By "Radical" Russ Belville on May 11, 2009
Everyone’s talking about marijuana because the public is ready to listen. Last year around 4/20, we had a special promotion we called the “420 Money Bomb”. This was a one-day promotion where on April 20, people can join NORML online for only $4.20. We hyped it quite a bit with a special page and links from High Time and the NORML main page. Last year, we had over 700 new people join online and raised $5,000 in memberships and donations.
This year, we had the Money Bomb available, but didn’t really hype it much. This year, we had twice as many people join NORML on 4/20 and we raised almost $13,000. That’s grassroots interest in action!
Posted in ACTIVISM, ENTERTAINMENT, LEGISLATION | Tagged Allen St. Pierre, CNN, Kevin Sabet
I am the host of the NORML SHOW LIVE and The NORML Stash Blog. I'm married, live in Portland, Oregon, and I am a registered medical marijuana caregiver in this state. I've worked days as an IT geek and nights as a professional musician. Previously, I have been the host of my own political talk radio show on satellite radio. I've been the High Times "Freedom Fighter of the Month" for my work producing Oregon NORML's TV show, "A Cannabis Community Forum", and for helping to institute Portland's wildly successful medical marijuana cardholders meetings, where we help sick and disabled Oregonians acquire cannabis plant starts, learn gardening, and understand the medical marijuana law. I've dedicated my life to bringing an end to adult marijuana prohibition and re-legalizing cannabis hemp, and I'm honored to be chosen by NORML to be our daily voice.
Realize that I have neither the knowledge, nor the ballz to do what he does. But, for argument’s sake, I truly feel that if we only ever refute a single bullsh!t talking point, it should be “but, what about the children.” Speaking from a point of no experience, I imagine that older people worry most about children and the devil weed. Are there any studies on why people think it should be illegal? Doubtless many of them would find another reason if their primary one was destroyed, I wonder if targeting those old lies that get parroted in these debates frequently would be a smarter use of resources. I also initially thought, upon reading Russ’s response that putting my mind in that position, rather than think how polite Allen was, I might think something like “that stoner could do nothing but smile”, rather than how polite he is. Again, it is very hard to accurately analyze how other people think, and I recognize the technical issues.
Today we (the collective we) are numb to rude idiots on tv monopolizing debates and just being asses. Just look at faux news, the people who watch that crap obviously don’t care that O’reilly and Hannity abuse their guests with whom they do not agree. I trust you guys, but I am interested in how we assess the success of certain strategies and adjust the windage and elevation so we are hitting center mass.
Pardon the typos, sent from my phone
Your right Russ, you will notice right between 5:40 and 6:00 was the perfect time to really voice something that needed to be said and he did, he was quiet on some points of view I would not have been but, voicing how it effects the people that may have been caught with there one and only time of posession is a alarming enough fact that most people are unaware of.
And hey when its actually makes news IM happy because I know other people will be watching and that just keeps the wheels turning in the peoples minds who havent decided on legalizing or not, And with all the news so far no wonder why there is a increase in support on our side.
And your right with the sound off you really can tell who won that debate.
There is the constraint of not wanting to appear to overtalk the opponent on TV, especially since on our side we’re saddled with the “wacky” public perception from the start. The host didn’t even address Allen until the middle, so not much you can do about that.
One of the tactics of the prohibitionists, though, is to filibuster. The more we talk, the less they win, and they know it. It’s something you do in debate when you’re on the weak side of the argument.
It’s also a bit different for those of us “in the know” to judge how these presentations appear to the unconverted. It’s not necessarily about this or that factoid that didn’t get rebuked. If it were about facts and stats and science, we would have won long ago.
This is about culture and prejudice and fear. Also, people recall much more of what they see than what they hear. We hear “drug use tripled in the Netherlands” bullcrap and we’re banging our desk like a Jeopardy! buzzer. But what Ma & Pa in Poughkeepsie are seeing is a well-mannered polite-speaking brown-haired man (with distinguished gray, ahem) representing marijuana consumers. Is that a little pot leaf on his lapel?
Sabet isn’t telling them anything they don’t already believe or haven’t heard before. He even does us favors by telling people that “technically” a million people are arrested for marijuana possession, and he notes what’s happening medically in California and says Allen “has a point”. Sabet’s willing to play in our frame and Allen doesn’t do anything to play in Sabet’s frame.
Try this. Watch the video with the sound turned off. Who is smiling? Who looks relaxed and confident?
Take my review with a grain of salt; he is my boss, after all. I may have handled some things differently, but I’m more confrontational and come in with “Radical” attached to my name already; I’m expected to shock and entertain. But always remember: anytime we’re in the media talking about it, we’re winning. Ethan, Rob, Allen, Keith, Paul, me and too many others to list, we have our unique viewpoints and strengths in the argument, and as long as we’re getting an audience in the media, we’re winning.
I whinced watching this video as several outright lies went unchallenged. We need to do better. I understand there were technical issues, but this was not a debate at all.