John Ray Wilson and Jim Miller in New Jersey

10/25/09 by Chris Goldstein

Scoop:  Staffers at Americans for Safe Access met with Department of Justice officials before the memo on medical marijuana was released last week.

My role with several marijuana reform non-profits in New Jersey and Pennsylvania requires interaction with the national reform groups. One that has represented patients with great passion and success is Americans for Safe Access.

They have aggressively pursued issues related to medical marijuana laws and then the rights of patients under those laws.  ASA has chapters in several states with main offices in California and Washington DC.

On Wednesday I called ASA’s DC office to check in about some literature for events. Their Director of Government Affairs is Caren Woodson. She’s an experienced beltway player who has led protests on the street and meetings on The Hill. We’ve interviewed many times for podcasts and radio and have been working together as advocates this year.

After talking business I asked her what she thought of the Department of Justice memo. Caren’s usual, very professional tone changed and there was excitement in her voice: She and Steph Sherer, ASA’s Director, had been invited for a meeting with DOJ officials the week before.  This was the only known meeting of advocates with the DOJ on this issue.

That morning I had just happened to have wrapped up a telephone radio interview with an author of a book on public education. I asked Caren for an interview right away. The recording took 12 minutes and it aired that night on KSFR 101.1FM with my show Active Voice Radio.

LISTEN- MP3 of Caren Woodson’s 10/21/09 interview

Download audio file (2075-1-caren_w_mp3.mp3)

In the past, ASA was protesting in front of the Department of Justice:  Loudly and very visibly protesting at that. Now they are invited in for meetings. There was no stronger indicator this week of this tangible shift in federal policy on medical cannabis.

The impact of the DOJ memo is already being felt locally in NJ/PA. Two major editorials were published in the immediate wake of the news. The NJ General Assembly is expected to see The New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act in a floor vote this fall.PA should have the first public legislative hearings on the issue soon.

Philadelphia Inquirer: Easing Their Pain

The Obama administration’s new policy on medical marijuana should make it easier for New Jersey and Pennsylvania to legalize its use for seriously ill patients. The Justice Department has removed a major legal hurdle by issuing a memo directing federal prosecutors in states that allow medical marijuana not to target patients or their sanctioned suppliers when the drug is purchased for legitimate purposes. Read Full Editorial

Times of Trenton: It’s About Time

New Jersey legislators, poised to vote on the issue, may be encouraged by the federal change of heart. It reflects the opinion of a majority of Americans — and 82 percent of N.J. residents — who favor dispensing marijuana to patients. With the new federal policy in place, there is no reason for New Jersey to any longer delay legalizing medical marijuana. Read Full Editorial

NJ residents who support medical marijuana can CLICK HERE TO CONTACT ELECTED OFFICIALS IN NJ

More information about medical cannabis in NJ can be found at  the Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey.

Any budding activists (pun intended) who would like to meet up to discuss forming NORML Chapters around N. Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, and Delaware can meet with me tonight in the business center at the Best Western Dulles Airport at 8pm.  It is located at 45440 Holiday Drive, Sterling, VA 20166-9411.  Sorry about the late notice and the strange location, but it is the only time and place I can possibly meet people before flying out to San Francisco.

If you’ll RSVP me either by comments here or a tweet to @RadicalRuss or a txt to 888-7RADICAL before 4pm Eastern, I’ll grab you a retro NORML t-shirt just for showing up (yes… it’s a bribe! ) – just tell me your size.

"The Death of Dr. Thompson" - To Keith: The Wicked Accuse, The Godly Defend

There’s a certain surreal part of this job. I’m typing this post from Keith Stroup’s place in Virginia, watching the San Diego Chargers play the Baltimore Ravens. Ten feet away he’s catching up on email and I’m snapping pics of his framed pictures on the wall. One is a signed personal pic photo of Hunter S. Thompson firing a shotgun at a photo of Ronald Reagan in cowboy gear. Another is a shot of Keith and Willie from long ago. Another is a drawing of Keith from a piece in the New Yorker. “Sometimes I feel old,” I tell Keith, “especially when you’re around these young people at these rallies. Then I think of the great people and great music I missed by being as young as I am. Growing up in the Eighties sucked.”

Keith had picked me up from the CVS at 7th & Pennsylvania in DC.  I’m lugging my two overstuffed carry-ons full of studio gear (which TSA loves to make me completely unpack and repack at every security checkpoint, so ixnay on our secret stoner plan to bring down Babylon by disguising soundboards and wireless keyboards as explosives to bring down the Boston-DC shuttle) and my literally bursting at the seams hanging bag that the baggage handlers have been abusing for the modest fee of $15.  And I’m wearing my Packers t-shirt, because it’s game day, and it is horribly old and tattered, and my Concordia University sweats, because I don’t wear anything metal while flying.

