Ask key senators to allow botanical, flower medical cannabis.

Minnesota is one of only two medical cannabis states that doesn’t allow cannabis in its natural, flower form. This drives up prices for patients and deprives many of the medicine that works best for them. Many end up turning to the unregulated, sometimes dangerous, illicit market.

Please take a moment to add your voice to finally give patients access to whole-plant cannabis: Ask key senators not to stand in the way of relief.

In both 2019 and 2020, the DFL-led House of Representatives passed bills to allow flower, but they both died in the Senate. This year, the Senate Health Finance and Policy Committee unanimously approved adding flower, but it never got a Senate floor vote.

The House has included the bill in the Health and Human Services Omnibus bill. The provision’s fate now lies in the hands of the Republican Senate majority.

Please send a note to key members of Senate leadership to ask them to stand up for patients. You can also sign and share the petition from our allies at Sensible Change Minnesota, who are leading the charge.

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Ask your lawmakers to establish a compassionate medical cannabis program this year.

Exciting news! The House Committee on Federal and State Affairs has approved (12-8) a bill to legalize medical cannabis in the state. The bill is now cleared for a vote on the House floor.

Reach out to your lawmakers today and ask them to support legalizing medical cannabis this year!

The proposed legislation would establish a medical cannabis program for qualified patients. As amended in committee, the bill lists 23 conditions that would qualify patients for the program, including PTSD and chronic conditions that cause “severe, persistent pain.” Unfortunately, however, smoking and vaping products would be prohibited.

Gov. Laura Kelly (D) has repeatedly voiced her support for medical cannabis. Still, the legislature must act in order to bring a compassionate, effective medical cannabis program to Kansas. It’s important your lawmakers hear from you; let them know you want them to legalize medical cannabis this year!

Kansas is currently one of just 14 states with no effective medical cannabis law. Help make sure this is the year Kansas stands with patients and establishes a medical cannabis program by reaching out to your lawmakers and sharing this message with your friends and family!

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Please take a minute to email your lawmakers in support of HB 150!

This Thursday night, the Delaware Cannabis Policy Coalition is holding a virtual town hall to respond to concerns around cannabis legalization. Mark your calendars, and we hope you will join us!

You can check out a full summary of this year’s legalization bill, HB 150, here. We need all hands on deck to make sure this is the year Delaware moves forward with legalization!

As a reminder, we’re still recruiting volunteers to help generate phone calls to legislators in key districts. Please email onaugle@mpp.org if you’re willing to make some calls to constituents of key lawmakers. We’ll send details on how to get started.

And don’t forget to join us for this important discussion on Thursday at 7 p.m., and please also reach out to your lawmakers and ask them to support legalization this year. Be sure to share this message with your family and friends to help us spread the word.

Together, we can end prohibition in the First State!

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Ask your lawmakers to stop arresting cannabis consumers this year!

Cannabis policy reform is continuing to gain momentum in the Texas Legislature! The House of Representatives approved two bills last week:

• HB 441, which would eliminate the threat of jail time for up to one ounce of cannabis while creating an opportunity for deferral, dismissal, and non-disclosure. The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration. 
  
  
• HB 1535, which would expand the state’s low-THC medical cannabis program. The bill would add cancer, chronic pain, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as conditions that could qualify people for the program. The bill now heads to the Senate.

Be sure to reach out to your state senator and ask them to stop arresting cannabis consumers and support HB 441.

Then, please call your senator to improve and pass HB 1535.

The legislative session is set to end on May 31. Make sure your lawmakers know this issue matters to voters; ask them to support decriminalization and an effective medical cannabis law this year.

Stay tuned for future updates!

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Ask your Connecticut state lawmakers to legalize cannabis this year.

We invite you to join us on Tuesday, May 4 at 6:30 p.m. for a virtual discussion on the status of legalization in the 2021 session and a walk-through of the details of SB 888 – Gov. Lamont’s legalization proposal. 

You might recall that earlier this week we shared an updated bill summary reflecting the major improvements to SB 888 since it was first introduced. While negotiations are underway between the legislature and the governor’s office on the final details, we thought it would be a great opportunity to walk through the improved version of the bill and answer questions. 

