Federal Government Supplies Medical Marijuana to Some While Prosecuting California Patients and Providers

San Diego Billboard Campaign Attacks Federal War on Medical Marijuana, Prop. 215

SAN DIEGO - February 3, 2003: One of seven patients who receives marijuana for medical purposes from the federal government stood before a billboard featuring Ashley Epis, the daughter of a medical marijuana martyr and asked: "Why is the government sending Ashley's father to prison for medical marijuana when they give it to me for free?" Photographs of today's news conference in SD are available through the following links:
Elvy; Elvy & Angel; SD News Conference.

Elvy Mussika, a glaucoma patient who is one of seven legal patients provided marijuana by the Federal government, appeared at a press conference in San Diego today. She stood in front of a billboard that featured 8 year-old Ashley Epis, daughter of a federal prisoner who was sentenced to ten years for growing medical marijuana that he believed to be legal under California's medical marijuana law, Prop. 215. She noted: "Marijuana saved my sight, it relieves illnesses for tens of thousands in California, it is a misuse of power for the DEA to incarcerate people trying to provide medicine to the ill."

The ads show Ashley holding a sign saying, "My Dad is not a criminal," with the message: "Medical marijuana: compassion, not federal prison. www.MedicalMJ.org.

While the FDA provides patients with medical marijuana, the DEA insists that marijuana isn't medicine, ignoring the growing body of scientific evidence, medical opinion to the contrary, and the experience of tens of thousands of patients and physicians in California and seven other states that have legalized medical marijuana.

"Mussika has been receiving a monthly supply of legal marijuana since the Reagan presidency," noted Kevin Zeese, President of Common Sense for Drug Policy and an attorney who helped Mussika receive her legal supply. "Federal health officials are doing the same thing as the people the DEA is treating like drug kingpins – providing medicine to the ill – one hand of the federal government does not know what the other is doing."

The DEA is waging an unprecedented assault on Prop 215, arresting and prosecuting medical marijuana patients and providers. Since Sept. 11th, 2001, the federal government has prosecuted more cases for medical marijuana than terrorism in California. Outraged by what they perceive as disdain for the sick and dying, 15 state and national organizations have united to publicize the government's attack on patients and their caregivers the statewide billboard campaign is part of that effort.