Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 10:51 am | By: Radical Russ
I’m proud to announce the affiliation of two new college chapters in the NORML network.
Andrew Ball is the founder of a new chapter at the University of Texas San Antonio.
Donald Brooks is the founder of a new chapter at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania.
Welcome aboard! And if you’re interested in starting a NORML Chapter at your college campus, send me an email with the subject College Chapter to stash@norml.org.
Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 4:40 pm | By: Radical Russ
DilloKing on Myspace
Tom Christy is a professional musician from Austin, Texas creating a wave of excitement with his folk/rock/country songs performed by his band, DilloKing (as in “armadillo”). Tom’s unique drumming style and experienced vocals add special flavor to his band, and he has performed on stage with ZZ Top and as the opening act for Edgar Winter, Rick Derringer, Point Blank, Night Ranger, Joe King Carrasco and the Romantics.
This song, “Marijuana Mountain”, won awards as the Best Folk Rock “Elevator Song” at GarageBand.com and makes a nice mellow transition this Thursday to the weekend.
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Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 7:35 pm | By: Radical Russ
(The Daily Texan) The pungent aroma of burning marijuana filled the air above Momo’s outside patio [in Austin, Texas,] Saturday night as patrons expressed their support for marijuana legalization.
The Texas chapter of The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, commonly known as NORML, held the Fourth Annual Sixth Street Smokeout to recruit members and garner support for the legalization of marijuana. The event drew support from organizations that support legalization of the drug.
“Adults should not have to worry about being prosecuted, locked up or being fined even for using marijuana. It just doesn’t make any sense,” said Josh Schimberg, Texas NORML’s executive director.
The chapter and cooperating groups sold merchandise and distributed pamphlets at the event amid the psychedelic tunes of five local bands.
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Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 3:50 pm | By: Radical Russ
Clif from our new NORML of Waco called to tell me I just had to see this new article on the cover of the Texas Monthly magazine. When Texas is calling for legalization, you know we’re winning!
(Texas Monthly) In the early years of the twentieth century, as they poured across the border into Texas, Mexican immigrants brought with them a familiar and cheap intoxicant: cannabis, which they called marihuana (in those days, it was spelled with an h instead of a j). Perhaps because they were young, predominantly male, and away from home—strong correlates of troublesome behavior—they were seen as lacking appropriate inhibition, especially when they came to town on weekends. Cerveza may have been more culpable, but cannabis made an easier target. In 1914, after a melee allegedly involving a marijuana smoker, the El Paso city government passed what is believed to have been the first law banning a drug that had been legally and widely used for at least five thousand years. Other cities and states quickly followed suit. Before long, marijuana was forbidden everywhere, and its use was often harshly punished.
It’s ironic, then, that nearly a century after it fired the first shot in the war on weed, the Sun City has been flirting with a cease-fire. In January, besieged by drug wars in Mexico that killed more than 5,600 people in 2008, almost a third in neighboring Ciudad Juárez alone, the El Paso City Council unanimously approved city representative Beto O’Rourke’s motion that the federal government hold an open and honest debate about legalizing all narcotics in the United States. Mayor John Cook vetoed that recommendation. “We would be the laughingstock of the country for having something like this on the books,” he said.
The incident drew national attention and some criticism, but it sparked the kind of serious conversation O’Rourke was seeking. “No one is laughing about it,” he says. “It’s not funny that sixteen hundred people died in our sister city in the course of one year in the most brutal fashion imaginable. We’ve had waves of violence before, but it took events of this magnitude to convince everyone that something is deeply wrong here, that we are part of the problem and we can do something to fix it. It’s the demand that’s fueling this war. If our drug laws were different, I will absolutely guarantee you that our body count would be different.”
See also the concurrent article, “Weed all about it“, where prominent conservative Texas Republicans are calling for an end to adult marijuana prohibition. Yes, my friends, the tide is turning.
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Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 12:42 pm | By: Radical Russ
As Outreach Coordinator for NORML, I am fostering chapters all across the country. It’s hard to know what’s happening on the ground when you don’t live there, so I encourage chapters to fill me in through emails, phone calls, and by following their websites, calendars, and blogs. As an old musician friend of mine once coined “Lawson’s Law: If you ain’t appearing, you’re disappearing”, which meant at the time that if you had no gigs, you had no band. More broadly for NORML chapters means that if you’re not holding events and making news, you don’t exist.
