Criminal Justice Forum

Many of MPP’s e-mail alerts include requests for donations, because MPP is 100% dependent on the generosity of our dues-paying members to continue with our work. But there are many other ways you can help to end marijuana prohibition. Here are 15 of them:

1. Tell your friends to sign up for MPP’s free e-mail alerts. Send them to http://www.mpp.org/subscribe today.

2. Send letters to your three members of Congress by visiting http://action.mpp.org to use MPP’s free and easy automated system.

3. Spread the word. Volunteer to circulate sign-up sheets to subscribe others to MPP’s free e-mail list. E-mail [email protected] for more information on how to get started.

4. Get published. Write letters to the editor of your local newspaper about the need for marijuana policy reform. Feel free to use any of the information in MPP’s e-mail alerts and on our Web site in your letters.

5. Ask your local radio stations to run MPP’s radio ads as public service announcements.

6. Download MPP’s printer-friendly handouts and brochures at http://www.mpp.org/materials and distribute our literature in your community.

7. If you listen to talk radio, call in and express your support for reforming our nation’s marijuana laws. Even if the subject being discussed isn’t explicitly about marijuana, many related issues can be used as a springboard for advocating marijuana policy reform. For example, if the issue is crime, you can point out that law enforcement resources would be better spent going after violent criminals than on arresting adults who use marijuana responsibly.

8. E-mail MPP’s Katelyn Bradwell at [email protected] for help in arranging meetings with your state legislators and members of Congress. Face-to-face visits with policymakers and their staffs can be enormously effective if you’re sufficiently prepared for such meetings.

9. Link to MPP’s Web site, by visiting http://www.mpp.org/banners to download MPP’s banner ads to post on your own Web site, and encourage your Web site’s visitors to get involved with marijuana policy reform by clicking on our ad.

10. If you’re a medical professional, lawyer, elected official, medical marijuana patient (or have a loved one who is), or member of the clergy or law enforcement, e-mail [email protected] about special ways you can help.

11. If you’re a student, choose a marijuana-related issue for your research projects or papers. Students in your class will be exposed to the issue, and professors sometimes even use student ideas for their own research projects.

12. Work to get your city council to pass an ordinance making marijuana offenses your city’s lowest law enforcement priority. MPP’s grants program may be able to help with funding; visit http://www.mpp.org/grants for information.

13. When you shop at major online retailers, such as amazon.com, gap.com, and many others, you can have a portion of the cost of your purchase automatically donated to MPP — without adding to the cost of your purchase. To get started, simply register with www.iGive.com, enter MPP as your cause (cause ID = 2564), and then shop through the www.iGive.com portal in the future.

14. If you’re a MySpace user, help MPP increase its supporter network by befriending the "Marijuana Policy Project" on MySpace and putting us in your "Top 8" friends. Our MySpace site (http://www.myspace.com/marijuanapolicyproject) features videos, a blog, and other content that’s updated regularly.

15. Encourage your friends to visit http://www.mpp.org/donate to become dues-paying members of MPP. MPP does not have an endowment or any revenue-generating investments, so we are 100% dependent upon the donations that people willingly give. This means that the cost of our campaigns is limited to the amount of money that MPP can raise from our 21,000 dues-paying members and a handful of major philanthropists.

Together, one person at a time, our work is paying off. On behalf of all of us at MPP, thank you for standing with us in the fight.

Sincerely,

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