Can we talk about flying?  Nobody can seem to understand why the airlines keep losing money?  Well, that nobody ain’t six-foot-and-two-fifty!  I’m trying to respond to emails offline in the air with my arms like a T-Rex on a nearly five hour flight from PDX to Logan, completely packed full.  I’m forced to haul two heavy limit-pushing bags of recording gear because no freakin’ way will I let the baggage gorillas throw around the laptop and the Mackie and the mics AND pay an extra $30 or $40 for the privilege.  I’d pack it all in the flight case, but they want to charge $100 for that, each way.  It’s going to get to the point where it’s cheaper to fly with no bags and just buy your clothes at Wal-Mart when you land.  Oh, are you feeling peckish?  Well, for eight dollars, we’ll give you a Lean Cuisine-quality meal poorly cooked to eat on your folding tray that’s in your gut from the person reclined in the seat centimeters in front of you.  I swear if I get enough revenue flowing I will get a Madden Cruiser and just bus my way to all these events.

Stevie Lee Webb at the audio desk where he used to engineer The Russ Belville Show on XM Satellite

Where was I?  Oh yes, before Keith picks me up I’m visiting my friend Stevie Lee Webb at his offices at The Bill Press Show.  We worked together for over a year.  He’s from London and a complete Monty Python fan and radio comedy vet in England.  We used to have so much fun on our show and he’s agreed to provide some voice overs when we have some egregious UK reefer madness to read.

Packer Baby at the Hawk'n'Dove in DC

Stevie let me park my gear in his office, then we trekked a couple of blocks to the Hawk’n'Dove.  It’s a big Democratic hangout in DC, I’m told, but more importantly, the Packers bar on Sunday!  I enjoyed watching most of the game as Stevie and I ate pub food and drank beer (yes, I did some hard drugs – alcohol!)  Nice to finally meet face to face, and we’ll be having dinner in the next two days so I can meet his wife and we can play Monty Python Fluxx (don’t ask, it’s a nerd thing).

It's 4:20am in Boston after a long day of sun and fun and three hours sleep.

The day begun very early.  At 4 am I’m getting up in Cambridge at a hotel near MIT after having partied past midnight at the “Boston Tea Party”.  Caught a cab at 4:20, thought it was appropriate, to catch the 6am shuttle to Dulles.  Flying is so miserable (did I mention that?) that I prefer to do it as early as possible to have the time for the repacking and so I can sleep through it later.  But that put me in DC at 8am, way too early to bug Keith.  Called Stevie and he could meet me at noon, so I found a spot near the “Flyer” bus terminal and slept for three hours.

The party after Freedom Rally that kept me up so late was a blast.  It was invite only and I had a “plus one” invite, but no one to join me.  But it turned out that Anne from New Jersey NORML wanted to go, and her boyfriend Ron was with her, and I did some quick talking and we all got in.  Then Delia from New Jersey called, so we went back out toward the Boston Common and picked her up and I talked her in as well.  It’s not too difficult talking beautiful women into stoner parties.

Georgine DiMaria at the backstage studio for NORML SHOW LIVE

Speaking of, it was a pleasure to meet Georgine DiMaria, a High Times Freedom Fighter of the Month and Miss New Jersey 2006.  She stopped by NORML SHOW LIVE and gave us a great interview.  The Freedom Rally was amazing, with excellent music and really cool people.  Toby Grear was also on the show and his girlfriend Nicole shot a photo of me holding up fists to Toby and him giving me a funny look.  I can’t wait until she sends me that photo!

It was a fun show to do, though I’m not sure how well it came out.  Toby Grear, Danny Danko from High Times, Chris Goldstein, and Keith Stroup all stopped by.  When I was interviewing Danny, the rapper Styles P stopped by and got on the mic for a sec.  Me, being the old overworked nerd I am, had no idea from Styles P to Master P to the Stylistics.  I told Delia at the party that Styles P dropped by and she said, “Styles P!?!” She filled me in that he’s currently the bomb with his hit song about getting high that I’ve never heard.

I was actually more thrilled to get an interview with a total stranger, a woman in a powered wheelchair sitting backstage named Lori.  She was quite attractive with what I’d call big East Coast hair and makeup, and visibly affected by some sort of severe medical condition that has drastically diminished her legs.  It was nearing 4:20, so I couldn’t get any luminaries back at the table, so I asked her, on a hunch, if she’d like to talk about medical marijuana.  She told me she doesn’t like to talk about her condition and she couldn’t give more than her first name, I assured her I only wanted to talk to her about her opinions on medical use.  It’s one of my favorite interviews ever.  She so perfectly represents and communicates why arresting people for using marijuana is just plain evil.  She told me it was her first-ever moment “coming out” in public about medical marijuana.  I feel like we just birthed an activist.

