Patients, Advocates And Providers Partner To Reform 64 For Fair, Affordable Regulations

Dear Colleague in Compassion,

I need your help to ensure that medical cannabis patients and providers have a voice in Sacramento. Over-taxation has made patient access to medical cannabis unaffordable for many.  Business operators report unworkable, burdensome, and expensive rules.  As a result of these issues there is a significant drop in the projected revenue California expected from the licensed cannabis industry.

Better regulations are needed now.  We cannot hesitate to take action.  Together, we can improve regulations, and protect patients and providers from excessive taxation and other barriers.  

Patient Advocacy Network is prepared to coordinate this effort, a collaboration of constituents and stakeholders engaging the legislature for fair regulations.  Please become a monthly sponsor now so PAN can get started immediately.

You will be invited to attend statewide task force meetings via conference call.  

You will receive informational and educational flyers to share with patients and caregivers.

Your contribution helps sponsor free letter writing workshops and other pertinent patient trainings.  

Your contribution will help sponsor patients’ travel to Sacramento to meet with legislative officials and deliver their letters.  We will also delivery letters on behalf of patients that are unable to travel. 

You will receive action alerts and be informed of any upcoming legislative hearings.

You will receive regular updates on the progress of the campaign.  

This effort takes diligence, consistency and commitment.  PAN is ready to start right now.  Your monthly donation ensures we move swiftly and consistently until we achieve our goal of fair regulations, and reasonable taxation for medical cannabis providers and patients.  

Donations are always tax-deductible and monthly contribution set-up is easy when you make your donation at Cannabis Patient Voice. 

Please choose a monthly sponsorship level that is best.

Medical Cannabis Provider Sponsorships

$100.00/mo. --  $150.00/mo.  --  $250.00/mo. -- Other

Patient Sponsorships

$5.00/mo. --  $10.00/mo.  --  $15.00/mo. 

Friends of PAN

$25.00/mo. --  $50.00/mo.  

Other payment methods and in-kind donations also accepted. A tax-deductible receipt will be provided.  PAN is a charitable 501(c)(3).  

If you have ANY questions, please contact me directly at (323) 334-5282.  I look forward to working with you.

Thank you for your support!


Sincerely,

Degé Coutee
President, Patient Advocacy Network

Patient Coach From SoCal

California Capitol 

Patient And Provider Survey

Patient Advocacy Network wants to hear from patients about their experiences with accessing medical cannabis.  

Additionally, we want to here from medical cannabis businesses that are having a difficult time navigating and/or affording regulations, fees, and taxes.

PAN’s mission is to help patients get the safe, affordable access they need, and help providers get better regulations.  Your input helps us know where we need to focus our efforts.  Please let us know your experiences.  

You can leave your comments below, email us at patientadvocates@riseup.net or call us at (323) 334-5282.  We are here for patients and providers.  

Are your favorite dispensaries still around?

Have they survived regulations?

Are you able to find a location?  Do you live in a medical cannabis desert?

Can you afford medical cannabis?  Are all the new taxes and fees making such that you are going without, relying on the underground market?

Are you able to access Compassion Programs for free or discounted cannabis?

Has legalization in your state made it easier or harder to access affordable medical cannabis?

Were you able to get a business license or permit for your commercial cannabis business?

Are the taxes and fees pushing your business under?

Are you concerned that Big Agriculture, Big Pharma is going to leverage your state for a commercial cannabis takeover?

Have you decided that you have to operate underground?

We look forward to hearing from you.  We respect and honor your privacy in your responses.

PAN Explains To Governors Why Smokable Cannabis Is An Important & Viable Option For Patients

Florida Governor Rick Scott

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin

PAN's Letter to the Governors

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Dear Florida Governor Rick Scott  and Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin–

I write to you about blocking medical cannabis patients from access to smokable cannabis.  

For some patients this is the best means of ingestion for their condition, especially for patients with extreme nausea.  AIDS and cancer patients, those undergoing dialysis and others find it difficult to eat medical cannabis products like capsules or tinctures without throwing them up.  