So my greatest thanks to Clif Deuvall and the good people at NORML of Waco, Inc., who in just one month of existence have gotten spectacular coverage in the Waco Tribune:
Alan Caruthers, of Waco, says he was 18 years old the first and last time he tried marijuana. It didn’t do much for him. Until this year, he saw no reason to try it again, and he dismissed arguments for decriminalizing it as pothead talk.
It took a four-year struggle with myelofibrosis to change his mind. His leukemia-like bone marrow disease gives him constant bone pain. The chemotherapy gives him nausea that makes him vomit daily. The Vicodin, Ativan and other drugs he’s taking to relieve those symptoms are losing their effectiveness, and he’s afraid of getting addicted to them.
So now, at age 44, this Christian family man and lifelong Republican is considering medicating himself with marijuana. And he has become an unlikely advocate for the right to do so legally.
Caruthers has written lawmakers arguing for decriminalizing medical marijuana. He even has signed up with the new Waco chapter of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, which advocates medical marijuana as the first step in a larger decriminalization effort. He acknowledges that his stand puts him in unusual company.
[T]he Waco NORML group is focusing on medical marijuana as its primary issue. The group, which meets monthly at Poppa Rollo’s pizzeria, has signed up 37 members.Cliff Deuvall, the group’s founder, says he uses marijuana for chronic pain stemming from combat injuries in Vietnam. He said he was an Air Force sergeant during the 1975 Saigon airlift and suffered a blast that resulted in injuries to his legs, eye and head. Now a 100-percent disabled veteran, Deuvall said he started using marijuana to fight nausea caused by his injured eye, which eventually was removed. He said he would like to be able to grow marijuana legally for his own use.
“I hope we can get an understanding with local government here that we’re not trying to turn this city into a bunch of potheads,” he said. “We’re just trying to make sure that people who need this medication can get this medication.”
Caruthers said he has been frustrated by the negative responses he has gotten from politicians he has written about the medical marijuana issue, including Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
“What would she do if she were in my shoes?” he asked. “What would politicians do if they had to suffer and puke every day? Not that I wish that on them. But if there’s a sin I’ve committed, it’s that I’ve been close-minded. I used to feel that way, too, that there was no reason for medical marijuana — until this happened to me.”
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 3:28 pm | By: Radical Russ
The New York Times has a nifty interactive map based on data from the 2006-2007 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health (more data here). It provides a drop-down menu to choose which dataset you’d like, which I naturally used to choose “Percent of people 12+ who have used marijuana in the past year”. Based on that information, your Top Five Stoner States are:
Rhode Island (16.12%)
Vermont (15.75%)
Alaska (13.79%)
Oregon (13.12%)
Colorado (12.99%)
Surprised that California isn’t in that list? Me, too. I’m not at all surprised by Vermont, Alaska, Oregon, and Colorado, but stunned that Rhode Island came in at #1. I’d caution that this represents everyone from the once-a-year-at-a-concert toker all the way through the daily Stasher. If frequency and amount used were considered, I’d be willing to wager we here in Oregon are, uh, higher than #4. Curious about your Bottom Five?
Utah (7.17%)
Iowa (7.32%)
Mississippi (7.79%)
Texas (7.92%)
Alabama (7.96%)
That #1 result for Utah shouldn’t surprise anyone with its majority Mormon population that even rejects coffee drinking. Another category where Utah is number one is consumption of Jell-O, which was named the official state snack. Oddly enough, the one time Utah lost its Jell-O crown was when Iowa briefly overtook them. So I wonder, is there some sort of yin/yang thing going on between cannabis and gelatin snacks? If you’re too high does it make it tough to follow the Jell-O recipe, or is it that you get such munchies you don’t have time to wait for Jell-O to set? By the way, does anybody have a recipe for ganja Jell-O; maybe that’s the solution?
