This Saturday, Tennessee NORML is presenting a fundraising luncheon at the Sunset Grill from 10:30am to 3pm. That evening there is a fundraiser with NORML Founder Keith Stroup running from 7pm to 10pm.

From the Green Hills News (click for full size)

From the Green Hills News (click for full size)

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Hemp Headlines

Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

1. 84-year-old small town Florida mayor fires entire police force, whom she suspects of planting marijuana in her yard to discredit her
2. Williams, Oregon, has one out of five residents growing medical marijuana
3. Chico California Vice-Mayor flips vote, supports repeal of pro-dispensary ordinance for fear of federal prosecution
4. NORML’s Keith Stroup considers Colorado Amendment 40 a “stupid idea”.

Daily Toker Tunes

Brought to you by NorCalPurps in the California Bay Area

• Irie Wednesday: Katchafire – “Sensimilla”

Cannabis Science with Dr. Mitch Earleywine

Radical Rant

• Just what do you mean by “legalization”?

One medical marijuana expo's "Prop 215 area" - Because nothing says "medical" like cleavage and booty shorts!

Is it NORML to be sexist?  It’s not exactly a rhetorical question.  When you look at the statistics, the more one smokes pot, the more likely one is male.  Those who have tried pot in their lifetime are 54% male; by the time you get to the daily tokers like me, it’s 68%.  That’s two tokers for every tokette!  (Hmm, is “tokette” sexist?)

Then there are the trade magazines and expos.  The advertisements of naked women covered in buds have long been a complaint among many women and some men commenting on the cannabis culture.  Now the medical marijuana industry is flourishing in California and Colorado.  With it come the trade shows where some vendors compete for traffic by employing scantily clad spokesmodels.

On one side you have free speech and sexual expression advocates explaining that sex sells!  The marijuana industry is no different in that respect than the fast food, car, and beer manufacturers.

On the other side you have civil rights and reform advocates explaining that fast food, cars, and beer are legal and don’t have to fight for legitimacy and respect in a political market alongside fighting for eyeballs and dollars in a commercial market.  It’s more than an industry, it’s also a civil rights movement.

Should free speech and sexual expression be curbed for political correctness?  Or do we flaunt our freedom to communicate any message we like, risking it may harm recruiting efforts and public opinion for legalization?  Bottom line (if you’ll pardon the pun): are the extra dollars from advertising marijuana with babes in booty shorts worth impeding the legalization of marijuana?  (Hmm, I guess if you make profit off overpriced marijuana due to prohibition tariffs, it just may be…)

Ladies, it's raining men over here in the toker community... much better odds than your local bar...

This subject comes to mind because of a Facebook zit I just popped.  I know, gross, but it sums up succinctly my general impression of the social network.  When I get complaints about NORML chapters in my position as Outreach Coordinator, as soon as I see “Facebook” in the description my eyes glaze over.  I know what I’m about to read will be a sensitive, painful public eyesore that is taken far too seriously, makes a tiny mess, and is then forgotten.  Like a zit.

However, this time a complaint caught my attention, because it was about one of our chapter directors and had been forwarded to my colleagues at the NORML Women’s Alliance.  It seems the director had posted a graphic on his wall someone found to be sexist and violent and unbecoming of a NORML leader.  It’s safe-for-work (so long as the word “vagina” is safe for your work, and if it isn’t, ha ha, too late!) if you’d like to look for yourself.

Needless to say, my colleagues at the NWA* weren’t amused by epithets accompanying a photo of striking a woman.  The posting is on the director’s private Facebook page; however, his position as a NORML leader was listed prominently in his profile and he often promoted his chapter’s work and events through his public page.

We asked the director to either remove the one offensive graphic post from his personal Facebook page or make the page truly “personal” and remove reference to his leadership position at NORML.  It’s a more measured response than I would have given.  I can’t imagine a leader of any other political organization posting such offensive material publicly and then being allowed to remain in a leadership position.

Unsurprisingly, the director became irate about NORML “censoring” him and not respecting “free speech”.  He defended the graphic as being “funny as hell” and that “99.9%” of the public found it hilarious.  He disparaged our founder, Keith Stroup, railed about political correctness, and lamented how NORML wants to restrict his freedom of expression because of the complaints of a couple of “pissy little bitches”.  He resigned, telling us we’ve “lost the most important person NORML had” in that area, vowed to spread the word of our transgressions and pledged to be our mortal enemy.  In other words, my first instinct was correct; we’re better off without such a lout.

I’m shocked, though, that it came to all this.  How is it that male tokers who wish to be public leaders of a marijuana movement can’t understand how institutionalized sexism holds us back politically?  Does our outlaw counterculture and male/female imbalance just shelter us from recognizing the sexism that the mainstream’s been addressing and correcting over the past three decades, or does it actively foster an environment of sexism?

