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.

Read more

If you live in Alabama, contact your lawmakers in support of medical marijuana.

Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved SB 236 in a 6-2 vote. The bill would establish a medical marijuana program in Alabama and would allow patients 19 years or older to use medical marijuana to treat 33 different conditions, including autism, chronic pain, and anxiety.

Contact your lawmakers in support of SB 236 today. Medical marijuana won’t pass in Alabama without robust grassroots outreach, so please email them now.

Last week, the same committee approved a bill that would decriminalize marijuana.

Please contact your public officials today and then help get the word out by forwarding this email to friends and family. Together we can bring sensible marijuana laws to the South.

Read more

If you live in Alabams, contact your lawmakers now in support of decriminalization!

Today, the Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved SB 98, which would reduce the penalty for possessing up to an ounce of cannabis to a fine. The bill now heads to the Senate floor. Don’t let this chance to stop jailing cannabis consumers pass the state by.

Contact your lawmakers in Montgomery and ask them to support this commonsense policy reform.

Currently, anyone found possessing marijuana in Alabama faces up to a year in jail. Under SB 98, people caught with one ounce or less would be punished by a fine of up to $250 for the first two offenses and up to a $500 fine on all future offenses. Twenty-four states, including neighboring Mississippi, have stopped jailing adults for possession of small amounts of marijuana. It’s time for Alabama to reform outdated laws that do nothing to make the state safer. A recent report from the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice and the Southern Poverty Law Center showed that marijuana prohibition is a costly and ineffective law that harms thousands of people. Enforcing prohibition costs the state roughly $22 million a year when you add up the costs incurred by the police, courts, and corrections.

Please contact your lawmakers today, and then get the word out by forwarding this email to friends and family. Together we can stop arresting Alabamans for possessing a substance safer than alcohol.

Read more