Urge your elected officials to support this cost-reducing measure!

Minnesota’s 2020 legislative session is underway, and several cannabis-related bills have been introduced. While we are still eagerly awaiting House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler’s bill to legalize and regulate cannabis, another important bill needs your support. SF4255 would improve the medical cannabis program, including by allowing patients to vaporize cannabis in its natural, flower form.

Ask your state senator and representative to support this important measure.

Minnesota has some of the most expensive medical cannabis products in the nation, and many patients turn back to the illicit market as a result. Two of the four other states that once prohibited flower cannabis — Pennsylvania and New York — now allow it. Minnesota should, too.

The bill would also ease access in rural areas of the state by allowing dispensaries to operate mobile distribution units. This would save patients and their caregivers hours-long round trips.

Please write your lawmakers today to ask them to work to pass SF4255, and spread the word.

Ask your lawmakers to reject the THC cap amendment to HB 713!

On Thursday, March 5, the Florida House approved a 10 percent THC cap on medical cannabis for patients under 21 years old. The cap was submitted as an amendment to HB 713, which is a larger healthcare package.

This THC limit would leave younger patients behind who respond best to medical cannabis with higher proportions of THC. Please take a minute to ask your lawmakers to reject this amendment!

THC has proven medical benefits, including relieving nausea and appetite loss. Patients who benefit from strains of cannabis that have more than 10% THC deserve legal access to the medical cannabis they need to treat their conditions.

Patients and their allies in Florida have fought for years to establish a comprehensive system to create safe access to medical cannabis. This bill would roll back progress that has been made and is an affront to the 71% of Florida voters who enacted the state’s medical cannabis law.

Ask your lawmakers to stand with patients across the Sunshine State and reject the THC cap! Please forward this message to your friends and family in Florida and encourage them to do the same.

Virginia is about to become the 27th state to decriminalize marijuana possession!

The legislature has approved a bill to stop arresting and jailing Virginians for simple marijuana possession. It now heads to Gov. Ralph Northam’s desk, and it is expected that he will sign it into law.

The bill would make possession of one ounce or less of marijuana a civil penalty punishable by a $25 fine. Under current law, marijuana possession is a criminal offense punishable by up to 30 days in jail and/or up to a $500 fine.

The move to decriminalize marijuana possession in Virginia is long overdue. Currently, 26 states and D.C. have stopped jailing their residents for possession of small amounts of marijuana, and polling has shown that 83 percent of Virginians support the reform.

A big kudos goes to our friends at Virginia NORML for leading the effort and working tirelessly to improve Virginia’s cannabis laws! And thank you to everyone else who played a role in this important reform.

Be sure to share this exciting news with your friends and family in Virginia.

Follow and support South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws.

This election will matter, and more than most.

It’s hard to overstate its importance in any number of areas, and that includes the struggle to end the prohibition of marijuana.

There will be marijuana reform campaigns in states across the country including South Dakota, where two initiatives to legalize medical marijuana and adult-use marijuana have qualified for the November ballot.

You might be wondering: South Dakota, really? After all, it’s a conservative state. But we’ve done our research, and voters are ready for marijuana policy reform.

And this campaign is important for our federal efforts: South Dakota's two United States senators, John Thune and Mike Rounds, are both in key positions to affect marijuana policy in Congress.

Neither are supporters of reforming our nation’s failed marijuana policies. They do not support removing marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, enacting the SAFE Banking Act, or even eliminating federal obstacles to medical marijuana research and access.

However, South Dakota voters can give these two senators a strong reason to reconsider their positions by approving both of the two ballot initiatives this November! Elected officials know that in order to win reelection, they cannot ignore their constituents.

South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, a political campaign supported by the Marijuana Policy Project, is ramping up its efforts and it needs your help. Please follow the campaign on Facebook, sign up for campaign alerts, and make a contribution.

Our strategy of reforming state laws in order to increase pressure on members of Congress to reform federal laws could soon pay off in a big way. We are nearly at a tipping point, and winning South Dakota is key to maintaining our momentum.

Thank you.

Urge your legislators to stop criminalizing cannabis consumers.

Today, Louisiana’s state lawmakers convene in Baton Rouge for their 2020 legislative session. Already more than a dozen bills are pending to improve the state’s cannabis policies.

Write your lawmakers to let them know you want 2020 to be the year Louisiana stops arresting cannabis consumers.

Proposals have been introduced to regulate marijuana for adults’ use, to allow local legalization, to decriminalize simple possession, and to improve the state’s medical marijuana program in various ways — including by allowing whole plant cannabis and expanding qualifying conditions.

