"Preparing" for Seattle Hempfest involves more than just sunscreen, sensible shoes, and cash for vendors...

This weekend we prepare for Seattle Hempfest.  This 20th anniversary event will, for the first time, take place over three days at the Waterfront between Olympic Sculpture Park in the South and Centennial Park in the North (see hempfest.org).  It’s 1.6 miles, six stages, hundreds of vendors, and 150,000 or so attendees, all gathered to celebrate freedom, assemble peaceably, and petition our government for a redress of grievances; namely the prohibition of cannabis hemp.  We begin our live streaming of Hempfest on Friday at http://live.norml.org.

Legalization is no longer the forbidden topic (even if we’re playing it close to the vest and calling it “sensible regulation”) and this short week we are taking a closer look at the topic with the proponents of marijuana legalization in four Western states.  We’re calling it “Legalization Week” – it’s like “Shark Week”, but much mellower.

MONDAY:  Oregon Cannabis Tax Act’s Jen Alexander, Sensible Oregon‘s Leland Berger, and Oregon Marijuana Policy Initiative‘s Bob Wolfe on marijuana legalization and medical dispensaries in Oregon.

TUESDAY: Oaksterdam University‘s Dale Sky Jones on marijuana legalization in California and Oaksterdam’s expansion into Michigan.

WEDNESDAY:  SAFER‘s Mason Tvert on the Sensible Colorado marijuana legalization proposal.

THURSDAY:  ACLU of Washington Drug Policy Project‘s Alison Holcomb and Sensible Washington‘s Douglas Hiatt on marijuana legalization in Washington State; plus Vivian McPeak, Executive Director of Seattle Hempfest, with a preview of the weekend.

We may add more guests for Legalization Week, so watch this post for updates.  We’re also taking your live calls at 971-533-7111 in Hour Two to discuss the various proposals.

Kathleen Chippi (top right): "(T)his will be (P)rop 19 all over again, and we will help kill it with smiles on our faces."

Remember all the fun we had in 2010 with the “Stoners Against Legalization”?  These were a loose collection of starry-eyed idealists, anti-authority anarchists, and unscrupulous medical marijuana business owners who believed that keeping healthy people out of jail for using pot would end the gravy train they’re enjoying from their current medical marijuana laws.  I dubbed them the “I Gots Mine” crowd and unleashed a torrent of blogging fury to call them out and expose them as the enemies of legalization they are.

Well, get ready for Round Two.  An unprecedented coalition of pro-legalization groups, including Drug Policy Alliance, Marijuana Policy Project, Safer Alternatives For Enjoyable Recreation, Sensible Colorado, National NORML, Colorado NORML, and Mile High NORML, filed eight ballot initiatives to legalize marijuana in Colorado.  From those eight they will see which pass muster from the Secretary of State’s office, which gets the best official ballot title, and which poll with the best chance of winning.

However, one group, Cannabis Therapy Institute (the folks that brought you Miguel Lopez making a scene at the Capitol that killed a patient-friendly amendment… and then blamed the legislator who submitted it!) is fuming mad that they weren’t given the chance to vet the language before submission.  Here are some of the reasons why CTI thinks we should continue to lock up people who are too healthy to be a part of their marijuana club:

Ironically, Denver conservative cannabis group SAFER has always espoused the belief that marijuana should be treated like alcohol. But the MPP/DPA/Sensible/SAFER (MDSS) initiative treats cannabis much stricter than alcohol. By limiting cannabis consumers to one ounce at a time, unlike alcohol with no limits, the MDSS initiative will ensure greater scrutiny on cannabis consumers than any alcohol consumer ever had.

“Conservative cannabis group SAFER”?  Wow, I’ll have to check with National Review, The Weekly Standard, The American Spectator, and The Christian Science Monitor so they can write articles on their conservative brethren.  Oh, and FOX News, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, all those AM talkers on right-wing radio, they’re all big fans of SAFER and marijuana legalization.

