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Pot & Parenting Panel from NORML CON 2009, moderated by Dr. Marsha Rosenbaum, with Ngaio Bealum, Rick Steves, Jessica Corry, Rob Corry, George Rohrbacher, and Dr. Mitch Earleywine.
Saturday, September 26th, 2009 at 3:49 pm | By: Radical Russ
Had to start live stream a bit late, but switch over to http://live.norml.org to catch the last three hours of the conference.
On now, Hon. Rebecca Kaplan from Oakland City Council, Dr. Jon Gettman, and Prof. Mark Kleiman, on raising revenues through legalized cannabis.
Next panel, MMA’s Toby Grear, WWE’s Rob Van Dam, former ESPN producer Sean Neumann, and two-time Super Bowl winner and All Star Mark Stepnoski on Pot & Athleticism.
Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 8:55 pm | By: Radical Russ
Show 004: Three special episodes live from NORML National Conference!
NORML’s new talk radio program, NORML SHOW LIVE, will be streaming for three days at the 2009 NORML National Conference, “Yes We Cannabis”, live from the Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Francisco. These special three-hour episodes will be available at live.norml.org at the following special times and archived for download later just fifteen minutes after broadcast:
Thursday, September 24
11:00am – 2:00pm Pacific Time
Friday, September 25
11:00am – 2:00pm Pacific Time
Saturday, September 26
3:00pm – 6:00pm Pacific Time
The show will be hosted by “Radical” Russ Belville, but with very limited commercial interruption and the occasional narration. After the shows broadcast remotely in the difficult wireless environment of Portland’s Kelley Point Park and the noisy backstage of the Boston Freedom Rally, Russ is excited to present an indoor event that will take its audio directly from the conference PA system.
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2007 archive interview by Chris Goldstein of Rick Steves, European travel guru, author, and TV host, who will be closing the 2009 NORML National Conference.
Monday, May 18th, 2009 at 5:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
(ESPN) “The poor guy,” Rick Steves said of the outrage over [Michael] Phelps’ infamous bong hit. “Kellogg’s wants to preserve this fantasy that good athletes don’t smoke pot. Good athletes smoke pot. Smart good athletes don’t get caught.”
If you’ve had the good fortune to travel to Europe, or the lesser fortune of tuning in to a PBS pledge break, you’re probably familiar with Rick Steves. His “Europe Through the Back Door” guide books are the best European travel guides by so wide a margin that I’m not sure which is more essential for a trip overseas, your passport or your Rick Steves book. He also is an outspoken proponent for the decriminalization of marijuana, so I called him recently to learn what he thought about the fuss over Phelps.
“I think it’s a good example of how America is sort of hysterical about a drug that the rest of the world doesn’t think is very dangerous,” he said. “About half the people in America have smoked marijuana. The president has. Some members of the Supreme Court have … many people have. But if a celebrity athlete smokes pot, they lose their endorsements.”
“Nobody is saying drugs are good. No one is saying you should smoke pot. People are just saying: Don’t arrest adults who smoke pot,” Steves said. “It’s a civil liberty. They stopped arresting people in the Netherlands 25 years ago and marijuana use hasn’t gone up. They treat it as a health problem, not a crime. The U.S. is stuck in this mindless war on drugs costing billions of dollars. There are 80,000 people in jail right now for simple laws regarding marijuana. There were 800,000 people arrested last year for marijuana, most for simple possession.”
Steves wants to be clear. He isn’t saying kids should be allowed to use marijuana, just as he doesn’t think they should smoke or drink alcohol. And he isn’t advocating the legalization of harder drugs. “I acknowledge there is a serious drug abuse problem in this country,” Steves said. “I’m the parent of two teenagers. I don’t think they should smoke pot.”
What he is saying is that prohibiting marijuana “causes more trouble than the drug does.”
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Travel writer (and NORML board member) Rick Steves has been nominated by The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Northwest Regional Chapter, to receive an EMMY Award for his role as host of the ACLU of Washington’s “Marijuana: It’s Time for a Conversation.” The half-hour television program examines the history and current impacts of state and federal marijuana laws and invites viewers to consider, and discuss with others, whether those laws are working for our communities.
“Conversation” has been viewed more than 30,000 times in western Washington households subscribed to Comcast On Demand. It has received print and radio media coverage locally and nationwide, and it has been screened to capacity audiences at Spokane’s Metropolitan Performing Arts Center and the Kirkland Performance Center. The associated website, MarijuanaConversation.org, has received over 320,000 hits. Seattle network stations sparked some controversy when they refused to air the program during evening hours when most adults would be likely to be watching.
