Contact: Mikel
Weisser, 928-234-5633, mikelweisser@gmail.com
Event:
Congressional Candidate
Mikel Weisser Addresses AZ NORML
Wed. June 13, 7pm.
Caballero Grill
1800 North Litchfield
Road Goodyear, AZ 85395
For event
details contact: Jeni Pfister, NORML Arizona, 509-531-8544
Outspoken reform candidate for US House of Representatives
(AZ-CD-04), Mikel Weisser, added another issue to his campaign’s laundry list of grievances his when
he applied for and received an Arizona Medical Marijuana Card to treat chronic pain
from a long time back injury. “I knew
with my back I could get one any old time, but I had to decide if it was an
issue I was really ready to take on. Remember, a person’s life is not a stunt,
no matter what your opinion of their actions. I was diagnosed with chronic pain due to a
poorly healed back, shoulder, and knee injuries. I have had repeated treatment
for the back since I was first injured in 1976 during in high school marching band
practice. The other two injuries are more recent, but decidedly limiting. I've
visited regular doctors, specialists, physical therapists and a chiropractor
over the years for the back. It was a major decision to get the medical card,
but having one is the only way I can truly speak out on the issue.” Weisser revealed
the news last week in a fiery speech he delivered to the monthly PHX NORML (National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) meeting.
“Our country is headed right off of a cliff and it is being
driven by the people who sell the public the war on drugs, Wall Street Bailout,
WMDs and Rick Santorum and they are wrong on every count. My day job is
teaching kids American history and to love our country. Sooner or later we get around
to discussing Prohibition. This prohibition is just like that one. Prohibitions
create three things: outlaws, criminals, and prisons and those last two are the
folks who make money off of the prohibition. Average citizens become outlaws
when they are taught to fear and disrespect their government because of this
unjust law. The cannabis prohibition inflicted on the American people for these
last 75 years has been incredibly destructive to our country and it’s time to
move into the 21st Century,” Weisser roared to the full house
assembled at the downtown PHX art spot, The Firehouse.
In PHX for a Glendale poetry performance and an ASU/Flinn
Foundation bioscience symposium for legislative and Congressional candidates,
Weisser attended the monthly meeting of PHX NORML at the request of leading
cannabis reform advocate/former Green Party Congressional candidate Thane
Eichenhauer. “This is a huge issue, but it is NOT the only thing. It’s just one
thing, the list’s a mile long. I worried about the injustice of the wars going
on. The US military is like 1% of the population, three million people, so I
thought, better take action on that. But then i thought about the exploited
undocumented immigrants in the country and they're like eleven million, and
that’s really big so I better take action on that. But tell me how many people
suffer injustices every day because of this unjust law? How will we fix that? I
don't know; but I am trying to find out."
In the audience the night Weisser spoke to the PHX chapter, Jeni
Pfister from the state chapter office of NORML, was quick to contact the
Weisser campaign to offer the invite. “It's inspirational to hear people
fighting for our beliefs!” NORML, a nationally recognized non-profit 501 c3, works
to promote knowledge of “the benefits of medical cannabis, the safety of
recreational use and value of industrial hemp.” Founded in 1970 on a grant from
the Playboy Foundation, the organization now boasts 135 chapters and over 550
lawyers. In Arizona, in addition to a state wide association there are also local
chapters in Flagstaff and Tucson in addition to the Phoenix group. As a 501c3,
NORML cannot offer Weisser an endorsement or direct support, but Weisser
expects to receive plenty of support from individual members
Recent statistics show as many as 800,000 people a year are
arrested on marijuana charges and more than half of all criminal charges are
drug related. In a short speech and extended Q&A session, Weisser
encouraged the crowd to take their own actions to challenge for drug law reform
and other progressive issues. “The Right have been wrong in so many ways.
Fiscally, in foreign relations and most of all socially, the decisions made in
the name of ‘conservative values’ have been a poison on our nation. I have
known for much of my life that the drug laws were wrong and causing immense
misery, but like so many people I was afraid to address the issue because I didn’t
want to be stigmatized. But I think America is ready for a shift. I heard in 2010
more people voted for medical marijuana that voted for Jan Brewer.” In 2010, Weisser’s
wife, Beth Weisser included support for Prop 203 in her state senate campaign
and debated Ron Gould over it at repeated public forums. Currently Beth Weisser
is again running for the state senate seat for western AZ, now known as
AZ-LD-05.
Before bringing the issue to the public, Mikel Weisser
contacted several party members and close advisers about best ways to discuss
his new card and the issues it creates. While Arizona is one of the seventeen states
that now provide patients access to medical marijuana, federal law still holds
the substance as illegal. As a candidate for US House, Weisser will directly be
able to challenge and possibly revise US law, should he win election. “I
generally try to get people to talk about the now and not the ‘what if.’ I was
only interested in championing this issue if I felt I could make enough of a
difference now no matter what and I think we have a strategy to address that.”
So far, prior to receiving the card, Weisser has received wide-spread support
in various Democratic audiences for taking a stand on an issue that is still
for many a 3rd rail in American politics. “It is yet another example
of why the Right have been wrong about our country and why they need to be
stopped. The failed US drug war has failed because it is a war on America
itself. Wars, education, Wall Street, they’re wrong. They’re wrong about LGBT
rights, wrong on immigration and they’re wrong about weed and now is the time
to tell them.”
###
Mikel
Weisser for US Congress
Mikel Weisser
4490 Sundown Drive
So-Hi, AZ 86413
928-234-5633
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