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.

US Attorney Dwight Holton threatens Oregon cannabis clubs AND the First Amendment

Dwight Holton, the US Attorney for Oregon, tried to silence a lawful protest by marijuana legalization activists on City Hall steps in Portland this morning, according to attorney Paul Loney.

Holton recently authored a letter circulated to cannabis patients’ clubs threatening federal law enforcement action.  The letter was endorsed by 33 of the 34 Oregon county district attorneys.  Multnomah County D.A. Michael Shrunk declined to sign on, saying, “I don’t like to threaten things that we realistically are not geared up to do,” and “combating this cannot be termed a critical priority when balanced against others.”  From the Holton letter:

“Oregon and Federal law make it illegal to sell marijuana – period, end of story,” said Holton. “The breathtaking surge in manufacture and distribution of marijuana in Oregon is putting marijuana in the hands of more and more healthy kids — and dispensaries are fueling this crisis. We are confident that responsible landlords and property owners will remove the operators of illegal dispensaries and ‘cannabis clubs’.”

In response to the crackdown, Madeline Martinez, proprietor of one of the threatened clubs, the World Famous Cannabis Cafe, called a press conference Friday afternoon at the Portland City Hall steps.  The permit had been turned in on Monday, according to Oregon NORML Legal Counsel Paul Loney.

Speaking to NORML SHOW LIVE, Loney explained, “We got word that [US Attorney] Holton contacted [Portland City Councilman] Nick Fish and told him, ‘you shouldn’t let those guys [the marijuana advocates] have their press conference at City Hall.’”  According to Loney, “Fish told him that we turned in our permit on Monday and what they’re doing is perfectly legal.”

Loney continued, “I think this is more of a story than the letter – a US Attorney, sworn to uphold the Constitution, trying to squash the First Amendment rights of Oregonians!  We are going to be investigating this and bringing it up with his boss, [Attorney General] Eric Holder.”

Martinez, who also serves as director of NORML’s state affiliate, Oregon NORML, and on the board of directors of the national organization, stated, “Between the recent report from the United Nations recommending full legalization of cannabis, Eric Holder’s vague comments about working with medical cannabis states and the recent decree from the Oregon Department of Justice, many Oregon Medical Marijuana Program registrants are confused and worried for their safety.”

Loney told the assembled protestors, a crowd of roughly forty, that nobody has yet shown the cannabis clubs to be operating outside the law.  “Judges decide the law in this county,” said Loney, “not sheriffs, not district attorneys.”

Patients in Oregon are permitted to reimburse any cardholding grower for the supplies and expenses involved in producing medical marijuana, but reimbursement for labor is forbidden by law.  Cannabis clubs in Oregon claim to be operating on the principle of reimbursements and unsolicited donations.  Loney, speaking on local television news Thursday, said explicitly that these cannabis clubs are not selling.

Anna Diaz, a board member of Oregon NORML and NORML’s 2011 Pauline Sabin Award Winner, spoke to NORML SHOW LIVE and explained “Sensible Oregon”.  “It’s going to be an initiative like the ‘Sensible Washington’ one that will just remove marijuana from the criminal law, while still maintaining laws on DUI and not providing to children.”  Diaz said the initiative is still being conceived and written.  Once written, it will be circulated fo collect the one thousand signatures required in Oregon to begin official signature gathering.

If “Sensible Oregon” makes it to signature gathering, it will join the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act (OCTA) as initiatve petitions to legalize marijuana in Oregon.  OCTA has already completed the certification of ballot title and is currently gathering signatures.

Front page of MSNBC on Day Two of NORML CON

MSNBC Deputy Business Editor Al Olson attended the 40th Annual NORML Conference in Denver and it was like watching a twelve-year-old boy covering a video game convention. Every panel, every vendor, and every person elicited wide-eyed wonder and effusive praise from this veteran journalist.

“I’ve covered Super Bowls, presidential elections, Olympic games,” he told me, “but nothing comes close to how honored I am to be covering this conference.”

Al told me he is a daily listener to NORML SHOW LIVE and marveled at the quality production we put together on such a shoestring budget.  I told Al that we’re still hoping for shoestrings – right now we’re getting by hopping on one foot wearing a flip-flop.  It is satisfying to know that someone in the traditional media is listening and is dedicated enough to get our conference on the front page of MSNBC.com last Friday.

Al interviewed many attendees at the conference, including me.  Al apologized that my footage (explaining the drug testing that ended my IT career) wouldn’t be included, as it was a piece on entrepreneurship, but promised there would be much more attention coming our way.  Oregon NORML’s Executive Director, Madeline Martinez, was included on the front page cover photo as well for her entrepreneurial work in the for-profit Cannabis Cafe.  Each interview, with video, is available still at MSNBC.com.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

"Counter-culture" activists for NORML (L-R) Keith Stroup, Assem. Tom Ammiano, PBS Host Rick Steves... crazy hippies!

