SAY 'NO' TO GREEN HARVEST, 'YES' TO MEDICAL MARIJUANA

I am a patient with a medical marijuana permit in three states and
Canada. I was a schoolteacher, a case manager and for the past 14
years I have been a disability advocate here in Hawaii. This is a
call to all Hawaii residents to say "no" to federal money for Green Harvest.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, Green Harvest is a program
whereby Hawaii receives federal money to arrest growers of marijuana.
Most people don't realize that our state allows patients to grow
their marijuana or have a caregiver grow it, but we cannot buy it. We
cannot buy the seeds, nor can we buy certain growing equipment
without being prosecuted. Meanwhile, patients who can tolerate
pharmaceutical pain medications are not required to "grow" their own
anti-inflammatory medications, painkillers or muscle relaxants.

Allowing public funds to go to the war on marijuana violates many
civil rights laws, for example:

)) Propaganda by the government against this medicine violates the
Americans with Disabilities Act by causing others -- the patient's
family, friends, employers and community -- to discriminate against
people with disabilities who have the right to use marijuana to treat
their medical condition.

)) Not only do patients have the right to use, possess and grow
marijuana in 11 states, they have this right through the ADA of 1990.
According to this act and the Rehabilitation Rights Act of 1973, a
substance is NOT an illegal drug if it prescribed by a medical
doctor. Both these acts are tied to the Controlled Substance Act,
which is a federal law.

. By imprisoning growers, suppliers of growing equipment and
distributors, we are illegally coercing and threatening people with
disabilities, their families, their medical doctors and providers,
further violating the ADA of 1990.

. People who are interfering with the legalization of medical
marijuana should understand fully that they are, in fact, personally
contributing to discriminating against, threatening, isolating and
harming people with disabilities. They are causing families to turn
against family members with disabilities, further isolating and
harming these patients with disabilities.

. We do not use public funds to turn family members against patients
using antidepressants, oxycodone, Valium and so many far more
dangerous medications. We do not threaten users of prescribed
pharmaceuticals from taking their medications on airplanes, buying it
via the Internet or shipping via the post office; nor do we charge
them with violating rules of interstate commerce.

Most states do not have the budgets to continue to incarcerate
marijuana users, growers and distributors. We still have in our
prisons people who merely bought fluorescent lights or sold seeds to
grow marijuana. Our prisons are full, and as taxpayers we can no
longer afford to spend money on Green Harvest. Shame on us, America
and Canada, that we should be so intolerant, shortsighted, cruel and
wasteful of hard-earned tax money.

Please, let's stop the prohibition and get on to better uses of our
money. Please contact your County Council members and legislators,
and say "no" to Green Harvest -- and "yes" to ending marijuana prohibition.