Unfortunately, if you have been following her screeds, Letitia Pepper appears to be delusional and behaving like an agent provocateur.
She moved in on the movement in these last few months just in time to undermine or reverse decades of good work by the hard-working activists and all the major reform organizations who brought us to where we stand today – and from which she is benefitting (if she truly is a patient). Yet she sows discord, spews personal attacks, and uses scare tactics, distortion, deception and false or twisted logic to trick people out of voting Yes on Prop 19, the next logical step in our struggle for social justice and equality. She is working to obstruct real change from happening and blocking us from our goal of legalization.
Why does Pepper want to keep prohibition locked in? Why would anyone even believe or trust her? What has she done to promote our freedom and rights? All she does is misinterpret the laws, the court rulings and this initiative, and spend money of unknown origin to spread falsehood and stir up opposition. She comes from a law firm that works to shut down dispensaries. She never says anything against attorney general candidate Steve Cooley, who wants to shut down the dispensaries. It’s all very suspicious.
Sure, people fear change and the unknown, and there are vested interests in keeping marijuana illegal (people benefitting from high-priced cannabis, those who think cannabis is so dangerous only patients should be able to use it with a doctor’s note, growers who don’t want to go above-board and earn an honest living in a regulated market; narcs, cartels, and other prohibitionists whose paychecks depend on keeping it illegal, etc). Look at who’s funding and endorsing the No campaign. She sides with the narcs and a federal government intent on keeping us second-class citizens and, given all the arrests and dispensary raids going on in California, doesn’t even respect patient rights or access.
We stand at a moment of unprecedented support for our movement and quite possibly at a tipping point. Prop. 19 is written in a manner that has generated tremendous support and endorsements from a variety of sources never seen before. This opportunity to change the paradigm should not be missed – there is no guarantee that we will have a another chance to make major steps forward any time soon. The great support it has will be there if we pass it. Prop. 19 has already benefited our movement, as the campaign has concentrated on building coalitions that will help us implement it. Whatever the outcome, we need to hold together as a movement and maintain these new coalitions and connections.
Prop. 19 has the support of the CA NAACP, the Latino Voters League, and ACLU of Northern California, Southern California and San Diego, because they recognize how important it is to end discrimination that marijuana prohibition perpetuates. Prohibition is racist in application, makes criminals out of good people, and prevents people from getting jobs, benefits, custody of children, etc. If it passes, you can rest assured that they will be there to help implement it and end the abuse.
Prop. 19 has the support of many unions, like the SEIU and the United Food and Commercial Workers because it opens the door to a new, legal industry with the potential for good-paying jobs, jobs, and more jobs.
Prop.19 has the support of physicians like the Former Surgeon General of the US Joycelyn Elders and Dr. Larry Bedard, Former President of the American College of Emergency Physicians, because they know that cannabis is safer than alcohol and tobacco and that the consequences of prohibition are more harmful to people than cannabis ever could be.
Prop. 19 has the support of 75 law professors who signed a letter endorsing it. (See http://yeson19.com/endorse/lawprofessors/text ) They say that marijuana prohibition is an ineffective and bankrupt policy and understand that Prop. 19 will enable the courts to concentrate on prosecuting and incarcerating serious and violent criminals, rather than non-violent marijuana offenders. It will end useless and harmful arrests and incarcerations.
Prop. 19 has the support of Moms United Against the Drug War because it will do a better job of keeping kids from getting cannabis with a regulated and controlled market, and keep more people from getting future-crushing criminal records than the current system.
Prop. 19 has the support of the National Black Police Association, the National Latino Officers Association, LEAP and other law enforcement groups who have experience in the field and know that it is a racist, failed policy, that it wastes law enforcement resources, and that it will put a dent in the cartels operations and the subsequent problems they create. They see it as enhancing public safety. (See Former Police Chief Joe McNamara’s TV ad at www.yeson19.com)
Prop. 19 has the support of faith leaders and groups like the California Council of Churches IMPACT
Progressive Jewish Alliance, Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry Action Network, and the Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative because there is a moral imperative to end the discrimination against good people who use cannabis and they believe that compassion should lead our drug policy. Of course, they support compassionate use, but they also realize that it’s wrong to criminalize healthy people in the process.