So let’s get this straight: because a legalization initiative might limit you to purchase and possession of an ounce, instead of allowing you to buy as much as you want and possess as much as you want, you’d prefer that healthy Coloradoans continue to be arrested, jailed, and saddled with a lifetime criminal record?  If your input is “We ought to be able to have all the marijuana we want!” and you seriously think that will pass in a state that rejected one ounce legalization by a 59% vote in 2006, I’m not surprised if you weren’t consulted.  

The MDSS Initiative would also allow for and set Constitutional standards for driving discrimination, employment discrimination, and tenant discrimination of marijuana users. The MDSS Initiative makes “Driving Under the Influence of Marijuana” a new Constitutional crime, completely wiping away victories scored by patient advocates to kill a THC/DUI bill in the state legislature this year.

News flash: Driving under the influence of marijuana is a crime in Colorado NOW.  Here is the scary language in Section 6 of the initiatives CTI is scaremongering:

6. Employers, Driving, Minors and Control of Property.

(A) Nothing in this section is intended to require an employer to permit or accommodate the use, consumption, possession, transfer, display, transportation, sale or growing of marijuana in the workplace or to affect the ability of employers to have policies restricting the use of marijuana by employees.

So… employers can continue to do to cannabis consumers what they do NOW, but at least those consumers won’t be arrested and jailed for cannabis use.  And those consumers would have a better case to fight discrimination against cannabis use since it will be legal.  CTI would prefer an initiative that forbids employer discrimination and without it, those healthy cannabis consumers should continue to be locked up.  Despite the fact that Prop 19 had that kind of anti-discrimination language and it was cited as a major reason the business community opposed it.

(B) Nothing in this section is intended to allow driving under the influence of marijuana or driving while impaired by marijuana or to supersede statutory laws related to driving under the influence of marijuana or driving while impaired by marijuana, nor shall this section prevent the state from enacting and imposing penalties for driving under the influence of or while impaired by marijuana.

So… the cops can still bust you under the DUID laws that exist NOW.  Now read carefully, do you see any of that THC/DUI language CTI mentioned they killed?  No?  CTI would prefer an initiative that protects cannabis consumers from driving discrimination and without it, healthy cannabis consumers ought to still be locked up even when they’re not driving.

(C) Nothing in this section is intended to permit the transfer of marijuana, with or without remuneration, to a person younger than twenty-one years of age or to allow a person younger than twenty-one years of age to purchase, possess, use, transport, grow, or consume marijuana.

To their credit, at least CTI (to my knowledge) isn’t bellyaching about this paragraph.  My personal preference would be an age of 18 but I’m politically wise enough to know that nothing under 21 has a shot in hell of passing.

(D) Nothing in this section shall prohibit a person, employer, school, hospital, detention facility, corporation or any other entity who occupies, owns or controls a property from prohibiting or otherwise regulating the possession, consumption, use, display, transfer, distribution, sale, transportation, or growing of marijuana on or in that property.

So… your landlord, boss, etc. can still prevent you from possessing and using marijuana on their property like they can NOW.  CTI would prefer an initiative that allows you to take your marijuana into any public space and without it, healthy cannabis consumers should still be locked up if caught with marijuana in their private spaces.

Back to CTI.  Another of their complaints is that taxes would be collected on marijuana sales and would go to the big bad gub’mint!

Some of the 8 versions of the MDSS Initiative reportedly also allow a 15% excise tax, which will create more funding for the Department of Revenue marijuana police force. The MMED already has a budget larger than the entire Colorado Bureau of Investigation, all funded by the medical marijuana industry. Do we really want to be handing over a 15% per ounce extra tax to buy more handcuffs?

Handcuffs for all those cannabis consumers who will not be arrested for buying, selling, and possessing one ounce of legal marijuana?  So let’s be clear; CTI thinks if marijuana is legalized, no money should go toward the enforcement of those laws.