From time to time on blogs I read a complaint about NORML, like this one:

NORML hasn’t accomplish­ed anything since the disco era!  They haven’t done a damn thing in the last 30 years!  Paul A is the only good thing NORML has going; aside from him, this movement wouldn’t even notice if NORML ceased existing.

I will concur that Paul Armentano is an MVP All-Star in marijuana law reform.  You cannot find a person better educated on the science of marijuana.

But to conclude Paul is the “only good thing NORML has going” is to disparage the incredible work being done by hundreds of grassroots activists working in the NORML chapter network.  To wit:

More "counter-culture" activists with NORML

Chris Goldstein, Anne Davis, & NORML NJ – instrumental in negotiations with New Jersey lawmakers to bring about Gov. Corzine’s signature on the law making it the nation’s 15th medical marijuana state.

Derek Rosenzweig & PhillyNORML – uncovered and published research on Philadelphia’s racial bias in marijuana enforcement leading to a change in policy to end arrests of low level marijuana consumers in the city.

Another couple of "hippies"

Michigan NORML and MassCann/NORML laid the groundwork for 2008′s medical marijuana and decriminalization, respectively, in Michigan and Massachusetts by passing numerous municipal measures in support of marijuana.

Madeline Martinez and Oregon NORML led negotiations with lawmakers to set medical marijuana limits to 24 ounces and 24 plants, the highest statewide statutory limits in the nation (along with Washington State).

The "grass" in "grassroots" - so counter-culture!

Dale Gieringer, Bill Panzer, and California NORML helped co-author Prop 215 in California, worked for the clarifications found in SB420, worked with Assem. Ammiano to produce the first legalization bill in decades, helped shepherd the latest California decrim measure to Schwarzenegger’s desk, and are organizing with Prop 19′s leaders for a new legalization initiative in 2012.

Kandice Hawes and Orange County NORML held the nation’s first medical marijuana conference specifically for seniors… across the street from Disneyland!

No wonder "normal" people won't join... look at these two!

Mary Mackenzie (apologies for the original name misspell – I sure know what that’s like!), AZ4NORML, and Phoenix NORML were the foot soldiers gathering the signatures that got MPP’s Arizona Prop 203 on the ballot.

Kelly Maddy, Joplin NORML, Dan Viets, Missouri NORML, all worked in Missouri to pass lowest-law-enforcement and other municipal initiatives.

These guys have done nothing since the disco era...

Ben Masel, Gary Storck, Madison NORML all have lobbied intensively for the Jackie Rickert Medical Marijuana Act, moving it farther along in the legislative process every year.

Colorado NORML, Mile High NORML, have worked with SAFER on their initiatives, gathering signatures that lead to Denver’s legalization and other low-priority initiatives.

Obviously too tie-dyed and love-beaded to make any difference

Isaias Valdez and Idaho NORML are beginning the grassroots education and activism in one of the most anti-marijuana states in the nation; the state currently has a medical marijuana bill in the legislature and the group is following up with a citizen’s initiative.

John & Heather Masterson in Montana NORML, battling to mitigate the perception of abuse of medical marijuana created by unethical “ganjapreneurs” and most recenlty providing live coverage of the DEA raids in Montana.

Sure, they're doctors... but they're "pot" doctors!

Then there are the hundreds of attorneys who make up the NORML Legal Committee, who have donated thousands of hours of pro bono time helping average cannabis consumers avoid jail and retain voting rights, also working on new laws.  For example:

Jeff Blackburn, who kept an AIDS patient out of a Texas prison with an affirmative defense that a jury agreed with in only 11 minutes of deliberation.  The patients’ original public defender only offered a plea deal that would have meant six months of drug testing that would’ve left the patient without his medicine, wasting away.

And that whole "boobs and buds" issue turns women off to the cause...

Doug Hiatt, who fought for the life of Hep C patient Tim Garon, denied a liver transplant because his legal medical marijuana use in Washington State made him a “drug addict” in the eyes of the hospital.  Hiatt is now behind the Sensible Washington effort to fully legalize by citizen initiative.

Let’s not forget the national staff (like me) who constantly educate, advocate, interview, debate, advertise, litigate, lobby, and keep the conversation on marijuana legalization moving forward.

No wonder nobody wants to legalize pot - look at these people!

I’ve already written way too much for a comment and that is just reviewing my own memory of NORML Activism within the four years I’ve worked for NORML.  And remember, aside from the lawyers (sometimes), NONE of these activists made a single dime for performing these heroic acts.

