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Amazing progress on medical marijuana in Minnesota and Illinois

Submitted by dguard on

[Courtesy of MPP] 

MPP surprised all the political pundits when the final Minnesota House committee passed our medical marijuana bill with a 13-4 vote yesterday! The bill — which would protect Minnesota’s medical marijuana patients from arrest and jail — now heads to the House floor for the final battle ... meaning that Minnesota could be just two or three weeks away from becoming the 13th medical marijuana state.
 
We’re also making historic progress in Illinois, where our medical marijuana bill — which Illinois voters support by a whopping 67% to 27% margin — has cleared a major hurdle, passing the Senate Public Health Committee by a 6-4 vote last month, and is now slated for the Senate floor.

But we need your help to push both bills to victory. Our opposition is pushing back, and we need to make sure these bills don’t get halted in their tracks when we’re so close to a double win. Would you please donate whatever you can afford to ensure we can take these bills all the way and make Minnesota and Illinois and the 13th and 14th medical marijuana states?

For instance, in Minnesota, police officers are calling legislators and urging them to vote “no.” And in Illinois, the opposition is spreading lies about our bill, claiming that it would allow patients to drive under the influence of marijuana, use marijuana in the workplace, or become drug dealers. The bad guys are also claiming that our legislation would encourage kids to use marijuana — but in fact marijuana use among teens has actually gone down — not up — in each of the medical marijuana states with available data.

As you can see, we urgently need your help to fight back and ensure that legislators hear the facts about what our bills would do.

I know we all have competing demands for our money. So if you’re not sure about donating, would you please take a minute to meet some of the seriously ill patients who are counting on our help? You can read about some of the patients whose health and freedom depend on these bills here ... and even watch video footage here.

Even a small donation will help protect patients like these from arrest and jail.

Thank you in advance for anything you can do to help. Your support is what has allowed MPP to successfully pass medical marijuana laws in states like Montana, Rhode Island, and Vermont, and it can make the difference again.

Sincerely,
Kampia signature (e-mail sized)

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

P.S. As I've mentioned in previous alerts, a major philanthropist has committed to match the first $3.0 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2008. This means that your donation today will be doubled.

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