Subject: Forbes to spend big$$$ opposing DC Medical Marijuana
From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 1997 00:43:56 -0400 (EDT)

*contact Steve Michael at 202.547.9404

Steve Forbes launches big $$$ campaign against DC AIDS, cancer sufferers
Conservative's ad campaign targets local initiative to protect medical
patients and providers from marijuana prosecution

Washington, DC -- Billionaire Steve Forbes, a former Republican Presidential
candidate, has announced a $150,000 ad campaign to sway DC residents against
the DC Initiative 57.  Proposed by local AIDS activists from the group ACT UP
Washington, ballot initiative 57 would protect AIDS, cancer, and other
patients with serious and terminal illnesses, and their
physicians/caregivers, from criminal prosecution, in the use of marijuana for
medical treatment.  

 A press statement released from Forbes' front group, Americans for Hope,
Growth and Opportunity, based in Bedminster, New Jersey, promises at least
$150,000 in radio advertisements depicting the organizers of the DC
initiative as "twisted drug predators."

 The proposer of Initiative 57, ACT UP Washington's Steve Michael, who is
HIV+, reacted strongly to Forbes' attack, "How dare Steve Forbes spend the
inheritance from his dead Gay father to attack a measure that would protect
people with AIDS.  I'm sure Malcolm Forbes Sr. would be ashamed of his son."

 Forbes himself was 'zapped' by ACT UP during his 1996 presidential campaign,
with activists demanding that the 'Flat Tax Candidate' address AIDS, which
has become the leading killer among Americans ages 25-44. The New York Times
ran a photo of ACT UP's Steve Michael and his lover Wayne Turner protesting a
Forbes appearance, displaying sings reading "I'm proud of my Gay genes" and
"Come out of the AIDS closet."

 Michael predicted that Forbes' campaign would have little impact on local
efforts underway to gather the 16,700 signatures required to placed the
medical marijuana initiative on the DC ballot.  "Steve Forbes couldn't even
beat Bob Dole in a campaign." comments Michael. 

 States ACT UP's Wayne Turner, who is coordinating the volunteer effort to
gather signatures for Initiative 57, "Should we jail medical patients who use
marijuana to fight AIDS wasting syndrome?  Should we jail their doctors?  It
should be up to the people of the District of Columbia, not Steve Forbes."

For copies of the legislative text of DC's Intitiative 57, or addtional
information, contact ACT UP Washington, DC

The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power
ACT UP Washington DC *409 H Street NE
Washington, DC 20002 * for immediate release*July 17, 1997