And let’s make one provision of the initiative perfectly clear: It specifically and directly does not affect Colorado’s medical marijuana laws:

7. Medical marijuana provisions unaffected. Nothing in this section shall be construed:

(A) To limit any privileges or rights of a medical marijuana patient, primary caregiver, or licensed entity as provided in section 14 of article XVIII and the Colorado Medical Marijuana Code;

So if you’re healthy, you get an ounce away from the home, three mature and three immature plants in the home and all the marijuana produced on the premises (a.k.a. “a shit-ton of marijuana”):

3. Personal Use of Marijuana. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the following acts are not unlawful and shall not be an offense under Colorado law or the law of any locality within Colorado or be a basis for seizure or forfeiture of assets under Colorado law for persons twenty-one years of age or older:

(A) Possessing, using, displaying, purchasing, or transporting marijuana accessories or one ounce or less of marijuana.

(B) Possessing, growing, processing, or transporting no more than six marijuana plants, with three or fewer being mature, flowering plants, and possession of the marijuana produced by the plants on the premises where the plants were grown, provided that the growing takes place in an enclosed, locked space, is not conducted openly or publicly, and is not made available for sale.

(C) Transfer of one ounce or less of marijuana without remuneration to a person who is twenty-one years of age or older.

And if you’re sick or disabled you can still get your card and have your three plus three plants, two ounces away from the home, and the new legalization allowance of all the processed marijuana at your grow site, and you still have an affirmative defense for more.  But because some of the taxes might buy handcuffs, according to CTI, the healthy people should be arrested and locked up for even one plant.

Beyond complaints with the language, CTI adjusts the tinfoil hat and offers explanations why this out-of-state cabal (whose Mason Tvert and Brian Vicente are Coloradoans) went ahead with legalization initiatives without the CTI’s blessing:

This unilateral move by MPP/DPA/Sensible/SAFER cast doubts that any cannabis law reform ballot initiative in Colorado would be successful. These conservative groups seem to want to duplicate the strategy of dividing and ignoring the progressive grassroots, as MPP/DPA did in their medical marijuana campaigns of 1997/98 nationwide.

“These conservative groups” that WON their medical marijuana campaigns in 1997/98, you mean?  That helped to WIN the medical marijuana law in Colorado?  CTI keeps trying to paint this as some sort of “conservative” vs. “progressive” argument and in the very next sentence, shred any credibility one might have of their understanding of those ideological terms:

Many people don’t know that billionaire currency manipulator George Soros funded Amendment 20 in 1997/98 through the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), headed by Rob Kampia in DC, and the Open Society Institute, headed by Ethan Nadelmann. Nadelmann now works with the Drug Policy Alliance, based in New York and California, but also funded by Soros…

Yes, George Soros, the man demonized by conservatives from Glenn Beck to George Will as the liberal billionaire scourge trying to legalize drugs , is CTI’s conservative boogey man.

No, what this is really a “divide” between is the rational, educated, politically mature adults and the people who have their hearts in the right place but their brains in vapor-lock by thinking a majority of the voting public is ready to treat marijuana like tomatoes.  In politics, you don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.  If there is an opportunity to prevent the arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment of cannabis consumers and you are publicly opposing it, you are my enemy as much as the prohibitionists who will be voting along with you against reform.

The real fun Stoners Against Legalization tirades take place in the comments:

Kathleen Chippi in reply to Enough CTI

I’m sick of you f’ing know nothings–I’m starting to believe your cops infiltrating to cause problems.

No matter because enough people appreciate and respect CTI and ACT and other local groups that this will be prop 19 all over again, and we will help kill it with smiles on our faces. It is better to have NOTHING different rather than have shit language screw with patients, caregivers and voters in general for years to come…we have heard the “we can fix it later”  and we know that means nothing will be fixed.  They also promised to fix A20 13 years ago and they have done nothing.

This language and any language will fail as the national groups have split the vote and were not even in 2012.

You read it right: she and her allies will kill legalization with a smile on their faces. That’s something you’d expect a drug czar or a narc to say, huh?

Kathleen Chippi in reply to Paul

Paul Armentino?  The NORML nazi?  Come on Pual where is the evidence of things I have done to hold up the ‘industry’?  Love to see something other than personal attacks.

