House Judiciary Chair Questions DEA Tactics

***House Judiciary Chair Questions DEA Tactics***
***Rep. Conyers Next Step Toward Congressional Hearings***


Dear ASA Supporter,

ASA’s ongoing campaign to hold the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
accountable for its continued efforts to undermine state medical marijuana laws
is working. We are pleased to announce that US House Judiciary Committee
Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) has sent a letter to DEA Acting Administrator
Michele Leonhart challenging the DEA's actions.

ASA staff together with grassroots activists helped make it possible for
Chairman Conyers to issue this letter. Please donate now to support our
important work in Washington, D.C.!
http://www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org/Donate

As a follow-up to a public statement he made in December, Chairman Conyers’
letter questions DEA directly about its heightened raid activity across
California and its intimidation of property owners owners with threats of
prosecution and asset forfeiture because they rent to medical cannabis
dispensaries. Chairman Conyers is the highest ranking elected official to
question the DEA’s tactics since medical cannabis raids in California
escalated dramatically in 2007. This letter is an important and necessary step
towards Congressional hearings by the House Judiciary Committee, which oversees
the actions of the DEA.

Over the past several months, ASA and advocates all over the country have
lobbied Chairman Conyers to convene hearings. Dozens of legal, tax-paying
dispensaries have been shut down or evicted by their landlords, and many more
face the same fate if Congress does not intervene. ASA Director of Government
Affairs Caren Woodson has been lobbying the offices of Chairman Conyers and
Subcommittee Chairman Scott about this issue for months, and her persistence is
paying off!

Caren’s work with the House Judiciary Committee was bolstered by a statewide
effort to get California’s elected officials to call for an end to the
harmful tactics of the DEA. ASA and its allies were successful in garnering
strong letters of support from several elected officials, urging Chairman
Conyers to hold hearings. Among those who spoke up were Orange County
Supervisor Chris Norby, Los Angeles City Councilmember Dennis Zine, and the
mayors of Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and West Hollywood.

I urge you to make a special commitment to support the kind of persistent,
strategic, and effective organizing that ASA demonstrated in moving Chairman
Conyers forward on this issue by making a monthly pledge of support or a one
time contribution to ASA. http://www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org/Donate

Please visit http://www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org/Donate>and make a
contribution today!

Steph Sherer
Executive Director
Americans for Safe Access

P.S. Please visit http://www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org/ConyersLetter to read
the letter from Chairman Conyers.

Americans for Safe Access is the nation's largest organization of patients,
medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and
legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research.