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.

University of Central Florida NORML, one of the nation's premiere campus NORML chapters

Do you attend a college or university that doesn’t have a NORML Chapter?  Would you like to start one?  Send me an email at stash@norml.org and check the menu at the top that says “NORML Chapters” and you’ll learn all you need to know.

You could make a difference on your campus like the brand new CSU Fresno chapter:

(CSU Fresno Collegian) “Our primary goal is to spread correct information about marijuana and hemp to the students of Fresno State,” said 20-year-old [CSU Fresno NORML] president Idell Tarver. “We also promote the organizations goals of [medicinal marijuana] use, industrial use and recreational use.”

According to their Web site, the club wants to create limitations for marijuana and hemp being that only adults can use it. Those who use it would not be able to drive after using, limits would be set, resist abuse, and they would have to respect the rights of others.

“In the upcoming weeks, we are having discussions of various topics relating to marijuana, our symposium series,” Tarver said.

The club also has a debate scheduled with a narcotics officer that they hope will happen on April 20 in the Free Speech Area.

The club is also getting involved with the community and plans to adopt a stretch of highway.

“We hope to adopt the two-mile stretch of [highway] 168 that runs westbound from the Bullard overpass. We would be cleaning that section of the highway once a month,” Tarver said. “This is a good opportunity to get the students of N.O.R.M.L to get involved with the community.”

N.O.R.M.L is open to any new members, and meetings are held at 5 p.m. on Wednesdays in Family Food and Sciences 216a.

JAX NORML, the Jacksonville, Florida affiliate of NORML, is really capturing the media spotlight for its decriminalization campaign for Jacksonville Beach.  They sent me a list of their Media References and that struck me as a very fine idea I should pass on to other NORML chapters.  Have your Media References list ready to go and accessible from your website.  These are what build your public image and gain you legitimacy in the community.

NEWSPAPERS

FLORIDA TIMES-UNION

LTE

• 3/26/08 Letter to the Editor of the Florida Times-Union accessible @ http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/032708/opl_261931473.shtml

REPORTS

• 7/24/09 Article in the Florida Times-Union by Josh Salman, “Drive started to decriminalize pot in Jacksonville Beach,” http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/news-article.aspx?storyid=142246&catid=3

• 7/28/09 Follow up, Caren Burmeister: http://jacksonville.com/community/shorelines/2009-07 29/story/marijuana_group_targets_jacksonville_beach_for_decriminalizati

PONTE VEDRA RECORDER

• 4/24/09 Article by Shane Griffis, The Ponte Vedra Recorder on 4/19 protest in Jax Beach accessible @ http://www.pontevedrarecorder.com/content/915_1.php

FOLIO WEEKLY

• 5/5/09 Article in Folio Weekly by Julie Delegal, re. 4/19 Protest in Jax Beach accessible @ http://www.folioweekly.com/documents/main050509_000.pdf

TELEVISION

FIRST COAST NEWS

• 3/19/08 Website article and TV video discussing JAX NORML and legalization
On First Coast News accessible @ http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/news-article.aspx?storyid=104927&ref=rss

• 7/24/09 Website article and TV video discussing JAX NORML and Jax Beach decriminalization initiative On First Coast News accessible @ http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/news-article.aspx?storyid=142246
ACTION NEWS

• 7/24/09 Website article and TV video discussing JAX NORML and Jax Beach decriminalization initiative Action News accessible @ http://www.actionnewsjax.com/content/topstories/story/Group-pushes-to-change-marijuana-laws-on-Jax-Beach/e8bxdhjL0km4_7weuKoftg.cspx

• 7/24/09 Website article and TV video discussing JAX NORML and Jax Beach decriminalization initiative Action News accessible @ http://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/state/story/Jacksonville-Beach-could-change-pot-law/XiReUDklWECF1Ss0Istnpw.cspx

NEWS 4 JAX

• 7/24/09 Website article and TV video discussing JAX NORML and Jax Beach decriminalization initiative NEWS 4 JAX accessible @ http://www.news4jax.com/news/20165508/detail.html

I received an email from Clif, who has almost completed the process for forming Waco NORML in Texas:

Thanks for everything, and to Leon and DFW NORML for their $500. grant to help with start-up and all info, by laws and to get me on the right track. Also thanks goes out to Josh and TX NORML for their help with getting the Letter of Incorporation.

