Global Marijuana/Cannabis March Meets Heavy-Handed Opposition
In Brazil, a spokesperson for www.marchadamaconha.org, organisers of the “Marcha da Maconha Brasil 2008″ had this to say on the situation facing the South American cannabis community.

“We are facing in Brazil too much repression against the march. From 10 cities that were confirmed for the march, the Justice prohibited 6 cities from taking part. As citizens of a democracy we are very disappointed”.

It was a similar story in Moscow, with the Military and Police blocking the way to the Friendship of Nations fountain at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre. The meeting place for the 2006 Global Marijuana March in Russia, organised once again by the Cannabis Legalize League (CLL), who were hoping not to have any injuries to treat this year.

[A spokesman for CLL said,] “We published an official statement on the CLL site, so that both authorities and activists could learn that no marches would be held in Moscow in 2008. We invited our supporters to come to the “Friendship of Nations” fountain at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre. We made it quite clear there should be no banners or other means of political propaganda: only thematic clothes, excellent mood and musical instruments.”

“As soon as the statement was published we received an aggressive reaction from the Federal Service of Drug Control (Russian DEA analog). In the interview to one of the most famous Russian news agencies the head of the informational department of the FSDC Alexander Mikhailov commented our action in the following expressions”:

“Legalization of cannabis as a drug is out of the question. This theme mustn’t be discussed at all. Such actions are the grossest breach of the peace and hooliganism. This is a spring exacerbation on which the bodies of internal affairs and psychiatrists should react”.

Full Story

Share del.icio.us | Digg it | StumbleUpon | Facebook | RSS

Just catching up on some of the reports from the March this weekend:

Close to 500 protesters took to the streets [of Calgary, Alberta, Canada] Saturday in favour of marijuana’s medicinal use and making it more accessible to those suffering debilitating pain.

Amid the incense aromas and reggae beats, several hundred Austinites rallied at the Capitol on Saturday for the legalization of marijuana for personal and medical use.

Rolling out at high noon May 3, the Ninth Annual Million Marijuana March smoked through downtown Portland as part of Oregon NORML’s protest of pot prohibition and to support the use of medicinal marijuana through Oregon’s sometimes controversial Medical Marijuana Act.

“These guys are easy compared to the anarchists,” said Sgt. Voepel of the Portland Police Department, “they’re on time, and they’re orderly.”

According to the Sarge, the only rabble rousers during the march were two drunkards who were pestering people but were unconnected to the peaceful pro-pot gatherers. No pot smokers were spotted.

Full Story

Just stopping in for a second… the March in Portland was fantastic.  Police estimated 750 people marching, and we had three local TV stations covering us, with a different member of the Board of Directors of Oregon NORML (myself on the CBS affiliate) quoted in the report.  They gave us favorable coverage, especially of our announcement of the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act (OCTA) for 2010, our initiative to tax and regulate cannabis for adults and sell through Oregon liquor stores.

Audio and video coming soon… but I’m on my way to the after-party concert with Los Marijuanos, Chief Greenbud, and more.

Brazilian court bans march for marijuana legalization _English_Xinhua
RIO DE JANEIRO, April 30 (Xinhua) — A Brazilian court has banned a controversial demonstration in favor of the legalization of marijuana, local media reported Wednesday.

The so-called “the Global Marijuana March,” scheduled for Sunday in 10 Brazilian cities, is banned in Salvador, capital city of Bahia state in northeastern Brazil.

According to the prosecutors, the demonstration is likely to fuel controversy over marijuana smoking, currently forbidden by the Brazilian law.

The global march will also be held in 19 other countries.

Protesters said the court’s decision was “absurd,” and has violated their freedom of speech in a struggle for a change in legislation.

The demonstration was aimed at promoting public debate and research on the use of marijuana, they said.

The global march has caused security concerns in Brazil.

On April 21, five people were arrested in Rio for handing out leaflets to the public, inviting local citizens to take part.

