Last week, Representative Rory Ellinger introduced two important bills. One would decriminalize (but not legalize) possession of less than 35 grams of cannabis by preventing arrests and keeping the charge off the defendant’s public record. The other would allow people people who plead guilty to or are convicted of non-violent cannabis offenses, among many other non-violent misdemeanor offenses, to have those offenses wiped off their records after five years.
Using Show-Me Cannabis’ new Blue State Digital contact tools, I have created an advocacy page that allows you to contact your state legislators and urge them to support these important pieces of legislation! All you need to do is enter your address, city, and state or nine-digit ZIP code, and the software will identify your legislators.
There will even be a sample letter that you can send, so, if you are pressed for time, you won’t need to write your own. However, believe it or not, legislators (or their aides) do read these letters, and they will notice if they get the same letter repeatedly. So, please, take the time to customize your letter by adding a sentence or two of your own. That will demonstrate to your legislators that you care more deeply about the issue than if you just send a form letter.
Please take a few minutes and contact your legislator now!
And after you’ve contacted your legislators, please consider contributing to Show-Me Cannabis! As you can see, our new software will amplify the voices of all cannabis law reformers in the state, but it does not come cheaply. It costs around $500 a month for a subscription to Blue State Digital.
Investing for reform will help us keep that subscription active and, hopefully, allow us to pay for other activities to support the bill, such as:
- Hiring a lobbyist, which will likely cost several thousand dollars a month.
- Identifying reform supporters in key legislative districts and hiring a firm to call them and connect them directly to their state representative.
- Establishing a fund to pay for reformers to travel to Jefferson City for a lobby day (or days) this spring.
The recent spike in cannabis law reform activity has also forced me to work around 80 hours a week, and I am still unable to keep up with all our projects to my satisfaction. This is a good problem to have, because it means we are very busy. However, I hope Show-Me Cannabis will be able to hire a part-time assistant to help me cover that work and more, which I believe we can do for around $1,000 a month.
Show-Me Cannabis can only expand with support from people such as yourself, so please contribute now. Even better, sign up as recurring contributor, even for as little as $5 a month, to establish a strong and steady revenue stream for cannabis law reform in Missouri!
Events
Another way to support Show-Me Cannabis is by attending our fundraising events. Currently, we have four trivia night fundraisers scheduled across the state as follows:
The Springfield event will also include a benefit concert. Those who just want to attend that part of the evening may pay $5 at the door. You can buy tickets for trivia at the links above. Please buy your tickets in advance! It is both cheaper for you, and allows us to get an accurate headcount. The advance ticket price for each event will expire on the Monday prior to the event, so act now to lock in the lower price!
Finally, we have two more recently scheduled events that I want to put on your radar.
First, we will be hosting a conference in Saint Louis at the Crowne Plaza Downtown on Saturday, April 13th. We will be inviting leading activists and supportive politicians from across the state as well as some top names in the national movement to end cannabis prohibition. Registration for the conference will cost $10 or $5 for students. The registration fee will be waived for press and those who are disabled.
I have also confirmed a 4/20 benefit concert in Saint Louis at the Handle Bar in the Grove. The event will last all evening with a number of bands, speakers, and drink specials. This should also occur the Saturday after the Saint Louis Board of Aldermen takes its final vote on Shane Cohn’s reform proposal, so we expect it to be a victory party!
I will send you more details on these events as they become available and create event pages in the near future.
