The Joplin Globe wants to hear from you!

Yesterday, the Joplin Globe published an editorial asking its readers to submit letters about medical marijuana. Will you please take a few minutes to write a letter in support of safe and legal access to medical marijuana for Missouri's seriously ill patients?

Your letter will not only have a significant impact on the Globe's editorial board, it will also help to persuade your elected officials to support protecting Missouri's patients. Letters need to be less than 300 words and can be sent to letters@joplinglobe.com or submitted through the paper's online form.

It's especially important that you submit a letter if you are a medical professional or a patient who would benefit from legal medical marijuana. If you are in one of these groups, please be sure to mention that in your letter.

Feel free to use some of these talking points in your letter:

• Dozens of major health organizations have called for legal and safe access to medical marijuana, including, the American College of Physicians, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the American Nurses Association.
• In a White House-commissioned 1999 report, the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine declared, "Nausea, appetite loss, pain, and anxiety are all afflictions of wasting and all can be mitigated by marijuana."
• 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."
• Physicians are legally allowed to prescribe many drugs that are far more dangerous than marijuana, including cocaine, morphine, methamphetamine, and OxyContin. It makes no sense to prohibit them from including marijuana as a treatment option for their patients.

For more resources to help in your letter-writing, check out MPP's online library.

Thank you for writing a persuasive letter to the editor. This is one of the most effective ways you can advance the cause of allowing safe and legal access to medical marijuana in Missouri.