For the first time in 24 years, we have a bill in Congress to end penalties for personal possession of pot. Celebrating 4/20 was nice, but now it’s time to work for marijuana law reform, so nobody need ever be arrested, fined, or harassed for their private responsible use of the herb.

Call your federal representative now (and/or click here for an email form)! As NORML Board Member Madeline Martinez says, “Put down the joint, step away from the bong, for just the minute it takes to call your government!” Don’t be intimidated; they work for you, and calling a member of Congress is really easy:

Call 202-224-3121
Support HR5843

Just be brief and polite. The operator will ask for your zip code; this will allow them to find your particular representative*. When you get to the office of your representative, ask if you can speak directly to him/her. That probably won’t happen, as they are very busy, but they do work for you, right? Who knows, maybe you’ll get lucky and speak directly to them; in which case, email us at stash ‘at’ norml.org and tell us all about it.

More likely you’ll get a staff member. If so, just say to the staffer:

Hi, my name is ____ and I live in ____. I’m calling to tell Representative ____ that he/she should support HR5843.

You don’t have to tell them where you live, but they take calls from their constituents more seriously. So if you want to be more anonymous, you could say “____ county” or “the ____ district” or even just your state.

This will give them a moment to get a pen. They may not know what “HR5843″ is. So for your next sentence, restate the bill number and then describe it, like this:

HR5843 is the bill Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts introduced that would end federal penalties for small amounts of marijuana for personal use.

Now from here, depending on how busy/interested the staffer is, you can continue the conversation. Give them reasons to say “yes” to your proposal, let them know they are politically safe in doing so. The more you can put it in your words, the better, but say away from “man, we all have the God-given right to smoke the herb, dude” lines of reasoning, no matter how true that may be. They need concrete reasons to justify their vote; sadly, our “rights” aren’t often a good enough reason.

Here are some “talking points” that if you can work into the conversation in your own words, all the better:

• 830,000 people were arrested for marijuana in 2006
• 89% of those arrests were for possession only
• Adults who use marijuana responsibly are not part of the crime problem
• A marijuana arrest can needlessly cause the loss of a career, housing, student aid, and more.
• Twelve states already have decriminalized personal possession of marijuana
• Federal resources would be better spent on meaningful crime
• Current federal penalties call for up to a $1,000 fine and one year in prison for as little as a joint.
• One third of the US population live in states that have decriminalized marijuana

Most of all, be sure to let them know this issue is important to you and it will help determine how you vote in future elections.

*You only have one. You also have two Senators. You can call them and ask them to sponsor companion legislation to Barney Frank’s HR5843 to end federal penalties for personal marijuana possession.

Tags: HR5843

This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 12:58 pm and is filed under ACTIVIST ALERT, Decriminalization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a trackback from your own site.