PRESS RELEASE:  CannabisHabitation Colorado

Hello America,

Cannabis has been, is, still is, and will be.  The will of the people through 73 years of prohibition has been to break the law, right or wrong. The true indicator to the re-legalization of cannabis in America.

Cannabis has been, is, still is, and will be.  The will of the people through 73 years of prohibition has been to break the law, right or wrong. The true indicator to the re-legalization of cannabis in America.

Never before in the history of cannabis prohibition has the moment for re-legalization been as it is now. It is the "Just Say Now!" era.

All hail the internet which is destroying the draconian fallacy surrounding a plant that is far less harmful than alcohol and tobacco.  Two substances that are legal, regulated, and taxed.

The world is watching Prop 19, California's Tax and Regulate Cannabis Proposition.  If that domino falls the years of the useless Drug War will become the past.  It's what we do with the future.

In Prop 19 there is no "compassionate amnesty" for the marijuana offender sitting incarcerated for only a marijuana offense.  I'd be pissed in the first place for sitting in jail for maybe selling an ounce. Then to have legalization come about and I am still sitting in stir.

No way Jose. America must learn from Prop 19 and make allowances for the incarcerated marijuana offenders.  No victims in the War on Drugs should be left behind.

Yesterday as Chairman of the United States Marijuana Party of Colorado I launched the CannabisHabitation Colorado movement in my speech at Cannabis Festiva. We are asking all cannabis lovers to think about relocating to Colorado. We want to turn Colorful Colorado into Cannabis Culture Colorado. The population demographics are ripe for such an undertaking. The are only 5,100,000 people living here.  Add an additional 10, 15, 20 thousand cannabis votes and we could become the first "true" cannabis state in the union.  A state where commercial (hemp), recreational, and medical marijuana are legal, accepted, and embraced by a cannapostive population. It's not far fetched as it sounds.  In 2006 we voted to legalize adult use and lost at 43%.  However the demographics changed, are changing, and you could be part of the change. Join us here in Colorado as we push for the re-legalization of commercial (hemp), medical, and recreational cannabis with the self determination to grow your own marijuana just like making homebrew or wine untaxed.  We can control one geographic area in America.  CannabisHabitation Colorado!  We will have legal pot in Colorado by the year 2012. Come on along or go alone.

Peace, Pot, Politics,

Wayward Bill Chengelis
Chairman, US Marijuana Party of Colorado
720.628.2639

Good Day and Hello Colorado and Amerika,

This morning I was handed the reins of the US Marijuana Party of Colorado by Tiny Martinez, now former Executive Director.  This was an in-house promotion for me from Assistant Executive Director to Executive Director.

First I would like to thank Tiny for giving me the opportunity to serve the party as a whole.

Second my first official duties will be obtaining an attorney for the purpose of establishing a non-profit status for the United States Marijuana Party of Colorado and I will be re-instituting, "Rock Against The Drug War Concerts" as the primary source for funding for the party.  Hopefully I will be able to expand the cash flow through other ventures, political and non-political in the near future.

Third and finally the United States Marijuana Party of Colorado will continue to follow the platform of the United States Marijuana Party. The main party mission statement will be our main direction and we will developing our own according to our needs here in Colorado.

I am here to help and serve the party.  Let's Rock!

Peace, Pot, Politics,

Wayward Bill Chengelis

Campus hosts inaugural event on eve of Monday's 4/20 smoke-out

By Lance Vaillancourt

Sunday, April 19, 2009

BOULDER, Colo. — On the eve of the University of Colorado's notorious 4/20 marijuana celebration, hundreds of students and community members converged on the Boulder campus Sunday to talk about -- rather than smoke -- pot.

Hosted by CU's chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the inaugural National Forum on Marijuana -- which opened Saturday night and continued all day Sunday -- featured discussions on decriminalization, medical marijuana, hemp and other related topics.

"This day went above and beyond my expectations," said CU junior Alex Douglas, executive director of NORML@CU. "It was a fantastic turnout, and a wonderful open discussion on current marijuana issues.