Prop. 19 has the support of reform organizations like NORML, MPP, Drug Policy Alliance, DrugSense, DRCNet, the Cannabis Consumers Campaign, Safe Access Now, the Mendocino Medical Marijuana Advisory Board and nearly all of the leaders in the cannabis movement, because they know that medical marijuana is protected, and see Prop. 19 as a major step forward from the status quo. These groups and individuals have been working for reform for years or decades and understand that it makes sense strategically to address the concerns of the greater population, while advancing our cause of social justice, compassion, and human rights. Prop. 19 is on the ballot and a win will send a message heard around the world that it is time to legalize cannabis, the “Berlin Wall” of Prohibition that causes so much harm to our community is coming down, and that people who use cannabis deserve to be treated equally under the law.
Prop. 19 is about the future of cannabis and of the movement. Do we want to constrain marijuana and keep it medical, or are we ready to extend equal rights to all adults over 21? Do we want to develop the cannabis industry to help generate jobs, create more products and access to good quality, lower-priced cannabis along with revenue for the common good, or do we submit to prohibition-subsidized, inflated, underground prices and sacrifice non-medical cannabis providers to criminal penalties? Do we want the lack of quality controls and prosecutorial whims of law enforcement to continue? Do we cower to fear mongering by people like Letitia Pepper, or do we make a stand? I say it’s time to challenge the powers that be with a message sent straight from the California voters: Cannabis is good and we, the people, want it to be legal.
I have been working on this issue for 22 years now, and I am proudly voting for Prop. 19. I am not afraid of the future possibilities for cannabis, and I ask you to stand with me and all these wonderful supporters who believe that criminalization of good people who use cannabis is wrong and should be a thing of the past. We are the people who have worked so hard to bring reform to the level it is now with Prop. 215 and SB 420, and we know that our work will not be done if it passes. We know that we will have to be vigilant to make sure that our rights are implemented as intended — to allow patients and non-patient adults alike to use, grow, share, buy and sell cannabis just like we do with other legally, regulated, taxed and controlled products. We are the people who want freedom, justice, and equal rights for all cannabis consumers. Please join us in telling everyone you know to vote No on Steve Cooley and Yes on Prop. 19.
MikkiUnfortunately, if you have been following her screeds, Letitia Pepper appears to be delusional and behaving like an agent provocateur.
She moved in on the movement in these last few months just in time to undermine or reverse decades of good work by the hard-working activists and all the major reform organizations who brought us to where we stand today – and from which she is benefitting (if she truly is a patient). Yet she sows discord, spews personal attacks, and uses scare tactics, distortion, deception and false or twisted logic to trick people out of voting Yes on Prop 19, the next logical step in our struggle for social justice and equality. She is working to obstruct real change from happening and blocking us from our goal of legalization.
Why does Pepper want to keep prohibition locked in? Why would anyone even believe or trust her? What has she done to promote our freedom and rights? All she does is misinterpret the laws, the court rulings and this initiative, and spend money of unknown origin to spread falsehood and stir up opposition. She comes from a law firm that works to shut down dispensaries. She never says anything against attorney general candidate Steve Cooley, who wants to shut down the dispensaries. It’s all very suspicious.
Sure, people fear change and the unknown, and there are vested interests in keeping marijuana illegal (people benefitting from high-priced cannabis, those who think cannabis is so dangerous only patients should be able to use it with a doctor’s note, growers who don’t want to go above-board and earn an honest living in a regulated market; narcs, cartels, and other prohibitionists whose paychecks depend on keeping it illegal, etc). Look at who’s funding and endorsing the No campaign. She sides with the narcs and a federal government intent on keeping us second-class citizens and, given all the arrests and dispensary raids going on in California, doesn’t even respect patient rights or access.
We stand at a moment of unprecedented support for our movement and quite possibly at a tipping point. Prop. 19 is written in a manner that has generated tremendous support and endorsements from a variety of sources never seen before. This opportunity to change the paradigm should not be missed – there is no guarantee that we will have a another chance to make major steps forward any time soon. The great support it has will be there if we pass it. Prop. 19 has already benefited our movement, as the campaign has concentrated on building coalitions that will help us implement it. Whatever the outcome, we need to hold together as a movement and maintain these new coalitions and connections.