Marijuana is so dangerous that now we can’t even talk about it?  This Brazilian court thinks that a few hundred people marching for cannabis law reform is dangerous, yet they have no problem with Carnaval, which certainly must be a bigger drain on law enforcement and definitely sends a certain message to the children, where hundreds of thousands gather in the streets at night to gawk at elaborate floats and near-naked women in extravagant outfits.

The activists at the Illinois Compassion Action Network have put together a website full of Patient Videos to help lawmakers there understand the need for a medical marijuana law in Illinois.  When you hear the stories from these patients about how marijuana has made their lives bearable, it really shows this is an issue about compassion, not drugs.

You can also view some of my interviews with medical marijuana patients in Oregon at the Oregon NORML YouTube Channel.

NiagaraThisWeek.com: Article: Hundreds rally for legalized marijuana
Honking car horns coming from vehicles as they passed a parkette near Hwy. 420 got a crowd of 200 cheering in solidarity.

With the smell of ganja in the air Sunday, people rallied to show their support for the legalization of marijuana at the 420 marijuana march, a peaceful protest aimed at showcasing the need to abolish marijuana prohibition.

With similar demonstrations in Toronto and Hamilton that same day, marijuana enthusiasts marched down Victoria Avenue and down Clifton Hill to Queen Victoria Park with their protest signs and flags held high … all while lighting up a joint in the process.

One of the supporters at the rally was Derek Pedro, who is a legalized user of marijuana. Suffering from migraine headaches, muscle spasms and joint pain, Pedro said marijuana has helped reduce his suffering.

“I need to get high to feel medicated,” Pedro said. “But everywhere I go I feel like I need to hide myself to smoke. I feel the public doesn’t understand that there are positives to marijuana use. Prohibition gives it a bad name.”

Alison Myrden, who represents the group, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a non-profit educational group whose mandate is to lower incidents of death, disease, crime and addiction through ending prohibition, has suffered from symptoms of chronic Multiple Sclerosis. The symptoms include extreme facial pain and the need to walk with a cane.

Myrden said marijuana helps get her through the pain and has reduced the number of painkillers she takes each day.

“Prohibition doesn’t work,” Myrden said. “If it was legalized, people wouldn’t be looking at the streets to find it. Something has to be done to change the laws. In my perfect world, all drugs should be legal.”

There is a sentence that will scare your average person: all drugs should be legal.  To most people, that conjures up a society gone berserk, with trippin’ space cadets, zombie junkies, thievin’ tweakers, and utter chaos in the streets.  We can’t legalize drugs, they protest, because that would encourage people to do drugs!

I’ve got news for them: drugs require no encouragement.  People are doing drugs, even though they are illegal.  The chaos in the streets is already here and most of it is a direct result of the prohibition, not the drugs.  It’s funny to me how the drug warriors see prohibition (the lack of laws controlling drugs) as a method of control and they see regulation (taxes and laws to control drugs) as a recipe for disaster.

Out drug war is based on the wrong metrics, and those are (a) how many people are using drugs and (b) how much drugs are they using?  Both measures are irrelevant.  If half of all North Americans lit up joint every day for the next month, would that be bad?  By the drug war metrics, yes.

But what would the results be from that massive smoke-in?  Are there fewer crimes?  Less drunk driving?  Fewer prescriptions for toxic pharmaceuticals?  A reduction in violence?  A windfall for snack manufacturers?  See, it’s not how many people or how much drugs that we should worry about, it’s the harm that does or does not result from the drugs.

And with marijuana, most people know that there is little societal harm, if any, from the responsible adult use of marijuana.  Even those who think marijuana is harmful believe that harm is pretty much reserved for the marijuana user, and rarely believe that it’s causing more harm than alcohol or nicotine.

