House Bill 1181, the Raymond Shafer Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, currently sits in the House Health committee. Representative Matt Baker (R – Tioga County) sits as the chairman to this committee.

Starting on Monday April 28th, we’re asking you to call Baker’s offices and voice your support for HB1181. His numbers are:

District offices: (570) 724-1390 and (570) 297-3045

(570) 724-1390 and (570) 297-3045 Harrisburg office: (717) 772-5371

They’ll ask your name and address. Respond with that of course (the city/town will usually do). Say you’re calling in support of HB1181 (either as a patient, advocate, etc). and that you want Rep. Baker to put it to a vote in the Health committee. If you have a story about your condition or a friend/family member, feel free to expand on why you need medical marijuana passed in PA. They’ll ask you if you’ve spoken with your own Representative about it and try to deflect why you’re calling, but stick to it and just re-iterate that you’re hoping Matt Baker will move HB1181 out of his committee so the House can vote on it.

This bill has been sitting in the Health committee since Representative Mark Cohen introduced it in April of 2013. Rep. Baker has been a staunch opponent of medical marijuana ever since we first had a hearing in 2009. In 2011, advocates and patients consistently called and emailed his office and put enough pressure on him to vote the bill (HB1653 at the time) out of his committee into Human Services. Rather ironically, it’s the only time any medical marijuana bill has actually been voted out of committee in PA. Every single member of the Health committee in 2011 voted “YES” (except one who did not vote) to move it to Human Services.

Morning is usually the best time to call, as he’s more likely to be in one of his offices. Between 1pm and 3pm he’s more likely to be in session. You probably won’t get through to Baker himself, but if we make enough noise in his offices it will definitely get to him that we want this bill to move.

This specific calling campaign will end when either HB1181 is moved out of committee as we want, or Representative Cox’s SB1182 counterpart (which is still in the process of being introduced) is fully introduced into the House and we know what committee it’s assigned to.