Advocacy

You could say that Idaho is in between a rock and a hard place. Whether it’s Washington and Colorado, where there are now recreational marijuana training programs; Oregon, where lawmakers will consider once again legalizing and taxing marijuana after legalization was defeated in the 2012 election; or Nevada, where a bill to make marijuana legal for adults was recently introduced in the Nevada Legislature, Idaho is surrounded by states where marijuana is either legal for medicinal or recreational use. Rather than waiting for marijuana legalization to take hold of their state, Idaho coalitions joined forces to get ahead of the problem.

Last week, CADCA participated in a press conference on Capitol Hill to support the reintroduction of the Stop the Tampering of Prescription Pills (STOPP) Act, the first federal legislation that would create a pathway to incentivize and eventually mandate the creation of physical and pharmacological abuse-deterrent formulations for commonly-abused painkillers. The bill was sponsored by Reps. Bill Keating (D-Mass.) and Hal Rogers (R-Ky.).

Attorney General Eric Holder declared the Department of Justice is nearly ready to announce how its law enforcement personnel and prosecutors will respond to the decision Colorado and Washington voters made in November to legalize marijuana use in their states.

CADCA’s Capitol Hill Day 2013 was a great success. We had a record number of members of Congress speak at our Opening Plenary and participants had meetings with over 250 members of Congress to educate them about substance abuse prevention efforts in their communities. If you met with your elected officials, CADCA wants to hear about it.

Dr. Kevin Sabet, co-founder, Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) and Assistant Professor, University of Florida, published an op-ed in the Huffington Post debunking last week’s highly-publicized Chicago Tribune opinion article by a member of the paper’s editorial board, Steven Chapman, called “The War On Pot: Not a Safe Bet.”

In preparation for Capitol Hill Day at the Forum, CADCA’s Public Policy team is hosting a Capitol Hill Day webinar on Jan. 24th at 2 p.m. EST. The webinar will help prepare you in advance for your meetings with your members of Congress. The public policy team will walk you through the steps on what to bring with you, how to best conduct your meetings on Capitol Hill Day, and why you should get involved.

Capitol Hill Day, Wednesday, Feb. 6, is one of the most exciting events at the Forum, providing participants from across the country the opportunity to educate policymakers in Congress about the importance of substance abuse prevention.

Capitol Hill Day, Wednesday, Feb. 6, is one of the most exciting events at the Forum, providing participants from across the country the opportunity to educate policymakers in Congress about the importance of substance abuse prevention.

Budget negotiations continue this week on Capitol Hill. As proposals go back and forth, it's critical to take action on behalf of the Prevention and Public Health Fund. Contact your representatives today and urge them to defend prevention funding. Every dollar invested in prevention has the proven potential to save $5 or more. The Prevention Institute, based in Oakland, Calif., says it would be the height of folly to cut prevention dollars when this small investment would save so much more.

The week before Washington voters passed Initiative 502 legalizing recreational marijuana for adults over age 21, youth in the state failed the same initiative by a margin of 49 to 51 percent, according to the 2012 student Mock Election.

Thirty of America’s 50 largest cities are now covered by laws that prohibit smoking in all indoor areas of private workplaces, restaurants, and bars, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By late 2000, only one of the 50 largest U.S. cities—San Jose, Calif.—was covered by such a law. As of Oct. 5, 2012, 16 of the 50 largest cities were covered by local comprehensive smoke-free laws, and 14 more were covered by state comprehensive smoke-free laws.

On Tuesday, voters in Washington state, Oregon and Colorado will decide if marijuana should be legal for recreational use, allowing adults to possess small amounts of pot under a regimen of state regulation and taxation. Under federal law, any marijuana use is still illegal. Three other states — Arkansas, Massachusetts, and Montana— will decide whether to allow marijuana use for so-called medicinal reasons, as 17 states and Washington, D.C. have done previously.

One Arizona community recently took steps to stop the devastation of synthetic drugs, declaring them a ‘public nuisance.’

Register now for a TV broadcast on “Debunking Marijuana Myths” on Oct. 25. The program features a panel of science, prevention, and law enforcement experts discussing myths and facts about marijuana.

As candidates hold town hall meetings and election events, it is critical that the substance abuse prevention field get candidates on the record regarding their support for/positions on substance abuse prevention, treatment, recovery and research as well as underage drinking, drug legalization and synthetic drugs. To help you do that, CADCA has CADCA has prepared questions on all of these topics so that they can be asked at election events, town meetings, radio call-in shows, and candidate forums.