Physicians' Day at the State House!
Posted on January 30, 2025
Who: Individual Physicians/residents/medical students, specialty groups, healthcare-related advocacy groups, physician employers, etc.
When/Where: Please join us from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm on Thursday, March 6th, at the State House for a Physician Advocacy Day!
What: For those who haven’t done this before, we will have a tabling event in the Hall of Flags (the second floor of the State House). Breakfast, tables, and chairs will be available, but please bring anything else you might need to welcome legislators and learn more about your organization. Candy and other freebies never hurt! Other opportunities on that day:
- If you have children, please feel free to have them join! Let us know, and we can sign them up to be honorary pages in the House and Senate.
- If you are interested in public health + climate changes or tobacco waste, we will be co-hosting a lunch and learning session with the Maine Public Health Association in the Legislative Council room (third floor), and you are welcome to join us!
- If you want to learn more about how the Legislature works, some committees will meet in the afternoon. Here is the schedule!
Why: Legislators want to meet with and hear from their constituents, which is a great way to raise awareness of pro-medicine issues.
Thank you to everyone who filled out the Google form indicating you are attending the event. If you haven’t yet, please do! I will be sharing more details about the event with those signed up. If you can’t use Google, please email me directly at asedlack@mainephysicians.org.
2. Alliance for Responsible Cannabis - Maine (ARC-ME)
MMA/MOA have recently joined efforts with other healthcare groups to advocate for reasonable public health guardrails around the adult use and medical cannabis markets. We would love for other groups to join us.
ARC-ME is a multi-sector coalition working to prevent youth cannabis use, protect patient health, and ensure safety, accountability, and transparency in the cannabis industry. It includes the Maine Children's Alliance, the Maine Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Maine Public Health Association, and more.
Our priorities are to raise awareness about the health impacts of high-potency cannabis use among youth and adopt a test, track, and trace system to ensure a safer medical cannabis program.
To join the coalition, please endorse our principles and priorities document here. Once you join, we'll include your logo to the attached flier that we're circulating to legislators and keep you in the loop on all relevant legislative updates/action alerts and more. If you have questions please reach out to Matt Wellington at Maine Public Health Association at mwellington@mainepublichealth.org.
3. Join MMA/MOA Legislative Committee Calls!
To continue to stay updated on all advocacy opportunities, please join our weekly legislative calls from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm on Thursday evenings! Register for the meeting here.