Email I recieved today...

Its so fucked up to see what goverments do jsut because of a fucking plant -

Dear Friend:

Usually e-mails from the Marijuana Policy Project report on our court
victories or legislative progress, but we also think it's important to
occasionally remind all of us why we're in this battle.

The U.S. government and many foreign governments have declared
outright war on their own citizens for using marijuana. Here are three
recent examples of that:

1. In a major blow to privacy rights -- not to mention the Bill of
Rights -- the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on January 24 that police may
have drug sniffing dogs present at routine traffic stops. If the dog
indicates that drugs might be present, the police may search the car.

The ruling stemmed from a 1998 case, Illinois v. Caballes, in which
Roy Caballes was stopped for driving six miles-an-hour over the speed
limit. During the stop, an Illinois state trooper with a police dog
arrived, and the dog led the police toward the trunk, where marijuana
was found.

Caballes, who had prior drug-related arrests, was sentenced to 12
years in prison for the marijuana. He appealed, arguing that the
evidence of marijuana in the trunk should have been thrown out,
because the police had improperly widened the boundaries of an
ordinary traffic stop and violated his Fourth Amendment protections
against unreasonable search and seizure.

In ruling against him, the Supreme Court has significantly broadened
the powers of the police to find, arrest, and imprison marijuana
users -- not to mention harassing and violating the privacy of
non-users.

2. In Indonesia, a 27-year-old Australian woman is facing death by
firing squad for allegedly bringing marijuana into the country.

On October 8, 2004, airport authorities found 4.2 kilograms of
marijuana in Schapelle Leigh Corby's luggage. Corby says the marijuana
was not hers, and her supporters suspect it was planted there. Local
police acknowledge it is highly unusual for marijuana to be smuggled
into Bali rather than out of it (as marijuana prices are much lower in
Bali than in Australia).

If found guilty, Corby will be shot to death by a firing squad of 12
men.

Visit http://mpp.org/states/site/quicknews.cgi?key=1065 to read more.

3. Five police officers in Campbell County, Tennessee, are pleading
guilty to beating and torturing a 42-year-old man they suspected of
selling drugs. As they tried to force Lester Eugene Siler to sign a
form stating he had consented to let them search his home, the
officers were caught on tape brutally beating him and threatening to
kill him. The officers are heard on the tape threatening to attach a
battery charger to Siler's testicles, to shoot him, and to burn him
with a lighter.

"We're going to take every dime you have today and if we don't walk
out of here with every piece of dope you got and every dime you got,
you're (expletive) ass is not going to make it to the jail," one
officer says on the tape. Another officer is heard saying, "Shoot his
(expletive) ass."

Visit http://www.mpp.org/TN/news_1279.html for the full article.

4. And in Palm Beach, Florida, 15 high school students face up to 15
years in prison for selling small amounts of drugs -- mostly
marijuana -- to undercover agents who befriended them. Some of the
teens sold as little as $10 worth of marijuana. Visit
http://mpp.org/FL/news_1254.html for the story.

If you're as outraged by these reports as I am, please help MPP
restore sense to our nation's marijuana policies.

The U.S. is an exporter of marijuana prohibition. If we succeed at
ending marijuana prohibition in the U.S., the world will soon follow.

Please visit http://www.mpp.org/donate2006 and make a financial
contribution to our work today. With the help of our 17,000
dues-paying members, MPP has already achieved or funded significant
progress -- see http://www.mpp.org/victorygrid.html for some recent
victories -- but we need your help to continue our work.

Thank you for standing with us.

Sincerely,

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

P.S. Please don't forget to visit http://www.mpp.org/galas to purchase
your ticket for MPP's 10th anniversary galas (in Washington, D.C., on
May 4 and Los Angeles on May 9). Celebrities and members of Congress
will be attending both events. All proceeds will support MPP's work to
end our government's war on marijuana users.