"Every single person that has come to even one of the panels has left more educated, more informed and more empowered on entire subject of marijuana."

The forum preceded Monday's traditional 4/20 campus smoke-out, held each year on April 20 in honor of the so-called International Cannabis Day. That event, unlike Sunday's forum, is not sanctioned by CU, yet is expected to draw thousands of pot enthusiasts to the Norlin Quadrangle at 4:20 p.m.

Organizers of the National Forum on Marijuana said they tried to provide attendees with a balanced and thoughtful perspective on the most current issues regarding the use and legality of marijuana within American society.

"This is a conversation that needs to be had," said CU junior Julie Black, who decided to attend the forum after seeing advertisements posted around campus. "The speakers are all very educated about the subjects, and they aren't biased about presenting the other sides of the issues."

Black added, however, that she would have liked to have seen a stronger showing from the anti-drug movement, both on the panels and in the audience.

But according to organizers, a number of speakers representing organizations such as the Denver chapter of the Partnership for a Drug Free America backed away from attending just days prior to the event.

Nevertheless, the few anti-drug advocates who did participate -- including Cmdr. Tom Sloan of the Boulder County Drug Task Force -- said that they appreciated the effort to maintain a balanced approach to the subject.

"I was definitely in the minority," Sloan said. "But it was a very civil discussion about a subject that is very serious to a lot of these people, and there was definitely an effort to be balanced."

While anti-drug advocates such as Sloan may have been harder to pin down, the forum managed to produce some of the most influential pro-pot activists in the movement today, including Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of NORML, and Steve Bloom, the founding editor of High Times magazine and creator of CelebStoner.com.

Bloom, in fact, often is credited with popularizing the concept of 4/20 while working with High Times in the late '80 -- before it quickly became etched into the worldwide pothead vernacular.

"I look at Boulder as the ground zero for the 4/20 movement," said Bloom, who attended last year's Norlin Quad smoke-out along with more than 10,000 other people. "It's really the focal point for where it's blowing up, and I love the collective energy of all of the people."

St. Pierre said the annual April 20 celebrations have become such a successful organic phenomenon throughout the country that NORML has decided to use the day to launch its latest project.

"Tomorrow, the first-ever national ad campaign begins on TV in favor of marijuana law reform," St. Pierre announced at the end of Sunday's first panel. "We chose to launch it on 4/20 to take advantage of the national cultural zeitgeist that takes place on this day."

In response to a question at a Wednesday news conference, US Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department will no longer raid medical marijuana dispensaries in states where they are legal under state law. The announcement marks the fulfillment of a President Obama campaign promise, and it marks the end of 13 years of stubborn federal resistance to state medical marijuana programs.

DEA raids of medical marijuana facilities in California continued after Obama's election in November and even after his inauguration last month. Holder was asked if those raids represented Justice Department policy under the new administration.

"Shortly after the inauguration there were raids on California medical marijuana dispensaries. Do you expect these to continue?" the reporter asked, noting that the president had promised to end the raids in the campaign.

"No," Holder responded. "What the president said during the campaign, you'll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we'll be doing in law enforcement. He was my boss during the campaign. He is formally and technically and by law my boss now. What he said during the campaign is now American policy." (Watch the video here.)

Nearly 75 million Americans live in the 13 states where medical marijuana is legal. But because of the federal government's refusal to recognize state medical marijuana laws, dozens of dispensaries in California have been raided by the DEA, typically in over-the-top paramilitary-style operations. More than a hundred people are facing prosecution, sentencing, or are already imprisoned under draconian federal marijuana laws because of their roles in operating dispensaries.

"There has been a lot of collateral damage in the federal campaign against medical marijuana patients," said Steph Sherer, medical marijuana patient and executive director of Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the nation's largest medical cannabis advocacy organization. "We need to stop the prosecutions, bring the prisoners home, and begin working to eliminate the conflict between state and federal medical marijuana laws."

