It’s been a while since I’ve updated you on the development of our NORML Affiliate network.  We are striving to place a NORML Affiliate in every US state (as well as a national affiliate in every country… but first things first…)

Today we welcome West Virginia NORML as our newest state affiliate.  Drew Stromberg, a graduate of NORML/SSDP at West Virginia State, has teamed up with David Dawson, a NORML Legal Committee attorney to form our first affiliate in West Virginia.  You can contact them at daviddawsonlaw ‘at’ gmail.com.

We also welcome back a chapter in the southernmost reaches of California.  San Diego County NORML has been formed by attorney Michael Cindrich and activist Craig Beresh.  We are thrilled to welcome back Beresh, who was a part of our attempts to form a San Diego chapter two years ago.  Since then, he has been instrumental in activism in San Diego, leading successful initiative campaigns and garnering significant media coverage.  Contact them at mike ‘at’ michaelcindrich.com.

These two orgs join NY Capital Region NORML and SE Wisconsin NORML as our new 3rd Qtr 2011 affiliates and chapters.  If you’re interested in forming a NORML chapter near you, just send an email to start ‘at’ norml.org and visit norml.org/chapters for more information.

Madison NORML's Ben Masel with me at the 2009 Great Midwest Harvest Fest in Madison.

It is with great sadness I report on the death of one of the most outstanding activists in the NORML family – Ben Masel has passed away at age 56 following his battle with lung cancer.

Friends are leaving tribute on Ben’s Facebook page.

I met Ben at the 2009 Great Midwest Harvest Fest.  He and Gary Storck flew me out to speak to the crowd of thousands on the campus of University of Wisconsin and the statehouse steps.  I quickly found him to be exceptionally brilliant (he was just shy of “grand master” in chess) and loaded with fabulous stories of his past activism with the Yippies.

Ben had hoped to make it out to the NORML Conference last week, but obviously his health had taken a turn for the worse.  The NORML Board presented to him a special award for his lifetime of work.  My own tribute to Ben appears in the August 2011 issue of HIGH TIMES Magazine where we named him “Freedom Fighter of the Month”… unfortunately too late for him to read it.  It will be one of my bigger disappointments that Ben never received the recognition he deserved while he was alive to enjoy it.

Following is the article for HIGH TIMES with my sincere condolences to family and friends who had the privilege of knowing and loving him more than I.

If you watched the TV news coverage of the Wisconsin labor protests in Madison last February, you may have seen this month’s Freedom Fighter Ben Masel.  A longtime activist with Madison NORML, Ben was instrumental in creating the vibrant cannabis community in the state, including organizing Weedstock and the Great Midwest Harvest Fest that celebrates its fortieth anniversary this October 1-3 (see madisonhempfest.com).  He’s currently been fighting over the past few legislative sessions to get Wisconsin to pass the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act.

While Ben fights for the end of marijuana prohibition, his activism also extends into mainstream politics as well.  He’s a passionate civil libertarian, advocating equally for free speech and gun rights, personal privacy and a return to stronger congressional control of war powers.  Ben has run many times for elective office, from a challenge to Governor Tommy Thompson in 1990 to his current candidacy for the US Senate seat held by Herb Kohl.  He first caught attention for his radicalism when at age 17 he became the youngest person placed on President Nixon’s infamous “enemies list” and “the man” has kept his eye on Ben ever since.

This March at the age of 56, Ben received the horrible news that he’d been stricken by lung cancer.  Speaking to the Wisconsin State Journal, Ben said, “I’m feeling pretty upbeat about stuff. Not about having (cancer), but overall.  I’m definitely not in the ‘Oh, no, poor me, I’ve got cancer’ mode.” In reviewing our records, we’re stunned and embarrassed that Ben had not been listed among the 206 activists who’ve won the award since 1990.  Everyone at NORML and HIGH TIMES extends our highest hopes for Ben’s good health.

Ben in action at this year’s massive labor protests at the capitol in Madison:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2010-10-04.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. Great Midwest Harvest Fest marked it’s 40th annual protest in Madison, Wisconsin to legalize marijuana
2. CBS News Radio’s Howard Arenstein busted for 11 plants and 12 ounces of marijuana in Washington DC
3. Cannabis Defense Coalition petitions for new qualifying conditions under Washington’s medical marijuana law.