I’m exhausted.  Here are some more of the pictures, most of them I think made it into TwitPic.  I’m going to listen to the live show and try to catch some sleep.

The two ladies on the outside are from Girls4Ganja.com (Mikaela on the right) and the two inside ladies are a Miss High Times 2007 finalist on the left and Miss High Times 2006. I can't remember everybody's name (sorry!)

I loved this band Graveyard BBQ, and not just because they had dancers.

Right before this shot, High Times Associate Publisher Rick Cusick says "Say 'Evidence'!"

"A question. Since before your sun burned hot in space, and before your race was born, I have awaited ... a question." Me and the singer from The Force going though lighted sculpture at MIT

Dr. Keith Saunders and Dr. Frank Lucido at the High Times / MassCann Awards and Fundraiser, where the NORML Daily Audio Stash won Best Podcast for the 2nd straight year. Thanks!

(MSNBC / Washington Post) WASHINGTON – Andre Hayes’s phone rang one October afternoon, and a mysterious woman was on the line. She had called the wrong number, she told him. But she didn’t hang up. They bantered a bit. They flirted. She said he sounded nice.

Over the next week, they spoke or texted by cellphone more than 100 times. As he drove to meet her on Halloween night, they chatted for 29 straight minutes. And then, as he awaited their rendezvous in a dark suburban driveway, Hayes was shot dead.

Hayes, a slick dresser with a sharp wit, was described as a fun-loving guy who doted on his relatives and three daughters. But close friends said he also had a weakness: women.

Hayes, who lived in Clinton, sold drugs and held odd jobs. During the past 15 years, he had been arrested a few times on charges ranging from assault to drug possession. In January 2007, he was arrested on federal cocaine distribution charges in Virginia.

Soon, he was working out a deal with the Drug Enforcement Administration: He would help them arrest other dealers if they would recommend a lighter sentence for him. By September, he was telling DEA Agent Kendrah Johnson that he knew a guy named “Weldon” who sold marijuana, crack and heroin, according to notes taken by the agent and filed in court.

During the next 11 months, Hayes bought more than 150 grams of crack from “Weldon,” later identified as Weldon Gordon, in three deals — one in Maryland and two in the District, according to court papers filed by the DEA and federal prosecutors.

The woman, Tiffany Reaves, 30, of Upper Marlboro, has been indicted on a federal charge of conspiring to obstruct justice by killing a witness. The charge carries a potential sentence of death. Reaves’s boyfriend, Weldon Gordon, 31, has been indicted on federal drug charges tied to undercover purchases made by Hayes on behalf of federal investigators.

In other news, millions of Americans today will buy and sell alcohol, from 3.2% to 75.5% potency.  Nobody will be arrested for these transactions.  Nobody will be making deals with prosecutors to help arrest others for these transactions.  Nobody will compel their girlfriend to seduce those who help prosecutors.  And nobody will be murdered over these transactions or for helping prosecutors.

Download link: NORML Daily Audio Stash for 2009-07-17

Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2009-07-17.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. House Passes Bill That Allows Medical Marijuana In District Of Columbia, Needle Exchange, Vouchers
2. Boston Herald laments police inability to collect pot fines or lock up tokers
3. DEA Inadvertently Speeding Prohibition End
4. Monday hearing may determine fate of Colorado’s medical marijuana dispensaries

CelebStoner.com Entertainment Report with Steve Bloom, co-author of Pot Culture: The A-Z Guide to Stoner Language and Life

• The Tommy Chong / Michael Jackson connection
• Emmy award nominations for CelebStoners
• Stoniest summer music tours

Daily Toker Tunes by Marijuana Music Awards

• “Weed Man” – with a discussion about the use of the word “nigga” in stoner rap music.

Cannabis Conversations

• Danny Breeden, former Florida halfway house prison guard, on his new free book, Marijuana: Prison or Profit (http://MarijuanaPrisonorProfit.com)

UPDATE: THE bill passed Thursday evening 219-208.

The House began debating a bill (The Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Bill) Thursday that dances on almost every nerve in the social conservative body politic, touching on everything from abortion to needle exchange, gay and lesbian rights, charter schools and medical marijuana.

“We strongly oppose these changes,” declares the Republican committee report. “We do not believe increasing the availability of abortions or medical marijuana will improve the District of Columbia.”

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the non-voting delegate from the District, took GOP members of Congress to task in their presumption to assert authority over D.C. home rule.

“Your lip service to local control, the time for that has run out,” she said. “We have profound disagreements on some issues, from abortion to vouchers. Go home and deal with them there. Allow us to deal with these issues in our own way as a local jurisdiction. I appreciate that the Rules Committee has indeed respected our citizenship and I demand that other members of Congress do so as well.” – The Huffington Post

So, is medical marijuana coming to the District? Stay tuned ..

