Earlier today I testified at the hearing concerning the amendments to Initiative 59. In order to fit in the 3 minutes that I was allotted, I gave a shortened version of the text below:

Earlier this month I, along with 10 other District residents, founded the Washington, DC Chapter of Americans For Safe Access, which is America’s largest patient advocacy organization with over 50,000 members. Since Congress had prevented Initiative 59 from becoming law for so long, there has never been the opportunity for the local chapter to form. Over the last couple weeks we’ve met a few times and have deconstructed the amendments to Initiative 59. Below is the official position of the Washington, DC ASA Chapter concerning the amendments:

I am having to cut my West Coast research trip short to fly back to Washington, DC in order testify at the hearing related to amendments to Initiative 59. Since Initiative 59 was written over a decade ago, the District Council feels that it should be amended before becoming law.

+ click here to download the amendments as a PDF
+ click here to read the original text of Initiative 59

Below is the text of the Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Treatment Initiative Amendment Act of 2010:

For the last few weeks I have been working with the District of Columbia Patients Advocacy Coalition helping to organize and promote tonight’s Town Hall Meeting on Medical Marijuana in the District of Columbia. I am very excited about this event and I hope it goes well. From the DCPAC website:

January 14th, from 7pm to 9pm at All Souls Unitarian Church (2835 16th St., N.W. Washington, DC) On hand will be current medical marijuana patients, doctors, concerned citizens, and hopefully, you.

This meeting is open to the public and we encourage all who are interested to attend. For the privacy of the patients, we ask the members of the media that there will be no recordings or photographs allowed until after the meeting is over.

Scheduled to speak is Wayne Turner, the author of Initiative 59 and Steve DeAngelo, founder of Harborside Health Center. After their remarks we will have a moderated Question & Answer discussion.

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#UPDATE – The event was very well attended with an estimated 200+ people filling up the entire seating area. I’m looking forward to the next DCPAC meeting on February 18th!

On October 13th, 2009, I was invited to document this demonstration at the DEA Headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. You can spot me in the YouTube video above in the beginning. I am wearing a black jacket and hat with a rose on it.

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This story starts back in 2007 when farmers Wayne Hauge and David C. Monson attempted to obtain permits from the Drug Enforcement Administration to grow industrial hemp [well actually the story goes back further!]. Their respective state governments had granted the farmers licenses to grow the plant, but since the DEA still considers the non-psychoactive industrial hemp plant to be marijuana, they have refused to grant the farmers permits. Faced with no other legal option, they decided it was time to stage a direct action on the grounds of the DEA Headquarters to help push public opinion towards changing the outdated laws. A week later the Department of Justice officially clarified it’s stance on medical marijuana, but has not yet addressed industrial hemp farming. Below are two articles about the demonstration with photographs that I took that eventful morning:

PART ONE – May, 2007 – This YouTube video shows the incredible true story of the Germ and Soap Company that teamed up to fight drug charges. David Bronner President of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps shows how natural soaps test positive for the date rape drug GHB using police field kits while detergent based fake soaps always test negative.

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PART TWO – March 3rd, 2009 – The Marijuana Policy Project and the Mintwood Media Collective present the findings of a new study, False Positives Equal False Justice [pdf]. Video exposes how field drug tests used by police and other government agencies give false positives on dozens of common products.

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That’s a pretty expensive little science experiment:

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PART THREE – NOW – Its quite amazing how many false positives these products give. You have to wonder why are they still being being used? Come on, Hershey’s gives a false positive! That’s pretty sad.

Send letters & calls to the maker of these products:

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You never know, maybe the company didn’t know it was selling faulty products? I bet they would like to hear from you!

I’ve known about the store for some time now so it’s nice that it’s is getting some great exposure in today’s Washington Post article. The store is located near the intersection of 18th & Columbia NW below the Starbucks and should open soon. I’ve written about my antics & activism with Adam over the years- from working on his last campaign for U.S. Shadow Representative to staging the first ever DC democracy lobbying effort on the Potomac and I’m looking forward to shopping at Capitol Hemp.