I was moderating the comments over at the NORML Blog when I came upon this one (emphasis mine):
Get me a plane ticket, room and board, 3 pounds of amrijuana, and 100,000 accomplices. We’ll go to the white house and envelope it with a cloud of pot smoke until they understand! You want “non-violent” protest that will actually ACCOMPLISH something? You have to make your protest TOO LARGE TO IGNORE and TOO LARGE TO ARREST!!! More and more I think of NORML as another organization that would lose it’s reason for being if marijuana were to be made legal (like the DEA).
Don’t get me wrong, you guys do a good job in pointing out the silliness, insanity, and inanity of this nation’s war on marijuana users. But, if pot were made legal tomorrow, what would you guys do? Get baked in the comfort of your own home? I know that is what I would be doing, but my job isn’t contingent on the legal status of weed. Is the war on marijuana users for you what the WAR ON TERROR was for bu$h (a war without a goal for victory, without a truly discernable enemy, and without an exit strategy)???
This is one of my favorite conspiracy theories: that we at NORML secretly want marijuana illegal so we can keep jobs. First, NORML is thousands of dedicated hard-working volunteer activists nationwide in state and local chapters (I was one for four years before making a dime with NORML), a volunteer board of directors, a handful of volunteer interns, and FIVE paid staffers who make 1/2 to 1/3 what they’d make for a similar job in the for-profit world. Personally, I’m here at NORML working twice as long for half as much because drug testing kept me out of a six-figure consulting position. When we succeed, it won’t make sense to test for pot and I’ll go back to that career.
Second: does this theory apply to PETA – do they secretly want KFC to de-beak and scald chickens so they can have jobs? Does Greenpeace secretly want Japanese to keep slaughtering whales so they can have jobs? Does the Family Research Council secretly hope Hollywood keeps putting boobies on TV so they can have jobs?
Third: If you have the ability to organize a 100,000 person protest in Washington, and the permits, Porta-Potties, media accommodations, security, and insurance so the riot police don’t shut you down, please, be our guest. Somehow people think NORML can just shout “Come protest at the Capitol!” and millions will turn up. If we could, we would have.
Fourth: Legalization doesn’t mean the end of NORML. Unlike others that focus on “policy” or “access” or “drugs”, we are the marijuana smokers lobby; we focus on “marijuana”. We’re not just “anti-prohibition”; we’re “pro-marijuana”. When the feds re-legalize, there will still be reluctant states. When the states re-legalize, their laws will need tweaking. When it’s completely legal, there will still be cannabis aficionados and cannabis businesses in need of a lobby. Beer’s legal, yet there is a beer lobby. Cigarettes are legal and there’s a hell of a tobacco lobby.
Fifth: These non-violent, too-large-to-arrest protests ARE happening. Been to Seattle Hempfest, Boston Freedom Rally, Ann Arbor Hash Bash, or CU Boulder 4/20 lately? These events are changing things by blowing away the public perception of marijuana’s harmfulness. I interviewed two Seattle cops at Hempfest last year and asked, “Which would you rather work, Hempfest or Qwest Field at a Seahawks game?” and they eagerly told me “Hempfest” because the drunks at Qwest are belligerent jerks they often must arrest, but the stoners at Hempfest (150,000 of us!) “don’t cause any problems”.
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Only those who have not experienced Mary Jane thinks she is a crazy lady. And for those that have and still think she nuts have such closed minds that they will never see the light. I’m so tired of the image of ‘stoners’ being drugged out hippies and trashy people, when clearly thats not the case. I love how government tries to put a blindfold over peoples eyes to lead them back into a dark ally and force them into believing things in order to live freely. THIS ladies and gents is NOT freedom!! It is not what our country was founded on. I, for one, cannot wait for people to believe the truth instead of drowning in the lies. They call us ignorant stoner hippies…however the more lies you believe the more ignorant you become to the truth.
ha you tell him Russ…and of course we don’t cause problems
I love #2. Perhaps the police don’t want to stop crime because then they would be out of work.
Jillian,
For your own sake, don’t wait for the politicians.
Russ,
I think we need to encourage federalism (e.g., local decisionmaking.) We can win in many states–that’s been proven–but the federal level is slower than molasses. Don’t even get me started on the UN.
Let’s take back Massachusetts for liberty!
Man, who wrote that crap?
No discernable (sic) enemy?
Unicorns abound. Just like in the mythical dark ages.
As long as ideologues are allowed to spew whatever ridiculous misinformation comes to their mind for the purpose of keeping rational use of a non-toxic plant quarantined in Mississippi (and what, 14 now going on 20 actual medical marijuana states), there will always be jobs for these noble few who speak for the majority of Americans.
Kudos to all you volunteers and (under) paid peeps
who strive every day to “keep ‘em honest” like AC claims, but seldom does.
Hey James…FORML sounds good.
yea norml will be needed,but talking about hemp anyone know what the president’s jobs were before they ruled,you know what industries directed hemp being supressed and marijuana became the devil,those old clips of hippies chaining themselves to trees and bulldozers, saying your polluting the world,they were right
Normal should then switch to Maintaining and protecting our new Marijuana Laws. I could just imagine all the restrictions sour-puss prohibitionists may try to slip in from time to time.
They can change the name to FORML. The Freed Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Yeah…I know. I’ve got nothing!
I bet that dude is shock
BUT THANKS FOR EXPLANING THIS.
p.s. I hate those drug test!
I believe NORML will still have a roll after marijuana is legalized. Guns are legal and the NRA still exists.
I totaly get why we will need Norml, MPP and others even when we stop the madness there will be states that want to hold on to the outdated laws. Heck in KY half of the state still is “DRY” cant find a beer even at a Pizza Hut, so I see where we will need these groups to help fight these hold outs. Also we need them to keep our new found right to smoke safe from prohibitionests attempts to bring back prohibition! Dont think they will go away shaking our hands out the door, they will fight this down to every last state and every last man and we will need Norml to help fight them back into the darkness from which they came!
Dam, I thought we were on the dark side, Im confused?
When marijuana is legal I, a Norml member, will be able to smoke an occasional joint in the privacy of my own home after a hiatus of more than ten years.
I am pretty damn keen to see it legalized!!