christo: last night i lobbied barbara lee about medical cannabis

chers---

i like christo’s first-person first-timer narrative here. i like the tone of it.

christo will be publishing more at CannabisPatientVoice when he returns to oakland, ca from a visit with his dad in tucson,az. we’ll get to see then if he wants to let us know his last name. for now, pix of the gates in central park.

namasté

---lyr

Last night I lobbied my Congresswoman Barbara Lee. Here is the story:

I made it to the town hall meeting in Piedmont (Oakland) last night and spoke with Barbara Lee, my Congressional Representative, about adding her name and her support to the letter that Reps. Dana Rohrbacher and Tim Oliver are sending to DEA administrator Karen Tandy about the opinion and ruling by a DEA Administrative law judge regarding research on the medical use of cannabis. I spoke with Congresswoman Lee about this directly after the meeting. I put the letter requesting her support into her hands. She promised to take a look at it. I explained to her that it was not fair for the Feds to try to have it both ways - by claiming that medicinal cannabis has no medical value, and by also disallowing any research materials to be produced so that the needed research can be done to prove the facts. (Good language Sonnet, thx, I used it.)

I also spoke with her Director of Constituent Services/Scheduler - Saundra Andrews. I also spoke at length with Daniela Quintanilla, a staffer based here in Oakland, who has agreed to take a meeting on this subject.

I must say that Barbara Lee is terrific. She was open and available after the town hall meeting. I had to jostle a bit for position, but I definitely had the opportunity to say my piece directly to her and to hand her the paperwork to review later.

I first thanked her for her vote on the Hinchey-Rohrbacher amendment. She gave me a big smile and said, "Yes, wasn't that a good one?" After I thanked her, and it was clear that she was receptive to me, and it was also apparent that I knew what I was talking about, then the half dozen staffers who were moving around with her closely in a tight phalanx of security gave me some breathing room to speak to her for a minute. I quickly explained that the federal government was attempting to have it both ways on the issue of the medical benefits of cannabis. They are claiming that cannabis has no medicinal value while at the same time blocking respected institutions from producing the research materials necessary to do the research to prove the facts. I then asked her to please review the letter from Reps. Dana Rohrbacher and Tim Oliver, and to consider adding her signature to the letter. She stated that she would look at it.

I then followed up with her staff. Saundra Andrews and Daniela Quintanilla were both very receptive and warm. All of Barbara Lee's staffers are amazing. I got their cards and promised to follow up to set up a meeting, which I am eager to do. I feel like I should seek some guidance and direction from the ASA office next to see how to proceed. I would like to call and/or email today or tomorrow to set up a meeting with Daniela, and I would like to recruit peeps from the ASA office to come to the meeting with me.

All in all, it was a very powerful town hall meeting. Many of the people were there about Iraq and impeachment. Barbara Lee was the ONLY member of Congress to vote against the war when it first came up for a vote. She is superb on this issue, and there were already many constituents there to lobby her to remain strong on this, and to get impeachment on the table, too. The hall was completely filled with people. There wasn't any room for more chairs. There were well over 150 people there - standing room only.

I was going to ask a question about impeachment, but that issue seemed very well represented by the crowd. So, I decided to lobby exclusively on MMJ rights. I wrote out three MMJ questions, but none of them were read and answered by her during the town hall. Two of them were considerably lacking in brevity, however, so I understand why that may be. Anyway, her staff saw how interested and involved I was as an activist and all of the questions I wrote and gave to them. And it seemed like they allowed me some space to speak with her afterward. Also, I expect that all of the unanswered written questions will receive a response via email or snail mail eventually.

The event was very empowering for me. I was a little nervous, but I won't be as nervous next time. I look forward to following up with a meeting with her staffers, or maybe even with her.

I really enjoyed doing this! I encourage all of you to become activists and to take direct action to make your representatives and local public officials understand how important this issue is to you. It does work. They do want to hear from you!!

I hope this sending may inspire some of you to action in terms of lobbying your local and national representatives on MMJ issues. Things seem to be heating up right now. With all the raids in LA, the letters from the DEA threatening dispensaries’ landlords with asset forfeiture and the seizure of the Berkeley Patients Group’s bank account, now is the time for action! It is time to stand up and make our voices heard. If we don’t fight back now, we may not have dispensaries left to defend soon. The DEA does seem intent on shutting them down by all means available to them.

---christo