Police: Pot-smoking event in UCSC meadow a moral slap in the face” - San Jose Mercury News
SANTA CRUZ — For those who arrest people who use, abuse or sell drugs, Sundays pot-smoking festival at UC Santa Cruz was “a moral slap in the face to the cause,” said Rich Westphal, task force commander with the Santa Cruz County Narcotics Enforcement Team.

Despite efforts by the university to control access to campus, thousands of people, many of them students from UCSC and other California colleges, gathered at Porter Meadow to commemorate the so-called 4/20 cannabis culture holiday.

UCSCs once student-only gathering to smoke marijuana is now known nationally. It has grown to 5,000 people strong over the years, its popularity attributed to articles published in high-profile magazines like Rolling Stone and High Times Magazine — along with newer forms of social media, like YouTube.

Though smoking pot is illegal, no one was arrested at the weed-smoking exhibition that unfolded Sunday.

And that’s because Santa Cruz is one of the cities that has voted to make enforcement of marijuana laws the lowest priority for police.

As I scan the news reports of 4/20, I’m finding very few arrests and no reports of violence or disruptive, anti-social behavior.  Most police understand that marijuana smokers are not a threat to ordered society.  Ask any cop whether he or she would like to try to control 5,000 marijuana smokers or 5,000 beer drinkers in public.

Like other articles, this one tries to scare the reader by bringing up the two shibboleths still trotted out by drug warriors, “Driving While Stoned” and “What About The Children?”  Concerned citizens called to wonder why police weren’t arresting attendees for DUI as they left the gathering, and some teenagers were able to get into the gathering.

For the former, could it be that most police recognize that a couple puffs on a joint isn’t the biggest traffic danger in the world?  Or perhaps the people who drove away didn’t show any signs of driving impairment?  Until taxicabs and buses are the only vehicles I see entering or leaving bar parking lots, I think our police have far more drunk drivers to worry about than stoned drivers cruising a little too slow, missing their freeway exit, or idling at the In’N'Out drive-thru window.

As for the latter, whether it is alcohol or marijuana, teenagers will get a hold of it.  Marijuana is far less harmful.  But if this were a outdoor microbrew festival, the legality of beer lets security and police set up restricted areas with checks for ID and sometimes ID wristbands.  You don’t see any spontaneous open-air beer festivals popping up nationwide - since it is legal we can do a better job of keeping the minors out.

NORML is pleased to announced that Salient Media is offering NORML supporters and chapters 25% off of its new film, Totally Baked. I watched the movie with friends for 4/20, and I highly recommend it! This movie will be one of your stoner-movie favorites.

Totally Baked is a comedy that focuses on why marijuana should be legalized and features new and exclusive music from Brian Johnson of AC/DC and stars some of the country’s hottest comedians. Additionally, Salient Media will be donating 10% of all direct sales to NORML to help reform marijuana laws.

Anyone interested in purchasing the Totally Baked DVD should enter the promotion code ‘high’ at Salient Media’s website to receive their 25% discount.

NORML is pleased to bring you yet another way to celebrate cannabis culture with Totally Baked during this highly celebrated time of year.

Niagara Falls Review - Ontario, CA
Pro-pot activists say it’s high time the federal government legalizes marijuana.

And hundreds of those who believe Canadians should have the right to smoke up without fear of being charged took to the streets of Niagara Falls to draw attention to their cause.

“You need to legalize it,” said Marco Renda, one of the demonstrators who took part in what has come to be known as the annual Highway 420 Anti-Prohibition Rally.

“I have no problem with the government regulating it, just like they do alcohol.”

The rally, which was staged for the first time in Niagara Falls about five years ago, began around 3 p.m. on a grassy patch land on Victoria Avenue overlooking Highway 420.

CTV British Columbia- Thousands smoke pot in Vancouver for ‘420′ - CTV News, Shows and Sports — Canadian Television
The smell of pot was in the air as thousands assembled on the lawn of the Vancouver Art Gallery for a collective toke.