As far as I’m concerned, all of the groups involved in marijuana law reform have an important role to play.  It’s like the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard – we have different jobs and different specializations in service of the same goal.  Sure, we have internecine grudges and rivalries.  Just as jarheads goad sailors, just as grunts tease flyboys, drug war reform groups may also grouse about each other, but when the rubber hits the road, we’re all fighting for the good ol’ U S of A.

For me personally, there are some important differences.  DPA is about drug policy – they think drug prohibition sucks.  MPP is about marijuana policy – they think marijuana prohibition sucks.  SAFER is about offering choice – they think alcohol sucks compared to marijuana.  ASA is about medical marijuana – they are silent on healthy people’s use.  LEAP is about cops’ expression of drug war failure – they think drug prohibition sucks.

NORML, of all the groups, is the one that doesn’t just think marijuana prohibition sucks, but that cannabis use is a positive.  We’re not just anti-prohibition, we’re pro-cannabis!

Finally, to the disparagement of the counter-culture you believe NORML represents: in actuality, most of our NORML Affiliate and Chapter leaders are far from what anyone would consider “hippie”.  Anne Davis, head of NORML NJ, is a successful attorney and mother of two.  Tonya Davis, head of Central Ohio NORML, is a disabled patient in a wheelchair.  Clif Deuvall, head of NORML of Waco Texas, is a disabled veteran.  Isaias Valdez, head of Idaho NORML, is a clean-cut college student.  I can’t speak to what you may have seen from NORML in the 1980′s or 90′s, but I know since my involvement I have never met a better representative group of average cannabis consumers.  In my tenure, we have instituted sixty new state, local, and college affiliates, so it seems to me plenty of people are eager to organize under the NORML banner.

There is a drug reform group for everyone.  I don’t care what acronym you want to associate with so long as you’re on this side of the battle over prohibition.  But to dismiss and disparage NORML’s role in the war is to vilify the most committed activists in the battle – the ones not doing it for some billionaire’s largess.  If you think someone might not support ending prohibition because someone in a NORML T-shirt might have long hair, piercings, or tattoos, then you aren’t very good at illustrating the need to end the drug war.

Russ Belville

NORML Outreach Coordinator

P.S. If you really want to know what is going on in grassroots reform, check out the podcasts from all around the nation and even England at The NORML Network – http://live.norml.org

Oregon’s Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP) is so successful that other states are copying their policies.

(Seattle Times) Washington state has no medical marijuana patient registry, but the Legislature is considering following Oregon’s lead as part of a sweeping overhaul bill pending in Olympia.

Patients in Washington are anxious about the proposed registry, seeing it as an invasion of privacy and a tempting tool for police, who strongly favor it, reports Jonathan Martin at The Seattle Times. Reflecting those fears, the current proposal in Washington calls for a voluntary registry.

But Oregon’s 11-year experience with a mandatory registry has resulted in patient advocates, police, attorneys and health-care professionals describing it as the least controversial part of the Beaver State’s medical marijuana law.

“I’ve been preaching this to my colleagues in Washington: A registry can protect you,” said Madeline Martinez, executive director of Oregon NORML. “Every state should have one.”  In Oregon, a patient whose physician recommends medical marijuana must enroll and pay the $100 yearly registry fee to gain protection from arrest or unwarranted searches of a home or grow site.  Membership has almost doubled from 23,114 in 2008 to 41,407 in 2010. Nearly 25 percent of Oregon’s doctors have  patient on the medical marijuana registry.

The registry is helpful because it allows police to quickly tell if a medical marijuana patient is legitimate, said Lt. Ted Phillips of the Oregon State Patrol’s narcotics section. Police can access the registry through a secure data link only to confirm a patient’s qualification, not to fish for names.

Huge new Oregon NORML sign greets 16,000+ drivers per day (click for full size version of photo)

It’s been a hectic first week at the Oregon NORML World Famous Cannabis Café. Last Saturday, the grand re-opening featured a barbecue out in the sun in the parking lot.  Dozens turned out over the afternoon and evening to consume cannabis and socialize out on the shielded outdoor patio and downstairs in the 4,000 square foot café / lounge.

As word spread throughout the week about our new location, we saw the return of many of our old friends, customers from our previous location. They are agog at the magnificent new setting. The clean, classy, and huge interior was the main comment of praise I heard, followed by those folks excited to play free pool, shuffleboard, and air hockey. We haven’t even finished outfitting the back game room with the two big screens for simultaneous Xbox and Wii play.

