Just the right side of the fully-packed hall in the UCF Student Union for Russ Belville's "Marijuana Facts" presentation.

It has been a busy travel year for me as NORML’s Outreach Coordinator and I couldn’t be happier.  The enthusiasm I see nationwide for marijuana law reform has never been, ahem, higher.  This year I’ve been traveling monthly, starting in March, to Columbia (MO), Denver, Austin, San Francisco, Missoula, and yesterday, I landed in Orlando.

I was a guest of the University of Central Florida’s NORML Chapter, NORML@UCF (Go Knights!)  This chapter is truly amazing.  Formed in 2001, they have expertly navigated the politics of student government and appropriated student funding for their mission.  That translates into a Speaker’s Budget, where they fly in the top speakers in marijuana activism for presentations, lectures, and discussion.  Previous guests include NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre, Federal Medical Marijuana Patients Elvy Musikka and Irv Rosenfeld, HIGH TIMES Associate Publisher Rick Cusick, Cannabis Café Founder Madeline Martinez, and now, for the second time, me!

I delivered my PowerPoint of slides from my Big Book of Marijuana Facts and the response was overwhelming.  The lecture hall was completely full and as I looked at all the faces, I realized this may be the first time I have ever been the oldest person in a packed room.  I warned them that my presentation was a bit like getting a drink from a fire hose – there’s a lot to talk about in the War on Drugs! – but they were thrilled to learn that all the presentation and more is contained in the Big Book.  In appreciation of their fine work, I told them I was leaving them the very first prototype copy to use in their weekly tabling outreach on the quad.  After 90 minutes of jam-packed graphs and my presentation, the room erupted in applause and I received the first spontaneous standing ovation of my career.

After the presentation I was escorted by chapter leaders to an after-hours party at one of the officer’s houses.  I got to have so many discussions with so many young people.  It was really invigorating.  After six years now of fighting prohibition and reporting on the horrors of the War on Drugs I’ve become a bit jaded and cynical.  The optimism and enthusiasm of these young Knights was just the medicine I needed.  I realized I was talking with a generation of young people who were barely approaching first grade when medical marijuana became a legitimate public policy.  A generation weaned on Facebook and Google that can no longer be force-fed reefer madness lies.  More than a few told me that when the older generation passes and they take over, things will be different, and this time I didn’t feel the need to say “That’s what the Summer of Love generation said, too.”

We talked about Florida’s most-draconian pot laws.  A mere twenty grams in possession is a felony.  Growing one plant is a felony and over 25 plants is considered a major marijuana operation with extreme mandatory minimum sentences.  Once convicted of a felony, a Floridian loses the right to vote while incarcerated, while on parole, while on probation, and forever afterward.  You can apply to a clemency board to be re-enfranchised, but only after a 5-7 year waiting period following the end of incarceration/probation/parole.  This has contributed greatly to 9% of all Floridians and an astonishing 19.8% of African-American Floridians disenfranchised.  It’s a bit more difficult to change marijuana laws when a big chunk of your base supporters can’t vote.

Meanwhile, the Knights told me, Florida is awash in “pain clinics” where OxyContin is doled out like… well, the way they described it, it sounded like the image our opponents paint of medical marijuana in California.  ”Yeah, you can go to a shady little fake clinic,” one young man told me, “complain about pain, get a script from a shady doc, and get yourself 500 OxyContin pills, no problem.”  Another told me of a friend of his who gets the OxyContin to sell so he can buy the ridiculously overpriced marijuana in Florida.

Speaking of which, it was good, not great.  I asked what strain it was and one young lady replied sadly, “We don’t really get to know which strain, we’re just lucky to get something that’s not brickweed.”  Ah, I replied, it’s like my old days in Idaho when there were two strains of weed: “Got Some” and “Don’t”.

Keep fighting, Knights.  With education and dedication, we’ll get that regulation for legalization.  I believe you are the generation to achieve weed liberation.

(Orlando Sentinel) A Deltona man who failed a drug test at a pain-management clinic Thursday tried to bribe a medical assistant with marijuana to keep his cocaine-positive test results under wraps, authorities said.

Jeffrey Hoydic, 40, was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to sell after the Central Florida Pain Management clinic in DeBary contacted the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office about his alleged pot bribe, reports show.

At the clinic, Hoydic was told he tested positive for cocaine and had failed his drug test. After he was told he wasn’t allowed to take any drugs other than what was prescribed to him by the clinic, he allegedly asked the female medical assistant if she smoked and he pulled out five bags, each with a small amount of marijuana.

Five bags.  So you can add a “possession with intent to deliver” charge to the bribery charge.

The Supervillains from Orlando, FL

So I was partying at the University of Central Florida chapter leader’s home (motto: Fo’ Shizzle, Welcome to Our Hizzle) when a future senator and first Puerto Rican president (long story) named Oscar asked me if I’d ever heard of the Supervillains.

