By Sarah Diesel

This year, before you go to a 420 party or medicate so much you pass out, try to do at least one form of advocacy. Below are 4 ideas to get you started, but feel free to be creative and try something new!

April 20 aka 420 – the international day to (uh, hem… excuse my French) “smoke weed”. As a medical cannabis advocate this is the one day we can be (yes, I’m going to use the “s” word) a “Stoner”. 364 days a year we fight an uphill battle to be accepted in society for using a natural plant that is federally illegal and on April 20th we usually medicate so much that we can officially say we’re “stoned”! Gosh, I sure feel like I need to wash my mouth out with soap after that intro! Moving on.

1

Write to a Cannabis Prisoner of War (POW)

In last month’s issue I went in depth about how to send a card or letter to a Cannabis POW. This is such a powerful and rewarding yet simple act of kindness. If you were in their shoes wouldn’t you want to get a card from the outside world? It lets them know that someone cares about them and it will surely put a smile on their face. Here are some ways to help POW’s:

Send a card, postcard, letter and/or a drawn picture

Add money to their commissary via Western Union

Send them books from an online bookstore

Subscribe to magazine and/or newspaper subscriptions’ for them

You can find more information about POWs and addresses on where to write inmates at www.landaprisonoutreachprogram.com.

2

Donate to a Medical Cannabis Organization 

Cannabis organizations require money in order to educate the public and help make cannabis an excepted part of society. When you donate to an organization you are not only supporting the cannabis movement you are now becoming a part of it. Anything from a one-time donation to monthly donations helps a great deal. According to a recent study, a record 50% of Americans favor legalizing cannabis. This would be 154.5 million people. If we each donated just $4.20 cannabis organizations we could raise $648,900,000! That could be used towards hiring lobbyists to help get cannabis re-classified from a Schedule I drug and so many more positive ways to help the cannabis community.

Do your research online to find the cannabis organization(s) of your choice and most of them will have a “donate” page. It varies amongst the organizations but you can donate by phone, online and through the mail.

3

Subscribe to Cannabis Organizations’ Email Lists 

Most cannabis organizations send online newsletters and updates via email and it’s a great way to stay informed. Research online what organizations you wish to get emails from and sign up through their websites. It’s usually free, discrete and really easy! Sometimes, you can get quite a bit of emails, so the best advice I can give you is to either create a separate email address just for these alerts or use the filter function in your current email box. This will definitely help keep your emails organized.

4

Register to Vote! 

If you haven’t registered to vote, I suggest you consider doing so because this year is the Presidential Election. Every vote counts and makes a difference! California’s Presidential Primary Election is June 5, 2012 which means your registration must be postmarked no later than May 21, 2012. Visit www.sos.ca.gov to register to vote, check the status of your voter registration, find your polling location, register to vote by mail and so much more. By the way, if you have moved since the last election you will need to update your voter registration.

Have a Happy and Safe 420!