Joining us will be House Majority Leader Rep. Jason Rojas (D) and Rev. Tommie Jackson. The event starts at 6:30 p.m. and will be streamed on Facebook Live. Viewers will be able to submit questions during the event. I hope you’ll find some time to attend. 

In the meantime, please spread the word and write your legislators, urging them to support legislation to regulate and tax the sale of cannabis to adults in the 2021 session.

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We're writing to send a correction and a handful of updates:

• Correction: The 6-5 committee vote tally was incomplete — it did not include Chair Ted James’ vote in favor. The final committee vote on HB 524 (Rep. Richard Nelson’s legalization bill) was 7-5.
• You can find our updated summary of the bill, as amended yesterday, here.
• After the House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee approved HB 524, it passed another legalization bill — Rep. Candace Newell’s HB 243 — in a 6-5 vote. Both bills are headed to the House floor and could receive a vote as early as next week.
• The House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee hearing on HB 652, is being rescheduled for next week. It would reduce the penalty for up to 14 grams of cannabis to a $50 fine, or an alternate penalty in lieu of a fine for those who can’t pay.
• Speaker Tanner McGee’s bill to allow medical cannabis in its natural, raw form (HB 391) is out of committee and has been scheduled for a floor debate on May 3.

Make sure to let your lawmakers know where you stand on these important bills to roll back Louisiana’s war on marijuana! You can write your lawmakers in support of legalization here, or contact them in support of allowing flower medical cannabis here.

Ask your state lawmakers to support HB 524.

Great news! In a 6-5 vote, the Louisiana House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee voted to advance Rep. Richard Nelson’s bill to legalize and regulate marijuana for adults 21 and older. It now heads to the full House of Representatives!

This is the first time a legislative committee in Louisiana has voted to legalize marijuana.

Ask your state lawmakers to support this sensible measure.

Before the vote, Rep. Nelson amended his bill based on legal advice. It had initially included a voter-referral, but he was advised that Louisiana lawmakers cannot delegate this type of policy decision to voters.

Despite two-to-one popular support for legalization in Louisiana, the witnesses at committee were lopsided in opposition. Several members of law enforcement signed up in opposition and peddled misleading information — including falsely claiming teen marijuana use goes up after legalization.

In the face of powerful opposition, it is extremely important that state representatives hear that their constituents want them to end the disastrous war on marijuana.

Send your state legislators an email today and spread the word on social media. Let them know it’s past time Louisiana stop tearing apart families over cannabis, and that it instead should start creating good jobs and generating hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues to improve the wellbeing of the state’s residents.

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The legislature may schedule a public hearing on the medical cannabis bill soon — if you are a patient, a friend or family member of a patient, or a medical professional who would like to help support SB 711, please send us an email and let us know!

When the chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, Sen. Bill Rabon, introduced SB 711, the odds of passing medical cannabis legislation in North Carolina improved dramatically. The Senate appears to be taking this bill seriously, and it’s possible they could schedule a public hearing on it very soon.

If you are a patient in North Carolina who could benefit from medical cannabis, a friend or family member of a patient, or if you are a medical professional, a member of the clergy, or a law enforcement officer who supports medical cannabis legislation, we’d love to hear from you. Please email us and tell us a little bit about yourself so we can advise you on opportunities to support SB 711. It would be helpful if you could include your address and/or nine-digit zip code so we can determine who your state representative and senator are.

You can read a summary of SB 711 here. This bill would make North Carolina the 37th state to legalize medical cannabis.

If you haven't already done so, please write your elected officials today and urge them to support SB 711!

Please share this important message with your family and friends in North Carolina!

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Ask your state lawmakers to support HB 524.

Great news! In a 6-5 vote, the Louisiana House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee voted to advance Rep. Richard Nelson’s bill to legalize and regulate marijuana for adults 21 and older. It now heads to the full House of Representatives!

This is the first time a legislative committee in Louisiana has voted to legalize marijuana.

Ask your state lawmakers to support this sensible measure.

Before the vote, Rep. Nelson amended his bill based on legal advice. It had initially included a voter-referral, but he was advised that Louisiana lawmakers cannot delegate this type of policy decision to voters.

Despite two-to-one popular support for legalization in Louisiana, the witnesses at committee were lopsided in opposition. Several members of law enforcement signed up in opposition and peddled misleading information — including falsely claiming teen marijuana use goes up after legalization.

