Communicate With Your Legislators

Call Your Congressmen Today!!

WHY SHOULD YOU COMMUNICATE?

Raising awareness of the injustices doctors have faced and continue to face is critical to exact change. From the President to legislators to your own community circle, we encourage you to help bring these issues to the forefront of conversations to educate and influence change.

GOVERNMENT

Health Issue Representatives

The most important people to communicate with are the health issues representatives for each of your legislators. If you don’t know who these people are, you can get that information by filling out the request on the Contact Us page. These people have the ear of your legislator, and have more time to listen to you. If we get these folks to understand the problem, we will get something done. For ideas on what they need to know, continue to scroll down on this page.

Your Legislators

Communication with your legislators, both federal and state, is not the most important, but is still important. The most important thing is that they receive communications over and over so that you are on a first-name basis with them.

The President

If he hears the same thing from enough of us, he just might listen.

COMMUNITY

Your Physician

Every physician needs to be aware of the solution to the problem. The more constituents we have communicating with Washington, the more we can accomplish. Doctors are just as much brainwashed by the propaganda and the media as the average person. They won’t change until they know the truth.

Your Community

Family, friends, organizations, churches, etc., all need to be informed as to the REAL cause of drug abuse, the illegal government overreach into medicine, and the destruction of the doctor/patient relationship. Don’t hide your head. Stand up and be proud of your activism.

Organizations

Any and every organization you can communicate with, from the Opioid Commission to Fibromyalgia Awareness. The more people we contact, the sooner the propaganda will be countered with the truth.

MEDIA

Communicate at every opportunity with your local or national media. We have to raise awareness about the overall issues, specific cases, and show their prejudice to the government propaganda.

Face-to-Face

The most effective communication is a face-to-face meeting. That can be done by request to your area office of your representative/senator. Be sure and have a list of the points you want to cover. If you know what you want to say, you can cover a lot in a 15 minute session. If you are a member, you can get a list of points from the Communication Aids page.

Phone Call

Next to importance to a face-to-face meeting is a phone call. Again, the person to talk to is the health issues staff person. Become a regular at calling and discussing the problems for doctors, chronic pain patients, and the fact that current methods will have no effect on drug abuse while more Americans die. And we will hold their boss responsible at the voting booth!!!

Email

The most important communication of any form should go to the health issues staff person for each legislator. Email regularly, but after making a face-to-face or a phone call contact. That way they learn to recognize you. Make sure you represent yourself as a member of DoctorsofCourage, and hopefully you are.

Snail Mail

And last (but hopefully not least) is the standard letter. But most of the time the representative doesn’t even know it exists. Letters generally just get a glance over, and a form letter in response. Now if that’s not a waste of your time, I don’t know what is. But where letter writing could be helpful is if enough people send enough letters day after day that they can’t be ignored, and your name and complaint gets recognized.

Media

It is very important to counter the government propaganda by submitting press releases, opt-ed articles, news articles, letters to the editor and any other news media contact. Go to local meetings where media are present, speak to the reporters and try to get interviewed. Use the media FaceBook and twitter posts to make comments on “Fake News” articles. Try to locate some decent freelance reporters who could carry our story to Pulitzer prize territory.

Parades

Participating in a parade is better than a protest unless the protest is large and has positive media attention. Parades can reach a lot more people, especially if pamphlets can be passed out to the people watching. It is important to reach as many people as possible, and parades can do the job quickly.

What should you communicate?

Please visit our member Resources Page for example communication aids. There you will find points to cover during a face-to-face session, sample emails whenever anything happens in the news that we need to reply to immediately, sample FaceBook posts, sample tweets, sample protest posters, and sample letters. If you aren’t a member and want to be an effective advocate, please consider becoming a member. After all, your time is valuable, and the benefits of membership pay you back in time and effectiveness.

Suggestions for Your Message

We recommend starting by engaging with your health issues staff representative, who will take notice much sooner than a legilator, and be a liaison between you and your legislator. In your letters, emails or conversation with your members of congress, you should include the following:

Address how this affects their constituency by stating:

“Thousands of your constituents suffer with chronic pain or have a close relative who suffers with chronic pain and are no longer able to receive the medicines they need.”

2. Ask for their attention to the root causes of the War on Drugs by stating the below at the end of your letter:

“As a member (or supporter) of Doctors of Courage, (or whatever chronic pain advocacy group you are a part of), we ask you to recognize the racist origin of the War on Drugs, that drugs don’t cause addiction, and stop government overreach into medicine, destroying the doctor/patient relationship.”

3. Encourage them to reflect on the impact this has on their constituents by thanking them:

“Thank you for your support in improving the quality of life for your constituents who suffer with chronic pain and the compassionate physicians who treat them.”

4. List any organizations you are a member of after your name.

5. Place the following cc list at the end of your letter:

cc: Doctors of Courage – www.DoctorsofCourage.org American Civil Liberties Union – www.aclu.org

EXAMPLE LETTERS

Sample Letters by Chronic Pain Patients

Sample Letter to New Legislators

Wear Your DoC T-Shirt

Tell the world the truth about pain and the War on Doctors. Wearing the T-shirt opens up the doors of communication with everyone, which raises awareness and creates the opportunity to share the truth.