Advise the governor

Purposes of this assignment:

1. Practice evidence-based decision making.
2. Practice choosing between abstinence-based and harm reduction options
3. Practice advocating for just policies.
4. Help your state set good policies.

Context:

Bills (new laws) are passed through the state’s House of Representatives and the state’s Senate.

is involved in proposing, approving, or rejecting legislation. That includes any legislation about the legality of buying, selling, possessing, and using vaping products. As a resident of the state, you have every right to inform and persuade any of these elected officials. (And it doesn’t matter whether you are a citizen, or voter, or not.)

Tasks:

1. Research the current state regulations on vaping products or electronic cigarettes. The states
3. a summary.
4. Review the evidence on outcomes related to vaping. The internet and your
6. can both help.
7. Complete this worksheet:
8. Based on your worksheet, write the governor of our state a
10. recommending a course of action on the legality of vaping products. an
11. Send the letter. Send it to the governor, by snail mail or by email. (FYI, postal letters carry more weight with politicians (are more influential) than emails.) Save evidence of this, such as a screenshot or a photo.
12. Submit three things: your worksheet, your letter (exactly as written), and evidence of having sent it.

Grading criteria: Please see this

. The instructor is not looking for you to take a particular stance. You get to make your judgment as to what would serve our state well. You will be graded, however, on your ability to support your suggestion with good reasoning or evidence.

Note: This is a letter, not an academic paper, so citations are not expected. Feel free to model your work after this example

.

Help available: The

about how to best format a persuasive letter to an elected official. I encourage you to be direct in your request (say just what you want done) and then to back it up with an explanation.

AI use rules for this assignment: For this assignment, students MAY USE generative artificial intelligence (AI) but ONLY in the following ways:

• Only for steps 1 and 2 (researching our regulations/laws and the effects of vaping)
• Find information sources: Students may use AI as they would Google Scholar or a library database to generate suggestions of information sources that the student can use for research on the subject.
• Information gathering: Students may use AI to generate answers in the same way that they might use Google or books to do so.