Rudy Reyes, 2020 VP nominee Legal Marijuana Now Party
Rudy Reyes is the Vice-Presidential running mate with Mark Elworth Jr. on the Legal Marijuana Now Party ticket for 2020.
https://www.facebook.com/LMN.USA/
Mr. Reyes' life was turned upside down when the 2003 Cedar Fire in San Diego County, California ravaged his home area. In the course of helping others he was lucky to escape but was severely burned in the process. His political journey since that day of heroism is included in this interview.
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Q: Mr. Reyes, you have an inspirational and well known backstory that begins with the 2003 Cedar Fire. My first question regards the time in your life before the fire. What sort of upbringing did you have? Were you at all political before 2003?
A: Life before the fire, honestly was very non-political. I was working on my degrees in archaeology, I was a nerd. I was raised in the mountains of San Diego California next to a Native American reservation. My mind is orientated around archaeology at that time.
Q: In the Cedar Fire aftermath how did you come to discover the medical aspects of marijuana? Did you experience any conflict with conventional medical practitioners or law enforcement in the process of your healing?
A. After the Cedar Fires, I was left a 75% burn survivor. I have lost an ear and my left pointer digit finger. With 75% of my skin needing to be regrafted, I was left in the hospital in much pain. Complications with medications begin immediately as doctors noticed that I was starting to overdose; literally turning me a green color, on the amount of morphine that they were giving me. The doctors opted to take a chance with medical marijuana, as a method to get me off of the opiates completely. Surprisingly they found that the results were very positive, my blood pressure had dropped, my nerves were being allowed to relax and my muscles were no longer contracting at the same level they were before. Oddly enough the medical marijuana didn't work as a pain suppressant but what it did do was allowing my mind not to dwell in just the pain of my burns, which in itself was a relief.
Once released from the hospital I figured that I would begin to take care of my own medication as California law allows. After about a year of growing and taking care of my own medical cannabis, I was raided by the local police. The raid was a legitimized robbery as they never charged me nor even arrested me on the scene. The police just came in destroyed my medication and took anything of value that I had, leaving me in my apartment with just a card to call the district attorney. I immediately had a choice to make, either be quiet about it and allow the courts to deal with my medical cannabis or call the media and make a big deal over it. I chose the latter figuring that the very least I was a local hero and my use of medical cannabis was justifiable. That night my story was all over the local media and I made the police force look horrendous.
The District Attorney immediately called me in the next week and all charges were dropped. The local FBI was ordered by courts to return all my goods and medication. I then realized that as medical cannabis patients we have legitimate rights which needed to be fought over. Fortunately being a local hero saved me and my situation, not everybody has that defense factor yet they possess the same right I do.
Q: You have run for some local political offices. How did you get to that point and how did that finally lead to you being the Vice-Presidential Candidate for the Legal Marijuana Now Party?
A. Because of the raid that I was forced to experience, I learned that medical cannabis patients are a legitimate group and our voice has merit. I decided that it was wrong that the County of San Diego refuse to recognize the California medical marijuana ID card. Without that card I as a medical marijuana patient could not be recognized by the local police officers as a legitimate cannabis patient. The County of San Diego in short was depriving me of my state rights. I went to the County Supervisors office and ask them to redress their medical marijuana ID card regulations. They in turn decided to sue me in federal court for the medical marijuana ID card, we took that case into federal court and the federal courts decided it was not worth hearing granting me a de facto win over the County of San Diego. I didn't realize that as a medical marijuana activist we needed to be the one in the seats to make political decisions. So I decided that my next route would be to run politically as a medical cannabis patient.
I challenged my local county supervisor Dianne Jacob in 2008 to her seat as the 2nd dist County Supervisor. Although I didn't win for my first election I received over 18000 votes in a majority- conservative/Republican county. I was given the congratulations by many other activists saying I had done very well and I should try again, so I did. I ran for County Supervisor again in 2012 receiving over 25,000 votes and again in 2016 receiving over 36,000 votes. My lesson is persistence, never quit we have to make sure that our voice is heard. I had to become a squeaky wheel for not only my fires but also medical marijuana; to make sure that another person would never be treated as I was.
Well I guess my story got out there and eventually
High Times magazine started to publish and tell people about my political adventure. I was recently contacted by the Legalize Marijuana Now Party and asked if I would be the Vice President for their campaign trying to bring more light to our battle as medical marijuana patients. I can proudly say that I am honored to have taken on this role, I understand the need for a squeaky wheel and vowed to be that for our community.
Q: It seems to me the two main uses of marijuana being discussed, and being implemented in stages, are the medicinal and followed by the recreational modes. Are there other beneficial aspects of marijuana we need to consider?
