NORML. Marijuana Policy Project. Americans for Safe Access. Drug Policy Alliance. These and many other groups raise a whole lot of money to affect marijuana policy in the United States.
Democratic National Convention 2008 in Denver. Tens of thousands of the most politically-aware activists, bloggers, and citizens are packing the streets, along with convention delegates and politicians, the very movers and shakers of the upcoming Obama administration who could be the people who help us overturn adult marijuana prohibition.
Guess how many panels, presentations, flyers, posters, brochures, tables, booths, kiosks, protests, and speeches I have seen in three days of wandering two miles worth of citizen / non-profit displays outside the Colorado Convention Center, the Pepsi Center, the city park, and the eighteen block span of open-air market known as the 16th Street Mall?
Probably thousands. PETA is there with people in pink pig suits. Falun Gong was there with large dioramas. The pro life government-enforced-procreation forces were out with three blocks worth of 25 square foot graphic photos of aborted fetuses. Vendors of everything-Obama were out there.
Guess how many panels, presentations, flyers, posters, brochures, tables, booths, kiosks, protests, and speeches I have seen here regarding ending the drug war or marijuana policy?
To be fair, Mason Tvert and SAFER had a booth up in the park and I did run into Mason and Aaron Houston of MPP at the blogger’s tent. However, I am stunned that none of the big drug policy organizations have any visible presence here at the Democratic Convention.
Last week, I was at Hempfest, where many drug policy organizations pour a lot of time and effort. That’s great, I love Hempfest, but it is a lot of preaching to the choir. If two days of tie-dye, patchouli, and glass sales is our big exposure event and we are noticable by our abscence at the premiere big event in progressive politics, then it’s not at all unfair for our opponents to paint us as less-than-serious about our political aims.
I have been blogging here for Pam’s House Blend, an award-winning lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender blog (hey, I’m all about civil rights and personal freedom… I don’t care what you smoke, I don’t care who you sleep with, and no government should treat you differently for those choices). We could learn so much about political activism from the LGBT community.
There are similarities. Like gays, many of us stay in the closet and hide our true nature to save our careers and families. Like gays, we are reviled by the Republicans and only barely tolerated by the Democrats. Like gays, politicians want our support and secretly support our agenda (few politicians really think that we should lock people up for weed) but won’t openly speak up in full support of us. Like gays, Democrats use us like an ATM to get campaign cash with lip service toward reform, knowing they can always say, “what are you going to do, vote Republican?”
And yet, at the Democratic Convention there are about a dozen panels on LGBT issues, there are openly gay and lesbian delegates, there was a gay congressman (Barney Frank) and a lesbian congresswoman (Tammy Baldwin), and at the LGBT luncheon, Michelle Obama even came to address the crowd.
Am I asking to much for there to be one booth supporting an end to the Drug War? At a convention nominating the first African-American president, who admits to using cocaine and marijuana, there couldn’t be one big sign asking, “Should Barack Obama have been arrested and sentenced to a mandatory minimum for his admitted cocaine and marijuana use in the past?” or “If he’d been caught with marijuana as a young man, Barack Obama today would be Barry the Janitor.”
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[...] At worst, politicians of both political persuasions have proactively lobbied for tougher pot penalties (or actively opposed efforts to amend such laws); at best, leaders of both major parties have done nothing at all. [...]
i think the last 2 sentences sum it all up. its not the use of drugs that society sees as wrong, its more like getting caught while using drugs. also, displaying the fact that one simple action can change your life so drastically; lets say he got caught smoking while he was younger (barack) and was sentenced, i am sure he would not be the man we see today, yet he is still the very same, in fact it MAY be the smoking and the use of cocaine that helped form who he is today, so, it could be said that without marijuana and cocaine we would not see the Barack we see today
It’s spelled “Barack”. Try spell-checking your case next time.
It’s simple why there was such a small legalizing campaign at the DNC. Obama supporters are all ’bout the AntiChrist, Barak Hussein Obama, becoming the President of the United States of America. That is Stupid. Marijuana legalization is by no means stupid.
I rest my case.
I’m compelled to add that a few trusted people taking notes and getting together afterward to avoid the drug war mercenaries infiltrators might be advisable.
I know it sounds paranoid, but if we look at what happened with the Maryland State Police ( anti-war/anti-death sentence reform spying ) and to the protesters at the RNC convention ( SWAT teams hitting them ), spying to gather intel and work against reformers is a tactic that warrants concern for reformers.
I think Brinna is visionary in what we need to be doing. I noticed 15-20 reform websites on another sites Links column. If they could all get together more than once or twice a year and work together to set and accomplish some common goals, I think more progress would be made quicker.
Thanks Russ regardless of whether you were right on or not. MANY of us are very frustrated at the perceived pace of reform.
[...] war on (some) drugs, but as NORML podcaster Russ Belville reports in his latest blog post here, the subject of marijuana law reform has been all but “invisible” in [...]
