Welcome to Week 4 of your Membership Drive Challenge!

Week 4: Join Texas NORML and engage with your legislator!

This week, we’ll take the concerns we heard from our elected officials during the previous action and craft a response letter which directly addresses those concerns. Watch this recent workshop to better understand the legislative, regulatory, and election cycles.

WEEK 4 ACTION: ADDRESSING THEIR CONCERNS

Look back at who represents you by going to this link. Look up your address and find the mailing addresses for your elected representatives by clicking on their names. Now it’s time to write a letter or email explaining to them your position on cannabis prohibition, and what you need from them. Below, we’ve included some tips, a sample script, and links to common misconceptions your legislator may have about the plant.

WRITE TO YOUR LEGISLATOR

• Use this activist worksheet to help your craft an outline for your letter or email.
• Here is an example of a sample letter.
• Tips on etiquette.

Common Objections and their counter points to use when crafting your letter to your legislator:

• Marijuana and Psychomotor Performance
• Marijuana Regulation and Teen Use Rates
• Marijuana Regulation and Crime Rates
• Marijuana Legalization and Impact on the Workplace
• Marijuana Reform: Fear and Facts (Baker Institute at Rice University)
• Is Marijuana a “Gateway Drug?”

Once you’ve written your letter, mail it out! Post how it went on our Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #texasvotescannabis!

THE BOTTOM LINE

Cannabis has been vilified for decades, and people have real concerns about what they perceive as a sudden acceptance of this plant into polite society. It’s important to listen to their concerns so that you can truly address what worries them, and not overwhelm them with cannabis facts they don’t want to know. Besides, you can always find like-minded individuals ready to talk about the wonders of cannabis!

Join Texas NORML today to do exactly that! Remember that we will be sending to all current members a special discount code for use when shopping at the Texas NORML store.

WHAT’S NEXT?

You’ve proved you have a vote. You found out who represents you. You spoke to their office and listened to their concerns. You wrote them to directly address those issues. What now? Next week, we take these actions into our real lives by talking to two people in our immediate peer group about cannabis, and the work you’ve done this week. See you in Week 5!