Don't Confirm the Raids!

The signing of this letter was coordinated by Americans for Safe Access.

June 24, 2003

Dear Senator Feinstein,

You were elected to the United States Senate because Californians trust you to stand up for their interests. As your constituents, we need you to speak for us at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday. We need you to ask Karen Tandy, President Bush's nominee to head the Drug Enforcement Administration, if she intends to continue her predecessor's pursuit of medical marijuana patients and their providers. If she will not renounce the DEA's cruel campaign of intimidation and incarceration, we ask you to do everything in your considerable power to block her nomination.

We need to know if medical marijuana prosecutions will continue to be a priority for the DEA because we, the signatories of this letter, are some of those Californians who have been subjected to harassment, arrest and imprisonment.

When a large majority of Californians voted for the Compassionate Use Act in 1996, they decided medical use of marijuana is reasonable for people suffering from many ailments. Those millions of California voters were aware the initiative they enacted ran contrary to federal law, but they had the courage to vote their consciences, knowing that medical science not partisan politics should decide matters related to our health and welfare. As you know, this view is supported by the Institute of Medicine's report of 1999, a report generated at the request of then-Drug-Czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey.

We need your intervention not just because we are your constituents and we have suffered from the DEA's recent actions, but because the sick and dying deserve compassion from their government, not federal prison. The responsibility for asking these questions falls on you, Senator Feinstein, because you are the sole representative at these Judiciary Committee hearings of the nine states which have enacted medical marijuana laws. You would do a disservice to your decades of public service not to speak for those millions of voters.

We know that the issue of medical marijuana can be a politically contentious one, but we call on you to stand up for the voters of California -- as well as Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Arizona, Colorado, Alaska, and Maine -- by ensuring the next head of the DEA will be someone who acknowledges marijuana use can be medical and not merely criminal.

The urgency of this issue, with the well-being of so many millions of Americans at stake, means we must hear from you by the end of the day Monday, June 23, 2003. Please let us know by then that you will ask Karen Tandy about medical marijuana on Wednesday, and will oppose her nomination if she answers contrary to the will of the people and the findings of medical science.

Respectfully Yours,

Ed Rosenthal & Jane Klein
Valerie & Michael Corral
Edward Bierling
Michael Foley & Robyn Few
Stephanie Landa, Kevin Gage, & Thomas Kikuchi
Steve McWilliams & Barbara MacKenzie
Ashley Epis & Cheryl Parker
Robert Schmidt
Lynn & Judy Osburn
Anna & Gary Barrett
Alan MacFarlane
Diane Monson
Sharon Sharpnack
Rick Watts