DEA Turns Up the Heat
ASA is on the Frontline and Needs Your Support!
Dear ASA Supporter,
Yesterday, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) raided at least eight medical cannabis dispensaries in Los Angeles, breaking down doors and stealing medicine. Two weeks prior to this, the DEA sent over a hundred letters to landlords of dispensaries in Los Angeles, telling them that the dispensaries were operating illegally under federal law and that the landlords could be subject to asset forfeiture. The DEA is turning up the heat and attempting to squash safe access, but ASA is on the front lines fighting back! Please donate today to help ASA continue this important work.
ASA has continuously worked with the City of Los Angeles to protect dispensaries. Yesterday morning, City Council Member Dennis Zine, a former Los Angeles Police Officer, held an unprecedented press conference with ASA to present a letter calling on the DEA to abandon its latest attack on landlords who rent to medical cannabis dispensaries and allow the City Council to move forward with regulations without further federal interference. City Council President Eric Garcetti joined patients and dispensary operators to support Zine’s courageous stance. Then, the City Council unanimously approved the first reading of a moratorium on new collectives that marks the first step towards sensible guidelines and greater legitimacy for collectives in the city – a step for which ASA has advocated for over two years.
Those two things alone would have been a big step forward, but the City Council was not finished! One council member after another stood up to join Zine in signing the letter to the DEA and announcing their support for medical cannabis in Los Angeles. Finally, the Council unanimously approved a motion endorsing the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, adding their considerable clout to the call to legalize medical cannabis at the federal level.
This tremendous support from the City Council would have been impossible just two years ago. ASA has been meeting with Zine and his colleagues about this issue consistently, making sure they have the facts and support to stand up for patients. This is the kind of grassroots, community-based work that has made ASA the largest medical cannabis advocacy organization in the nation. It is important to note that the seeds of yesterday’s victory were sown slowly over the last two years. Past support from people like you helped us turn a corner in Los Angeles. Just think what your support today will help accomplish in the days, weeks, and years to come!
Later on Wednesday, the DEA balked at the requests of the City Council and raided several dispensaries in Los Angeles. ASA immediately activated our emergency response plan, sending out email alerts, blasting a text message, calling all neighboring dispensaries, and alerting all local media outlets within a half hour of the raids beginning. Just two hours after the raids started, over 200 patients and advocates had gathered at one Hollywood dispensary to protest the raids. Dozens of protestors blockaded the entrances to the facility, blocking DEA agents from leaving the building. These courageous activists helped successfully negotiate for the release of the employees being held inside by DEA agents.
Yesterday’s actions and the work of ASA’s communications staff resulted in dozens of positive stories about the DEA raids and the Los Angeles City Council’s commitment to medical cannabis. All of the major television and radio networks in Los Angeles covered the stories from the patients’ perspective – not the DEA’s. ASA also worked with reporters to produce several Los Angeles Times articles and one editorial, as well as a story in USA Today. Hundreds of national television networks, radio stations and newspapers subsequently picked up the story.
Our resources were already stretched by efforts to fully implement California law and change federal medical cannabis policies. ASA needs support for medical cannabis patients and advocates now more than ever. We have to stop these raids and the DEA’s new tactic of targeting landlords now!
Please help us by pledging your monthly support of $10, $20, $50, or more. You will be making a real difference when you do. Visit AmericansForSafeAccess.org/Donate and pledge today!
Thank you for your generous support!
Sincerely,
Steph Sherer
Executive Director
Americans for Safe Access |