(Washington City Paper) A measure to once again ban D.C. from implementing a 1998 medical marijuana initiative failed in a House appropriations committee vote this evening.

The D.C. budget made it out of its appropriations subcommittee without the so-called Barr amendment—a rider, first introduced by Georgia Republican Bob Barr, which has graced the District budget since 1998. But this evening Missouri Republican Jo Ann Emerson attempted to put it back on.

After a short debate, with Jim Moran (D-Va.) standing up to defend District home rule, the Emerson measure failed by a voice vote. The bill still has to survive the House floor, Senate consideration, and conference committee.

This really isn’t so much about medical marijuana as it is about letting the citizens of the district determine their own laws.  For too long, the people in our nation’s capital have been taxed but not represented in the House, and too often Congress pulls funding stunts like the Barr Amendment to squelch their democratic urges.  These so-called “riders” have also been used to prevent the District from using funds for abortion and to curb firearm rights as well.

Shouldn’t the people living in the capital of the world’s leading democracy have the right to vote for their own laws?

Download Link: Secret Stash - Register to access

Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2009-07-01.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. The Importance of Permitting Consumers the Right to Cultivate Marijuana for Personal Use
2. FDA recommends lowering dosages of acetominophen, “the leading cause of liver failure”
3. Congress lifts “Barr Amendments” forbidding DC from medical marijuana and decriminalization
4. Annual Ontario Hempfest festivities will cease this year due to police harassment

Cannabis Science with Dr. Mitch Earleywine

• A look at the human relationship with cannabis throughout history

Daily Toker Tunes by Marijuana Music Awards . com

• 2009 AMMA Best Reggae Song – ‘Cassava’ by Andrew Mystic aka ‘PZ’

NORML Newsmakers

• Former Guatemalan boys national and George Washington University swimmer Juan Bocanegra, on cannabis use, athletics, and training for the Ironman Triathlon

Update: I’ve modified the headline from “Congress lifts…” to better reflect the story — “R”R

A House appropriations subcommittee has lifted a long-standing budget rider banning the District government from spending any money to decriminalize marijuana.

The Financial Services panel, which has oversight of D.C., has removed from the 2010 budget 11-year-old language outlawing the District’s use of federal or local funds to legalize marijuana or reduce penalties for its possession or distribution.

Rep. Jose Serrano, the subcommittee chairman, said … the budget bill “allows the District to conduct and implement a referendum on use of marijuana for medical purposes as has been done in various states.”

The District voted on medical marijuana once before, in 1998, but the votes were declared invalid. Former Rep. Bob Barr raced to have his anti-legalization language added to the budget two weeks before the initiative vote was held. When the ballots were unofficially tallied nearly a year after they were cast, it was learned that 69 percent of voters backed legalization.

It has always struck me as ironic that in the Land of the Free, our capitol was built by slaves, and that in a country born from a revolution because of “taxation without representation”, the citizens in the capital are taxed but get no vote in the House or Senate.  Add to that irony that the people in the seat of democracy were unable to exercise self rule on the matter of marijuana because the Congress wouldn’t allow them to count their votes.

Also ironic: that former Rep. Bob Barr, who introduced these democracy-killing amendments against marijuana, is now a paid lobbyist for the Marijuana Policy Project.  The author of these anti-marijuana bills came around faster than the Congress has!

President Obama will name Seattle Police Chief R. Gil Kerlikowske as the nation’s drug czar today, ending a long search that was slowed as details of drug arrests involving Kerlikowske’s son came to light.

The administration will remove the job’s Cabinet designation — reversing an elevation of the office under President George W. Bush — although one senior official said that Kerlikowske would have “full access and a direct line to the president and the vice president.” The source also noted that Vice President Biden was instrumental in the creation of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and would continue to be an outspoken advocate on the issue.

Kerlikowske has long been speculated to be the front-runner to serve as the drug czar. But revelations concerning the arrests of his son, Jeffrey, on drug-related charges complicated the process.

The White House acknowledged Jeffrey Kerlikowske’s past drug use but offered no specifics or comment.

In his remarks today accepting the nomination, Kerlikowske is expected to reference his family struggles with drug abuse. “Our nation’s drug problem is one of human suffering,” according to his prepared remarks. “As a police officer, but also in my own family, I have experienced first-hand the devastating effects that drugs can have on our youth, our families and our communities.”

via Seattle Police Chief to Be Named Drug Czar – washingtonpost.com.

It’s nice to see the Drug Czar’s office demoted to a non-Cabinet post again. It’s even nicer that a police chief with experience in one of America’s most cannabis-friendly cities, home to a peaceful annual gathering of 300,000 stoners, and some personal experience with drug problems in his own family is going to be in charge of our drug policy.  I look forward to these confirmation hearings.

Now if we could just change those words “Drug Control” to “Drug Harm Reduction” or “Drug Regulation”…