It was a grass-roots celebration of the freedom to smoke marijuana on April 20 — known as ‘420′ among pot users as the time to get high.

Amid the tents, the music and, barely seen through the smoke — were messages on signposts by organizers about legalization of marijuana.

At pot rallies, things get hazy at 4:20 : Updates : The Rocky Mountain News
It was a warmer-than-average, sunny day in Boulder on Sunday.

And around 4:20 p.m. on the University of Colorado campus, the sky grew unusually hazy.

Cheers erupted along with a heavy cloud of smoke as an estimated 10,000 people - mostly CU students joined by friends from out of town and some local residents - lit up to celebrate at an annual pot-smoking rally.

Some said they were there to advocate for the legalization of marijuana. Others - including some who came just to watch - said it was all for fun.

“It’s like, why do people drink beer on St. Patrick’s Day?” said a 22-year-old “super senior” who didn’t want to give his name. “It’s a holiday. Like the Fourth of July.”

CU police monitored the gathering, with 15 campus officers and six Boulder County sheriff’s deputies stationed around the perimeter and directing traffic.

According to a news release, the focus was to “maintain a safe environment and discourage potentially hazardous activities.”

No citations were issued and there were no arrests, although there were four medical incidents and two people were transported to local hospitals, the release stated. One person was treated for a seizure, the other for dehydration.

Who do you think is the Greatest Movie Stoner? Vote for your favorite out at MSNBC! (I think the answer is obviously Cheech & Chong - they were the first, after all.)

5Top: Duuuude … great movie stoners - 5Top- msnbc.com

• The Dude (Jeff Bridges in “The Big Lebowski”)
• Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”)
• Ron Slater (Rory Cochrane in “Dazed and Confused”)
• Floyd (Brad Pitt in “True Romance”)
• Harold and Kumar (John Cho and Kal Penn in “Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle”)
• Cheech and Chong (Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong in “Up In Smoke”)
• Thurgood Jenkins (Dave Chappelle in “Half Baked”)
• Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo (Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Torro in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”)
• Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith in “Clerks”)
• Smokey (Chris Tucker in “Friday”)
• Silas P. Silas and Jamal (Method Man and Redman in “How High”)
• Wyatt and Billy (Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in “Easy Rider”)

Agree or disagree? Let me know in the Comments below.

Click the MoneyBomb! Today and today only you can join NORML for the amazing low price of $4.20 (usually $35). You’ll get a special sticker, your NORML Freedom Card, and the satisfaction of knowing you’re a part of ending adult marijuana prohibition with the oldest, largest, best-known and well-respected organization dedicating to fighting for the equal rights of cannabis consumers to be treated like beer drinkers.

It’s an exciting time to be a part of NORML.

• Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) has introduced the first pot legalization bill in 24 years, HR5843, which would make possession of 3½ ounces and non-profit transfers of up to 1 ounce of marijuana completely legal under Federal law.
• Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) has introduced HR5842 which would end the DEA raids on the twelve medical marijuana states.
• Michigan will be voting on medical marijuana this election through a citizen initiative.
• Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, and Kansas are considering or have considered medical marijuana bills.
• Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Hawaii, and Vermont are considering marijuana decriminalization (fine only).
• Colorado is beginning to get marijuana dispensaries. Rhode Island is considering legislating dispensaries.
• Hawaii, Oregon, and California are fighting for improvements to their medical marijuana programs.
• We’re even seeing pro-marijuana movement in places you might not expect, like Texas, Idaho, and Alabama.

So be a part of the 420 MoneyBomb and join NORML for just $4.20. We need your grassroots support and activism to make this happen - we don’t have any billionaire backers; our efforts are mostly funded by the small donations of cannabis consumers and reform supporters just like you. Help us help you!