Yeah, you Nazi, enough with the personal attacks.

Robert in reply to Paul

If this is Paul Armentano, we know about your organization and its commitment to legalization; your President said NORML did not care about legalization in West Virginia and that it is too easy to get cannabis in California — you aren’t national and you aren’t for legalizing cannabis either.  Asking WW to exclude us from about the only media forum where the grassroots of Colorado can speak is a fascist impulse.

You keep using this word “fascist”.  I do not think it means what you think it means.

By the way, it wasn’t Paul Armentano.  Oddly enough, Paul has a little too much on his plate reviewing thousands of medical and scientific studies on cannabis to engage people who violate Godwin’s Law on WestWord comments sections.

Corey Donahue in reply to Paul

[W]hy are you supporting language in our Constitution when you reside out of state Paul?  And why are you supporting language that is called “legalization” but only up to 6 plants and 1 oz, which would make it illegal over 6 plants or an oz?

Seriously, this is the level of political reason and basic logic the Stoners Against Legalization possess.  If you make it legal to have six plants (and ALL the cannabis you harvest from them) and an ounce (outside the home), that’s not legalization because people with 30 grams and seven plants could be prosecuted.  Which leads me to believe if it was twelve plants and a pound or a hundred plants and a pickup truck load, those wouldn’t be legalization either, because people above those limits could still be busted.

High Country Caregiver

The legal 1 oz laws are total garbage.  The same laws got passed in Breckenridge and they mean nothing.  An initiative like this is not legalization, and I will never be fooled into voting for fools trying to make fools of us pot heads just trying to get high and have fun.  Anything shy of making cannabis as legal as tomatoes is just further prohibition and should be voted down.

If marijuana can’t be grown by anyone, anywhere, bought and sold in farmer’s markets, available to children (kids can have tomatoes), and grown in unsecured backyard gardens, then adults over 21 who possess less than an ounce and grow six plants at home should continue to be arrested, prosecuted, and incarcerated.  (HCG, you need nobody’s help to look the fool.)

What all these detractors misunderstand is the word “legalization”.  What they want is “deregulation” – they’re looking for no regulations, as in “treat it like tomatoes”.  Sorry, folks, legalization requires regulation and marijuana is never going to be treated like tomatoes.  For one, tomatoes do not get you high.  Nobody is worried about their kids sneaking tomatoes from your garden.  Nobody is concerned with how many tomatoes you’ve eaten before you drive a car.  Nobody’s worried about people overeating tomatoes and how they may behave in public afterward.

"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

Download Link: Secret Stash - Register to access

Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2010-10-28.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. Washington SWAT breaks down door of lawful medical marijuana patient and roughs him up over two marijuana plants
2. Texas chapter of SAFER issues $10,000 challenge to anyone who can prove that alcohol is safer than marijuana
3. Columbian president and other Latin American leaders watching California’s Prop 19
4. Satire: President George Washington orders Californians to vote Yes on Prop 19

Daily Toker Tunes

Brought to you by John Doe Radio.com

Stash

• Groovin’ Thursday: Devin the Dude – “What We Be On”

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Speaker’s Corner

• Former LAPD Deputy Chief Stephen Downing explains why to vote Yes on Prop 19

Radical Rant

• Arizona’s Journey Healing Centers rehab spreading anti-Prop 203 propaganda that falsely equates the measure with Venice Beach, California’s, marijuana scene

Huffington Post

Our friend Mason Tvert at SAFER penned an excellent op-ed at HuffPo letting retailers know the peril of alienating responsible adult marijuana consumers:

Late last month, Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) — the organization I run — called for a nationwide boycott of Starbucks Coffee after it and other companies appeared on the “sponsor” page of the Colorado Drug Investigators Association (CDIA), a shady group of law enforcement officials lobbying to wipe out the state’s voter-approved medical marijuana system and keep marijuana as illegal as possible. With a board of directors composed almost exclusively of narcotics agents, along with a website and merchandise decorated in a skull motif with images of the grim reaper, military helicopters, and the slogan “Death on Drugs,” it’s safe to say these guys are not so much concerned with public safety as they are with fighting — and maintaining — an endless war against marijuana and other drugs. After all, it provides them with job security, and marijuana enforcement is their bread and butter.

