Subject: Medical Marijuana signature kickoff for DC
From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 1997 23:16:47 -0400 (EDT)

SIGNATURE GATHERING BEGINS
ACT UP sponsors DC Medical Marijuana Initiative
=========================================
INITIATIVE #57
Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Treatment Initiative of 1997
call 202.547.0854
or stop by the ACT UP workspace
at 409 H Street, NE, Washington, DC
Help Gather Signatures
++++++++++++++++++++
Volunteers Needed!
Big Kick off this weekend
16,763 signatures needed
5% of DC's registered voters
by December 8, 1997
Medical Marijuana Saves Lives
Support D.C. Initiative #57
You can help People with AIDS, cancer patients, and others with serious or
terminal illnesses.  Protect medical patients and their providers from
criminal prosecution.  Support the DC Initiative for medical marijuana.  
Action=Life
Knowledge=Power
Silence=Death
People suffering from AIDS, cancer, or other serious illnesses sometimes turn
to marijuana on the advice of their doctors when other treatments fail.
 Initiative #57 protects medical patients and their providers from criminal
prosecution.  If you're a registered voter in the District of Columbia, you
can help by signing the petition to put medical marijuana on the DC ballot.
 Volunteers are always welcome.

Facts about medicinal marijuana
Marijuana is commonly used by AIDS patients to alleviate symptoms of severe
nausea, vomiting, and deadly AIDS wasting syndrome.

Cancer patients depend on marijuana to counter side effects of radiation and
chemo-therapy.

Marijuana effectively treats glaucoma, one of the leading causes of blindness
among Americans.

Medications like expensive triple-combination therapies don't work when
patients can't hold their pills down.  

For more information, contact ACT UP Washington for a list of published
studies on the medical use of marijuana.

About DC Initiative #57
"The Protecting Medical Patients and Providers from Marijuana Prosecution
Act" greatly improves upon the language of similar measures recently approved
by voters in California and Arizona.  

*The DC Initiative protects the privacy of the doctor and patient
relationship

*The DC Initiative prevents federal prosecutors from targeting doctors who
recommend marijuana to their patients.

*The DC Initiative continues to prohibit marijuana for non-medical uses

*The DC Initiative insures that safe supplies of medical marijuana are
available to sick and dying patients

*The DC Initiative counters legislative proposals to prosecute terminally ill
medical marijuana users as felons (pending in DC Council Bill 12-12).

*The DC Initiative was carefully crafted over a six month period including
the input of a broad array of community activists.  A copy of the full text
of Initiative 57 is available by contacting ACT UP Washington, or the Board
of Elections and Ethics

DC Initiative #57 lets the voters of the District of Columbia decide if we
should protect medical patients and providers from marijuana prosecution.  We
have six months to gather approximately 16,000 signatures of registered
voters, which will place Initiative #57 on the next District-wide election
ballot.

Join us today!  We need volunteers willing to circulate petitions, put up
signs, organize fund-raisers, and help out.  This is a grass roots,
patient-driven effort to provide legal access to medical marijuana.  People
with AIDS, cancer, and other illnesses are depending on you.  Your
contribution is greatly appreciated.