In the face of powerful opposition, it is extremely important that state representatives hear that their constituents want them to end the disastrous war on marijuana.

Send your state legislators an email today and spread the word on social media. Let them know it’s past time Louisiana stop tearing apart families over cannabis, and that it instead should start creating good jobs and generating hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues to improve the wellbeing of the state’s residents.

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Ask your Connecticut state lawmakers to legalize cannabis this year.

Good news! As you may recall, earlier this month the Connecticut Judiciary Committee advanced an amended version of Gov. Lamont’s proposal to legalize cannabis for adults 21 and older in a 22-16 vote. The final language the committee approved was recently released, and it’s a major improvement over SB 888 as introduced.

Please email your state lawmakers and ask them to support legalization.

Here are some key features of the bill, as amended:

• Social equity applicant status is defined as an applicant with 51% ownership or control by one or more persons with an immediate family member with a cannabis-related conviction, a resident of a disproportionately impacted area for five of the last 10 years, or a resident of tribal land. (We understand the provision allowing for applicants to qualify based solely on control — not ownership — will be removed during the process.)
• Awards new licenses only to social equity applicants until January 1, 2024. At least 40% of licenses will be awarded to social equity applicants.
• Allows existing medical businesses to become licensed on September 1, 2021 after paying a hefty conversion fee that is directed to social equity start-up.
• In addition to allowing adults to possess up to 1.5 ounces on their person, it also allows up to five ounces in a locked location in one’s home.
• Decriminalizes possession of up to four ounces and cultivation of up to six plants.
• Creates a free erasure process for cannabis possession and sale convictions of up to four ounces or six mature plants.
• Eliminates law enforcement’s ability to initiate a search on the basis of odor of cannabis or burnt cannabis.
• Establishes a Cannabis Control Commission to establish guidelines for the issuance of licenses.
• Establishes a 13-member Social Equity Council to further develop equity criteria, priority in licensing, and direct cannabis revenue.
• In the first year and two months of legal sales, state cannabis revenue would be directed to the general fund. In year three of legal sales, and every year thereafter, 55 percent of the state excise tax revenue would be directed to the Cannabis Equity and Innovation Fund, 15 percent to prevention and recovery services, and 30 percent to the general fund.
• Creates a cannabis business accelerator program.

You can check out an updated summary of the amended bill here.

Negotiations between the legislature and the governor’s office on the final details will continue over the coming weeks. We are working to ensure legislators send a bill to Gov. Lamont’s desk before the June 9 session deadline. We’ll be sure to keep you updated as the bill makes its way through the legislative process.

In the meantime, please spread the word and write your legislators, urging them to support legislation to regulate and tax the sale of cannabis to adults in the 2021 session.

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Things are heating up around cannabis legalization in the Ocean State! 

This Thursday at 4 p.m., the House Finance Committee in the Rhode Island General Assembly will hold a public hearing on several cannabis bills, including Article 11 of Gov. McKee’s budget proposal, which outlines a plan to legalize, regulate, and tax cannabis for adults. 

And tonight at 6 p.m. ET, a statewide coalition of organizations, grassroots advocates, and Rhode Islanders who have been adversely affected by cannabis criminalization will hold a community webinar to discuss legalization and social equity. Tune in here at 6 p.m. tonight to watch the event through Facebook Live! 

There’s support for legalization among top leaders in the state, but there’s no guarantee that lawmakers will take action this year. They need to hear from you.

Testify at Thursday’s hearing

• The deadline to sign up for verbal testimony is 4 p.m. this Wednesday. If you sign up, you will receive a phone call from the committee clerk during the hearing (likely sometime between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m.). Prepare your comments in advance and know that you may be limited to three minutes of speaking time. Click here to put your name on the list to testify.

• You may submit written testimony by emailing HouseFinance@rilegislature.gov. 

• Click here for more information about the hearing.
  
  

Contact the state representative and senator who represent your district

• Don’t know who your state legislators are? Enter your address to look them up here. 
  
  
• You can also contact them through MPP’s online action tool, which provides a prewritten email template and call script that you can personalize!

It’s crucial that supporters of legalization and cannabis equity take action now. Please forward this email and encourage others to make their voices heard, too!

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