Word of the boycott spread quickly across the web, and with a boost from some traditional media coverage (including some in Starbucks’s hometown of Seattle) resulted in thousands of Americans contacting CEO Howard Schultz to let him know they would not be giving their business to his company until it did some explaining. Not long after, Starbucks issued a formal statement in which it distanced itself from the CDIA and assured the Starbucks faithful it does not support such anti-marijuana crusaders. Another business listed as a “sponsor” on CDIA’s website was The North Face, one of the leading producers of hiking and mountain sports equipment and apparel. After receiving messages from people swearing off their products, the company took action to ensure everyone knows they are not actually a sponsor of the CDIA and do not support the group’s mission. In light of all the bad publicity and these major companies disputing any tie to the CDIA, the organization removed its Web site entirely. Apparently they do not have quite the level of support from the business community that they were suggesting.

As Mr. Dylan once said, “The times, they are a changin’”. Yes, they are indeed. This brings to mind what Admiral Yamamoto said of America after the Imperial Japanese fleet attacked Pearl harbor in 1941: “”I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” Cannabis consumers are legion in our country. We must never give up or surrender in the fight against this incredibly wasteful and tragic War on the American People.

The only thing I consume other than marijuana that is horrendously overpriced

(Cannabis Culture) The company does not provide financial support to the anti-marijuana law enforcement group in Colorado, Starbucks said in an official statement.

“This organization is apparently targeting us because a local law enforcement organization in Colorado posted our logo on their website,” the Starbucks statement said. “Starbucks has not taken a position on their issue.”

“We have a tremendous amount of respect for the men and women of local law enforcement,” the company said. “However, we have not sponsored this particular organization through our foundation. It is up to the discretion of our local teams to support those groups that are relevant in their neighborhoods. Our stores often support organizations in their community by donating coffee for their events.”

The Colorado Drug Investigators Association website, which reportedly listed other national and local companies besides Starbucks as backers, is no longer working.

“This website has been disabled by its owner,” a message reads at www.cdiausa.org. “Please check back later.”

Safer Alternatives for Enjoyable Recreation

From the folks at SAFER – Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation:

Law enforcement groups are fighting to maintain Marijuana Prohibition and their industry of arresting and prosecuting people for marijuana. SAFER is fighting back and we need your help.

According to a recent report in The Denver Post, state and federal law enforcement officials have been meddling in Colorado’s legislative process in hopes of rolling back the state’s progress toward safer, more rational marijuana laws. As a result, bills are being introduced on their behalf, which threaten to shut down every medical marijuana dispensary in the state and allow these officials to continue harassing medical marijuana patients.

We wish this weren’t the case, but these law enforcement officials are not motivated by maintaining public safety or developing a workable system of medical marijuana regulation. They are motivated by one thing — job security. Perhaps even more unsettling is the source of the financial support behind the arrest and prosecution industry’s war on marijuana.

In particular, the Colorado Drug Investigators Association (CDIA), the group spearheading anti-marijuana lobbying efforts, is sponsored by several local and national businesses including Starbucks Coffee, Glock handguns, and — you guessed it — members of the alcohol industry! This might seem a bit odd, but when you consider the fact that their Web site and merchandise features the grim reaper and military helicopters, a skull motif, and the slogan, “Death on Drugs,” it all makes a little more sense. These guys are not out to protect people; they’re out to fight a literal war on marijuana, ensuring alcohol — the substance that contributes most to the crime and violence that keeps them busy — is the only legal recreational drug available.

It’s no surprise that the Arrest and Prosecution Industry is determined to maintain the war on marijuana. But Starbucks and other companies’ funding of this war should strike any marijuana consumer or reform supporter as truly appalling. It’s time to stand up and send them all a message.

Please Take Action Today!

