Following a roller coaster of a legislative session where the true strength of cannabis advocacy was witnessed against Lt. Governor Patrick’s staunch opposition and serial killing of cannabis reform, a few of the strongest of cannabis advocates in Texas will soon be hitting the road. The brilliantly passionate directors Jax Finkel of Texas NORML and Heather Fazio of Texans for Responsible Marijuana Policy respectively will soon be traversing the Lone Star State for a multitude of advocacy and knowledge expansion-related reasons.
For Finkel, travelling statewide to educate on cannabis isn’t anything particularly new. In fact, Finkel with NORML and Fazio with TRMP have been commuting throughout Texas for half a decade.
“These traveling educational workshops originally started in 2015 when Texas NORML (TXN) and Texans for Responsible Marijuana Policy (TRMP) decided to combine the Advocacy Workshops Texas NORML had been hosting in Austin and the regional political engagement program Heather Fazio had created on the road to the rest of Texas,” Finkel said. “We hosted these again in 2016 and 2017. By 2018, we decided that sister organization Foundation for an Informed Texas (FIT) would be most appropriate to work with TRMP on these workshops due to our work in rural Texas, except for the ones hosted in Austin. From 2015 to now, we have hosted about three dozen of these events in urban and rural areas.”
The two longtime activists who spent countless hours informing, educating and serving as generals in the fight of supporting the many cannabis reform pieces of legislation will be visiting a total of ten different Texas cities and using their vast experience in all fronts of cannabis advocacy to finely create an informative and thought-provoking workshop on the subject.
“We base the curriculum on the time of year that we travel and the point of the 2 year cycle we are in as well as questions we hear from the public, legislators and the media. We adjust based on each city we are in. But the general content will be civic engagement, taking a look back on where we have been and talking about future strategy and timeline, discussion of cannabis facts and policy briefing as well as a robust Q&A portion. “ Finkel described.
And given the non-partisan and unbiased viewpoints of both organizations, the workshops will provide an honest look at Texas’ elected officials on all sides of the political aisle along with how each state political party’s views on cannabis. Many officials will be discussed, from champion for Texas cannabis reform El Paso Representative Joe Moody to the vasectomized on live air lieutenant governor and Dennis Rader of cannabis reform, Dan Patrick himself.
Spanning from San Antonio to Lubbock and Midland, the advocates made sure to visit locations not popularly visited by cannabis reform groups, Bryan and Lufkin most notably along with a stop in Tyler. And even for those not too familiar with cannabis advocacy, the workshops will be memorable regardless.
“Depending on where you are at in your own advocacy evolution, there may be different benefits.” Finkel informed. “These workshops usually address beginner to intermediate content but we delve into Q&A so we can go where the attendees educational needs are. These are also important networking events for attendees so they can connect with like minded people in their areas, especially in the more rural areas. Additionally, these types of events help keep momentum going during the interim and help people prepare.”
The workshops will also provide attendees with a greater understanding of the oftentimes confusing state of affairs within the Texas Legislature from advocates who’ve spent so much quality time within the Texas Capitol.
“We try to help people understand why we have to work through the Legislature, how to engage locally and what the two-year timeline looks like. This can be participating in the primary elections, working your way through the political convention process for your political party, understanding the legislative process and more.” Finkel said.
Above all else, Finkel hopes that the touring series of educational workshops inspire the varying attendees to not only become involved in the local political process but also the activities of their local communities.
“It is important for advocates to meet each other and deepen the network in their area.” Finkel said. “It should also empower them to engage with their legislators during the interim to build their relationship before the upcoming legislative session.”
For information, please visit either the websites for Foundation for an Informed Texas or Texans for Responsible Marijuana Policy.
