Congress is currently considering a bill that could undermine the 12 state laws protecting medical marijuana patients from arrest and jail.
Please take one minute to write your three members of Congress today to oppose this action.
The bill contains a provision offered by U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), a rabid opponent of medical marijuana who last year told MPP's lobbyist that "marijuana is not a medicine, and the doctors and scientists who say it is one are smoking it themselves."
Sen. Coburn's amendment is a thinly veiled attempt to undermine the 12 state medical marijuana laws — in Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington — by placing them under the authority of the FDA, while not providing the same approval process for marijuana as for other drugs seeking FDA approval as prescription medicines.
And the FDA has already demonstrated its hostility to medical marijuana: In April of last year, the FDA released a highly politicized — and incorrect — statement claiming that "no sound scientific studies" support the medical use of marijuana.
Please tell your U.S. representative and two U.S. senators to uphold the will of the voters in the 12 states that have enacted laws allowing medical marijuana. (MPP's action center is quick and easy to use. You can use one of our pre-written letters, or you can personalize your message.)
If enacted into law, the Coburn amendment could cause medical marijuana patients and caregivers to face even greater risk under federal law than they already do. Even more disturbing, medical marijuana opponents could try to use the provision to shut down state medical marijuana programs across the country.
Please help stop this unprecedented attack on local decision-making and help ensure that medical marijuana patients living in states that have already acted to protect them are able to retain those protections. Please write your members of Congress today.
Thank you,
Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.
P.S. Are you a veteran of the armed forces? If so, MPP wants to hear from you! A group of veterans is looking for other veterans with whom to network and advocate for medical marijuana access for veterans. Would you be willing to lend your name to the cause? If so, please contact MPP's Joe Haptas at jhaptas@mpp.org or (202) 462-5747, ext. 114.
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