4/10/95

Support Massachusetts Medical Marijuana Bills

Please write, fax or call your state legislators in support of the following two bills, currently in the Healthcare Committee:

H2170 -- creates a medical necessity defense to protect medical users of marijuana from arrest and prosecution; and
H2736 -- allows the Department of Health to expand the list of conditions for which medical marijuana use is permitted under state law (extension of legislation passed in 1991).

Public Hearings are taking place 11:00 AM, Tuesday April 11 (tomorrow) in room A-2 of the State House, downtown Boston
Write your Representative and Senator at:

The State House Boston,
MA 02133

or call

(Senate)(617) 722-1276
(house)722-2356

Letters and calls are particularly needed from constituents of the legislators on the Healthcare Committee, listed below:

Rep. Valerie Barson             722-2396 

        Wilbraham/Monson/Springfield/Wales 

Rep. Carmen D. Buell            722-2130 

        Greenfield/Northfield/Orange/Shutesbury 

Rep. Barbara C. Hyland          722-2130 

        Foxboro/Easton/Mansfield/Stoughton 

Rep. Frank M. Hynes             722-2210 

        Marshfield/Scituate 

Rep. Patricia D. Jehlen         722-2400 

        Somerville

Rep. John C. Klimm              722-2575 

        Barnstable/Sandwich

Rep. Dennis M. Murphy           722-2130 

        Springfield 

Rep. John A. Stefanini          722-2575

        Framingham/Ashland 

Rep. Paul Ianuccillo            722-2575 

        Lawrence 

Rep. James Vali                 722-2575 

        Franklin 

Rep. Jay R. Kaufman             722-2575 

        Lexington 

Rep. Harriette L. Chandler      722-2575 

        Worcester 

Sen. Cheryl A. Jacques          722-1555 

        Needham/Attleboro/Dover/Norfolk/Stoneham/Sherborn/Wellesley/Wrentham

Sen. Daniel P. Leahy            722-1630 

        Lowell/Dracut/Dunstable/Groton/Pepperell/Tyngsboro

Sen. Michael W. Morrissey       722-1494 

        Qunicy/Avon/Braintree/Holbrook Sen.

Therese Murray 722-1330 Plymouth/Bourne/E-W Bridgewater/Pembroke/Sandwich/Wareham/Whitman

Sen. Marc R. Pacheco            722-1551 

        Taunton/Bridgewater/Carver/Marion 

Sen. Robert L. Hedlund          722-1646 

        Weymouth/Hingham/Hull/Cohasset/E. Braintree/Duxbury/Marshfield/Scituate

You should know that:

* 44% of cancer chemotherapy doctors responding to a Harvard survey recommend cannabis to alleviate nausea associated with treatment -- and a majority prefer smoked cannabis over synthetic THC in pill form.

* Cannabis is the therapeutic aid of choice for alleviating the muscle spasms which afflict paraplegics, quadriplegics and people suffering with multiple sclerosis.

* Cannabis has proved effective in fighting the "wasting" symptoms of patients with AIDS and severe internal scleroderma, allowing them to retain nutrition and build up their strength to fight their diseases.

* 34 other states have passed medical marijuana laws, usually by overwhelming margins (unanimous in six states).

* 79.5% of the voters of San Francisco adopted a similar measure as a ballot initiative in 1991.

* 82% of Parade readers and 96% of Globe readers favored legalizing medical cannabis in 1994 polls.

* The Merck Manual, the world's largest selling medical text says that: "Chronic administration of cannabis produces no physical dependence and no evidence of social of psychic dysfunction."

* The chief administrative law judge of the DEA ruled "Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man" and "the overwhelming preponderance of the evidence" established that it has a "currently accepted med ical us in treatment in the US."

Medical cannabis legislation for Massachusetts has been endorsed by:

* Governor Bill Weld (Boston Globe, 10/17/91) and Lt. Governor Paul Cellucci (1986 Senate vote)
* Department of Public Health Commissioner David Mulligan (1994 Harvard Law School presentation)
* The Boston Globe (7/29/91 and 9/17/94)
* The Cambridge Chronicle (10/3/91)
* The Springfield Valley Advocate (9/12/91)
* WCVB-TV Channel 5 (4/7/80 and 10/16/91)
* The Tab newspapers in Ashland, Brookline, Cambridge, Dover, Framingham, Holliston, Natick, Sherborn, Sudbury, Wayland, Wellesley and Weston (10/15/91)
* The Cambridge City Council on a Home Rule petition with a 7-1 vote (10/28/91)
* Scores of doctors and over 12,000 other citizens who signed petitions in a 6-week door-to-door campaign.

Join the movement towards compassion for people with life-threatening and painfully disabling illness. Stop the prosecutions of men and women who are bed-ridden or in wheelchairs. Their only crime is trying to save their lives!

For more information, including complete medical and criminal justice data.

Contact:
Massachusetts Coalition for Medicinal Cannabis,
(617) 944-2266.

Foundation for Drug Policy Awareness / Drug Reform Coordination Network P.O. Box 381813, Cambridge, MA 02238-1813 (617) 648-2655 / (617) 646-2713 (fax) / email: [email protected]

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Support Massachusetts Medical Marijuana Bills

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