- Dear Friend:
- Twenty-five-year-old Weldon Angelos celebrated Christmas
in federal prison this year ... just like he'll do every year until he's
80.
-
- Last month, Angelos was sentenced to 55 years in prison
for selling marijuana to undercover police officers. As U.S. District Judge
Paul Cassell pointed out at sentencing, that's more time than he would
have received if he had hijacked an airplane (25 years), beaten someone
to death in a fight (13 years), or raped a 10-year-old child (11 years).
-
- In fact, the maximum sentence for all those crimes combined
is less than the federal mandatory minimum sentence for a drug felony involving
a gun. (Angelos was carrying a gun at the time of his arrest, although
he never brandished it or threatened anyone.)
-
- The assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case justified
putting Angelos -- a first-time offender and father of two -- behind bars
for 55 years by saying that he was a "purveyor of poison" who
got what he deserved. (The "poison" was marijuana, which has
never killed anyone.)
-
- Angelos isn't alone in having his life destroyed by the
government's war on marijuana users:
-
- Jonathan Magbie died three months ago while serving a
10-day sentence for marijuana possession in a jail in Washington, D.C.
Magbie, a 27-year-old quadriplegic, used marijuana to treat his chronic
pain. He was unable to breathe on his own, and the jail -- unequipped to
meet his medical needs -- allowed him to die while in custody.
-
- And last year, a 19-year-old Florida college student
was brutally raped by his cellmate while serving the first of four weekends
in jail for a small-scale marijuana offense.
-
- And the year before that, 20-year-old Jose Colon -- just
months away from being the first in his family to obtain a college degree
-- was shot and killed by police in a raid in which eight ounces of marijuana
were seized. Colon wasn't even a suspect. He just happened to be visiting
the house being raided, and he had no drugs or weapons on him.
-
- Every week, we at the Marijuana Policy Project confront
extreme government abuses like these, as the war on marijuana users rages
on, with the government arresting law-abiding citizens, seizing their property,
locking them up for decades, and even killing them.
-
- With the help of our 18,000 dues-paying members, MPP
is working to end the persecution and destruction of people like Weldon
Angelos, Jonathan Magbie, and millions of others. You can help us bring
sense to our nation's marijuana policies by making a financial contribution
to our work at http://www.mpp.org/donate1097 today.
-
- Your help is desperately needed. The government is arresting
more than 700,000 marijuana users a year -- that's one arrest every 42
seconds -- which is more than the number of arrests for robbery and all
violent crimes combined. (And about 88% of all marijuana arrests are for
possession, not sale or manufacture.)
-
- This holiday season, let's remember the many, many victims
of the government's war on marijuana users -- the cancer patients living
in fear of arrest for using marijuana to quell their nausea and help them
keep food down ... the college students losing their financial aid for
smoking a joint ... the AIDS patients using medical marijuana to ease the
pain of their final months, terrified of losing their homes if caught ...
and the thousands staring at empty cell walls for doing nothing more harmful
than possessing marijuana.
-
- We can and will put an end to this cruel and unjust war.
Please visit http://www.mpp.org/donate1097 to stand with us in the fight.
Thank you.
-
- Sincerely,
- Rob Kampia
- Executive Director
- Marijuana Policy Project
- Washington, D.C.
-
- P.S. With December 31 fast approaching, there are only
two more days to receive a 2004 tax deduction by donating to MPP Foundation.
Donations to MPP Foundation, the public education branch of the organization,
are tax-deductible. Donations to MPP, the lobbying branch of the organization,
are not tax-deductible. Make sure to check the "MPP Foundation"
box on the donation form if you want a tax deduction.
-
- P.P.S. If you donate $250 or more this year, you will
receive in February a compilation DVD featuring the TV ads and TV news
coverage of the statewide ballot initiative campaigns in Alaska, Montana,
and Oregon this year, as well as excerpts from Montel Williams' national
TV show about medical marijuana.
-
- The Marijuana Policy Project hopes that each of the 157,000
subscribers on our national e-mail list will make at least one financial
donation to MPP's work in 2004. According to our records, you have not
yet donated this year. Would you please consider making one donation this
year by visiting http://www.mpp.org/donate1097 today?
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