More than 250,000 Arizonans have spoken. They want a medical marijuana initiative on the ballot this November.

That’s the number of signatures the Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project submitted to the Secretary of State yesterday, following a press conference at which dozens of boxes containing the signatures served as a backdrop. Members of the media were out in force to cover the event, as you can see here, here and here.

Over the next few weeks, state and county officials will examine the petitions to determine whether they contain a sufficient number of signatures from registered voters. We are confident that they will and that our place on the November ballot will be secured.

As we await word from the state, we need you to do your part to build support for the initiative. Please share this email with your friends and encourage them to sign up for campaign alerts by clicking on the following link:

http://stoparrestingpatients.org/home/

Thanks for spreading the word!

Letter to my representative

Dear Senator Taylor and Governor Brewer,

Please do not take away the opportunity for a loving family from children in need of homes; vote NO on HB 2148.

As a child I was very aware that there were more children needing homes than there were parents and families to adopt them. I never wanted to have children unless I adopted them. In college I was fortunate to rent a room from a single mother who had two beautiful adopted children. They had been adopted when she was married to her husband, but soon after, he left them and she became the best single mother you have ever seen. We held a single parents of adopted children group in our home, and I met many wonderful parents who made sure their children had positive influence from parents of the opposite gender as their adoptive parent. It made it clear to me that just because someone is married when they adopt a child, is no guarantee they will be forever, and it takes a village to raise a child.

Research shows us that single parents and unmarried couples can be just as effective and loving as married couples. Additionally, the U.S. Children's Bureau found that single women are more likely than married couples to adopt minority children and older children from foster care. Now more than ever, we need to be expanding adoption opportunities and working to place as many children as possible in loving, supportive homes.

Again, please vote NO on HB 2148 and stand against adoption discrimination.

Medical Marijuana Initiative in Arizona

The Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project (AMMPP)

http://stoparrestingpatients.org/home/

NORML's Myths and Realities list about marijuana:

http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3475

Taxing medical MJ?

http://stoparrestingpatients.org/home/news/4/senate-panel-votes-tax-medical-pot-if-az-voters-let-doctors-certify-need

Legislative Background:

http://www.mpp.org/legislation/background.html

What congress says:

http://www.mpp.org/legislation/medical-marijuana-in-congress.html

How to take action yourself:

http://stoparrestingpatients.org/home/take-action

Marijuana Policy Project's library:

http://www.mpp.org/library/

Preparing for Victory

ASA sent me the following and I'm passing it on here to you:

Consider joining us at Preparing for Victory -- April 17-18 in Rhode Island.

http://www.AmericansforSafeAccess.org/PreparingforVictory

Preparing for Victory is a special series of workshops on organizing and advocating for safe access to medical marijuana.

The ASA event will follow the National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics (4/15-4/17), which is organized by Patients Out of Time. If you are already attending the National Clinical Conference, add an extra day for Preparing for Victory.

At the National Clinical Conference, you will learn the science behind medical marijuana. At Preparing for Victory, you will build the political skills for securing safe access.

Early Bird registration deadline -- April 1st!

http://www.AmericansforSafeAccess.org/PreparingforVictory

Thanks -

Sanjeev, ASA Field Director

Personal Note:

I live in chronic pain with migraines, arthritis, bursitis, crooked joints (not the medical term) and a few other problems. I have tried every pain med, muscle relaxant, anti inflametory and migraine medicine on or off label with the full support of my pill pushing western medical doctors and the only one that did any good at taking away the migraines even temporarily almost put me into anaphylactic shock. If medical marijuana were legalized, I could get a tincture to put under my tongue in specified amounts and never have to inhale pot (which can be as dangerous as inhaling any other burnt object, toxins entering your lungs) legal medical marijuana would mean safe access to the only drug that has managed to even break through the kind of pain I live with on a daily basis. It would mean access to a perscription medication that would WORK! I hope you can not understand on a personal level the kind of frustration one who wants to live within the laws of his or her country experiences when he or she can't get safe, legal access to the one medicine they know works.

Please do what you can in your part of the world to make medical marijuana safe. I don't want to be high all the time, but I do want the pain relief. Even if it only meant being able to take a break from teh pain for a day or two here and there, such as on weekends I would be grateful for some relief now and then. Maybe it would mean I could return to work and resume being a productive member of society if I could just get something to break through these migraines and move these aching muscles and joints! I just don't understand why this is not common sense to everyone. A drug that is less detrimental than already legal substances? It's a no brainer.