<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-size: 13px;color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style><div style="font-size: 13px;color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style><div style="font-size: 13px;color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Dear McKee,<br><br> Thank you for writing to members of the Libertarian National Committee about this effort. On the face of it, what you and your colleagues propose here sounds eminently sane and worth pursuing, and from a political stance as well, standing up for veterans' access to effective medicine would seem like a no-brainer. Gary Johnson has often talked about reforming health care by enabling people to choose their own care from a free marketplace of provider choices ("Gall Bladders 'R Us", "Stitches 'R Us", etc.), and he has also gotten an incredible degree of support from the military community, actually outpolling both Clinton and Trump among active duty service members, so I suspect he would look favorably on something like this. Your willingness to tweak the petition wording if desired is also appreciated.<br><br> On a personal note, I can attest to the incredible potential of MDMA through my own experience. That substance changed my life and made me a better person, and from what I've read it can offer tremendous benefits when used in psychotherapy. If I believed in the concept of "crimes against humanity"*, I would put its needless criminalization (like the criminalization of marijuana, another amazing, healing substance) in that category.<br><br> In my role as a member of the Johnson/Weld campaign's Libertarian advisory board, I will bring your request to the attention of my fellow board members and ask them to recommend that the campaign endorse your petition and that Gary Johnson pledge if elected president to rescind the DEA delegation, and reassume statutory authority over drug classifications under §811 of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, per the petition's language. If you can supply a couple more specifics, such as the dates of any relevant deadlines, along with the names/credentials of some of the podcast personalities and others backing it (if any are LP members, it wouldn't hurt to make note of that!), along with the URL of the accompanying website you mention, that would be great. From your reference to a 30-day window, I presume you intend to submit this via the White House's petition site on which President Obama has
pledged a written response to petitions gathering a minimum number of
signatures.<br><br> Thanks again for your work on this and for bringing it forward to us. I'd love to see the petition succeed in its goals and Gary Johnson help make that happen, and hope he will feel the same way.<br><br>Love & Liberty,<br> ((( starchild )))<br>At-Large Representative, Libertarian National Committee<br> (415) 625-FREE<br><br><br>P.S. – This is a minor point, but I do think the illustration may still need a bit of work when it comes to Harry Browne. Possibly it's because I don't know what he looked like when he was younger, but while the depictions of Johnson and Weld are quite recognizable, I never would've guessed the other figure to be Browne if you hadn't informed me! On the bright side though, I'm delighted someone had the sense of history and recognizing past libertarian heroes to think of including him at all...<br><br>*The reason I don't believe in "crimes against humanity" is because I feel claiming mass group victim status for people who cannot demonstrate having personally been harmed is a dangerous concept, and devalues the suffering of actual direct victims whose status is indisputable.<br><br><blockquote style="padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 0px; border-left: #0000ff 2px solid; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; color: black;">-----Original Message-----
<br>From: McKee Colsman <mckee@stanfordalumni.org>
<br>Sent: Oct 5, 2016 8:40 AM
<br>To: starchild@lp.org, Daniel.hayes@lp.org, Joshua.Katz@lp.org
<br>Cc: veteranjustice@alumni.harvard.edu
<br>Subject: Veteran Medicine--libertarians to the rescue?
<br><br><div dir="ltr">
<p class="MsoNormal">
</p><span>Dear </span><span></span><span>Daniel, Joshua, and </span><span>Starchild,</span>
<p style="text-indent:0.5in" class="MsoNormal"><span>I’m emailing about a soon-to-be-launched petition effort, reflecting
a collaboration of (mostly Harvard) doctors and lawyers. It dovetails
perfectly with libertarian principles and Gary Johnson’s campaign</span><span>: it would do wonders for
veteran health, while ending an egregious government failure.</span><span> I won’t rehash the (attached) petition
here, but in a nutshell, we ask the Obama White House to: </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> 1)
rescind the DEA’s (tenuous and delegated) authority over drug classifications; </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> 2)
conduct a rational review in light of current medical knowledge; and </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> 3)
take other steps to facilitate veteran access to effective, but “forbidden,” medicines.
</span></p>
<p style="text-indent:0.5in" class="MsoNormal"><span>The effort
is tailor-made for Gary Johnson’s campaign: there’s no better example today of the
need to get government <u>out</u> of the way, and no group suffers worse under
the current regime than veterans. Among the legions of veterans suffering PTSD
and addiction, only a fortunate few receive transformative <span>medical treatments</span> with ibogaine,
ayahuasca, and MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, and they must either commit a
felony or leave the country for these <i>most</i> effective medicines. Why this
insanity? Because the DEA stubbornly clings to ancient propaganda and refuses
to update drug classifications in line with today’s best medical evidence. <span> </span>People (including the millions who enjoyed Gary
Johnson’s Rogan podcasts) are increasingly outraged at the neglect of veterans
and criminalization of medicine, and we provide a <i>silver bullet policy
solution</i>. No act of Congress is required: the DEA controls drug
classifications <u>only</u> because of a delegation first signed by Nixon’s
Attorney General, which Obama or Loretta Lynch can rescind at any time.<span> </span>So we need either: 1) Obama to effectuate an
order; OR 2) the next president to commit to doing so. The electorate is
generally unaware of the level of government malfeasance or the simplicity of
the solution, and we believe Gary Johnson is the best person to break the news.
</span></p>
<p style="text-indent:0.5in" class="MsoNormal"><span>With our
national disgrace of untreated veterans and citizen health at stake, Gary could
really make waves by shining light on this issue.<span> </span>We’ve done our homework, and there’s just no
rational argument against this policy change (vested and special interests will
hate it, of course). Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see Gary successfully lead the
charge and force the political buffoons to scramble in support? Certainly there
hasn’t been a better chance in 43 years, and we libertarians could make it
happen. This simple policy change would unlock effective medicines and unleash
health professionals (see MAPS.org for leadership in this field), and the
ripple effects would touch the health and lives of millions over the next few
years (wouldn’t hurt our chances in 2020). <span> </span></span></p>
<p style="text-indent:0.5in" class="MsoNormal"><span>We have support from some podcast personalities, a website
to accompany the petition, and a plan to launch in a few days (so that the
30-day petition window coincides with the crescendo of the election).
We’re hoping we could have your support, and welcome your feedback (I'm more
than happy to tweak the petition to facilitate a collaboration). </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Sincerely,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>McKee Colsman
(Harvard JD, Stanford MA, BA)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>P.S. We wouldn’t
use or distribute this (without your permission, of course), but here’s a
little something our illustrators cooked up </span><span>(of course you recognize Harry Browne!):<img src="cid:ii_itx2xly00_157957fa4a7948b9" width="547" height="341"><br></span><span></span></p>
</div>
</mckee@stanfordalumni.org></blockquote></div></div></div></body></html>