*No, not Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, and MC Ren… oh, how I wish the Women’s Alliance had picked a different acronym!

Pauline Sabin formed the largest women's anti-prohibition movement in 1929. By 1931, she organized 1.5 million members. By 1933, prohibition was repealed.

Women’s support for marijuana legalization in the latest polls lags behind men’s support by ten percentage points.  If women supported legalization as men do, there would be overall majority support for legalization.  Women, for many reasons, not the least of which is the pressure to be good mothers, are more afraid to voice their support when they do support legalization.  Critics have complained about the overwhelmingly-male boards of NORML and other drug reform orgs, rightfully so, but for so many years there was a dearth of capable women stepping up to the plate.

Not so anymore.  Strong women like Kandice Hawes (CA), Ellen Komp (CA), Norma Sapp (OK), Cher Neufer (OH), Mary Mackenzie Crow (AZ), Anna Diaz (OR), Anne Davis (NJ), Tonya Davis (OH), Lori Duckworth (OR), Karen Goldstein (FL), Linda Adler (VI), Karli Duran (TX), Ruth Liebesman Martiniuk (NY), Jennifer Foster (NC), Dee Duffy (VA), Karri Gallaugher (OR), and Lauren Wolpin-Maytin (CO) are leading or have recently led NORML Affiliates and Chapters all across the country.  Madeline Martinez joined NORML’s board in 2007 and is joined by Greta Gaines this year on the board.  We are moving in the right direction.

Still, 16 of 67 affiliate and chapter leaders is less than one female leader in four.  Two of fifteen board members being female is an even worse disparity.  How much of this crisis in female recruiting is attributable to their lower representation among tokers generally and how much of it is attributable to strong capable women not wishing to jump into a movement they perceive as sexist?

I will do everything I can to recruit more women to the cause,  I encourage everyone to visit our NORML Women’s Alliance page, and I’m always eager to continue this conversation on NORML SHOW LIVE and in the comments on this blog.  We must increase female support for legalization or it will never happen, period.

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Hemp Headlines

Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

1. Utah Attorney General welcomes legislative action to create medical marijuana law, just completed colon cancer treatments and “understands”
2. Korean rapper Crown J. gets 8 months in Korean jail for using marijuana… in Atlanta, Georgia.
3. Michigan reaps $8 million in medical marijuana program profits in just two years
4. Grants Pass woman rolls over in Portland-to-Boston trafficking scheme

Daily Toker Tunes

Brought to you by CannaBob and The Viper Hour on The NORML Network

• Roots Monday: Ian Moore Band – “Champagne and Reefer”

NORML Legal Committee

• Keith Stroup, NORML Legal Counsel and Founder, on Aspen Legal Seminar, Kentucky v. King, Washington State’s employment discrimination case against medical marijuana patients, update on federal legalization bills

Radical Rant

• Oregon legislators sneak 2X-4X fee increase on medmj patients into budget

What have your contributions to NORML done for marijuana legalization?  One thing they do is pay they modest salaries of Paul Armentano, who researches and compiles the latest scientific research on the medical efficacy of cannabis, and Keith Stroup, whose extensive legal experience in marijuana law reform has built an incredible network of dedicated defense attorneys.  Together these two men worked with the defense attorney of a medical marijuana patient with the unfortunate luck of being caught growing cannabis plants in Florida, the state with one of the strictest sets of cannabis laws (over 20 grams of possession is a felony!)

(Broward/Palm Beach NewTimes) Prosecutors dropped criminal charges today against a Palm Beach County man who had claimed a medicinal marijuana defense in a case that could have sent him to prison for five years for growing pot plants.

Jeffrey Kennedy, a 53-year-old Boynton Beach resident, had turned down a plea deal in the case in the hopes that his medicinal marijuana defense could set a legal precedent in Florida, where such cases are rare.

Problems began for Kennedy in 1999, when he tripped over a wire left in his yard by a cable guy. He fell and broke two disks in his back, requiring surgery that failed to fix his chronic pain. Doctors prescribed pain pills that gave him severe mood swings and failed to fix the pain he felt in his back, legs, and feet.

Kennedy hadn’t considered pot until about six years ago, when a stranger in a doctor’s office waiting room asked: “Ever try dope?”

“I told the guy, ‘Yeah, but I gave that up years ago. Does it work?’ He gave me a joint, and I went home that day and smoked half of it.” For the first time since the accident, the pain was gone. “I thought, ‘Wow, this is the most amazing thing.’”

It’s so sad that people who have had experience with cannabis are pressured to “give it up” and most think of it as a “youthful indiscretion” that mature adults don’t participate in.  Cannabis should be the first thing pain patients are offered!

Kennedy began buying pot from dealers. But hoping to cut down on the costs of his newfound medicine, Kennedy said he decided about five years ago to start growing it. He ordered a book from Amazon.com on how to grow medical marijuana and set up a small farm out by his pool.

