Ask your state lawmakers to support patients this year.

Great news! Last week, the Senate Finance Committee advanced a bill that would allow patients to use and safely access medical cannabis if they have a qualifying debilitating medical condition. The committee first adopted an amendment to direct medical cannabis sales tax revenue to fund the medical cannabis supply system and a cannabis research program at the University of North Carolina. 

As you may recall, SB 711, otherwise known as the “NC Compassionate Care Act,” is sponsored by Rules Committee Chairman Bill Rabon (R) and has already advanced through the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill would establish a nine-member Medical Cannabis Advisory Board and a 13-member Medical Cannabis Production Commission. The Medical Cannabis Advisory Board would have the power to add new debilitating conditions to the program, while the Medical Cannabis Production Commission would regulate the supply of medical cannabis. You can check out a summary of the bill here.  

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

Before SB 711 is considered for a Senate floor vote, it must win approval from the Health Care and Rules and Regulations committees. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on opportunities to testify and advocate for passage as the bill makes its way through the legislative process.  

In the meantime, please consider sharing your story of how cannabis has helped you or a loved one cope with a medical condition with NC Families for Medical Cannabis. NC Families for Medical Cannabis is a coalition of North Carolina families, physicians, and veterans who support safe, regulated access to medical cannabis for North Carolina patients suffering from medical conditions. As we approach a full floor vote, these stories will be extremely helpful in persuading lawmakers to vote in favor of SB 711.

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Great news! Louisiana’s medical cannabis patients will be allowed to use cannabis in flower form instead of being limited to extracts and other more costly preparations.

Yesterday, Gov. John Bel Edwards signed HB 391 into law, making it Act 424.

The bill takes effect on January 1, 2022. Patients will be allowed to buy up to 2.5 ounces of raw/flower cannabis every two weeks. The new law also removes Louisiana’s ban on smoking and vaporizing cannabis preparations.

Patients under the age of 21 will only be allowed to purchase raw cannabis if their physician specifically recommends cannabis in raw form.

In other good news, the tax on flower did not become law.

Thanks to each of you who took the time to write your lawmakers and the governor on this bill and other cannabis policy reforms ! We are also grateful to all the legislators and Louisiana advocates who led the charge.

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Ask Gov. Ivey to sign the medical cannabis bill if it makes it to her desk.

Great news! The Alabama House of Representatives just passed medical cannabis in a 68-34-1 vote. The bill already passed the Senate (20-10), but because it was amended in the House, the two versions need to be reconciled before it can head to Gov. Ivey.

Although it has passed the Senate three years in a row, this is the first time the House of Representatives has ever passed medical cannabis legislation.

You can check out our summary of the bill here.

Please take a few minutes to ask Gov. Kay Ivey to sign SB 46 into law if it lands on her desk. Here are some talking points you can use:

• Patients with cancer, multiple sclerosis, intractable pain, and other terrible medical conditions deserve our compassion and mercy.

• Some of our suffering neighbors with chronic medical conditions find that prescription medicines simply do not work for them. Their cancer wasting, seizures, pain, and spasms simply have not responded to available treatments.

• If a suffering patient’s physician recommends medical cannabis, Alabama law should not stand in the way. 

Then, spread the news with other compassionate Alabamians.

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For more information on how to qualify, visit the website for the Office of Medical Cannabis.

Since April 19, 2017, when Gov. Jim Justice signed West Virginia’s medical cannabis bill into law, patients have been waiting for the program to become operational. Fortunately, the wait finally appears to be nearing an end. The state’s Office of Medical Cannabis announced last week that permits have been granted for 100 dispensaries across the state, and today they opened the process for patients to begin registering for the program.

In order to qualify, patients will need to obtain a written certification from a participating physician. A list of physicians is available here. You can now access the patient registration portal from the website for the Office of Medical Cannabis.

It will likely be several months before patients will be able to obtain medical cannabis from dispensaries, but this is a huge step forward for the program. MPP’s summary of the law is available here.

Please share this message with anybody you know who might wish to register for the medical cannabis program in West Virginia!