For chronic pain patients smokable cannabis is very effective as the relief can be within minutes.  For some people, whether prescribed pills or edible cannabis, it can take hours before they feel any relief.  

Also, for patients that have a more sensitive system smoking is ideal because there is great control in the amount one smokes and how often.  Smokable cannabis has quick onset and a quick, gentle offset.  For some patients smoking a pinch is all they need, whereas eating it would incapacitate them. 

I provide this link to a news story about a UCLA study regarding smokable cannabis:

Study Finds No Cancer-Marijuana Connection

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501729.html?noredirect=on

Please reconsider your position regarding smokable cannabis for seriously ill patients. I thank you for your time and consideration.  

Sincerely,

Degé Coutee

President, Executive & Program Director

Patient Advocacy Network

Advocating for patients’ safe, affordable access to medical cannabis since 2006

(323) 334-5282

P.O. Box 93845, Los Angeles, CA 90093

@PAN4Compassion

www.CannabisSavesLives.org

PAN is a charitable 501(c)(3) organization

LA To Decide On Collective Taxation

PAN President Degé Coutee with Councilmember Dennis Zine

On November 16, 2010, the Los Angeles City Council passed language that puts a Charter amendment on the March 2011 ballot allowing for a 5% gross receipts tax on all medical cannabis collectives in the City.

When collectives first began forming in LA, many patients agreed that paying our fair share to the City was reasonable. However, at the time Councilmember Dennis Zine had presented a reasonable motion seeking a temporary moratorium on new collectives while the Council drafted permanent regulations. In this September 2006 motion Zine writes,

“a legally existing medical marijuana dispensary is a retail establishment that is open for business in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations… has obtained all necessary licenses and permits and is conducted in a building… for retail occupancy.”

At the time it could not have been more clear that the intention of the Interim Control Ordinance and the future activity of collectives was going to be a retail model like other cities in California. Concurrently, Zine seated a Medical Marijuana Working Group to work on a draft ordinance that followed a retail model similar to that of the Los Angeles County’s ordinance.

Then, eventually comes the first draft from the City Attorney’s office. It could not be more opposite from Councilmember Zine’s motion or the input from the Working Group. The City Attorney, then Rocky Delgadillo and now Carmen Trutanich, argued that State law did not allow for sales but that patients were allowed to farm together and give it away to one another. After a year of arguing between Council and the City Attorney, nearly a thousand dispensaries operating, the moratorium expired and many angry citizens/patients– the Council finally caved and voted in what is called by many “The Worst Local Medical Cannabis Law In The Country.”

The current ordinance is so far from what the City Council mandated as a “legally existing medical marijuana dispensary” that collectives started to sue the City. Soon after the one-week registration period under the new ordinance, the City Attorney filed suit against 141 of these “legally existing” dispensaries citing a change in management as unlawful. The first ruling in these cases will be issued November 29, 2010.

A handful of councilmember’s are now starting to see what advocates had been stating during public comment. We attempted to point out that the ordinance was drafted with the intent of shutting down every collective in the City. We were treated as if we were irrational, didn’t know what we were talking about. The same people seated as advocates by a councilmember on the Working Group were falling on deaf ears.

The Council is now trying to amend the ordinance to stop the City Attorney’s attempt to shut down 141 “legally existing” collectives. As soon as the City Attorney sued these patient groups the City Clerk stopped the rest of the application process halting any other dispensary from moving forward in the licensing process. These collectives will be deemed illegal under the ordinance on December 6, 2010, if the Council does not act to protect them.

In the midst of all of this Councilmember Janice Hahn originally proposed a $500.00 fee on every medical cannabis plant grown by a collective. After hearing from patient advocates Hahn withdrew that motion and then proposed the 5% gross receipts tax, which passed Council vote 10-4. It will be on the ballot March 8, 2010.

The big question for the Medical Cannabis Community is do we support this tax in light of the current political and legal situation around LA’s collectives? How will you vote on this? PAN looks forward to hearing from you.

Image - Degé Coutee of PAN and LA City Councilmember Dennis Zine

copyright © 2010 Degé Coutee