1. Boycott Starbucks and other sponsors of the CDIA (see below), and CLICK HERE to send Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz an e-mail letting him know you will not be buying Starbucks products until it ends its sponsorship. (Or visit http://tinyurl.com/yelzaux)

2. CLICK HERE to send a message to the heads of the organizations below, urging them to end their lobbying and stop harassing people for using a substance far safer than alcohol. (Or visit http://tinyurl.com/y9v8u5a)

Show 001: Steve Fox (MPP), Mason Tvert (SAFER), & Paul Armentano (NORML) discuss "Marijuana is Safer" book; NORML Exec. Dir. Allen St. Pierre; MMA Fighter Toby "Tigerheart" Grear

I am thrilled to be hosting our debut show tonight at 6pm PT / 9pm ET. I hope you all make it a regular Saturday night ritual.

You can listen to the show live three ways (and no, regular terrestrial or satellite radio is not one of those ways… yet):

1. Point your web browser to http://live.norml.org and follow the links to Show 001.  (Or use the link on the powder-blue BlogTalkRadio player you see there on the right…)
2. Point your mobile phone’s browser to http://m.blogtalkradio.com/norml.  Click the link at the bottom of the page for Shows and Blogs.  Click the link for Show 001. (I’m not completely sure the live show will play this way; it may only allow you to see the blog and comments.  If so, try…)
3. Call 347-994-1810 on your mobile phone.  (“347″ is a New York area code, so long distance charges, if any, would apply.  Probably only an option if you’ve got unlimited minutes and free domestic long distance.)

The show will also be archived about one hour following the live broadcast.  You’ll be able to hear it all week on the embedded player to the right or by subscribing to it as a podcast on iTunes.

Paul Armentano, Mason Tvert, Steve Fox

Guests for our premiere in the first hour are Steve Fox (MPP), Mason Tvert (SAFER), and Paul Armentano (NORML) discussing their new book, “Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?”.  Later in the hour, NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre joins the discussion.

Toby "Tigerheart" Grear from True Warrior Fitness

In our 2nd hour, mixed-martial arts champion Toby “Tigerheart” Grear of True Warrior Fitness discusses being banned from fighting professionally in California because of positive tests for his legal medical marijuana.

We’re also taking your calls at the bottom of each hour.  Dial 347-994-1810 to listen in on your phone and press 1 at any time if you’d like to speak to the host or guests.  Your call will be screened and we remind you to have a question ready, keep it short and to the point, and avoid profanity (we’re not FCC regulated on the net, but if we want to take this to terrestrial radio, we need to act like it.)

Many years ago the former head of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Alan Leshner made this statement when forced to confront the fact that tens of thousands of patients were successfully using cannabis as a medicine:“The plural of anecdote is not evidence.”

Someone ought to pass on Lesnher’s cop out to ABC News, whose recent feature, “Reefer Madness Redux: Is Pot Addictive?“, is little more than a series of anecdotes from folks claiming that it’s becoming harder and harder for some individuals to quit weed.

Yes, if 10,000 people say that using marijuana helped them medicinally, that’s just anecdotes and no basis for medicine.  But if a dozen people say that they were daily tokers, it ruined their lives, and they had a hard time quitting the bong, that’s enough for the mainstream media to question “Is Pot Addictive?”.  Which, by the way, is one of those sneaky ways the media tries to push a narrative by just asking the question and not declaring the fact.  “Is President Obama a Kenyan-born Illegal President?” or “Has Former President Bush Returned to His Hard Drinking Ways?” would be similar examples of the technique.

It’s the old “some people say” trick where media presents an issue as if it has two sides when the facts are all on one side.  “Some people say pot is addictive,” they’ll intone, and bring on three anecdotes of wasted lives, “and some people say it isn’t,” they’ll continue by presenting three doctors who tell the truth and present the evidence that it isn’t addictive in the potential-death-from-withdrawal sense.  See?  Three pot smokers who blame marijuana for their life’s failures vs. three well-educated doctors with studies of thousands of pot smokers whose lives turned out just fine.  Fair and Balanced!