Daily Toker Tunes

Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

• Roots Monday: The Legendary O’Lantern Brothers – “I Don’t Need You Mary Jane”

Cannabis Conversations

• Dr. Harry Levine, Ph. D., Queens College (NY) Sociologist on the racist enforcement of marijuana laws

Radical Rant

• Get off the Cannybus – SF area dispensary delivery service against Prop 19

If you smoked a joint last week, in eleven states you're as bad as a drunk driver.

From the Obama Administration’s recently released National Drug Control Strategy (hat tip to NORML reader Glen):

Encourage States To Adopt Per Se Drug Impairment Laws [ONDCP]
State laws regarding impaired driving are varied, but most State codes do not contain a separate offense for driving under the influence of drugs (DUID). Therefore, few drivers are identified, prosecuted, or convicted for DUID. Law enforcement personnel usually cite individuals with the easier to prove driving while intoxicated (DWI) alcohol charges. Unclear laws provide vague signals both to drivers and to law enforcement, thereby minimizing the possible preventive benefit of DUID statutes. Fifteen states have passed laws clarifying that the presence of any illegal drug in a driver’s body is per se evidence of impaired driving. ONDCP will work to expand the use of this standard to other states and explore other ways to increase the enforcement of existing DUID laws.

Here are the states President Obama would like to emulate:

1. Arizona: Zero tolerance for cannabis metabolites, mandatory 24 hours jail, up to 6 months upon conviction.
2. Delaware: Zero tolerance for cannabis metabolites.
3. Georgia: Zero tolerance for cannabis metabolites, mandatory 24 hours jail, up to 12 months upon conviction.
4. Illinois: Zero tolerance for cannabis metabolites, up to 12 months upon conviction.
5. Indiana: Zero tolerance for cannabis metabolites, up to 60 days upon conviction.
6. Michigan: Zero tolerance for cannabis metabolites, up to 93 days upon conviction, vehicle immobilization for up to 180 days.
7. Nevada: 15 ng/ml for cannabis metabolites.
8. Ohio: 15 ng/ml for cannabis metabolites, mandatory 72 hours in jail, up to 6 months upon conviction, 6 month to 3 year license suspension.
9. Pennsylvania: DUID for cannabis metabolites, amount unclear.
10. South Dakota: Zero tolerance for cannabis metabolites for persons under the age of 21.
11. Utah: Zero tolerance for cannabis metabolites, mandatory 48 hours jail, up to 6 months upon conviction.

Nine of the fifteen states cited have “zero tolerance for cannabis metabolites”.  What this means is that if the inactive (read: non-impairing) THC metabolite (THC-COOH) is detected in the urine of a driver, that driver is impaired in the eyes of the law.  (There are actually 17 states that have per se DUID laws, but Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Wisconsin exclude metabolites of cannabis.)  Nevada and Ohio have 15 ng/ml levels which are very low; most workplace pre-employment screenings set the initial screening limit at 50 ng/ml.  At the confirmation level of 15 ng/ml, the frequent cannabis user will be positive for perhaps as long as 15 weeks.

Of course, faithful NORML readers and most of the public know that cannabis metabolites can remain detectable in the urine for up to 100 days or longer for a regular cannabis consumer and up to fifteen days for the casual consumer, even after quitting cold turkey.  Metabolites in urine don’t tell you a driver is actually impaired, they tell you someone used cannabis, but not when.  Even the US Department of Transportation admits that a positive test for drug metabolites is “solid proof of drug use within the last few days, it cannot be used by itself to prove behavioral impairment during a focal event.”

Cannabis metabolites are funny things; they don’t eliminate from the body in any predictable fashion. In fact, when you think about it, a metabolite is produced when the body metabolizes, or breaks down, a substance.  The presence of metabolites for THC tells you the body has already broken down the THC!  You could actually call a urine screening for metabolites a non-impairment test!

Now some of these laws do have per se standards for actual THC in the blood and you could argue that is a more realistic determinant of current impairment, but do you think most cash-strapped city, county, and state police are going to use an expensive, invasive blood test when a cheap urine screen is available and more likely to get them a conviction for DUID?