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Urge your state legislators to stand up for patients!

Last year, the Alabama Senate overwhelmingly approved the Compassion Act — which would have legalized medical cannabis — but it stalled in the House when the coronavirus derailed the legislative session.

This year, Sen. Tim Melson, MD, has already filed the 2021 version of the bill, SB 46. State lawmakers return to work on Tuesday. Let’s make sure they come back knowing their constituents want the Compassion Act to be at the top of their agenda!

It takes less than a minute to send your lawmakers an email through our automated system. You can personalize the message or rewrite it.

Alabama’s lack of medical marijuana protections is increasingly an outlier. Thirty-six states, including Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi, allow medical cannabis, and polling shows 75% of Alabama voters support it.

While SB 46 is far better than the status quo, we are also encouraging lawmakers to make some improvements. The bill currently steers intractable pain patients to try opiates first, even though they are far more dangerous than cannabis. It also puts onerous burdens on physicians that will depress participation.

Please write your lawmakers today to urge them to improve and enact SB 46, and then spread the word to other compassionate Alabamians.

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Proposed rules were published yesterday governing both dispensaries and physicians operating in the emerging medical marijuana program in Ohio. Both sets of proposed rules are available online. Members of the public are invited to review and comment on them before January 13, 2017.

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On July 29, D.C. Mayor Vince Gray signed the Medical Marijuana Expansion Emergency Amendment Act of 2014. The ordinance takes effect immediately, but it is only temporary, so another measure and Congressional approval are needed to make the compassionate changes permanent.

This temporary law allows physicians to recommend marijuana for any debilitating condition they think would respond favorably to the therapeutic use of marijuana and increases the number of plants D.C.’s licensed cultivators may possess from 95 to 500. This new law will automatically expire on October 27 unless the Council makes passes new legislation.

D.C. physicians participating in the medical marijuana program may now recommend medical marijuana to those suffering from PTSD, chronic pain, and a host of other conditions that were not previously included on a list of qualifying conditions, but whose symptoms have been shown to relent with marijuana use. Increasing the number of plants that cultivators may possess ensures that our seriously ill friends and neighbors have access to the medicine their physicians think will work best for them.

Enactment of temporary legislation gave the Council the time it needs to debate and pass a permanent fix. If you are a District resident, please ask your councilmember to continue to support compassionate legislation and then send this to our fellow Washingtonians who support medical marijuana.

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The New York Legislature adjourned its regular session early Saturday morning without passing two important marijuana policy reform bills. Both bills passed the Assembly, but ultimately stalled in the Senate: a bill legalizing medical marijuana for seriously ill patients and a bill that would have fixed the "public view" loophole in New York's decriminalization law.

Although the Senate failed to take up the medical marijuana bill once again, there is still reason for hope. Over 600 New York physicians recently came out in support of medical marijuana, the Assembly passed medical marijuana legislation for the fourth time, and a recent statewide poll found 82% support for medical marijuana.

If you are a New York resident, please email leadership, including Gov. Cuomo, Sen. Skelos, and Sen. Klein, and ask them to support medical marijuana patients.

The Senate also failed to vote on legislation to fix the public view exception to New York’s decriminalization law. A6716 would have eliminated the false justification police are using to make tens of thousands of marijuana arrests each year.

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On Tuesday, a group of doctors held a news conference to announce the support of nearly 250 Illinois physicians for allowing patients with serious illnesses to obtain and use medical marijuana if their doctors recommend it.

Specifically, the doctors signed on to the following statement:

Licensed medical practitioners should not be punished for recommending the medical use of marijuana to seriously ill people, and seriously ill people should not be subject to criminal sanctions for using marijuana if their medical professionals have told them that such use is likely to be beneficial.

Their endorsement comes just as the Illinois House of Representatives prepares to vote on House Bill 1, which would allow patients with serious illnesses to use medical marijuana with recommendations from their physicians.

The bill would also establish a network of state-regulated cultivation centers and dispensaries to provide marijuana to qualified patients.

If passed, Illinois would become the 19^th state to legalize medical marijuana.

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