But on August 29, 2009, Kennedy came home in the afternoon to find his front door open. Fearing a burglar, he called the cops. While searching the home, they found his plants and arrested him on charges of trafficking and of cultivating 26 marijuana plants.

This is one of the under-reported aspects of marijuana prohibition – our susceptibility to crime.  How many tokers don’t call 911 when they are threatened for fear of cops finding their marijuana grow?

Prosecutors later dropped the trafficking charges and offered Kennedy a deal: plead guilty and he’d walk away with just three years’ probation, which would require him to take monthly drug tests. If he smoked dope during that time, he’d likely go to prison.

Gee, all you have to do is remain in intractable pain and pee in a cup every month for three years.  Why do these prosecutors want to punish this man any more than his health has punished him?  Can they really believe that preventing this severely injured man from growing houseplants keeps the public safe?

Karen Goldstein, president of NORML of South Florida, hopes the case will encourage others to use a medicinal marijuana defense to fight criminal pot charges. “We hoped if this case had gone further that it would set a legal precedent in Florida,” Goldstein said. “But either way, we are so happy for Jeff.”Minardi says this isn’t the first time a medicinal marijuana case has won in Florida. Two cases out of the First District Court of Appeal from 1991 and 1998 established that defendants could argue a medicinal marijuana defense. But no cases have gone before the Florida Supreme Court, which would establish for good the defense statewide. “Hopefully,” Minardi said, “other people, if they have legitimate medical reasons, will be able to use this defense.”

And that’s the thing – people have to fight these charges and not take plea agreements.  Even in Florida the public supports medical marijuana by 2-to-1 majorities.  Demand jury trials.  Call NORML, ASA, MPP, all of the reform groups; we’ve got expert witnesses and scientific studies you can use.  When pressed, as these prosecutors were, our opponents have to fold because they’re holding a lousy hand.  None of them want to stand before a jury full of voters and explain why they have to lock up the pain-wracked man for growing herbs for his personal relief.

Asked if he’s going to continue smoking weed, Kennedy replied: “I plead the Rick Scott. Rick Scott took the fifth 72 times in a court case. So I take the Rick Scott.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

NORML Founder Keith Stroup

An hour-long conversation with the founder of NORML on his recollection of four decades in marijuana law reform and what the future holds for NORML.  You’ll hear Keith’s look back at the whirlwind of reform in the 1970s, how the culture wars of the 1980s almost did us in, his opinions on the wisdom of continuing the 1990s – 2000s push for medical marijuana laws, and the future of NORML in the 2010s and beyond… but not TOO far beyond!

And what would Keith’s late friend Dr. Hunter S. Thompson think of the recent “gonzo” phenomenon of Charlie Sheen?  It’s the money quote of the whole interview!

Download audio file (Keith Stroup – NORML at 40.mp3)

Download Link: Keith Stroup – NORML at 40

NORML Special Birthday Treat – a 1977 PSA for NORML from Peter Tosh!

Download audio file (Peter-Tosh-PSA.mp3)

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Hemp Headlines

1. Colorado HB1250 bill to eliminate edibles to be amended to merely regulate them more strictly in packaging and advertisement
2. Maryland legislator opposes medical marijuana, saying it needs more study and it is controversial
3. Oakland appears ready to abandon plans for warehouse mega grows

Daily Toker Tunes

Brought to you by Grateful Dread Public Radio at http://gdreadradio.net, a 24-hour community service Internet radio station proud to carry NORML SHOW LIVE

• Irie Wednesday: Weed-i – “Moonlight”

Cannabis Science with Dr. Mitch Earleywine

• Addressing the latest Australian study on adolescent marijuana use and schizophrenia

NORML Newsmakers

• NORML Founder Keith Stroup reminisces on four decades of NORML

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Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2010-12-27.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

Daily Toker Tunes

Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

• Roots Monday: Bill Donicht & Momma’s Home Cooking – “Some of You People Been Smokin’ My Dope”

SPECIAL: Russ guest-hosts The Bill Press Show

• Paul Stanford on Industrial Hemp and Medical Marijuana
• Keith Stroup on 40 years of marijuana lobbying in Washington
• Robert Platshorn on serving 29 years in prison for marijuana
• Listener calls

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Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2010-11-09.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. Israel improves upon its medical marijuana program
2. New Jersey legislators eager to repeal new more restrictive rules on medical marijuana
3. Rotterdam distributes 15,000 “scratch-n-sniff” marijuana-scented cards to help citizens detect and report illegal marijuana gardens

Daily Toker Tunes

• Electric Tuesday: Groove Junkies – “Far Away (TC Moses)”

NORML Newsmakers

• NORML Founder Keith Stroup reflects on 40 years of reform and the meaning of the 2010 Election

Radical Rant

• Reformers need to realize we can’t “treat it like tomatoes” until we can first “treat it like alcohol”