These per se DUID “zero tolerance” laws are nothing but discrimination against cannabis users, plain and simple.  Metabolites for every other drug, legal and illegal, are eliminated from the body much quicker:

• PCP (“angel dust”) = up to 2 days detection.
• Cocaine (and “crack”) = up to 2-3 days detection.
• Opiates (heroin, oxycontin, etc.) = up to 1-2 days detection.
• Amphetamines (meth, speed) = up to 1-3 days detection.
• Barbiturates (Seconol, etc.) = up to 3 days detection.
• Benzodiazepenes (Xanax, Valium, Clonopin, etc.) = up to 2-3 days detection.
• Alcohol (Budweiser, Jim Beam, Reisling, etc.) = you can actually be considered unimpaired with current blood alcohol levels up to 0.08%, so long as you pass the roadside sobriety test!
• Cannabis (marijuana, hash, pot) = up to 7-100 days detection.

So you could smoke some dust, snort some coke, shoot some smack, and pop some pills at the party Friday night, and possibly be considered an unimpaired driver by Monday (you could even have a couple of drinks before you got pulled over), but if you smoked a joint last month, in eleven states you could be going to jail and losing your license for endangering the public on the roadways.

These “zero tolerance” laws are criminalizing an entire population – cannabis users – for molecules in their bodies that have nothing to do with impairment or driving ability.  Can you imagine the uproar if police harassed drivers based on the melanin content of their skin… whoops, never mind.

Click here to view the embedded video.

MADISON – Gary Storck, President of the Wisconsin chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) announced that the group’s television ad supporting AB554/SB368 the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act (JRMMA), is airing in parts of Wisconsin.

“Thanks to some generous donations from $1 on up, Wisconsin NORML will begin airing a tv ad showing the faces of Wisconsin patients who can benefit from this compassionate exemption”, said Storck. “Wisconsin residents who believe its time to protect patients using medical cannabis from arrest and jail need to contact their state legislators now or the issue will have to wait until the 2011-2012 session. Many patients will not live that long. We hope the ad will inspire citizens to urge the JRMMA be passed, This Bill, This Time!”

Storck, who appears at the beginning and end of the 30-second commercial is a longtime Wisconsin medical cannabis patient and advocate as well as the director of communications for the Wisconsin medical cannabis advocacy group, “is My Medicine Legal YET?” (IMMLY).

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Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2010-03-30.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. Wisconsin advocates protest in support of medical marijuana and against Wal-Mart for firing medical marijuana patients
2. Hawaii bill seeks to legalize dispensaries, Hawaii governor cites reefer madness to defend her opposition
3. Colorado dispensary selling $1,400 / ounce “Caviar” bud dipped in hash oil

Daily Toker Tunes

Brought to you by Sahra Kant Photography

• Electric Tuesday: Max Dempsey – “OG Puffa”

California Marijuana Report with Eric Brenner

• Medical marijuana defendant James Stacey

Grassroots Activism

• Loretta Nall from Alabamians for Compassionate Care on Michael Phillips Compassionate Care Act to bring medical marijuana to Alabama. Bill includes reciprocity for other states’ cards, protections for employment, and allows recommendations for any condition a doctor believes it will help

Today, once again, I am the resurrector of dead bands. This time the band is Qwizzl. Comprised of some of my old friends from Sauk Prairie, WI – Boo, Truth, Chris, and Ryan. Qwizzl was a fantastic grunge/alt rock band back in the late 90′s, they rocked the bars and taverns of south central Wisconsin, and recorded two albums, “Fame Induced Apathy” and “Sounds from the Hole”, but after a while, for reasons not entirely clear, they had to call it quits just after the turn of the century, so sad.

Fortunately for us I held on to these CD’s and I still listen to Qwizzl all the time. Today I’m bringing you “Tree’s” a song about our favorite kind of trees. Featuring a driving bass line, rhythmic guitars and lyrics of outcry for legalization, “Tree’s” will take you back in time musically to the 90′s grunge explosion.

If you want more from Qwizzl I’m afraid your out of luck, there is no website, no email address, nothing, sorry! You can however download Tree’s from the stash blog.

Download audio file (Qwizzl%20-%20Trees.mp3)

Download Link: Qwizzl – Trees

MADISON: Back to back events, one reverent and somber, one quite the opposite, brought medical cannabis patients and supporters to Madison Tuesday.

