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Patients fight on, from local courts to CA High Court |
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Written by Rebecca Saltzman
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Thursday, 30 March 2006 |
Americans for Safe Access is a patient advocacy group that is on the
forefront of the legal battle for California patients’ medical rights.
Here are some recent highlights of its activities.
State High Court to hear job discrimination case
 Photos by Jaime Galindo
In Ross v. Ragingwire Telecommunications, Inc., the court relied on
federal law to defeat Gary Ross’s state law causes of action for
wrongful termination in violation of public policy and employment
discrimination under of California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act.
The plaintiff, Gary Ross, 43, is a US Air Force veteran and the father
of two children, who suffered a January 1983 back injury while in the
Air Force.
Americans for Safe Access joined as co-counsel in the case, and was
granted review by the state Supreme Court on Nov. 30, 2005. ASA will be
arguing that the Compassionate Use Act expressly declares that it is
the public policy of the state to ensure the legal right of seriously
ill Californians to obtain and use cannabis medicinally.
No federal law mandates that Gary Ross be fired for exercising this
right in the privacy of his own home. The Court brief, filed by ASA on
Feb. 7, includes important issues of federalism and argues vehemently
against employment discrimination.
Quadriplegic patient victorious in Central Valley
 ASA organized a support rally for Aaron Paradiso's legal defense
Aaron and his mother Debra, also his caregiver, were arrested in August
2003 when sheriff’s deputies found 52 cannabis plants at his house, and
they were charged with felony cultivation and possession for sales.
Charges were dropped against Debra, and Aaron’s case was dismissed on a
technicality in December 2004. The district attorney immediately
reinstated the charges against Aaron and his mother.
Throughout the hearings, ASA and other local groups organized
grassroots and media support for his case. At one of his preliminary
hearings, more than two-dozen patients and advocates packed the
courtroom, including carpools of patients that had traveled to Stockton
from the Bay Area and Sacramento. This support and successful press
outreach by ASA staff led to several positive media stories in the
local press.
Aaron recently thanked ASA, “Your support was crucial to my victory.
One of the conditions of my plea bargain was that I would stop the
medical cannabis rallies, and that there would be no demonstrators,
banners, or tee-shirts present at my pleadings.”
ASA Announces Medical Advisory Board
Americans for Safe Access formed its Medical Advisory Board in early
2006. Members of this board will help ASA outreach to important
medical, scientific, and condition-based organizations in an effort to
influence organizational positions on medical marijuana.
The board’s initial advisory members include Rick Doblin, PhD, the
founder and director of the Multidisciplinary Association for
Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), an organization helping to end the federal
government’s monopoly on the production of cannabis for research
purposes. Others include Sara Henuber, PA-C, a licensed Physician
Assistant and member of the International Association for Cannabis as
Medicine currently working in a private medical practice specializing
in the use of cannabis therapy; Claudia Little, RN, MPH, a retired
nurse practitioner who became aware of cannabis use for pain control
through local patient support groups and who previously worked with a
biopharmaceutical company that launched a monoclonal antibody therapy
for Crohn’s Disease and rheumatoid arthritis; and Philippe Lucas, the
founder of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society, and Vice-Chair of
the Victoria Downtown Advisory Committee. Rounding out the group are
Robert Melamede, PhD, associate professor of Biology for the University
of Colorado; and Jahan Marcu, a cannabinoid researcher at the
California Pacific Medical Center currently studying the phenomenon of
“synergy” among various cannabinoid compounds.
ASA launched its medical campaign a few years ago in order to provide
patients and medical personnel current medical and scientific
information about the medical value of botanical cannabis. Since then
ASA has produced and distributed a series of medical marijuana
condition-based pamphlets, and facilitated the formation of patients’
unions as a vehicle for lobbying and public education.
For more information on any of these or any of ASA’s other activities, go to www.safeaccessnow.org.
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Rebecca Saltzman |
| About the author: |
| Rebecca Saltzman graduated with a BA in Sociology from the University
of California, Berkeley, where she wrote an honors thesis titled
"Mavericks and (Im)moral Entrepreneurs: Power and Resistance in Medical
Marijuana Dispensaries." While studying at Berkeley, she co-founded the
school's chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the
student-run, harm reduction based Drug Resource Center. She worked with
Grassroots Campaigns after graduating, leading an office that raised
over one million dollars in the campaign to defeat George Bush. | |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 August 2006 )
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