerneville)

Please join Sonoma's chapter of American's for Safe Access. Patients,
supporters, caregivers and friends are welcome to come share their
opinions on what should happen locally, statewide, and nationally. More
info 707-332-6556
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*City and County Hearings Political Advocacy Symbol*
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*12. Monday, May 7th, Pleasant Hill: City Council to Vote on Banning
Medical Cannabis Dispensaries*

Pleasant Hill currently has a moratorium on dispensaries and is
considering permanently banning dispensaries. On April 24th, the
planning commission voted unanimously to recommend banning dispensaries,
despite positive testimony from several patients and advocates on behalf
of dispensaries.

Please attend this hearing and speak out for safe access! Download ASA t
<http://safeaccessnow.org/article.php?list=type&type=212>alking points
<http://safeaccessnow.org/article.php?list=type&type=212>on dispensary
regulations, moratoriums and bans.

7:30 p.m.
City Council Chambers
100 Gregory Lane
Pleasant Hill, CA
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*13. Wednesday, May 9th, Fairfield: Planning Commission to Vote on
Banning Medical Cannabis Dispensaries*

The city of Fairfield's Planning Commission has called a public hearing
to determine whether Medical Marijuana Dispensaries should be permitted
use in any zone in the City.

lease attend this hearing and speak out for safe access! Download ASA
talking points
<http://safeaccessnow.org/article.php?list=type&type=212>on dispensary
regulations, moratoriums and bans.

May 9th
7:00pm
City Council Chambers
1000 Webster St.
Fairfield, CA

Solano Patients' Group would like to invite all supporters to come speak
on behalf of safe access to all the patients of our county.
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*Court Support Patients Rights Icon
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*14. Monday, May 14th, San Francisco: Ed Rosenthal's Trial Begins*

Jury selection begins on May 14th for Ed Rosenthal's re-trial. Opening
arguments are likely to begin on Tuesday, May 15th or Wednesday, May
16th. Please come out and support Ed Rosenthal through his re-trial.
As many of you may remember, there is a hearing on motions "in limine"
on May 10 at 2:15pm. At this hearing, decisions will be made as to the
evidence admissible at trial. Judge Breyer has made it known that he
will follow the Ninth Circuit ruling in Rosenthal's case and prohibit
any entrapment by estoppal defense. This means that Rosenthal will not
be able to submit evidence that the City of Oakland had deputized him,
thereby granting him protection. The main hope for Ed lies in the Jury
and jury education is being restarted, lead by Danielle at Cannabis
Action Network. Please come out and support Ed Rosenthal and jury
education.

San Francisco County Courthouse
400 McAllister Street
San Francisco, CA
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*Special Events Raid Icon*
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*15. Saturday, May 5th, Bakersfield: Marijuana March at Beach Park*

Come out in solidarity for medical marijuana this Saturday. Activists
will be gathering at Beach Park, Oak st and 24th st., for a march to
the Liberty Bell at Truxtun ave and Chester Ave. to show Bakersfield and
the Bakersfield Sherriff's department that people will not stand for
harrassing patients and their caregivers! Please bring signs and bring
your voices! We are all in this together and need to show our support
for Nature's Medicinal and all the other patients, family members, and
neighbors who have felt the heavy impact of this most recent raid.

Raise Your Voice! Stand up for patients' and caregivers' freedom!

March Details:
May 5th, 12:00pm
Meet at Beach Park (Oak and 24th St.)
Bakersfield, CA

For more information contact: Douglas McAfee, 661 873-1703
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*16. Saturday, May 19th, Newport Beach: Medical Cannabis Activist Town Hall
*
Please join Steph Sherer, ASA's Executive Director for an Orange County
Activist Town Hall on May 19th from 3-6 pm. This event will be a an
opportunity for the community to come together while Steph walks
everyone through a strategic planning session to create next steps for
Orange County implementation of Prop 215 And SB 420. This will include
defining problems in the community, as well as determining goals and
creating campaigns to tackle these problems and achieve community goals.

Steph Sherer will also give a brief update from ASA about national and
state campaigns.

Who: Orange County Medical Cannabis Community and ASA's Executive Director
What: Orange County Activist Town Hall
When: May 19, 2007 from 3PM- 6 PM
Where: Law Offices of WENTWORTH, PAOLI & PURDY, LLP
4631 Teller Avenue, Suite 100
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Why: Because these laws aren't going to implement themselves

For more info contact Bill: OCLawyer@aol.com