I received the following action alert from Philly NORML:

As you are probably well aware, the PA medical marijuana bill Senate Bill 3 which passed the Senate this past March has hit a brick wall in the House. The same brick wall that’s plagued medical marijuana legislation since 2009 – Rep. Matt Baker (R – Tioga County). Baker chairs the Health committee, where SB3, HB193, and even the new HR373 have been assigned. He’s been quoted numerous times stating that he will not move any medical marijuana bill.

It’s time that Philly NORML did something about this. There are possible ways around Rep. Baker, but it’s up to us to make it happen. What we want to do is get another member of the Health committee to make a motion to re-refer SB3 to a different committee, such as Judiciary or Human Services. That motion requires another committee member to ‘second’ it. Once that happens they can vote on it no matter what Baker thinks. This exact process happened in 2011 with the medical marijuana bill we had there at the time – we ended up moving it out of Health into Human Services.

We can’t let Baker hold up the process any longer. We can’t let him block medical marijuana legislation for the FOURTH Legislative session in a row! Not only do we know medical marijuana is a popular issue in the state, but we know that efforts to improve and pass the bill will succeed if we move it out of the Health committee. More importantly, we know the bill will pass once it gets to the floor.

Please take 10 minutes out of your day to reach out to the following legislators below to deliver a simple message:

“The next time the Health committee holds a hearing, please make a motion to re-refer SB3, HB193, and HR373 to either the Judiciary or Human Services committee.”

The members of the Health committee:

Co-Chair: Florindo J. Fabrizio ffabrizio@pahouse.net (814) 455-6319, (717) 787-4358

Republicans:

Kristin Hill khill@pahousegop.com (717) 428-9889, (717) 783-8389

Marcy Toepel mtoepel@pahousegop.com (610) 323-3299, (717) 787-9501

Tarah Toohil ttoohil@pahousegop.com (570) 453-1344, (717) 260-6136

Becky Corbin bcorbin@pahousegop.com (610) 524-5595, (717) 783-2520

Jim Cox jcox@pahousegop.com (610) 670-0139, (717) 772-2435 (medical cannabis advocate)

Gary Day gday@pahousegop.com (610) 760-7082, (717) 787-3017

Frank A. Farry ffarry@pahousegop.com (215) 752-6750, (717) 260-6140

Marcia M. Hahn mhahn@pahousegop.com (610) 746-2100, (717) 783-8573

Aaron D. Kaufer akaufer@pahousegop.com (570) 283-1001, (717) 787-3798

Tim Krieger tkrieger@pahousegop.com (724) 834-6400, (724) 925-5490, (717) 260-6146

John A. Lawrence jlawrence@pahousegop.com (610) 869-1602, (717) 260-6117

Harry Lewis Jr. hlewis@pahousegop.com (610) 269-1289, (610) 857-2145, (717) 787-1806

Paul Schemel pschemel@pahousegop.com (717) 749-7384, (717) 263-1053, (717) 783-5218

Jesse Topper jtopper@pahousegop.com (814) 623-9097, (717) 787-7076

Judy Ward jward@pahousegop.com (814) 695-2398, (814) 742-7204, (717) 787-9020

Democrats:

Mary Jo Daley mdaley@pahouse.net (610) 832-1679, (717) 787-9475

Vanessa Lowery Brown vbrown@pahouse.net (215) 879-6615, (717) 783-3822 (cosponsor of HB193)

Michael H. Schlossberg mschlossberg@pahouse.net (610) 821-5577, (717) 705-1869

Kevin J. Boyle kboyle@pahouse.net (215) 331-2600, (215) 695-1016, (717) 783-4944 (cosponsor of HB193)

Jason Dawkins jdawkins@pahouse.net (215) 744-7901, (717) 787-1354

Pamela A. DeLissio pdelissio@pahouse.net (215) 482-8726, (717) 783-4945

Robert F. Matzie rmatzie@pahouse.net (724) 266-7774, (724) 375-3052, (717) 787-4444

Gerald J. Mullery gmullery@pahouse.net (570) 740-7031, (570) 636-3500, (717) 783-4893

Michael H. O’Brien mobrien@pahouse.net (215) 503-3245, (717) 783-8098

Philly NORML has not yet weighed in on moving these bills out of Rep. Baker’s direct influence, but the time has come. We are a political force, but only if we act! So call and email today!

Thank you,

– The Philly NORML Team

PS: if you happen to know anybody in Rep. Baker’s district, now would be the time to reach out to them and ask them to tell him to get with the program.