Kharla Vezzetti

PRESS RELEASE
Americans for Safe Access
For Immediate Release: April 5, 2011

California Medical Marijuana Employment Rights Bill Approved by Senate Committee
Legislation would prevent discrimination, continue to guard against impairment at the workplace

Sacramento, CA — The State Senate Judiciary Committee voted 3-2 today, approving a bill that would protect medical marijuana patients from discrimination at the workplace. Senate Bill 129, introduced by Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) in January is an attempt to clarify the legislative intent of the state’s Medical Marijuana Program Act passed in 2003.…

UPDATE 10/17: NIH’s Cancer.gov website now states: “Cannabinoids may have benefits in the treatment of cancer-related side effects.” It had said: “The potential benefits of medicinal Cannabis for people living with cancer include antiemetic effects, appetite stimulation, pain relief, and improved sleep.”

Also see: Government-Run Cancer Institute Quietly Acknowledges That Cannabis Kills Cancer Cells August 24, 2015

Tommy Chong Using Cannabis Oil for Prostate Cancer: Is it Truly a Cure? June 10, 2012

April 4, 2011 – The US National Cancer Institute, a branch of the National Institutes of Health, touts its website www.cancer.gov…

SACRAMENTO, March 29 – The California Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings today on Mark Leno’s bill to protect employment rights for medical marijuana users, SB 129, but the vote was delayed for another week due to illness of a committee member.

The committee heard powerful testimony from Peter O’Neill, who was fired as an assistant manager for Walgreens after being forced into a drug rehab program for testing positive for medical marijuana. Americans for Safe Access, Crusaders for Patients Rights (a Christian-based organization), Cal NORML and LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) also testified for the bill.…

UPDATE: May 30, 2011 – SAN DIEGO’s BOTCHED CANNABIS ORDINANCE SUSPENDED BY REFERENDUM

Congratulations to the California Cannabis Coalition and Citizens for Patients Rights for collecting over 46,000 signatures to suspend San Diego’s ill-considered medical cannabis ordinance severely restricting collectives.

The ordinance was officially suspended as of 4:20 PM, Friday May 27th, when the signatures were turned in. It will stay suspended until the registrar validates the count. If there are over 31,029 valid signatures (as seems likely), the ordinance will stay on hold and go before the voters for a referendum; otherwise, it will go back into effect.…

The conference was held on March 19, 2011 at the
Ricardo Montalban Theatre in Hollywood.

Congressional candidate Marcy Winogrand and Assemblymember
Jim Beall spoke on the Public Perspectives panel.

West Hollywood Mayor Pro Tempore John Duran with conference
co-sponsor Dale Gieringer of California NORML.

UCLA School of Public Policy professor Mark Kleiman said
attending the conference opened his mind to new ideas.

Dale Sky Jones of the Prop. 19 campaign, Stephen Gutwillig of
the Drug Policy Alliance and Dale Gieringer in front of conference
sponsor/yummy food vendor VizziTruck

MPP’s Sarah Lovering and Dan Rush of United Food and
Commercial Workers hold court in the food court

Diane Goldstein of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) answers
a question from the crowd during the Movement Building Panel, with
Gretchen Burns Bergman of A New PATH, Dan Rush, and Antonio
Gonzalez of the Latino Voters League.…

Cal NORML Reports March, 2011

SACRAMENTO. Several important cannabis reform bills have been introduced to the California legislature. They include protecting Prop 215 patients from workplace discrimination, reducing cultivation penalties, legalizing industrial hemp, and establishing full-scale medical marijuana licensing schemes.

In the State Senate, Mark Leno (D-SF), has re-introduced a bill to protect medical marijuana patients from workplace discrimination. The Medical Cannabis Patient Employment Non-Discrimination Bill, SB 129, would declare it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a person because of his or her status as a qualified patient or a positive drug test for marijuana, except for safety-sensitive jobs.…

Also see: Appeals Court Rules in Favor of Tehama County Cultivation Ordinance

UPDATE February 20: CalNORML has filed its appeal.

UPDATE February 6: California NORML will appeal a court decision upholding Tehama’s ordinance restricting patients’ right to grow medical marijuana. The ordinance, which declares it a nuisance to cultivate any marijuana at all – indoors or outdoors – within 1,000 feet of a park, church, school, school bus stop, et al., effectively makes it impossible for many patients to obtain their medicine in accordance with Prop.…

TELL YOUR STATE SENATOR TO SUPPORT THE LENO EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS BILL
January 31 – Before hundreds of attendees at the California NORML statewide “Next Steps” conference on Saturday, January 29, Senator Mark Leno (SF) announced he has re-introduced his bill to end employment discrimination against medical marijuana users. SB 129, The Medical Cannabis Patient Employment Non-Discrimination Bill would declare it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a person because of their status as a qualified patient or a positive drug test for marijuana, except for safety-sensitive positions and certain health-care workers.…