Marijuana Policy Project

 MPP's tips for writing letters-to-the-editor on medical marijuana

Letters-to-the-editor are a great way to encourage your state legislators and fellow Iowa residents to take action on medical marijuana. Click here for a link to Yahoo's complete listing of Iowa newspapers that have Web sites. Many papers, of course, do not have online publications, but you can obtain information on how to submit a letter-to-the-editor from the print edition of any newspaper you wish to target.

Iowa currently treats seriously ill medical marijuana patients as criminals. The following talking points are MPP's suggestions for letters-to-the-editor supporting medical marijuana legislation.

• Medical marijuana is a popular issue. A November 2005 nationwide Gallup poll showed 78% of Americans “support making marijuana legally available for doctors to prescribe in order to reduce pain and suffering,” and state medical marijuana initiatives have been repeatedly endorsed by voters.

• So far, only three state legislatures — Hawaii, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Vermont — have had the courage to stop arresting patients without a drive from the voters.

• Like those four states, Iowa has no voter initiative process for legislation. The state legislature must have the courage to pass a bill if patients in Iowa will ever earn protection from arrest for medical marijuana.

• This is not a partisan issue; it is a compassion issue.

• Many otherwise illegal substances, such as cocaine and morphine, can legally be prescribed by doctors. The same should be true for marijuana.

• Many of the legal alternatives proposed by opponents of medical marijuana are too expensive, too addictive, and have too many side effects to be good medicine for all patients.

• Chemotherapy patients who are too nauseated to eat or swallow a pill should not have to fear arrest if they — and their doctors — find that smoking marijuana is the most effective means of treating their symptoms.

• Ultimately, the decision of what medicine is best for an illness should be left up to the patient and the doctor, not to the government.

• When they have their doctors’ approval, patients should be able to use medical marijuana without fear of arrest and imprisonment. They should also be able to rely on a safe supply of marijuana, without having to resort to the dangerous criminal market.

• State government should use tax money to prosecute violent crime, not punish medical marijuana users.

• For all of these reasons, our legislature should enact laws that protect patients from arrest and imprisonment.

Tips for writing effective letters-to-the-editor

• Include your complete contact information — home and office — so the paper can verify the letter, and use an organizational affiliation, if possible. (Consider starting a local drug policy organization, if only to spread the reform message.)

• Local newspapers are far more likely to publish letters than out-of-state papers (this does not apply to major newspapers).

• Tailor letters for specific newspapers. If you're going to write to the Wall Street Journal, you can be pedantic, but you should “dumb it down” for certain papers. You're always better off preempting editors.

• Most newspapers require that submitted letters be exclusive. When recycling letters, make slight edits. The same letter published in both the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun on the same day would not be good. The same letter simultaneously published in Alabama and Idaho should not pose a problem.

• Keep track of when you last sent a letter to a particular newspaper, and avoid sending the same letter to the same newspaper twice. Anything that indicates you have a system in place will hurt your chances of getting published.

• Visit the newspaper's Web site to determine its policy for publishing letters. In general, letters should be under 250 words. The shorter the letter, the greater its chance of being published. Most papers will edit letters down to less than 200 words anyway.

• In general, letters written in response to editorials are more likely to be published than those written in response to wire stories (this does not apply to major news stories).

• Respond to major news stories while they are still hot. However, you should still invest time in editing and spell-check your letter.

• Be short, clear, and concise. Don't try to make every point you could make: stick to one or two key points and make each succinctly.

• Write with a specific target audience in mind, i.e. soccer moms, fiscal conservatives, etc.

• Avoid scathing criticism. Civility will increase the likelihood of your views being published.

• Add local relevance where possible, especially when replying to an AP wire story (use the MAP search functions). Repeat information found in the article if necessary.

• Include credible statistics to make a point, especially when government statistics are cited (see www.drugwarfacts.org). Include links to government Web sites whenever possible.