Nurses and healthcare providers - Please email Janis Ramquist NC NORML Government Affairs Consultant to help reach healthcare legislators to support medical cannabis. Other legislators will be looking to them for their opinions.
Reminder: February is “Zoom Cannabis lobbying month”. Please consider contacting your legislators.
Also, please copy and paste the following email and send it to all the legislators in your county.
Find the Representatives in your county.
Find the Senators in your county.
Dear Senator or Representative (Insert Name):
The opioid crisis and other drug use is affected by cannabis but not in the way some might suspect. States that have legalized cannabis - for either medical or adult use - experience reductions of cocaine and opioid use as well as declines in opioid related deaths. Several studies have provided solid evidence of this:
A 2014 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine study found that not only were opioid overdose mortality rates ~25% lower in states that had legalized medical cannabis but rates continue to decline over time with legalization. SOURCE: Medical cannabis laws and opioid analgesic overdose mortality in the United States, 1999-2010
IMPACT ON NC: The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) reported that in 2018, NC had a total of 1,783 opioid fatalities. If we had legalized cannabis we might have had a 25% reduction in that number which would mean 445 lives saved in that year alone. SOURCE: National Institute on Drug Abuse - NC 2018 Opioid Related Deaths
A 2017 American Journal of Public Health study found that recreational cannabis legalization was associated with a reduction in the number of deaths from opioids, reversing what had been an upward trend in deaths, in Colorado. SOURCE: Recreational Cannabis Legalization and Opioid-Related Deaths in Colorado, 2000–2015
JAMA Internal Medicine published a 2018 review of opioid prescribing rates. The study found that states which had implemented medical marijuana laws saw a 5.88% lower rate of opioid prescriptions. States that allow for recreational use of marijuana had even lower rate (as much as 6.38%) of opioid prescriptions. SOURCE: Association of Medical and Adult-Use Marijuana Laws With Opioid Prescribing for Medicaid Enrollees
Rand Corporation found in states that legalized marijuana (2006 to 2010), the amount of cocaine consumed decreased by approximately 50% while an estimated amount of marijuana consumption increased more than 30%. These figures are consistent with supply-side indicators, such as seizures and production estimates. SOURCE: Cocaine's Fall and Marijuana's Rise: Questions and Insights Based on New Estimates of Consumption and Expenditures in US Drug Markets
Please support access to medical and adult-use cannabis.
Sincerely,
Your Name
Your County
Your contact info (optional)
If you have questions on Effective Advocacy, please email Janis Ramquist.
NC NORML needs you to share your personal insights with your lawmakers so they understand the human impact of prohibition.
- Have you written a persuasive “elevator speech”?
- Check out our website for supporting facts and information
- If you have spoken with your legislators, please fill out this constituent insight form so we can add to our legislative database
As always:
Donate to NC NORML to support marijuana reform.
If this email was forwarded to you, sign up for future Nuggets.
Stay up-to-date by checking in on our website or following NC NORML on social media using the links in the footer.
#NCNORML
#LegalizeCannabis
#LegalizeNC