“You mean like Lex Luthor and Dr. Doom?” I responded.  No, he meant a certain pop-ska band from the Orlando area.  No, I’d never heard of them, which caused Oscar and his buddy to begin crooning “Resin… you stick to my fingers…”.  Soon they were hooking up an iPod to some speakers and playing for me the Supervillains.

I liked it!  Oscar put a couple of their albums on a NORML thumbdrive for me and I promised I would play them on the Stash.  You can find out more about them at http://myspace.com/therealsupervillains.

Enjoy my new favorite band from Orlando (OK, the only band I know from Orlando), the Supervillains with “Resin”.

Download audio file (The%20Supervillains%20-%20Resin.mp3)

ORLANDO — The University of Central Florida Golden Rule Review Committee voted today on a new campus policy that would equalize school punishments for student alcohol and marijuana use. The vote resulted in a tie (3-3 — one voting member left early), with the opponents’ primary concern being a desire to spend more time considering the policy. The proposal will be brought up for consideration again early next semester.

“We are very glad to see UCF giving such strong consideration to this proposal to address dangerous student drinking,” said Brendon Rivard, the spokesman for the UCF chapter of NORML. “We look forward to meeting with the committee members and addressing any further concerns they might have. Given such strong student support for this measure, we hope to see it become policy early next semester. It makes no sense for the university to be steering students toward alcohol — which contributes to so many serious problems — and away from a much safer substance: marijuana.”

The proposed policy establishes equal campus punishments for student alcohol and marijuana use, so that the use of alcohol — which is far more dangerous and causes far more problems than marijuana use — is no longer a more acceptable form of intoxication under campus policy. If the committee approves the new policy next semester, it will be sent to the UCF administration for final approval and implementation.

The policy is based on the recommendations of a task force of student leaders and administrators, which formed after a large majority of the student body approved a campus referendum on equalizing marijuana and alcohol punishments. Approximately 57 percent of student voters approved the measure, which was sponsored by the UCF chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). The referendum received endorsements from the campus newspaper and both student body government presidential tickets, and it has since received endorsements from a variety of other student groups.

Two men whose views couldn’t be more different will face off and test their knowledge in a debate to prove once and for all the logic behind decriminalizing and legalizing such a benign substance.

Kris Krane is the Executive Director of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy and former Associate Director of NORML. Mr. Krane graduated magna cum laude from American University in May 2000 with an honors degree in political science, culminating with an honors thesis entitled “The War on Drugs: A Case Study in the Escalation of Failed Moral Policy.”

Kris Krane has been quoted in national newspapers including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Roll Call, USA Today, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He has also been a featured guest on television news programs including Fox News Weekend Live and Today in New York, and has been featured on National Public Radio, Court TV Radio, Wisconsin Public Radio, and The WWRL Morning Show with Armstrong Williams.

Kevin A. Sabet, Ph.D. is a MHRA/NDRI postdoctoral fellow and a policy consultant in private practice based in New York, NY. He recently graduated from the University of Oxford as a Marshall Scholar and a Warr-Goodman prize recipient. He regularly contributes to the media and worldwide governments on various issues of drug policy and served as the Senior Speechwriter at the Office of National Drug Control Policy under Gen. Barry McCaffrey (2000). He is also the founder of Students Taking Action Not Drugs (STAND).

The debate will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Student Union, Room 316 at the University of Central Florida [in Orlando] on [Wednesday,] September 24th, 2008. It is co-hosted by the Campus Activities Board (CAB).

Recently, NORML@UCF was awarded as one of the top counterculture schools in America, making the top 10 for the second time in history.

Additionally, NORML@UCF was awarded the 2008 Student Activist Award for its efforts to inform citizens about the detrimental laws regarding marijuana.

“UCF named among top five universities nationwide for most marijuana activism”

If you’d like more information about this event, or to schedule an interview with James McIntyre, please contact him at 772-633-9494 or send an email to publicrelations@normlucf.com

The students at UCF have been very active in marijuana reform and are one of the best campus chapters of NORML in the country.  I got to meet a few at the 2006 and 2007 NORML Conferences as well as Seattle Hempfest.  If college students from Florida can find a way to make it to the West Coast at least three times in three years, you can find a way to make it to NORML CON 2008.  Meeting the activists in the movement and making those networking connections is the best way to build our power.  That 2006 NORML CON led to me meeting Allen St. Pierre, who then introduced me to Chris Goldstein, who then turned the reins of this podcast over to me in 2008.

It’s not what you know… it’s who you know!  If you’re a student, contact us at norml.org and we’ll help you set up your own college campus chapter.  And if you want to host a “heads vs. feds” style debate, I’ll be glad to travel to your campus and represent us “heads”.