Russ is absolutely correct. We have to become more visible. More unified. More connected. The isolation of cannabis users, medicinal, sacramental and recreational is the greatest impediment to change. Medical users not only have their illnesses to deal with, but must face the fear that their very medicine may be taken away from them. Recreational users have often buy into the pot head, slacker, loser rhetoric. We are embarrassed of our choice to shift our consciousness through cannabis . . . and so we are silent. Sacramental users know with passion, what cannabis has to offer, but have no place to speak those words.
We must take a lesson from MoveOn.org. In co-operation we are strong. In mutual action we move mountains. In speaking together our voices are heard.
Whatever our reasons for using cannabis or supporting the end of cannabis prohibition, or ending the senseless war on drugs with its corrupt political agenda, we have to stand up for each other. We have to serve, and in that service find our measure of greatness.
So, yes, let us organize booths in shopping malls and state fairs. Let’s start collecting signatures on petitions. Let’s deluge the congress and the media with our point of view. Let each of us do something, anything, whatever that may be, just one thing everyday to move our cause forward. It is up to nobody but us.
Mason, thanks for commenting. But I’m seeing this convention as a visitor to Denver. I haven’t been here in the days leading up to the convention to see what news coverage the marijuana issue has gotten. I barely lucked out to find you in that park because I had gotten lost. I, like many who attended, didn’t watch any local news and stayed glued to the CNN convention coverage. I’ve been in Denver since Friday, wandered around quite a bit, and didn’t see any marijuana policy reform other than you in that park.
When you say marijuana was much more visible at this DNC than any previous, that may be true, but since it has been invisible in the past, “barely visible” would be “much more visible”. And kudos for arranging a “no marijuana arrests” policy.
But what did the average conventioneer in from out of town see or hear about marijuana this week? Did I miss the Drug War panel at the Kos/Google/Digg Big Tent? Did I miss the caucus of anti-drug war delegates? Where was the informational booth about the harms of the drug war all along that multi-block demo-fest of the 16th Street Mall?
Was there more positive news about marijuana and the convention than “we agree not to arrest pot smokers”? Because that’s a good thing, but it doesn’t really address the prohibition of marijuana as a political campaign issue. It’s actually a win for the other side, because at least a marijuana arrest would’ve brought up the subject. The “no arrests” move is just another plank in the “SHHHH! We agree with you, but don’t make a fuss!” stance the Democrats have always given us. It doesn’t point out how progressives are betraying their values if they don’t strongly stand up for ending prohibition.
We’ve got a Democratic presidential candidate who admits to smoking marijuana in his youth. I guess I’m just surprised that nobody thought to press the issue at the Democratic Convention: If Barack Obama was one of the 20,000,000 arrested for marijuana since 1965, he most likely would not be the Democratic nominee today. Maybe it’s that we fear a McCain election so much that we don’t want to make waves for Obama.
(Sheesh, I just looked up on MSNBC and there was a guy with a with a pot leaf sign reading “re-legalize” behind Chris Matthews. Better, I suppose…)
So forgive me if I missed it. Maybe I just expect too much. Maybe after four days of blogging for the LGBT community, where they have three or four panels, a luncheon, a caucus, being addressed by Mayor Newsom, Rep. Frank, Rep. Baldwin, and Michelle Obama, I just got jealous. I want us to be taken that seriously. I want the drug war issue to be embraced by the party. I want Barack Obama in his speech tonight to call for an end to adult marijuana prohibition (I know it won’t happen and I doubt the drug war will even get a sideways mention.)
What a shame that the issue I most care about was ignored. They treat this problem like it’s a speck of dirt underneath the rug/carpet…Avoiding the subject isn’t going to help:(
So why didn’t NORML have a booth setup there or were they dependant upon your mouth?
Russ, I’m sorry there were not enough marijuana-related posters and flyers out to your liking.
The fact is, the word “marijuana” was used more times in mainstream and new media coverage of this convention than in ANY convention in history.
In fact, in an unprecedented move, a marijuana policy reform organization coordinated a recommendation from a mayoral panel in the host city, calling for NO marijuana arrests for adult recreational marijuana use. This has NEVER occurred in history.
Stories about it appeared on CNN, Fox News, the AP, the Washington Times and the Denver Post, as well as every Denver network affiliate. There was also discussion of the issue in various network affiliate broadcasts throughout the week (I know, as I was interviewed for them or coordinated it with reporters doing live feeds from the various parks).
Marijuana was MORE visible at this year’s DNC than any DNC in history. Moreover, this was done without spending much-needed funds on silly things like posters and flyers that do little to change people’s minds. News changes minds, and a ton of positive news about marijuana was generated around this convention.
Outside of shelling out thousands of dollars to have a booth inside the convention (which may or may not have been allowed by the party), I think it was wise for the various organizations in the marijuana policy movement to refrain from wasting scarce reform funds in order to better spend them on reform.
Is it anyone’s place to dictate how organizations other than their own allocate their funds? No. Especially when those organizations are all doing more work than ever in history to accomplish our shared goals of bringing about much needed reform in marijuana policy.