Creative Statewide Billboard Campaign Proclaims: "Medical Marijuana: Compassion Not Federal Prison"

Statewide—National Advertising Campaign Focuses on Ashley Epis, Daughter of Medical Marijuana Prisoner Bryan Epis – "My Dad Is Not A Criminal"

OAKLAND - January 23, 2003: As federal prosecutions against medical marijuana patients and providers escalate, a coalition of patients, care givers, doctors and public officials have united behind the 8-year-old daughter of a federal prisoner to launch an outdoor advertising campaign throughout California.

The ads show Ashley Epis holding a sign saying "My Dad is not a criminal," with the message, "Medical marijuana: compassion, not federal prison. www.MedicalMJ.org." (Click the links to download high-resolution copies, suitable for reproduction or publication, of the billboard ad and of the transit shelter ad.)

The photo of Ashley was taken last October at a rally outside the Sacramento Federal Building where Ashley's father, Bryan Epis, was about to receive a 10-year mandatory sentence. Epis was growing marijuana for a co-op in Chico, believing that Prop 215, the state's initiative permitting marijuana for patients, protected him.

In all federal medical marijuana prosecutions jurors are not told about the medical issues for which marijuana was being used. In Bryan's case the jury was not told that he nearly died in an automobile accident in 1983 when a VW Beetle in which he was a passenger hit a pole. He had 15 inches of lacerations in his skull, his Sternum was fractured, two ribs were broken and the T2 and T3 vertebrae suffered compression fractures. The surgery just to stitch his head together lasted 2 1/2 hours. He was in a coma for two days. The surgeon said he was lucky not to be a vegetable or dead. Bryan began two years of physical therapy. He was told that the compression fractures would never heal. He suffers from chronic pain. He was prescribed codeine and Vicodin for the pain. In 1983, his orthopedic surgeon recommended marijuana as a drug that could relieve pain. Bryan used cannabis from 1983 to 1997. Using marijuana reduced the pain level from level 10 to level 1. While using cannabis in his treatment, he finished high school; finished the grueling program for a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from California State University at Chico in May 1991 (only 1 in 5 who enter the program graduate); and finished law school at California Northern School of Law in May 1998. Bryan claims to have been growing marijuana for him and other seriously ill patients.

The DEA has waged an aggressive assault on medical marijuana in California. From San Diego to Sonoma, federal agents have targeted patients' groups, providers, and patients who grow marijuana as medicine. The most recent case involves the prosecution of author Ed Rosenthal who is being tried this week in San Francisco. Over 30 federal medical marijuana prosecutions have occurred in recent months.

Outraged by the disdain for the sick and dying, thirteen state and national organizations have united behind the patients and their caregivers. The first volley in this counter-offensive is a statewide grass roots organizing campaign on billboards and transit cards. Said Steph Sherer of Americans for Safe Access, "Twenty million Californians support Prop 215. When they find out what the federal government is up to, they will be outraged."

Kevin Zeese of Common Sense urged Californians to "take action to bring Bryan back to his daughter and stop federal policies that divide families, punish the seriously ill and make good Samaritans into criminals."

The outdoor media campaign is supported by full-page ads in a wide spectrum of national political journals from the liberal Nation to the libertarian National Review, to the conservative Weekly Standard.

Additional information is available at www.MedicalMJ.org or Steph Sherer, Americans for Safe Access, 510-486-8083.