This is EXACTLY the sort of grassroots cooperation that makes NORML stand head and shoulders above the other marijuana law reform organizations.  Established chapters with money and resources should be planting little seedlings of NORML chapters all around their state.  Similar work is going on in Wisconsin, with the folks from Madison helping Milwaukee get started, in Oregon where the mighty Portland chapter is setting up chapters in Bend and Salem, and in Michigan, where they pioneered the art of “sub-chaptering” (setting up remote outposts of Michigan NORML that aren’t technically independent chapters, just remote meetings of Michigan NORML).

Eventually this sort of mentoring process will be codified and introduced at the NORML National Conference this year.  I intend to set up an intermediate level of state chapters to act as the organizational hubs for the local chapters in their state.  This should accrue more gravitas, responsibility, local control, and rapid response for the state-level chapters, while serving to promote the national NORML presence in all fifty states.

Have at it, state chapters!  Set the goal of instituting chapters in every region of your state.

Oregon NORML's cleaning up Highway 26, milepost 14-16

I just got this photo from Madeline Martinez at Oregon NORML.  The chapter has joined the “Adopt A Highway” program that puts volunteers on the roadside to clean up garbage along our roadsides.  Oregon NORML adopted Highway 26, the busy route from Portland to the skiing and camping destinations at Mt. Hood, from milepost 14 to 16.  They’re working on adopting another stretch of road that passes right by the residence of one particularly weed-hating state representative (the Yiddish word is “chutzpah”, I believe).

Other NORML chapters, like Oklahoma NORML, have done this and it is one of the coolest ways to make your chapter known.  It helps to show society that we cannabis consumers care about the same things everyone else does, like clean roads.  It takes only a couple of hours every few months to fulfill the requirements.  It can be a fun activity for your volunteers to feel like they are part of a worthwhile activity that generates positive public relations for the movement.

I am proud to announce the creation of the NORML North American Chapter Map in Google Maps. The map will locate all the State, Regional, Local (subchapters) and College NORML Chapters in the US and Canada. Click the icon for a chapter and you’ll be linked to their website. As I continue updating the database, more information will be added to the map, such as meeting times and locations, public events, and email contacts, as well as each chapter’s logo.

View the NORML Chapters Map at http://tr.im/NORMLmap.

If you use Google Earth, you may open the NORML.kml file, which will link to the database and retrieve the latest updates. You can save that link to your “My Places” and it will always show an up-to-date map when you open Google Earth.

View Larger Map

Help us end the 21st century prohibition! Join NORML today!

I am now NORML’s National Chapter Outreach Coordinator.  In that capacity, I receive the emails from people all across the country looking to join NORML.  We currently have 64 chapters and 47 campus chapters in 38 states, and 8 international chapters.

I want a NORML chapter in all fifty states, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.  I want double the number of chapters.  So I really need your help.

Just this last two weeks, I have received emails from budding activists (pun intended) looking to start NORML Chapters in Colorado, North Carolina, Alaska, Alabama, Florida (Miami), Missouri, Virginia, Idaho, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Mississippi, Vermont, Texas, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Kansas, as well as four new college chapter inquiries and inquiries from Australia, Japan, Guam, and Mexico (Cuidad Juarez).

I work to put the people in the same state in touch with each other because the hardest thing about forming a NORML Chapter isn’t finding the guy or gal to lead, it’s finding the other four people to form your board.

So Stashers, if you’re in one of the above-named states or countries and you’d like to get on board with a new local chapter, send me an email to stash@norml.org with the subject “Join a Chapter” and I’ll hook you up.