NORML

Update: S. 1374 and HR 2920 were referred to committees
Legislation has been reintroduced in the Senate, The Compassionate Access, Research Expansion, and Respect States (CARERS) Act of 2017, S. 1374/HR 2920 to strengthen protections for those compliant with their state’s medical marijuana laws and to impose various changes to federal law. 

Passage of CARERS 2017 exempts from federal prosecution those who are engaged in the “production, possession, distribution, dispensation, administration, laboratory testing, recommending use, or delivery of medical marijuana” in instances where these activities comport with state law. Separate provisions in Act exclude cannabidiol from the federal definition of marijuana, permit VA doctors to authorize medical cannabis access to qualified patients, and remove undue federal barriers to clinical trial research to better assess the safety and efficacy of medical cannabis. 

According to a 2017 Quinnipiac University National poll, 94% of Americans support the use of marijuana by medical patients. 

Enter your information below to send a pre-written letter to your Senators and Representative to support and co-sponsor the bill.

Update: Lawmakers reconciled the House and Senate implementation bills on July 16. The reconciled language, H 3818, imposes a new statewide excise tax of 10.75 percent on top of a 6.25 percent sales tax. Cities also have the option to impose an additional 3 percent tax. Medical marijuana sales will not be subject to taxation. The measure limits the ability of local communities to ban retail facilities if a majority of voters approved Question 4, but makes it easier for communities to do so if they previously opposed the initiative. It also expands patients’ access to medicinal cannabis by permitting nurses and physicians’ assistants the ability to recommend cannabis therapy. The measure now goes to the Governor’s desk for his signature.
Update: Lawmakers on Monday, July 10, reconvened reconciliation hearings regarding dueling House and Senate bills to implement Question 4. Please continue to contact your elected officials using the letter below to urge them to reject proposed House changes to the voter-approved law.
Update: H.3776 was amended by the Senate and failed to pass. On June 23rd, a Conference Committee was established to reconcile the differences to change the rules to Question 4. Contact your elected officials now to tell them to implement the law as soon as possible in a manner that respects the outcome of the election. Contact your legislators via email below or click here to find your representatives and give them a call to express your support for the Senate version and opposition to the House bill. 
Update: The House members reintroduced and passed their version of the Question 4 rewrite on June 21, by a vote of 126 to 28. The bill, which NORML opposes, raises taxes of marijuana sales to as much as 28 percent and also gives municipal officials, rather than voters, final say in deciding whether to have retail facilities in their neighborhoods. The House vote sets up a showdown with the Senate, which is deliberating over their own much more modest implementation bill, S.2097 — one that is supported by the Yes on 4 campaign. MassCann/NORML held a “Kill The Bill Rally at the capital on June 21. 
Update: The Senate released their own version of new rules on June 16 which is supported by the Yes On 4 campaign. 
“The House bill repeals the will of the voters–literally,” Jim Borghesani of the Yes on 4 campaign told WBZ NewsRadio 1030’s Carl Stevens. “They repeal what happened in November of 2016, and replace it with a bill that would be unworkable and that would likely result in significant delays.”
Update: Governor Charlie Baker has expressed skepticism regarding the proposed tax increase.
You have spoken. Are your elected officials listening?
On Election Day, 54 percent of voters decided in favor of Question 4: The Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act – permitting adults to legally grow and to possess marijuana for personal use, while also establishing regulations governing commercial cannabis cultivation and capping taxes on retail sales.
Your message could not have been any clearer: It is time to legalize and regulate the adult use of marijuana.

But it has become apparent that some powerful politicians and bureaucrats wish to ignore voters’ will and rewrite history.

Lawmakers have already unduly delayed the implementation of the law. Now they are moving to change the law altogether.
Members of the House have introduced and passed legislation significantly amending The Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act. Among proposed changes to the law:
The bill would more than double taxes on retail cannabis sales, from 12 percent to as much as 28 percent;
The bill would strip local control away from municipal voters and unilaterally give local government officials the power to decide whether or not to ban marijuana facilities in their communities;
The bill would restrict the kinds of marijuana edibles products that may be sold and purchased by adults.
Voters knew full well what they were voting for on Election Day. And now it is time for politicians to respect it.

Visit Massachusetts NORML to learn more about what you can do in your state.
Please use the pre-written letter below to demand your lawmakers and Gov. Baker abide by the will of the voters. 

Governor Brian Sandoval has signed legislation, Senate Bill 487, imposing new tax rates on marijuana-related business transactions.
The measure imposes an excise tax of 15 percent on wholesale cannabis sales to both medical and recreational facilities. The measure also imposes an additional ten percent retail sales tax on marijuana or marijuana-related products sold at retail (non-medical) facilities. Revenue from sales taxes will be earmarked to the state’s ‘rainy day’ reserve fund.
Full text of the law is here. 
While NORML generally does not oppose the imposition of reasonable taxation rates on retail cannabis sales, the organization opposes taxes on medical cannabis related transactions.

Update: On June 13, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said “I’ve talked to Chuck Rosenberg, the administrator of the DEA and we follow the law and the science. And from a legal and scientific perspective, marijuana is an unlawful drug. It’s properly scheduled under Schedule I. And therefore we have this conflict.” The Schedule I classification stipulates that “with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” 
Friday, June 16, the Office of National Drug Control Policy held it’s first meeting of President Trump’s “Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis.”

The Commission is tasked with making recommendations for improving the Federal response to opioid misuse and abuse.

Best evidence informs us that medical marijuana access is associated with reduced levels of opioid-related abuse, hospitalization, and mortality. For example, a widely publicized study in the esteemed Journal of the American Medical Association, Internal Medicine reports that the enactment of medical marijuana legalization laws is associated with year-over-year reductions in opioid analgesic overdose mortality. Overall, researchers determined, “States with medical cannabis laws had a 24.8 percent lower mean annual opioid overdose mortality rate compared with states without medical cannabis laws.” A similar review by investigators at the RAND Corporation determined, “[S]tates permitting medical marijuana dispensaries experience a relative decrease in both opioid addictions and opioid overdose deaths compared to states that do not.”

Medical cannabis access is also associated with reduced prescription drug spending. Investigators at the University of Georgia assessed the relationship between medical marijuana legalization laws and physicians’ prescribing patterns in 17 states over a three-year period. Specifically, researchers assessed patients’ consumption of and spending on prescription drugs approved under Medicare Part D in nine domains: anxiety, depression, glaucoma, nausea, pain, psychosis, seizures, sleep disorders, and spasticity.

Authors reported that prescription drug use fell significantly in seven of the nine domains assessed. “Ultimately, we estimated that nationally the Medicare program and its enrollees spent around $165.2 million less in 2013 as a result of changed prescribing behaviors induced by … jurisdictions that had legalized medical marijuana,” they concluded. A follow up study by this same team reported this year, “If all states had had a medical marijuana law in 2014, we estimated that total savings for fee-for-service Medicaid could have been $1.01 billion.”

Nonetheless, this administration continues to express skepticism with regard to the safety and efficacy of medical marijuana. It’s time they learn the facts!

Send the pre-written letter below to the ONDCP Commission to educate them to the positive role that cannabis access plays in curtailing opioid abuse. You can also contact the commission at (202) 395-6709.