How do we go about potentially decriminalizing drugs in our home state?

names changed to protect the guilty. I sent this email to my state senator last week, and our state representative today. I received a call from the state representative today about this email and we had a 15 minute chat about potentially decriminalizing drugs in our home state. He was receptive to the idea, and had already spoken to her state senator counterpart who is also potentially open to the idea. The representative that I spoke to has a son that is a recovering addict, so that may have helped us make a personal connection. <br><br>how do we go about potentially forcing a bill to be put forward about this? We are in a midwestern state that is a bit socially conservative, so dont know if this is actually a possibility.<br><br>EDIT: It's been an hour on this post, and we now have 4K views, and 300 comments. We will go through all of them later tonight after work and compile a list. We will have another update post on Saturday, and add a few more representatives to that email list. Please keep the suggestions coming. We've already received a message from a different state representative, and potentially a local news outlet.<br><br>EDIT: we've now received over 10K views in just under 2 hours. Over 500 comments, and a potentially new state representative that is on board. Thank you for the overwhelmingly positive feedback. We will compile all the information we have tonight to make another push on Saturday. We've sent out invites to potentially add 2 other people to our team, if they accept we will add them to this post. Please keep the suggestions coming, and positive feedback. <br><br>EDIT: Over 20K views and 1200 comments in 6 hours. We've potentially added a few more state representatives to our cause, and have compiled a list of what you've suggested that we will use as we keep moving forward. We will put out another update on Saturday as we send out more emails to state and federal representatives. We've also put together a list of our local mayors, sheriffs, police chiefs, and county commissioners. We will start sending this email out to those people on Monday. We've already received potentially positive feedback from a local police chief and mayor. Keep the suggestions coming, and thank you for positive feedback.<br><br>EDIT: 30K views, 2K comments, 100 upvotes over night. We potentially have 2 more state representatives that may be on board. We sent out 15 emails last night before bed to mayors, sheriffs, police chiefs, and county commissioners. We received a call this morning from someone high up in our police department that wasn't happy with us emailing the police chief and attempting to subvert the chain of command, he said that he wasn't for the idea, but his biggest fear was that if our city were to decriminalize drugs, that our city would become a hub for surrounding counties. We've received a few other calls this morning from local government officials that are potentially on board. We've also had a few local news outlets potentially reach out this morning. We are planning on sending another 50 emails tonight to local government officials. We've also compiled a list of every city/town council member in the state, so if we get enough interest we can potentially start sending emails out to them as well.<br><br>EDIT: Saturday update. We potentially have 2 more state representatives on board. We sent out another 40 emails to local government officials. We potentially have a meeting set up next Wednesday evening with a high ranking government official. We received another call from a police chief that is on board with the idea. We are now at over 42K views, 3K comments, and 200 upvotes.<br><br>EDIT: Sunday update. At 52K views now, 4K comments, 400 upvotes. We potentially have our first state senator that is on board. We have received a message from a group of people that are already working on this, they have potentially agreed to let us in on the team to help them with this potentially in the future. We've received a message from a very high ranking government official that is potentially on board. <br><br>EDIT: Monday update. Still at one state senator, and 6 potentially state representatives. We've sent another 20 emails to local government officials. We've received a call from potentially another police chief that is on board. We've received a potentially positive call from a potentially high ranking government official. We are potentially going to have a meeting with this person on Friday. We are at 66K views, 6K comments, and 700 upvotes. <br><br>EDIT: Tuesday update. We potentially have another state representative on board. We've potentially added a former addict to our team, he has received a lot of attention on Facebook with his stories of addiction, so he is potentially going to write his story soon, and we will post it on different subreddits, and hopefully get it in front of some people that can help us out. We may potentially be getting a call from a national publication about this story. We sent out a few more emails to local government officials, and may have received potentially positive feedback from another local police chief. We are at 70K views, 7K comments, and 800 upvotes. <br><br>EDIT: Wednesday update. We may have potentially missed our first meeting with a high ranking government official today. I was told that she wanted to meet with me today, but it was last minute so I missed it. The state representative that set up the meeting is going to see if she will grant another meeting this week or next. The former addict that we added to the team potentially has a meeting set up with a very high ranking government official on Friday, so we will see how that meeting potentially goes. I sent out another 20 emails to local government officials today. We are at 83K views, 9K comments, and 1K upvotes. <br><br>EDIT: Thursday update. I potentially received a call from a US congressman today about this issue. He sounded very receptive to the idea, and is apparently going to send me paperwork that he has so that I can review it. We've potentially added another former addict to our team, and she also potentially has a meeting set up on Monday to go and talk to some higher ups. We've also potentially added a former addict that is a professor at a university to our team. We are at 85K views, 10K comments, and 1K upvotes. <br><br>EDIT: Friday update. I received a call from a US representative today, and we chatted for about 15 minutes. This representative had already looked up bills that have been potentially passed in Oregon and SC. The representative seemed very open to the idea, and sounded potentially receptive to helping us out. We potentially have a meeting with a state representative set up for next Friday to go over their stance on this issue, and to potentially add them to our team. We've potentially added another state representative to our team today, and that may make 7. We are at 90K views, 12K comments, and 1.3K upvotes. <br><br>EDIT: Saturday update. We potentially have a new state representative that is on board. We've potentially received a call from another national publication, and potentially have another meeting potentially set up for next Friday. We are at 105K views 14K comments and 1.6K upvotes. <br><br>EDIT: Sunday update. We potentially have a meeting setup for this upcoming Wednesday potentially with a very high ranking government official that may be able to help us out. We are at 123K views 18K comments and 2K upvotes.<br><br>EDIT: Monday update. We are at 140K views 22K comments and 2.6K upvotes. We've potentially added another state representative to our team today, and that brings the total to 9. We sent another 20 emails out to local government officials today. We've potentially added another professor from a university that may be able to help us out. We may potentially have another person on our team that may be able to help us out with a lot of the paperwork needed to go forward with this.<br><br>EDIT: Tuesday update. potentially added another state representative. potentially added another high ranking government official. we are at 160K views 26K comments 3K upvotes. <br><br>EDIT: Wednesday update. We had our meeting with the high ranking government official, and they potentially seemed very open to the idea. We've potentially added another potentially high ranking government official to our team. We've potentially added our 11th state representative. We potentially added a former police chief to our team today. We've potentially added another professor to our team today. We are at 173K views 30K comments and 3.5K upvotes.<br><br>EDIT: Thursday update. We potentially have a meeting set up for potentially next Wednesday to discuss how to write a bill. We potentially have another meeting set up for this upcoming Monday with a different high ranking government official. We are at 185K views 35K comments and 4K upvotes. <br><br>EDIT: Friday update. We've potentially had a call from a potentially high ranking government official. We potentially now have 12 state representatives on board. We potentially added our second state senator today. We are at 195K views, 41K comments and 4.5K upvotes. <br><br>EDIT: Saturday update. We've potentially added