The first was the Day of Prayer for Compassion ceremony at the State St. steps landing over the noon hour. Taking advantage of sunny skies and comfortable temperatures, several dozen patients and supporters gathered. Many had driven in from around the state, coming from Wausau, Hartford, Milwaukee, Janesville and other areas.

The Day of Prayer included a number of voices. Al Baker sang and drummed an Ojibwe song of welcome. Al also brought his staff that he had used for the Second Lobby Day in February. I read a two prayers at different points, sent by patients. Below is the first, from a legal California medical cannabis patient with MS and her husband, Beckie and Jim Nikkel:.

Dear Father in Heaven,

We lift our hearts to You on this day of prayer. All things are possible with You. May Your love, compassion, and truth direct the hearts and minds of the legislators and people of Wisconsin. May Your good gift of medical cannibals be made safely available everywhere to all who would find relief from it’s use. Yes, Father, according to Your Word, “let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-ending stream” (Amos 5:24)

By faith, we believe that inch by inch, state by state, our laws will more fully reflect this standard. We ask that the JRMMA will move our nation closer to the truth on this critical issue. Surely, Lord, You are close to the brokenhearted and bless all who put their trust in You. We humble ourselves before You, in the name of Jesus, through whom all blessings flow…Amen.

Iraq vet Erin Silbaugh speaks

Charles Wachtel spoke about veterans, then Erin Silbaugh, an Iraq War vet, PTSD patient and medical cannabis activist told his story. Erin delivered a moving speech of his three deployments and struggling with PTSD as well as the side effects of the harsh pharmaceuticals the VA uses to treat PTSD.

At 12:30, the Rev. Jason Glaspie, a veteran, medical cannabis activist and cancer patient, as well as an ordained minister, led the gathering in a moment of silence.  Al Baker performed an Ojibwe Sacred Pipe Ceremony to ask for a change in spirit so the JRMMA can go forward.

The Day of Prayer ceremony had a nice media presence with the Capital Times, Badger Herald, Wisconsin Public Radio, WKOW, Channel 47-Fox, WSAW and WISN television and others. The Capital Times and Badger Herald produced a great reports with photos.

Heading down John Nolen Drive after the Capitol event, we soon found ourselves at the nearby State Medical Society’s palatial offices on the shores of Lake Monona, surrounded by multimillion dollar lakeside homes.

The public face of the SMS for us was two employees who were apparently expecting us. It was not a party sent out to offer to meet with us and try to find common ground.

Dressed casually alike in matching wine colored shirts and black pants, the two men almost appeared as if they could have been with us, had they not immediately crossed onto public property to approach us with hostility, get in our faces, attempted to intimidate us and eventually to photograph our vehicles and event.

This outright harassment of patients in wheelchairs, Iraq vets, and other people with medical conditions is a direct reflection of the mentality of the Medical Society organization. Patients last!

By lobbying against the JRMMA, the SMS is really lobbying for the current status quo that forces patients unwilling to go down Big Pharma Way must buy medicine from potentially unsafe sources or grow it themselves or have a loved one or friend do so. Both options leave patients as potential targets of law enforcement.

A group whose first response to a nonviolent informational picket is to send low level goons to harass patients with a valid grievance is indicative of the heavy hand of control this group wields in our state.

They did not want to talk. They came out to get got in our faces in a threatening manner. We were only there to educate the SMS and people going to and from the SMS office.

A group so devoid of ethics as the Medical Society position goes directly against the welfare and safety of state veterans, seniors, sick, disabled and dying who can benefit from cannabis. By lobbying to keep medical cannabis illegal, the SMS is green lighting the pharmaceutical poisoning and addictiveness of conventional drugs as well as shrugging their collective shoulders at the very real possibility cannabis-using patients’ homes may be stormed by heavily armed police and they may be arrested and jailed.

The potential harms of jailing a chronically ill person are much more than the hysterical imagined harms of “smoked marijuana’ the SMS’ Dr. Michael Miller testi-lied about to our elected representatives on their behalf.