I volunteered there all week; it’s hard to stay away when the place is a ten-minute walk away from my studios. I hooked up a dual band wireless network, with a 2.4GHz channel dedicated to the café patrons for free wi-fi and a 5GHz channel dedicated to the Xbox and Wii for live network gaming and to the café big screen for streaming Netflix and internet video.

About the only bad situation that arose was when we tried to do our live show from the café on Friday. Our studio laptop picked that day to have issues with Flash encoder, our sound board couldn’t route the Skype interview line without an echo, and the cell reception was too poor for us to make do with our Skype Plan B. We had to abort the show midway through and were unable to save any portion of it. However, we stayed late and gave exclusive tours to the audience throughout the evening with our remote laptop, so it wasn’t a total loss.

Next mission: getting College Football Gamecast so I can watch my beloved Boise State Broncos roll to another undefeated season and a first-ever I-A FBS National Championship.

PORTLAND, OR – The new Cannabis Commons and Oregon NORML are excited to announce the reopening of the World Famous Oregon NORML Cannabis Café on July 31, 2010 at 4:20pm at 322 SE 82nd Avenue, Portland, OR 97216.

“I am so excited about our new location; we will be able to serve our community so much better,” reports Madeline Martinez, Executive Director for Oregon NORML and co-founder of both the café and Cannabis Commons.

Ben Cunningham, who has partnered with Madeline for the reopening and the new Cannabis Commons, is equally excited. “I look forward to offering café members a welcome haven at the café, and Cannabis Commons will provide opportunities to broaden our services to include the general public.”

As it was at the first location, the World Famous Oregon NORML Cannabis Café will be open to Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP) registrants who are members of Oregon NORML. Membership to Oregon NORML is $35.00 for the year, and will be available at the door. Café dues are separate at $20.00 per month with a $5.00 door fee for entry. A free ATM will be readily available.

Easily accessible by public transit, and with over four thousand square feet of space, the café and Cannabis Commons promise to become the cutting edge hot spot for all things hemp. For more information as it becomes available call the Oregon NORML message line at 503-239-6110 or visit www.ornorml.org. Oregon NORML can also be found on facebook and myspace.

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Hemp Headlines

1. Rutgers University turns down Gov. Christie’s offer for them to grow medical marijuana
2. Miami Heat’s Michael Besley gets traded to the Timberwolves because he smokes to much marijuana
3. Georgia police arrest family of three for trafficking over 30 grams and some Bob Marley posters
4. 20/20 features Dr. Lester Grinspoon on tonight’s episode on mothers using medical marijuana to treat OCD and autism
5. A fifth duffle bag of weed found in Texas believed to have fallen out of a plane

Daily Toker Tunes

• Rockin’ Friday: Slightly Stoopid – “No Cocaine”

Cultivator’s Corner with High Times’ Sr. Cultivation Editor Danny Danko

• Curing: what’s the “best way” and is there a “quick dry” method that wont ruin your herb?
• Breeding: If you take standard male pollen to a “feminized” or hermaphoridite plant will the result still be a stable seed?
• Can you please explain the difference between sea of green and screen of green?
• What is the best way to use the 12 plant max in California?
• What’s the best situation for maintaining a mother plant, i.e. lights, temp, etc.
• How big do clones have to be in order to make them flower to determine the sex of the main plant?
• Aren’t you working on a strain book? When does it come out and how can I get a copy?
• We have been cultivating the shorter, buddy, bushier strains of cannabis for indoor grows; do you think the new 5×5 restrictions (in California’s Prop 19) will make stars out of the taller, lankier strains?

NORML Newsmakers

• Oregon NORML’s Madeline Martinez announces the Grand Re-Opening of the World Famous Cannabis Café

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Hemp Headlines

1. Legendary Hollywood icon Dennis Hopper dies from prostate cancer
2. Update on Lisa Kirkman, Canadian mom whose child was kept from her in Oregon over marijuana activism
3. Michigan family practice clinic begins random urine screening for controlled substances, booting marijuana users

Daily Toker Tunes

Brought to you by Sahra Kant Photography

• Electric Tuesday: Peff – “Cannabis Sativa”

NORML Newsmakers

• Madeline Martinez on the future of Oregon NORML’s

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Hemp Headlines

1. Canadian dispensary facing law enforcement actions reminiscent of California
2. Illinois fighting to become the 15th medical marijuana state; lawmakers fear “political fallout”
3. Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske refuses to consider what federal government will do when California re-legalizes in November

Daily Toker Tunes

Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

• Roots Monday: The Mannish Boys – “Champagne and Reefer”

NORML Newsmakers

• Madeline Martinez, co-chief petitioner of the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act

Reefer Madness

• “Radical” Russ gives you the sound-bites to defeat the prohibitionists as they scare folks about West Coast Re-legalization