Prop. 19 has the support of the CA NAACP, the Latino Voters League, and ACLU of Northern California, Southern California and San Diego, because they recognize how important it is to end discrimination that marijuana prohibition perpetuates. Prohibition is racist in application, makes criminals out of good people, and prevents people from getting jobs, benefits, custody of children, etc. If it passes, you can rest assured that they will be there to help implement it and end the abuse.
Prop. 19 has the support of many unions, like the SEIU and the United Food and Commercial Workers because it opens the door to a new, legal industry with the potential for good-paying jobs, jobs, and more jobs.
Prop.19 has the support of physicians like the Former Surgeon General of the US Joycelyn Elders and Dr. Larry Bedard, Former President of the American College of Emergency Physicians, because they know that cannabis is safer than alcohol and tobacco and that the consequences of prohibition are more harmful to people than cannabis ever could be.
Prop. 19 has the support of 75 law professors who signed a letter endorsing it. (See http://yeson19.com/endorse/lawprofessors/text ) They say that marijuana prohibition is an ineffective and bankrupt policy and understand that Prop. 19 will enable the courts to concentrate on prosecuting and incarcerating serious and violent criminals, rather than non-violent marijuana offenders. It will end useless and harmful arrests and incarcerations.
Prop. 19 has the support of Moms United Against the Drug War because it will do a better job of keeping kids from getting cannabis with a regulated and controlled market, and keep more people from getting future-crushing criminal records than the current system.
Prop. 19 has the support of the National Black Police Association, the National Latino Officers Association, LEAP and other law enforcement groups who have experience in the field and know that it is a racist, failed policy, that it wastes law enforcement resources, and that it will put a dent in the cartels operations and the subsequent problems they create. They see it as enhancing public safety. (See Former Police Chief Joe McNamara’s TV ad at www.yeson19.com)
Prop. 19 has the support of faith leaders and groups like the California Council of Churches IMPACT
Progressive Jewish Alliance, Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry Action Network, and the Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative because there is a moral imperative to end the discrimination against good people who use cannabis and they believe that compassion should lead our drug policy. Of course, they support compassionate use, but they also realize that it’s wrong to criminalize healthy people in the process.
Prop. 19 has the support of reform organizations like NORML, MPP, Drug Policy Alliance, DrugSense, DRCNet, the Cannabis Consumers Campaign, Safe Access Now, the Mendocino Medical Marijuana Advisory Board and nearly all of the leaders in the cannabis movement, because they know that medical marijuana is protected, and see Prop. 19 as a major step forward from the status quo. These groups and individuals have been working for reform for years or decades and understand that it makes sense strategically to address the concerns of the greater population, while advancing our cause of social justice, compassion, and human rights. Prop. 19 is on the ballot and a win will send a message heard around the world that it is time to legalize cannabis, the “Berlin Wall” of Prohibition that causes so much harm to our community is coming down, and that people who use cannabis deserve to be treated equally under the law.
Prop. 19 is about the future of cannabis and of the movement. Do we want to constrain marijuana and keep it medical, or are we ready to extend equal rights to all adults over 21? Do we want to develop the cannabis industry to help generate jobs, create more products and access to good quality, lower-priced cannabis along with revenue for the common good, or do we submit to prohibition-subsidized, inflated, underground prices and sacrifice non-medical cannabis providers to criminal penalties? Do we want the lack of quality controls and prosecutorial whims of law enforcement to continue? Do we cower to fear mongering by people like Letitia Pepper, or do we make a stand? I say it’s time to challenge the powers that be with a message sent straight from the California voters: Cannabis is good and we, the people, want it to be legal.
I have been working on this issue for 22 years now, and I am proudly voting for Prop. 19. I am not afraid of the future possibilities for cannabis, and I ask you to stand with me and all these wonderful supporters who believe that criminalization of good people who use cannabis is wrong and should be a thing of the past. We are the people who have worked so hard to bring reform to the level it is now with Prop. 215 and SB 420, and we know that our work will not be done if it passes. We know that we will have to be vigilant to make sure that our rights are implemented as intended — to allow patients and non-patient adults alike to use, grow, share, buy and sell cannabis just like we do with other legally, regulated, taxed and controlled products. We are the people who want freedom, justice, and equal rights for all cannabis consumers. Please join us in telling everyone you know to vote No on Steve Cooley and Yes on Prop. 19.
Mikki Norris