Contact your state lawmakers and ask them to pass a bill before time runs out!

Exciting news! With just a couple of weeks remaining in the 2021 legislative session, state senators are bringing a bill to legalize marijuana for adults to the floor for a vote this Tuesday! 

Please contact your state legislators right now and encourage them to send a legalization bill to Gov. McKee’s desk before the clock runs out! 

An amended version of the Senate legalization bill, S 568 Sub A, would allow adults 21 and older to possess, purchase, and cultivate cannabis for personal use. The bill also creates a pathway for individuals to expunge and seal past criminal records for cannabis-related convictions and establishes a social equity program to encourage people harmed by cannabis criminalization to participate in the adult-use cannabis market. 

This is the closest Rhode Island has ever come to passing a bill to replace cannabis prohibition with a smarter and more just policy. Please make sure your legislators hear from you before the General Assembly adjourns for the summer. 

Thank you for taking action, and please stay tuned for more updates soon.

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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 [email protected]. 

• 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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Please take action and contact your state lawmakers!

MPP and local advocates have been working for years to pass a law to legalize cannabis for adults in Rhode Island. With your help, we have a real chance of getting it done this legislative session.

Top political leaders, including Gov. McKee and the Senate Majority Leader, have introduced legislation to legalize, regulate, and tax cannabis. You can read more details and find summaries of each bill here.

It is critical that your elected officials hear from you. Please take a minute right now to contact your state representative and senator by using our online action tool.

Tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary and Finance Committees will hold a joint hearing on both legalization proposals. You can find more information, including how to make your voice heard and provide testimony, here. The event will be streamed live on the General Assembly’s Capitol TV service.

While we are hopeful that this will be the year, lawmakers will not act on legalization unless they hear from enough constituents. Please contact them today.

Thank you!

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