At an ASA press conference hastily called for Thursday afternoon, Sherer elaborated. "I'm overjoyed to finally hold a press conference with some great news," she said. "Today is a victory and a huge step forward in what has been at times a cruel and tragic period. My outrage over the raids was shared by millions of Americans, and now our collective voice has been heard in Washington. We look forward to working with the Obama administration to harmonize the conflicts with state laws once and for all."

But for some patients and dispensary operators, the damage has already been done. Larry Epstein operates a legal medical cannabis dispensing collective in Marina Del Rey, California, that was raided by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on February 4, despite President Obama's statements on the campaign trail indicating a change in federal policy.

"We had been operating as a legitimate cooperative dispensary per California law for a number of years," said Epstein. "But the DEA came in here as if we were operating an illegal drug cartel. They stole all our property, all our product, and froze our bank accounts. Now, we can't pay our taxes; that's part of what they stole. It's devastating when they do those types of actions, never mind the hundreds of patients who rely on our facility to get their medicine."

Heather Poet operates a medical cannabis dispensing collective in Santa Barbara, California. The Justice Department has pressured her landlord to evict the collective using threats of prosecution and civil asset forfeiture. Her case prompted US Representative Lois Capps (D-CA) to ask Attorney General Holder to stop any and all prosecutions of property owners in a February 16 letter.

"Our landlord has twice been threatened by the US Attorney for the Central District of California, most recently just last month," Poet said. "If he did not initiate the termination of our lease for the 'illegal use' of his property -- we were operating legally under California law -- they would begin forfeiture proceedings against his property. That's when I contacted Rep. Capps. Within a week, she had contacted ASA and begun working on that letter. We are so grateful and proud of her for working so quickly to protect our rights and those of our patients. This has been a real travesty for so many sick people in California who have had to worry. Now, thousands of people will be able to breathe easier."

One person who isn't breathing easier just yet is Charles C. Lynch, a Morro Bay dispensary operator arrested and convicted on federal marijuana distribution charges. Lynch faces the dubious distinction of being perhaps the last person sent to prison under the federal war against medical marijuana; he faces at least a five-year mandatory minimum sentence when he is sentenced March 23.

"I became a medical marijuana patient in 2005 and decided we needed a dispensary here in the San Luis Obispo area so patients didn't have to drive 90 miles to Santa Barbara," Lynch explained. "Before I opened the dispensary, I called the DEA and asked them their policy. They told me it was up to the cities and towns, so I got a business license from the city of Morro Bay, and opened up on April 1, 2006. The mayor, the city attorney, and council members all came by to visit the facility. We even joined the Morro Bay Chamber of Commerce. I did everything I thought was necessary to run a legitimate business."

But thanks to a recalcitrant local sheriff who, lacking any basis under state law to go after the dispensary, sicced the DEA on it, Lynch's dispensary was raided. "In March 2007, they raided me, took all my money and froze my bank account. They made it sound like I was selling drugs to children in the schoolyard. The city of Morro Bay reissued my business license -- the DEA had stolen it, too -- and I reopened for business. Two weeks later, the DEA threatened my landlord with forfeiture unless he evicted us for good, so on March 16, 2007, the dispensary closed for good."

That has been sufficient to slake the fed's thirst for vengeance in many dispensary raids: Trash the premises, steal the money and property, and drive the business out of existence. But in other cases, federal prosecutors wanted an extra pound of flesh and actually prosecuted dispensary operators. Charles Lynch falls into that unfortunate latter category.

"On July 17, 2007, I woke up to federal agents banging down my door with an arrest warrant for federal marijuana distribution charges," Lynch related. "I had a spotless record, but I had to post a $400,000 bond to get out of federal detention. The DEA and the sheriff did everything in their power to defame me, destroy me, and destroy my life. Now, I have been found guilty on five counts of distribution and await sentencing. I'm filing for bankruptcy, my friends are scared to talk to me because the feds are breathing down my neck. They've destroyed my life."

Clearly, Attorney General Holder's announcement Wednesday is a major breakthrough for the medical marijuana movement. Just as clearly, there are still messes to clean up and injustices to be righted. It is only when there is no one remaining in or threatened with federal prison for helping sick patients that the medical marijuana movement will have achieved real justice.