NORML Founder Keith Stroup was a guest on my XM Satellite radio show today, at exactly 4:20pm Eastern.  You can listen to our interview using the little audio player on my site - but the post won’t be available until Sunday evening, since we must wait until the audio has played on our rebroadcasts on terrestrial stations (if you’re in the Portland area, you can catch the show from 8am-10am on AM 620 KPOJ or listen to their live stream on your computer.

The gist of our conversation revolved around the mainstreaming of the “420″ holiday, as reported on MSNBC:

Capitalist buzz surrounds stoner ‘holiday’ - Life- msnbc.com
A once clandestine counterculture pot-smoking “holiday” observed each April 20 has crossed into the mainstream this year with public gatherings that will attract thousands of participants and marketing campaigns that tout a trio of marijuana-themed movies.

As anti-drug activists chafe, the so-called “420” pronounced “four-twenty” celebrations “are taking on a life of their own,” said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws, who has been working on marijuana issues for 17 years.

Don’t forget about NORML’s 420 MoneyBomb, happening tomorrow.  You can join NORML for the reduced price of $4.20.  It costs money for public-relations campaigns; do something tangible to help end adult marijuana prohibition.

NORML To Hold First Annual 4/20 Moneybomb - Organization’s Facebook Supporters Reach 420,000
NORML is offering supporters the opportunity to join NORML for only $4.20 this Sunday, April 20th, available exclusively at www.420moneybomb.com.

All supporters who take advantage of this celebratory, one-day-only offer will receive a special NORML sticker, Freedom Card, and a one-year NORML membership, which usually costs $35.

“4/20 is a special date when cannabis consumers celebrate marijuana and all of its various unique cultural interpretations and accoutrements,” NORML Outreach Coordinator Ron Fisher said today. “With the introduction of two new federal pro-reform bills, this year’s 4/20 celebrations provide citizens nationwide who support cannabis law reform unique opportunities that NORML strongly encourages them to exercise: join NORML for $4.20 on 4/20, celebrate 4/20 responsibly, and, most importantly, lobby for reforms on 4/21.”

NORML’s 4/20moneybomb, inspired by Representative Ron Paul’s fundraising success in his recent presidential campaign, is only one part of NORML’s online outreach strategy, which includes a daily podcast, NORML’s blog, and popular pages at Facebook and MySpace.

Started only last September, NORML’s Facebook Cause group, the largest group of self-identified cannabis law reform supporters in the world, reached a membership total of 420,000 members Tuesday. “Coincidence? A propitious omen to say the least,” commented NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre.

NORML.ORG US CO: Preparing For 4/20 Pot Smoke-Out
Student smokers, in perhaps the cliched easy-going fashion associated with marijuana, are getting ready for the annual 4/20 celebration on the University of Colorado campus.

Official smoke-out T-shirts sold online simply say: “University of Colorado. April 20. Farrand Field.”

Every year, thousands of people gather on the CU campus April 20 for the unofficial pro-pot celebration — and at 4:20 p.m. a cloud of smoke mushrooms above the crowd. The event is said to have grown from a northern California tradition.

CU police this year are bracing for a large crowd.

Alex Douglas, who does public relations for NORML’s CU chapter, said there also will be a screening of the documentary “Super High Me” in Cristol Chemistry Building, Room 140. The group plans to rally for the legalization of marijuana with signs and banners on Norlin Quad.

CU police Cmdr. Brad Wiesley said the department will likely need to pay overtime to its officers to monitor the event, given the possibility that the smoke-out could be heavily attended.

“We will obviously have a presence,” Wiesley said. “We certainly don’t condone, support or otherwise sanction this event.”

In past attempts to snuff out the event, campus police have turned sprinklers on the crowd and taken pictures of student smokers, posting them online and offering rewards to those who could identify them.

Wiesley, though, was mum on this year’s planned tactics.

“We don’t give our playbook to the other team before the game,” he said. People have the right to protest for marijuana law reforms, “but, breaking the law in order to change the law is not how our democratic society works,” he said.