The SMS appears to represent the worst in modern medicine. Greed, not compassion seems to be what motivates the SMS. But on Tuesday, Wisconsin medical cannabis patients demonstrated that from now on, every action against medical cannabis by the Wisconsin State Medical Society will receive a response.

The days when Dr. Miller could show up late and mislead fawning legislators are over. No more Hit & Run, Dr. Miller! If you and the SMS want to show the world you have no compassion, you are doing an excellent job!

Some ways to help pass the JRMMA:

* Join or organize a JRMMA/WalMart Rally Sat. March 27: Visit Wisconsin Residents for Assembly Bill 554 on Facebook for details.

* Send pre-written, editable letter to Legislators: http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=14115736 or http://bit.ly/JRMMA

* Find out Who Represents you and their contact information: http://www.legis.wisconsin.gov/w3asp/waml/waml.aspx

* Call your Legislators: Toll-free Legislative Hotline: 1-800-362-9472

* Send a Letter to the Editor of a local or state paper: http://www.mapinc.org/resource/how2lte.htm

Today I have a very special toker tune! Legal Medicine Blues was written in honor of the namesake of the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act, It was composed by Rick Harris back in 2001 and it quickly became the anthem for WI MMJ supporters. Today I have a very special guest to help me introduce the song, who better to tell you everything about this great tune than the songwriter himself, I give you Mr. Rick Harris!

Quote from IMMLY.org website:

In his own words: Rick writes how he came to write “Legal Medicine Blues”:

“A while back a mutual old friend of Mark Shanahan and myself asked us to play a benefit gig for a friend of his. She, “Jacki” was a fellow member of a local group trying to promote the legalization of marijuana for medical use. Now I have to admit that this really wasn’t MY issue, but we gladly said yes to the gig. Before we started I was introduced to Jacki and she was then seated directly in front of me. While we were playing I would make eye contact with her and she seemed to really be enjoying the music. All through the night I watched her. I suspected she was having a tough time physically, but she had such warmth and radiated a certain kind of strength. She really made a strong impression on me. A couple days later I was thinking about the benefit and about her and the whole legalization issue. I grabbed my guitar and wrote the lyrics in about one-half hour. I put it aside for a couple of days to get a little distance from it, then tightened up the lyrics and worked out a simple straight forward arrangement. My partner Mark Shanahan added some tasty guitar touches and we recorded it.”

You can find a free download of Legal Medicine Blues at: http://www.immly.org/legal_medicine_blues.htm Also coming soon to iTunes!

Download audio file (LegalMed1.mp3)

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Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2010-02-26.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. Update on where we are at with the LA Dispensaries
2. The Denver clock ticking down story on their dispensaries
3. We know what is happening to Chris Bartkowicz, I will tell you what is happening with his cannabis.
4. Natalie Portman is producing a new stoner road trip flick
5. Real estate listing in Wisconsin touts “spectacluar grow room”
6. The mystery of what happened to 1,700 pounds of pot that disappeared on a control delivery

Daily Toker Tunes

• Rockin’ Friday: The Pencilnecks – “Marijuana”

Cultivator’s Corner with High Times’ Sr. Cultivation Editor Danny Danko

• What makes a good flushing solution and what your flushed water should tell you?
• Yesterday I heard someone say they are getting 2,000 grams every 30 days. using a 4×4 tent 400W metal halide, 400W high-pressure sodium, and 250W LED. How accurate is that?
• How is hydrogen peroxide bad for MJ?  Isn’t it just water with extra oxygen?  Wouldn’t that be a good thing?
• When grafting different strains to other plants does the host plant suffer any kind of shock from the grafting? Does the host plant effect the flavor of the grafted bud?
• Would a 12 hour drop of 20 degrees+ 10% drop in humidity cause leaves to curl/brown/crumble in just 12 hours? 4th week of flower, will they recover?
• Late season clones off budding plants keep on blooming for each generation. Is there any way to stop that and does it matter?
• Is there a way to tell if the plant indica or sativa  before harvesting time?
• My local collective has a lot of new OG strains that I never heard of like Ghost OG. What are the new 2009-10 OG strains out there?
• Is it good to to provide some type of sugar for the plant to eat while it’s flushing so that it wont stop growing during the flush?
• Can I make a clone from a Lowryder, then once summer comes around cross breed it with a male plant that’s not an auto-flowering plant?