A. Yes there are two main uses for marijuana currently being discussed simple recreational legalization and medical use. As a burn survivor, I've learned that the medical use of cannabis goes back as long as humanity itself. Our body literally has an in cannabinoid system which it uses to heal and create homeostasis within the human body. Personally I believe that all cannabis use is medical. As for recreational legalization; our society has stigmatized this plant far beyond anything of which it is guilty. To date in humanity there has yet to be even a single death from marijuana, get we have stigmatized it as being one of the most horrendous of the illegal drugs. Unjustly classifying marijuana on the same level as heroin and cocaine. The main proponent which has pushed the stigmatization is politics, Harry Anslinger himself made it a point to make marijuana looks scarier than “Frankenstein”.
I also believe that our solution to every one of our marijuana is also rooted in politics. Getting politicians to understand that the stigma on cannabis that they have been led into is unjustified, will create the needed change in our society to allow for the potential legalization of not only medical but also recreational cannabis. Our society has for too long stigmatized cannabis as non productive, harmful and even racialized this plant to segregate whole groups of our population.
Q: The Prohibition Party has had a long history of inside conflict between single-issue "Narrow Gaugers" and wider-issue "Broad Gaugers." Is this a debate that has also taken place in the Legal Marijuana Now Party? Is there a game plan for attracting centrist voters?
A. Legalize Marijuana Now Party doesn't have that generalization problem as we are working very specifically on marijuana legalization. We are able to target state by state policies for the legalization of marijuana allowing the voters to make the ultimate choice. Our game plan for attracting centrist voters is very simple…. “Allow the medicine to show the people it can heal them”... As cannabis is being seen by baby boomers as a realistic medical alternative, society will also be forced to recognize the benefits of this plant.
Q: The USA seems more receptive to legalization of cannabis now than they did back in 2012 when my home State of Washington had a public vote to decriminalize recreational use. So if marijuana becomes legal in all 50 states, what happens to your party when Legal Marijuana Now becomes Legal Marijuana Then?
A. Currently cannabis is our modern prohibition problem, and as each state slowly legalizes we at the Legal Marijuana Now Party so have realized that we need to adapt in order to stay relevant. So if marijuana becomes legal in all 50 states, I believe the Legal Marijuana Now Party will adapt and become a regular political group such as the Democratic Party.
Q: You live in California (or at least I assume you still do). Now that marijuana is legal there how smoothly has the transition been working?
A. California is an interesting animal, California was the first state to legalize medical marijuana. The problem became is the politicians in California refuse to implement the new California cannabis laws. This created decades of problems with the transition to medical marijuana in California. Although the citizens of California; the legitimate voters, saw and supported the medical legalization of cannabis the politicians drag their feet at every step to make sure that laws were not implemented. Now that the state has complete legalization of cannabis, the same politicians are doing the exact same dragging of their feet to make sure that the transition between medical and complete legalization did not go efficiently.
Q: How do you personally plan to campaign as the VP nominee?
A. As I said before I'm a well-known medical cannabis activist, I just finished working on a documentary what the Americans for Safe Access (ASA) calling on more activism for the legalization of marijuana not only medically but for all Americans. I will be campaigning across my state with the help of the California Democratic Mary Brown Party who just endorsed our campaign in California.
Q: The Legalize Marijuana Now Party looks like it is more of a confederation of a few states mostly in the Midwest than a nationally centralized party. Is that an inaccurate impression? Are there plans to expand? How is the ballot access battle going?
A. Although it may look like a confederation of states and mostly the Midwest I will personally tell you that I am one of the arms which will pull the state of California into the Legalize Marijuana Now Party and we have also just recently included Guam as part of our ballot platform. Historically, the Legalize Marijuana Now Party has done fairly well on national polls, with the addition of these two recent states and a few other expansions which we have planned in the near future I believe we have a good chance of being a nice squeaky wheel for medical cannabis patients.
Q: Most of the states where cannabis is now legal have accomplished this via the initiative process. How does your party plan to approach the issue in states where the initiative is not an option? Does your party endorse or work with candidates from other parties?
A. In states in which there is not an initiative process option, we have been working with local politicians and bringing forward legislation for legalization. The ability to target those politicians via lobbying or simple patient advocacy is very compelling and hard for a politician to ignore. And yes our party does endorse and work with candidates from other parties.
Q: I know it is early in the campaign season but has being the VP nominee had any impact on your daily life at this point?
A. First of all it's an honor to be nominated and selected to be the Vice President candidate for the Legalize Marijuana Now Party. The nomination has had a huge impact on my life already as locally I have been campaigning non-stop via social media and in real life meetings.
Q: Thank you for contributing to this project and please feel free to add any additional comments not covered by my questions.
I just wanted to thank you for the opportunity to allow my voice to be heard for our community at large