Uh, Commander Wiesley, if I may enlighten you with a quote from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from his Letter from a Birmingham Jail:

One may well ask: “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.”

…Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.

Marijuana prohibition is one of those unjust laws. The power majority made our use of an intoxicant (marijuana) illegal, but keeps their use of an intoxicant (alcohol) legal. Dr. King was addressing the social and legal segregation of blacks and whites; I’m addressing the social and legal segregation of tokers and drinkers. Breaking unjust laws in an act of civil disobedience is a long tradition in this nation… even for us cannabis consumers.

Super High Me | Screenings
Super High Me opens on the West Coast on 4/11 in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland at the following fine venues:

Admiral Twin
2347 California Ave SW
Seattle, WA 98116

Cinema 21
616 NW 21st Ave
Portland, OR 97209

Roxie Cinema
3125 16th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

Regent SHOWCASE
614 La Brea Ave.
Hollywood, CA, 90036

NORML is excited to partner with Doug Benson in the Roll Your Own screenings taking place all over the country on 4/20. Take a look at the list to see if there is a screening near you. If not, go ahead and set up your own free screening and invite all your friends.

Bash prevails - mlive.com
The Hash Bash survived Saturday, as its organizers say it always will.

Pushed out of its traditional spot on the Diag by a University of Michigan student group called FOKUS, a modified 30-minute Hash Bash took place in what organizers of both parties said was in the spirit of getting along.

A crowd filled the U-M Diag on a sunny day with temperatures in the high 50s. The people crowded on steps, many expecting to hear speakers for the Hash Bash, a pro-marijuana rally held on campus since 1972.

What those on campus for the Hash Bash didn’t know was that the space - and public address system - had been reserved for FOKUS, which wanted to hold its annual block party on the Diag. The group compromised and allowed poet John Sinclair to speak.

A former Ann Arborite, Sinclair is best known for the marijuana conviction that led to a 1971 “Free John Sinclair” rally at U-M’s Crisler Arena. That rally featured the late John Lennon.

Campus police estimated 1,200 to 1,500 on the Diag. The News estimated the number at closer to 2,000.

Sinclair kicked off the impromptu Hash Bash at 12:20 p.m. and spoke for about 15 minutes.

“I like to get high,” Sinclair told the crowd. “I believe I have a right to get high.

“People want drugs,” he said to cheers. “They want to get high. … Because it’s all good.”

We spoke with Steve Bloom from CelebStoner.com on Friday who pointed out that it is a common tactic by our opponents to try to find some group that will reserve a traditional venue used by anti-prohibition groups, in order to disrupt our right to assemble peaceably and petition our government for a redress of grievances. We had a similar incident with our Portland Hempstalk last year here in the Rose City, but our event is only three years old. After 37 years, it stretches the limits of credibility to think there is a student group that is not aware that the first Saturday in April is the Hash Bash at the Diag. It would be like somebody trying to schedule a folk music festival at Times Square for the night of December 31st!

NORML Blog » Blog Archive » High Times Publisher and NORML Founder Mount Legal Challenge to Massachusetts Pot Laws!
On Saturday, September 15, 2007, NORML Founder Keith Stroup and High Times associate publisher Rick Cusick were arrested for smoking a joint at the 18th annual Boston Freedom Rally on the Boston Common. This is an event held each year to protest the continued arrest of responsible cannabis consumers in that state, and depending on the weather, it attracts from 15,000 to 50,000 supporters to the Common.

Keith and Rick have candidly acknowledged that they were sharing a joint, but they have pleaded not guilty and announced their intentions to challenge the constitutionality of the Massachusetts marijuana laws, and to argue for a jury instruction informing the jurors of their common law power to refuse to convict an individual, if they do not believe the offense should be a criminal matter. This long-held power of jurors is generally called jury nullification.

Full Story

Share del.icio.us | Digg it | StumbleUpon | Facebook | RSS