Update on Illinois medical marijuana bill

What looked like it would be a disappointing day in the statehouse yesterday left us with a glimmer of hope. Legislation that would make Illinois the 16^th medical marijuana state received another vote in the Illinois House of Representatives yesterday. Sixty votes are needed for passage, and the bill received as many as 58 votes at one point before ending with 56. This is an improvement over the November 30 vote, when the bill received only 53 "yes" votes. Still, there’s hope.
A representative who voted “no” can file a motion for reconsideration in order for the bill to be voted on once more, and in fact, one of them already has. That means we should have 59 votes now and we just need one more to pass the bill. That’s where you come in. One representative voted “yes” on the bill back in November, but only voted “present” yesterday. We’d like to run a poll of his legislative district today so that we can show that member just how much his constituents support the bill. We know the poll will show strong support, we just need the resources to run it.
Please donate to MPP so that we can conduct the poll and get the last vote we need.
The other favor I’d like to ask is for you to “thank or spank” your representative for their vote yesterday. We’ve set up a page with the roll call of the vote and a link to a tool to find your representative. Once you’ve determined whether your representative voted “yes,” “no,” or “present,” simply click on the respective link to use our call system and call your representative. To pass this bill, we’re going to need every single member who voted “yes” yesterday to do it again next week, and the best way to ensure they do so is to thank them for their vote. Of course, it wouldn’t hurt to convince one or two of the “no” voters to come over to our side.
Either way, it’s very important that you be polite, courteous, and professional on your call. Mean-spirited callers will simply alienate legislators and that’s the last thing we want to do.
Visit our roll call page to determine how your representative voted and “thank or spank” him or her accordingly.
Thanks, and we can still do this yet!

Dan Riffle
Legislative Analyst
Marijuana Policy Project