Read the full legislative report-back from Washington State NORML’s Legislative Associate Bailey Hirschburg
Category: Citizen Lobbyists
Now, as NORML KC approaches it’s chapter’s two-year anniversary at the end of August, they have a victory in hand and sights set statewide for access.
NORML’s 2017 Conference at the Capitol Hilton in Washington, DC and Congressional Lobby Day at the United States Capitol is scheduled for September 10th-12th. Hundreds of marijuana consumers, activists, patients and business owners are expected to attend a day-long training and informational conference on Monday and re-convene on The Hill Tuesday to personally lobby their elected members of the House of Representatives and Senate.
NORML Chapters across the country are starting to shift their focus from state-level lobbying efforts to Congressional Town Hall meetings for the August recess. In addition to engaging their representatives, activists will be encouraging participants to join the marijuana law reform conversation.
Senator Corey Booker (D-NJ) has introduced comprehensive marijuana reform legislation, the Marijuana Justice Act of 2017.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, the amendments lead sponsor, testified before the committee that it was “a critical area of literally life and death.”
Yesterday, NORML moderated a Facebook Congressional Conversation on marijuana law reform with Representatives Earl Blumenauer, Tom Garrett, Beto O’Rourke, and Justin Amash.
We discussed a wide range of issues including the needless burden of the federal driver’s license suspension mandate, access to medical marijuana, racial injustice, and pending bipartisan legislation to remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act.
Today, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted 24-7 to include the Veterans Equal Access amendment as part of the 2018 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, which would expand much needed medical marijuana access to our nation’s veterans.