Download the NORML Daily Audio Stash for 2008-05-06

It’s Tuesday, May 6th and it’s 4:20 somewhere in the world. I’m your host, “Radical” Russ Belville.

We here at NORML would like to remind you to get involved in the cannabis civil rights movement and join us here at NORML – you can learn everything you need to know at NORML.org. Make a donation, write a letter, attend a rally, march for your rights – it all starts with you. Call your Congress at 202-224-3121 – they’ll ask your zip code and put you in touch with your elected officials. Tell them to support HR5842 and HR5843 to end DEA raids in medical marijuana states and legalize personal possession of pot. It still is a government of We the People, but you have to step up and do your part.

Tuesday is Government at Work day on the podcast, and coming up after the news, we’re going to speak with D. Paul Stanford, executive director of The Hemp & Cannabis Foundation’s chain of medical marijuana clinics in six Western states. Paul has some excellent news about the defeat of a plan to repeal Oregon’s highly-successful self-funded medical marijuana program and the launch of the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act for 2010.

After that Cannabis Karri brings us the secret agent of the counterculture, the Undercover Hippy. His new album, “They Feed on Greed” features an instant cannabis classic called “Too Stoned” that we’re playing for you today.

We’ll wrap up today with another look at the Global Marijuana March this last weekend with two activists straight from the heartland. We’ve got James Getman from Iowa NORML and Steven Eisenhauer from SW Indiana NORML here to give us a review of their events and their take on the chances for cannabis reform in the Midwest.

So sit back and relax with your favorite strain – this is the Daily Audio Stash.

Global Marijuana/Cannabis March Meets Heavy-Handed Opposition
In Brazil, a spokesperson for www.marchadamaconha.org, organisers of the “Marcha da Maconha Brasil 2008″ had this to say on the situation facing the South American cannabis community.

“We are facing in Brazil too much repression against the march. From 10 cities that were confirmed for the march, the Justice prohibited 6 cities from taking part. As citizens of a democracy we are very disappointed”.

It was a similar story in Moscow, with the Military and Police blocking the way to the Friendship of Nations fountain at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre. The meeting place for the 2006 Global Marijuana March in Russia, organised once again by the Cannabis Legalize League (CLL), who were hoping not to have any injuries to treat this year.

[A spokesman for CLL said,] “We published an official statement on the CLL site, so that both authorities and activists could learn that no marches would be held in Moscow in 2008. We invited our supporters to come to the “Friendship of Nations” fountain at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre. We made it quite clear there should be no banners or other means of political propaganda: only thematic clothes, excellent mood and musical instruments.”

“As soon as the statement was published we received an aggressive reaction from the Federal Service of Drug Control (Russian DEA analog). In the interview to one of the most famous Russian news agencies the head of the informational department of the FSDC Alexander Mikhailov commented our action in the following expressions”:

“Legalization of cannabis as a drug is out of the question. This theme mustn’t be discussed at all. Such actions are the grossest breach of the peace and hooliganism. This is a spring exacerbation on which the bodies of internal affairs and psychiatrists should react”.

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