“I’m thrilled, honored, and proud to be recognized for my part in this collaboration,” Steves said of the nomination. “I believe media should be used to share ideas and opinions for the benefit of our communities. The networks’ refusal to sell us time when we could engage more viewers on the issue of our nation’s failed drug war strengthened my conviction that contributing to this project was good citizenship.”
I appreciate Rick’s work for the cause of marijuana legalization and I’m glad to see his work beginning to get the attention it deserves. [I interviewed Alison Holcomb from the Washington ACLU Drug Law Project last year when this video first came out, and my interview with Rick Steves from NORML CON 2007 appears on one of my very first Stash episodes. You can hear Stash founder Chris Goldstein’s interview with Rick Steves in our Archives. — “R”R
Thursday, March 26th, 2009 at 4:30 pm | By: Radical Russ
Rick Steves is the internationally-known travel writer who’s famous for his “Guide to Europe” series. He is also a longtime advisory board member of NORML. Following is the letter he has composed to every legislator in his home state of Washington to support marijuana decriminalization:
Dear Legislator,
I’d like to offer my view on SB 5615, which reclassifies possession of marijuana by adults to a civil infraction. I realize that the deadline for SB 5615 to receive a floor vote in the Senate was March 12, but I am looking forward to further consideration of this important bill when it carries over to the 2010 session.
For nearly a decade I’ve been a spokesperson for changing our “war on marijuana” to something more pragmatic, similar to the European model. I speak out publicly on this issue not because I’m “pro-drugs,” but because I believe (like most Europeans do) that the measure of a society’s drug policy should be in harm reduction rather than incarceration.
I want to be clear: smoking marijuana is bad for your health. I am not “pro-marijuana,” nor am I in favor of making it available to minors. And if anyone causes damage or danger while intoxicated on anything, I believe we should throw the book at them. But I do not believe that we should use our criminal justice system to address a public health issue, and as a matter of principle, I believe that the responsible adult recreational use of marijuana is a civil liberty. Apart from all that, it is clear that the existing “war on marijuana” is costing our society more than the ills brought on by marijuana—and there’s no sign that continuing this war will make any difference.
RevRayGreen: I'll post a pic of me and my son....gimme a minute
Missippi Hippy: Guess what... I'm gonna be a new... ummmmm well, my pet piggie Ganja is in labor and they ain't mine in the same sense. See what your wife [...]
RevRayGreen: days they didn't talk back..or act disrespectful..
RevRayGreen: feel so lucky my son is 18 going 19 and my daughter 16 going on 17..relish the days that can't talk back
Urb Age: Congrats Spof thats awesome. My little Clara is about to hit 20 months. Im not the activist I used to be, but its made me a better man.
Urb Age: Heck I was gonna go up there, but just not feeling well this weekend..Dang it, I hate it when that happens..
RevRayGreen: wishing I was hanging at NORML cafe...
JohnH: Just a quick comment about tokin' and sperm motility....been tokin since age 14 and have 8 kids ranging in age from 30 to 9...(what can I say, I found 2 [...]
slash5city: really ..oprah 35 yr or more in the closet toker ...outed ....o my god !!
SneakerPimp: that would be huge news just imagen the headline
Marijuana-Related Health Costs Minimal Compared To Those Of Alcohol, Tobacco; California Medical Association Says Pot Prohibition Is A "Failed Public Health Policy"; Oregon: State NORML Affiliate Opens First 'Cannabis Café'. […]
American Medical Association Calls For Scientific Review Of Marijuana's Prohibitive Status; Dutch Marijuana Use Lower Than European Average, Study Says […]
"Truth In Trials Act" Reintroduced In Congress; Maine: Voters Approve Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Measure; Colorado: Breckenridge Voters Overwhelmingly Decide To End Pot Penalties. […]
Some of the nation’s top athletes discuss why today's pros are turning to cannabis — and away from alcohol and painkillers — off the field, and question why pro sports leagues are continuing to sanction those who do. Moderator: Steve Bloom, Author, Pot Culture; editor, celebstoner.com * Toby Grear, MMA fighter * Sean Neumann, Documentary Filmm […]
Cannabis Law Reform's Missing Link: Law Enforcement Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper; LEAP and NORML Advisory Board; Author of Breaking Rank Putting the Mexican Cartels Out of Business Mexican drug cartels now employ over 100,000 soldiers and are responsible for nearly ten thousand deaths per year. Their largest source of income is marijuana. […]
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