Please Contact Your Representative

IMPORTANT NOTE: HB207 will have a different bill number when our bill is dropped. In the meantime...you can refer legislators to HB207 because it is virtually identical to the bill that will be dropped in mid-February.

Dear ACC Members,

The 2010 Alabama Legislative Session officially began on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010. Now it is time for us to get busy making contact and asking our elected officials to support our legislation that will protect patients and doctors from prosecution under state law for using or recommending medical marijuana. At this time we would like all of you in Alabama to find your state representative and call them, and if possible, set up a face to face meeting with them to ask for their support. If you don't know who your elected member in the House is please go here , look on the left side of the page and enter your zip code. That will bring up the page of your elected official which will contain their phone numbers. Some also have email addresses listed and they all have alhouse.gov email accounts. Emails are too easy to dismiss out of hand without ever reading. My advice to you is to pick up the phone and call, tell your story and make an appointment to site down face to face with your elected official. The more they see your face the more real this issue becomes for them and the harder it gets for them to label you a pot head.

A script you might want to use follows.

Hello Rep. _________ My Name is _________and I am a ______(insert illness or condition here) patient who uses medical marijuana to ease my suffering. This year a medical marijuana bill will be making its way through the Alabama House and I would like your support. Where do you stand on this issue?

Try to engage them in discussion. Ask them if you can send them some information about this issue. Ask for a time to meet them face to face either in Montgomery or in their home district.

Important things to remember:

No matter how angry a Rep's answer might make you ALWAYS REMAIN POLITE
Never lie. If you don't know the answer to a question tell them you aren't sure but will get back to them after you find out.
Always address them as Rep. or Representative (ie Rep. Todd or Representative Todd)
Thank them for their time even if you feel the meeting or phone call was unproductive.

After you talk with or visit your rep in person please do a write up and send it to lorettanall@gmail.com so that I will be able to better track where legislators responses and know where we are in terms of who supports this bill and who doesn't.

Do not call the members of the House Judiciary Committee yet. We will make contact with them as it gets closer to time to drop the bill.

Please contact us if you have any questions.


--
Loretta Nall
Executive Director
Alabamians for Compassionate Care
251-650-2271
lorettanall@gmail.com

Christie O'Brien
Outreach Coordinator
Alabamians for Compassionate Care
205-907-6131
christie.reeder@gmail.com