September SLO ASA Meeting

Our monthly SLO ASA chapter meeting will be this coming Tuesday, September 20th at 7:00 pm.  

PLEASE NOTE LOCATION:

Petra Mediterranean Pizza and Grill
1210 Higuera St. (corner Higuera and Toro Sts.)
San Luis Obispo, CA

We meet in the downstairs room, so best access is the downstairs door on the Toro St. side. There is a short ramp in front of the door for handicap access.

We hope to see you there!

Subjects for discussion:

• The recent (Sept. 7) ACQUITTAL of 2 mmj defendants in SLO Superior Court!!!!!  (See the current issue of New Times.)  This is a BIG development, with possible ramifications for other cases, including the "SLO 12" folks.
  
• Recent trip to Santa Cruz for meeting with Nat'l and State ASA directors, including Raid Preparedness Training and Stakesholders' Meeting
  
• Discussion of our status as an ASA chapter, and future actions to take in our county

ALSO, NOTE UPCOMING IMPORTANT EVENTS BEFORE TUESDAY EVENING'S MEETING:  Please try to attend:

•  MONDAY, Sept. 19:  San Luis Obispo Superior Court, 8:30 am & 1:30 pm:
  "SLO 12" defendants are due to return to court, some at 8:30 am in Department 1 and some at 1:30 pm in Department 2.   If you can, please show up to show your support in the courtroom!  (No signs or banners, courtroom decorum.)  This is extra important, as the recent "not guilty" verdicts (see above) may have a direct bearing on the actions in these cases!
  
• TUESDAY, Sept. 20:  County Board of Supervisors Chambers, SLO, 9:00 am
  As we did in early January after the Dec. raids, we want to speak up during the Public Comment Period, to continue to impress upon the Board the need for County action to honor Prop. 215 and allow safe access to qualified patients.

As you see, there is a lot going on.  WE ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE!  But we need your active involvement to continue to push for our rights, as the opposition (esp. from the Feds on mmj policies) is still daunting.

Thank you for your interest and your help!

Your Court Support is Needed

Please join San Luis Obispo ASA on Tuesday, September 6th at 9:15 at the San Luis Obispo Courthouse to support co-defendants Steve Brown and Deip Paul.

Another defendant (don't know his name) has already pleaded out and turned states evidence on Deip and Steve.

Here's their story...

Deip comes home to his apartment at 3:00 in the morning, one or two people are there burglarizing his place, Deip tries to fight them, manages to get the ski mask off one of his assailants before he is put in a choke hold and passes out. When he wakes up he calls the SLO PD. SLO sends a rookie cop who while taking the report says... "it smells like marijuana in here, do you have a doctors card?" Diep answers that he does.

The Rookie leaves behind the only piece of evidence, the ski mask, but tells the Narco task force rep that there were marijuana smokers at Diep's address.

For the next two weeks, Deip is put on round the clock surveillance by 6 officers. (all of this for reporting a burglary and assault?!)

At one point, Deip drives to Kern County to meet with his supplier, Steve Brown.

Steve has just returned from Los Angeles where he has been reimbursed by Manny the owner of Green Dragon Dispensary along with other dispensary/collective operators.

The officers following Deip have now contacted the Kern County Sheriff's and Narcotics Task Force Agents.

Steve gives Deip 3 pounds of MMJ, and both Steve and Deip are pulled over a few minutes later.

In Steve's car they find 5 pounds of marijuana, and 60k in cash. In Diep's car they get another 3 pounds.

The officers serve a search warrant on Deip's place and find more marijuana, many smoking implements, etc.

Some interesting developments in the case...

None of the officers involved in the case made any attempt to verify or recognize medicinal need, Deip has suffered migraine head aches since childhood. None of the officers had a working knowledge of Prop 215 or any of the guidelines.

Rodney Johns of the justice department was forced to take the stand, when asked "were you the one responsible for the raids against the delivery services here in SLO?" he said "Yep, that's me." when asked "Why did you do that?", he said that he had read the Rand report, which stated that it costs $38.00 per ounce to produce, and if anyone is selling it for more than that then they are making a profit, and therefore criminals who deserve to go to jail.

Deip's father took the stand last week, he stated that when he went to university in India, there was a special room on every floor that allowed people to smoke ganja. the DA asked, "Weren't there campus police officers there to stop that?!?" Mr. Paul stated, "Everyone in India smokes Ganja. The students smoke it to help them relax and memorize the materials, the police smoke it to relax, even Shiva the goddess of our religion smokes it. Everyone... EVERYONE in India smokes Ganja!". He had to yell the last part because the jury was cracking up.

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We are asking people to wear pro-patient's rights T-shirts, but bring no signs or banners. We will meet outside the courtroom at 9:15 and go inside as an audience at 9:30. The attorneys should be making their closing arguments so it should be very interesting. We will ask people to remain quiet while in the court, and show support by what they are wearing. We want to show the jury that we support these defendants. Tammy from CCIC (the person who is attempting to open a club in Oceano) will bring "Freedom Fighter" (displaying an American flag and a marijuana leaf) T-Shirts for people who do not have ASA T-shirts.