Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2000
Subject: IMPORTANT Are YOU Writing At Least One Letter Per Week?
You are receiving this because you have either signed up to receive
Focus Alerts from the Media Awareness Project (MAP) of the DrugSense
organization at http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm or you are on a
drug policy reform listserv. Apologies to those who are in fact
writing one or more letters a week. This message is for those who are
not.
—
Sure we’re all busy and it’s easy to procrastinate or simply delete
DrugSense Focus Alerts and assume that someone else will write those
letters but every so often it’s important that we remind ourselves how
important it is for every drug policy reformer to commit to writing at
least one letter a week utilizing the tools provided by MAP. There is
little that most drug policy reform advocates can do that is more
effective and rewarding.
Recently we have seen a bit of a drop off in the number of letters
that are sent in reply to our weekly alerts despite the fact that we
have more letter writing volunteers than ever. Perhaps you are writing
letters but you are not sending copies of them to the sent letters
list? (If so see below)
It is vitally import that we keep participation in the MAP effort at
high levels. We have had a profound effect on the print media as can
be evidenced by scanning the headlines at http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/
on any given day.
Four years ago it was difficult to find a pro-reform article. Today
after 4 years of MAP and tens of thousands of letters influencing and
educating the media and the public, it is difficult to find a pro-drug
war article unless it is written by Barry McCaffrey, Joe Califano or
some other drug warrior with an agenda and a fat paycheck to protect.
Please help us help reform by writing a letter a week. You can either
utilize our weekly Focus Alerts or use the DrugSense Weekly Newsletter or
the news archive to select an article that particularly interests you.
Nearly all articles include the email address of the newspaper making this
a very easy task. Numbers matter. Even a short LTE sends a powerful
message. Please consider recommitting yourself to this important endeavor.
Remember to send a copy of your letter in so they can be archived. Simply
put the word SENT in the subject and send your letter to
sentlte@drugsense.org if you are subscribed. You can subscribe to this list
at http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form
If you are not subscribed to the Sent LTE list please send a copy of your
letter to MGreer@mapinc.org and I will forward your letter to the list.
We are also interested in any ideas that you may have that would help to
encourage greater participation in the MAP letter writing effort.
Thanks for your efforts. Together We ARE making a difference.
—
HOW TO BE MORE EFFECTIVE AT PROMOTING SENSIBLE DRUG POLICY ALTERNATIVES
One of the best, most effective, and cheapest ways of gaining positive PR
is the methods developed by the Media Awareness Project (MAP). All members
encouraged to be on the lookout for any news articles on drug policy
issues. They should be posted to our central clearinghouse at
editor@mapinc.org See
http://www.mapinc.org/hawk.htm
for more info on how to be a NewsHawk
You can also use topical shortcuts to read the articles others have posted
to the DrugNews archive these have been developed for most states and most
issues so you can see articles you want for locations or issues of
particular interest to you or your group
There are hundreds of past news articles complete with the publications
email addresses for easy letter writing in each topical shortcut.
A concerted effort to write letters to these publication should be
undertaken by all list members. You will be amazed at how quickly the media
can be educated. Impressive PR can be managed with a consistent letter
writing effort. We have seen it hundreds of times in hundreds of newspapers
and localities over the last few years.
Letters to the editor (LTEs) when published are like small ads that have
been taken out for drug policy reform. They are read by many thousands
(sometimes millions) of individuals. The MAP effort has reported nearly
3,000 published LTEs to date with an overall advertising value of more than
$2.7 MILLION. The average advertising value of just one published LTE is
more than $1,000. An LTE in USA Today can be worth more than $10,000. See
http://www.mapinc.org/lte/
Be sure to send a copy of your sent LTEs to sentlte@drugsense.org if you
are subscribed to that list or to me at MGreer@mapinc.org if not and I will
forward them for archiving. Any published LTEs should go to
editor@mapinc.org for permanent archiving. It is helpful if you put SENT or
PUBLTE in the subject.
Learn about how to write better and more effective letters at our writer’s
resources web page
http://www.mapinc.org/resource/
It’s fun it’s easy and how else can you contribute thousands of dollars in
value to the drug policy reform effort for free, in just a few minutes, and
while at home in front of your computer?