Wednesday, July 30, 2008: At a press conference held this morning, members of Congress called on their fellow lawmakers to remove all federal penalties that criminalize the possession and use of marijuana by adults.

“To those who say that the government should not be encouraging the smoking of marijuana, my response is that I completely agree,” said Representative Barney Frank (D-MA). “But it is a great mistake to divide all human activity into two categories: those that are criminally prohibited, and those that are encouraged. In a free society, there must be a very considerable zone of activity between those two poles in which people are allowed to make their own choices as long as they are not impinging on the rights, freedom, or property of others. I believe … criminalizing choices that adults make because we think they are unwise ones, when the choices involved have no negative effect on the rights of others, is not appropriate in a free society.”

Rep. Frank, along with co-sponsors Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Lacy Clay (D-MO), urged lawmakers to support HR 5843, An Act To Remove Federal Penalties for the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults, which would eliminate federal penalties for possession of up to 100 grams of marijuana, and for the not-for-profit transfer of up to one ounce of marijuana. Other co-sponsors of the measure include Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI); Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR); Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA); Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Rep. Ron Paul R-TX).

This proposal reflects the basic recommendations of the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse (aka the Shafer Commission) in its groundbreaking report to Congress in 1972 titled Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding.

“There is absolutely nothing wrong with the responsible use of marijuana by adults and this should be of no interest or concern to the government,” said NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre. “It makes no sense to continue to treat nearly half of all Americans as criminals. “

“I am a 42-year-old man, a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, I pay my taxes and, like millions of other Americans, I occasionally smoke marijuana. I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would wish to treat me like a criminal, based on my responsible use of marijuana. It is time we stopped arresting responsible marijuana smokers, and HR 5843 would do that under federal law.”

This is the first federal marijuana decriminalization bill to be introduced in Congress since 1978, and reflects the changing public attitudes that no longer support treating responsible marijuana smokers like criminals. According to a nationwide Time/CNN poll, three out of four Americans now favor a fine only, and no jail, for adults who possess or use small amounts of marijuana.

Each year in this country we arrest more and more of our citizens on marijuana charges. In 2006, the last year for which the data are available, we arrested 830,000 Americans on marijuana charges, and 88 percent of those arrests were for personal possession and use, not trafficking. They were otherwise law-abiding citizens who smoke marijuana.

Since 1965, a total of nearly 20 million Americans - predominantly young people under the age of 30 — have been arrested on marijuana charges; more than 11 million marijuana arrests just since 1990.

Currently 47 percent of all drug arrests in this country are for marijuana, and another marijuana smoker is arrested every 38 seconds. Police arrest more people on marijuana charges each year than the total number of arrestees for all violent crimes combined, including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

As President Jimmy Carter said in a message to Congress in 1977, “Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to the individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession of marijuana in private for personal use.”

For More Information, Contact:

NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre; allen@norml.org; 202-483-5500

or Legal Counsel Keith Stroup: keith@norml.org; 202-483-5500

Download the NORML Daily Audio Stash for 2008-06-24

Today on the Stash NORML Founder Keith Stroup joins us to wish Dr. Lester Grinspoon a happy birthday.  Keith calls him the “intellectual leader” of this movement, beginning with his groundbreaking book, Marihuana Reconsidered (back in the day before they put the “j” in!) and to this day he advocates for the medical uses of marijuana and the end of adult marijuana prohibition.

Also joining us today is Mason Tvert from SAFER in Denver.  After a rash of air rage incidents involving alcohol intoxication diverted flights to Denver, Mason asks, “why not allow marijuana smoking in the airport smoking lounges as a way to relieve the stress of air travel?”  A novel idea, eh?

Plus you get another dose of my pal Chief Greenbud, along with another episode of Reefer Madness coming from West Virginia.

So go get the four-footre, it’s time for your NORML Daily Audio Stash!

[The latest upgrade to WordPress 2.5.1 has wiped out my style sheets.  So that’s why the Stash site looks funny today.  I’m working hard on getting it fixed, please be patient.]

Download the NORML Daily Audio Stash for 2008-05-15

It’s Thursday, May 15th and it’s 4:20 somewhere in the world. I’m your host, “Radical” Russ Belville and this is your NORML Daily Audio Stash.

Don’t forget to get on the phone and call your Congress at 202-224-3121. Tell your representative to support Ron Paul’s HR5842, the bill to end DEA raids in medical marijuana states, and Barney Frank’s HR5843, the bill to end federal penalties for personal possession of marijuana.