Let me pick this apart a little.  In the piece, we meet “Vicky”, a 53-year-old who started smoking pot at age 13.  Well, there’s a clue!  We know marijuana use before age 18 can have detrimental effects and we here at NORML have been very forthright about explaining that.

Since the 1970s, when marijuana was the symbol of political protest, the risks of marijuana dependency have been clouded by the legalization debate and long-held beliefs that the illicit drug is harmless.

You’re not finding those beliefs here.  I’ll be the first to tell you marijuana is not harmless.  Neither is water.  But it is far less harmful than other drugs we allow even our teenagers to consume, like a Starbucks Frappacino loaded with caffeine, for instance.

Today, there are no FDA-approved drugs to counteract withdrawal symptoms, although the synthetic cancer drug Marinol shows some promise.

So, the treatment for the new “Pot 2.0: Not Your Father’s Woodstock Weed™”, the deadly addictive skunkweed that can be up to (gasp!) 25% THC, is a synthetic THC pill that’s 100% THC?  Sheesh, next they’ll tell us that lithium is a good treatment for marijuana “addiction”!  Whoops, too late.

The reclassification of marijuana is important, according to the APA because its omission as an addictive substance then professionals might not see treatment regimens for dependence as necessary.

Ah, so the association representing psychiatrists is telling us that if we don’t classify marijuana as addictive, psychiatrists might not declare people marijuana addicts in need of expensive treatment from psychiatrists.  Got it.

As the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States, marijuana produces dependence and relapse rates comparable to other drugs some researchers believe.

About 9 percent of all those who used marijuana became dependent, compared to rates of 32 percent for tobacco, 23 percent for opiates and 15 percent for alcohol, according to the 1994 National Comorbidity Survey.

In what branch of math are values 255% greater, 155% greater, and 66% greater considered “comparable”?  This is like saying my one minute eight second time in a 200 meter dash is comparable to Usain Bolt’s 19.3 second world record time.

For daily smokers, that dependency rate soars to between 33 and 50 percent, say more recent studies.

And what is the dependency rate for daily tobacco smokers, 100%?  Or daily beer drinkers?  Doesn’t it seem a good thing to you that half to two-thirds of daily marijuana smokers can quit cold turkey without any negative withdrawal effects?

With stronger pot, emergency rooms have reported more associated accidents. Just this week, seven people were killed when the driver — drove the wrong way on a New York highway and collided head on with a pickup truck. Although the drivers family has disputed the results, toxicology tests showed high levels of alcohol and marijuana.

Yes, high levels of alcohol, as in a .19 BAC!  So naturally this is the perfect example to show how stronger pot is causing accidents.

All addictive drugs have a “common signature,” according to NIDA director Nora D. Volkow. “They increase dopamine levels in the brain’s pleasure center and produce repetitive behavior. Marijuana appears do both, though at intermediate levels compared to other drugs.

Absolutely untrue, according to a new study published this June in NeuroImage, which concluded, “In the largest study of its kind so far, we have shown that recreational cannabis users do not release significant amounts of dopamine from an oral THC dose equivalent to a standard cannabis cigarette.”

Roger A. Roffman, a professor of social work at University of Washington… argues that the reform movement makes a “tragic mistake” to convince the public that marijuana is relatively harmless.

We’ve never claimed marijuana is harmless!  We’ve always claimed it is less harmful than alcohol.  Quit putting your words in our mouths!

Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2009-08-03.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. Special Comment: NBC, CBS, ABC, & FOX happy to profit from marijuana, as long as nobody talks about legalizing it

Behind the Headlines with NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano

• Paul previews the book he co-wrote with Mason Tvert and Steve Fox: Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?, published by Chelsea Green (see details of tomorrow’s book signing at Oaksterdam U on NORML’s Calendar of Events)

Daily Toker Tunes by Marijuana Music Awards . com

• Message Monday – ‘Herbal Healing’ by Ras David

Grassroots Activism

• Clif Deuvall of the newly-formed NORML of Waco, Inc. (contact Clif at clif107 at yahoo dot com)