Here’s a snapshot at some of the bills that have been introduced:

• Rep. Edmond Jordan’s HB 626 would set up a system of legal, regulated cannabis sales to adults 21 and older along with permits for personal cultivation. (Unfortunately, it does not appear to remove criminal penalties.)
• Rep. Ted James’ HB 546 would put a state constitutional amendment on Louisiana’s November 2020 ballot to legalize and regulate cannabis for adults 21 and older.
• Rep. Cedric Glover's HB 346 would put a state constitutional amendment on the November 2020 ballot to allow localities to legalize marijuana.
• Rep. C. Denise Marcelle’s HB 49 would reduce cannabis possession penalties, including by decriminalizing first-offense possession of up to 14 grams. The current penalty includes up to 15 days in jail.
• Rep. Ted James’ HB 385 would allow whole plant/flower medical cannabis.
• Rep. Ted James’ HB 386 would allow physicians to recommend cannabis for any condition that is debilitating to the individual patient
• Rep. Jeremy LaCombe’s HB 455 would allow people receiving hospice or palliative care to qualify for medical cannabis.
• Rep. Rodney Lyons’ HB 330 would add chronic pain caused by fibromyalgia as a qualifying condition.
• Rep. Joe Marino’s HB 158 would allow Alzheimer's, ALS, and a few other neurodegenerative diseases to qualify for medical cannabis.
• Sen. Gerald Boudreaux's SB 267 would remove the sunset on the medical cannabis program.

To weigh in on any of these bills, you can look up your legislator here and give them a call. Or you can use our automated system and rewrite the letter to focus on the issue(s) you care most about.

After voicing your support for marijuana policy reform, please spread the word so that others can join the chorus for humane and sensible marijuana laws!

Call your senator’s office and urge them to support giving HB 136 a hearing and a vote!

The Kentucky House has already voted 65-30 to pass the medical cannabis bill, but unfortunately, there is no guarantee that Senate leaders will allow the bill to receive a vote. HB 136 has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, and this week the committee’s chairman, Sen. Whitney Westerfield (R-Hopkinsville), cast doubt on the bill’s prospects. “I know it won’t get a hearing until I’m OK with it, and for sure I’ve still got questions right now," he said.

Please call your senator’s office today and urge them to support giving this bill a hearing and a vote!

Then, please call Senator Westerfield’s office and call Senate President Robert Stivers’ office and tell them this bill is urgently needed for Kentuckians who are battling serious medical conditions.

After you call your senator’s office, Senator Westerfield’s office, and Senate President Robert Stivers’ office, please share this message with your friends and family.

Sign up to generate calls to pass S.B. 16.

Earlier this week, the governor’s legalization bill was heard in the Judiciary Committee and received strong support from our allies and supporters. But there was also significant opposition, and we still need to move several lawmakers from “undecided” to “yes.”

Will you volunteer to help generate phone calls to legislators in key districts?

The Call Fire system we use makes it easy to volunteer from home. Please email dward@mpp.org — or reply to this email — if you’re willing to make some phone calls to constituents of key lawmakers. We’ll send details on how to get started.

All of the lawmakers we’re generating calls to are on the Judiciary Committee. One challenge is that many lawmakers don’t realize their constituents are supportive. With your help, we can change that misperception.

Please also don’t forget to email your own lawmakers to ask them to support S.B. 16.

Supporters like you can help us send a strong message to lawmakers to make 2020 the year we end cannabis prohibition in the Constitution State!

Click here to call your state senator right now.

Right now, the Nebraska Unicameral is debating whether to approve Gov. Pete Ricketts’ appointment of John Kuehn to the State Board of Health.

Kuehn is co-chair of the anti-marijuana group Nebraska SAM. If he is appointed to this position, he could significantly undermine future regulations for medical marijuana if voters approve a constitutional amendment to legalize medical marijuana in November.

Please send a message and call your state senator right now. If you’re short on time, calls are the most effective.

Thank you.

Urge your state legislators to stand up for patients!

On February 20, Alabama’s Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a medical cannabis bill — SB 165 — in an 8-1 vote. It could get a Senate floor vote as soon as this week!

Please write your state senator and state representative right now to let them know you want them to stand up for Alabama’s patients.

Alabama’s lack of medical marijuana protections is increasingly an outlier. Thirty-three states, including Florida, Louisiana, and Arkansas, allow medical cannabis, and Mississippi voters will get to decide the issue directly in November. Polling shows 75% of Alabama voters support medical cannabis.

But because Alabama doesn’t have a citizen initiative process, the only way to bring a compassionate law to the state is for state lawmakers to pass a bill.

While the Senate advanced a compassionate medical cannabis bill in 2019, the House has never voted on the issue. Let’s build a drumbeat of momentum to make 2020 the year that Alabama patients finally get relief.

Write your lawmakers today, and then spread the word to other compassionate Alabamians. To learn more about the bill, check out our summary.

I’ve got some exciting news to share!

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, which has been leading a signature drive for a constitutional ballot initiative for the past year with MPP’s help, is now partnering with a new group to significantly expand their efforts.

ADOPT, led by former Republican state senator Tommy Garret who has long fought for medical marijuana, views the measure as complementary to another goal: property tax reform. The organization will soon hire a paid petition firm to assist in gathering the signatures needed to qualify before the July deadline. Read more about this exciting development in Marijuana Moment.

Thanks to the hard work of hundreds of volunteers, we’ve already seen support for medical marijuana steadily increase across the state. And now, with this new partnership, it’s more likely than ever that the initiative will qualify for the November ballot.

Now’s a great time to help this effort in Nebraska build even more momentum. Make a donation to ensure the campaign will continue to have the resources necessary to take on powerful politicians in the state who oppose medical marijuana. Let’s help Nebraskan patients and their families win the compassionate reform they deserve.

Thank you!