Today on the Daily Audio Stash we’re speaking with NORML Founder and Legal Counsel Keith Stroup, who will update us on the outcome of his trial in Massachusetts on charges he smoked a doobie in public at the Boston Freedom Rally.

Cannabis Karri brings us more island beats with some reggae from Mikey Dread. This Jamaican dub hit is called “Dizzy (Herb Smoker)”. Though he passed from this earth in March, his music lives on and infuses us all with that irie vibe.

Then we’ll finish up with Charles Thomas from the Interfaith Drug Policy Alliance. He’s here to tell us about support for medical marijuana in Minnesota from the clergy of many denominations and their efforts to convince the governor to not veto the upcoming medical marijuana bill.

We’ve got a lot to cover, so sit back and relax with Bong Crosby and your favorite strain and enjoy your NORML Daily Audio Stash…

[The latest upgrade to WordPress 2.5.1 has wiped out my style sheets.  So that’s why the Stash site looks funny today.  I’m working hard on getting it fixed, please be patient.]

The Harvard Crimson :: News :: Law Prof Argues Marijuana Trial
Most marijuana users who get caught smoking a joint summarily pay a fine, but when an undercover police officer detained Richard E. Cusick and R. Keith Stroup, the two chose instead to challenge the constitutionality of Massachusetts laws banning marijuana for the first time in 30 years.

Arrested for sharing a marijuana cigarette at the annual Boston Freedom Rally in September, Cusick and Stroup turned to Harvard Law School professor Charles R. Nesson for legal counsel. Nesson and his clients acknowledged that they had used the illegal drug, and decided upon an unusual defense: they argued that the statute outlawing marijuana in Massachusetts has no “rational basis,” and that the jury has the power of jury nullification, or ruling a defendant innocent while recognizing that he or she had violated a law.

Both co-defendants built their careers around marijuana: Cusick is associate publisher of the well-known marijuana magazine, High Times, and Stroup is the founder of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. They said that they do not believe marijuana to be a social ill.

Nesson said he had hoped that several experts—including Lester S. Grinspoon, an associate professor emeritus at Harvard Medical School, and Jeffrey A. Miron, director of undergraduate studies in economics—would be allowed to testify to the harmlessness of marijuana.

But the defendants were not granted an evidentiary hearing, and the jury found them guilty of marijuana possesion after deliberating briefly. The judge sentenced them to one day in prison, which they had already served the day they were arrested.

“The idea that they were found guilty of a crime was just crushing to me,” Nesson said in an interview yesterday.

Although Nesson plans to file an appeal, it is unlikely that an appellate court will rule to change the verdict.

Be sure to download today’s Daily Audio Stash for my conversation with Keith Stroup about his sentence and conviction.

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 Blog » Blog Archive » Snapshots from Boston: Update on Commonwealth v. Cusick and Stroup
NORML Founder and Legal Counsel Keith Stroup dishes the latest on his court case, where he and High Times’ Rick Cusick are being prosecuted for smoking a joint on the Boston Common during the 2007 Freedom Rally.

More video from Rick Cusick, Dr. Lester Grinspoon, and Steve Epstein follow after the jump…

Read the rest of this entry by clicking here

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.

Read the rest of this entry by clicking here

Marijuana Laws on Trial - NORML
WHAT: A Press Conference on a Constitutional Challenge to Massachusetts’ Marijuana Laws and a Request for a Special Jury Instruction

On March 20, 2008, Keith Stroup, founder of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), and Rick Cusick, associate publisher of High Times magazine, will discuss the constitutional challenge they are mounting to the marijuana laws of Massachusetts. This challenge is part of their defense against the charge of possessing a joint on Boston Common last fall at a public gathering to protest marijuana’s prohibition. Stroup and Cusick will also discuss their plans to request a special jury instruction on the right to jury nullification.

Their attorneys — Professor Charles Nesson of Harvard Law School, Matthew Feinberg of Feinberg and Kamholtz, and Steven Epstein from Georgetown, Massachusetts — will join Stroup and Cusick at the press conference. Retired Harvard Medical School Professor Lester Grinspoon, M.D., who is providing expert medical testimony in support of the constitutional challenge to the state’s marijuana laws, will also be available to answer questions.

WHEN: Thursday, March 20, 2008 — at the conclusion of the pre-trial motions hearing, which is scheduled to begin at 9:00am in Courtroom #10 at the Boston Municipal Court, 24 New Chardon Street, Boston, MA 02114.

WHERE: The press conference will take place less than a mile from the Courthouse, at the Batterymarch Conference Center, 60 Batterymarch Street (inside the Hilton Financial District Hotel), Second Floor, Boston, MA 02110.