I also thought it would be interesting to look at the Top Five States for Binge Alcohol Drinking:
North Dakota (32.02%)
Wisconsin (28.84%)
Minnesota (28.75%)
South Dakota (28.34%)
Rhode Island (27.92%)
Apparently Rhode Island is the place to get your drink on and your smoke on. But for the other Top Five Stoner States, binge drinking rates fall somewhere in the middle of the country from Oregon (21.71%) and Alaska (22.74%) toward the lower range and Vermont (25.57%) and Colorado (26.15%) toward the upper range. Unsurprisingly, Utah (15.64%) is at the bottom of this list as well. I suppose if Jell-O vodka shots aren’t bumping that number up, ganja Jell-O won’t likely work, either.
Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 6:51 pm | By: Radical Russ
(Houston Chronicle) AUSTIN — A 19-year-old accused marijuana dealer told Austin police that he fatally shot a young couple from Houston in their condominium near the University of Texas last week to avoid paying the male victim thousands of dollars in drug money.
Police charged James Richard “Ricky” Thompson, from the Austin area, with two counts of capital murder in the July 21 shooting deaths of Stacy Marie Barnett, 22, and John Forest Goosey, 21, a young Houston couple that had just earned degrees from UT.
Goosey is the son of prominent Houston eye surgeon Dr. John D. Goosey. His mother is Claire Goosey, a breast cancer survivor known for her volunteer work in the community, said attorney and longtime family friend Gary Tidwell.
Barnett, who lived with Goosey, appears to have become a victim solely by being home when Thompson arrived, police said. There is no evidence that Barnett was involved in marijuana dealings or that she used marijuana, Spangler said.
During interviews with police, Thompson admitted that Goosey had “fronted” him substantial amounts of marijuana to sell and that he did not have the money to repay him, Spangler said. Goosey was “pressing” him to pay up, police said.
Friends don’t let friends “front” marijuana.
This is the result of a prohibited market. Goosey couldn’t take Thompson to court to get the thousands he was owed. Goosey and Thompson paid no business tax, applied for no license, and were subject to no regulations regarding the transactions involving thousands of dollars of goods. Thompson can’t file for bankruptcy to escape an impossible debt. And while Goosey and Thompson knowingly involved themselves in a criminal market, Barnett is dead because she was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
When’s the last time you heard of the convenience store clerk shooting the beer distributor because he was behind on his payments?
RevRayGreen: MASS TWEET THIS -@ChuckGrassley Truth is Chuck you follow Nixon's CSA full of reefer sadness. btw Chuck, Marijuana is not a drug.
RevRayGreen: @ChuckGrassley http://bit.ly/55Ejsi Truth is Chuck you follow Nixon's CSA full of reefer madness. btw Chuck, Marijuana is not a drug.
SneakerPimp: one last thing Puff puff pass to any one who wants it
SneakerPimp: i wanna here about the imminent MiniSpof sounds like time for some
SneakerPimp: im estatic and excited for NSL today.
SneakerPimp: mountain time wake n bake
SneakerPimp: oh yea also wake n bake
SneakerPimp: its central im high as a kite everybody
SneakerPimp: ill grab that WUD
WakeUpDead: @Russ, I dont think that wireless is going to work out for the show, it was choppy and studdered just like last week. Hardline may be the only way. Puff [...]
WakeUpDead: A MINI Spof, Lock up your Weed, in 18 years that is. Really Man congrats! Greatest days of my life when my kids were born, hell yeh, great news [...]
BenJaMin: Late night Stash!!!
SneakerPimp: heres a bong rip for spof
RevRayGreen: errr test over....
RevRayGreen: on hold..
RevRayGreen: @RR I'll try and lob a call to you.....
SneakerPimp: where is the first field of cannabis gonna be?
SneakerPimp: !
Radical Russ: Breaking News: MrSpof's wife's water just broke! A MiniSpof is imminent!
SneakerPimp: oh russ its not my fault that i dont understand choppy word:stoned:
SneakerPimp: @Mrspof congratulations tell us all about it tommrow
Radical Russ: OK, test over. Sorry. Only needed a half hour. Be back tomorrow afternoon.
slash5city: don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west
thaistik: Local Crime Stoppers notice.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Pot shop burglars sought
Crime Stoppers is looking for information on the suspects who police say burglarized a medical marijuana dispensary and stole cash, drugs [...]
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. […]
NORML announces two new college chapters in Kutztown PA and San Antonio TX
sounds like time for some 
mountain time wake n bake 
don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west 
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