California Republican Representative Dana Rohrabacher—once a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan—is a known medical marijuana user. Rohrabacher stated marijuana use has been the most effective treatment he has found for his arthritis. Rohrabacher said this at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML): “I tried it about two weeks ago, and it’s the first time…in a year-and-a-half that I’ve had a decent night’s sleep, because the arthritis pain was gone.”

Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), emphasizes the fact that this particular study assessed rats, and therefore, it doesn’t accurately explain how weed smoke effects humans. “Longitudinal studies in humans haven’t replicated these results,” he says. And science corroborates his claim: A 2017 study found that lifetime marijuana use isn’t associated with an increased incidence of cardiovascular disease (including blood clots, heart attack and/or stroke).

"Descheduling marijuana should and will likely be a litmus test in the 2020 Democratic primary," said Erik Altieri, the executive director of The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "As we have seen, leaders from the party are seeing that leading the charge on this is not just good policy but is good politics."

“The main purpose is to provide education about and create awareness of what medical cannabis can do for individuals,” said Aiken NORML President Landon Yarosh.

Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and a consultant on the MyCanary app, said it was developed in preparation for mass legalization. There are now 29 states that have legalized recreational or medical pot.

“Because of that, there is a need and a desire for responsible adults use cannabis, to have a way to be able to check themselves prior to driving, to make sure they are not impaired before they go behind the wheel,” he said. “This is just a practical way to empower the consumer to make responsible choices.”

“In the old days, it would often be 24 hours before you got through the system and were arraigned,” says David C. Holland, executive and legal director of the Empire State chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. “Now, they’re just taking people back to the precinct and writing them a desk appearance ticket for the violation,” he says. “It’s a summons telling you to go straight to court without the detour through central booking. You’re processed, but you’re released from the precinct in a matter of a couple of hours.”

But Strekal, of NORML, said that simply ending criminalization isn't enough, and that communities harmed by the drug war should be able to benefit from the newly legal economy.

“As states start dialing back their war on marijuana consumers, it is important that those who were impacted by this oppressive prohibition are able to see previous harms remedied, and be provided the opportunity to participate in the benefits that come along with legalization and regulation," he said.

"With Senator Sanders cosponsoring the Marijuana Justice Act alongside Senators Booker and Gillibrand, it’s time for the party to speak with one voice that they will legalize marijuana and expunge the criminal convictions of the millions who are being held back from achieving both employment and the American dream," NORML's Strekal said.

"With this announcement, Sen. Schumer has effectively made it clear that a legislative priority for the Democratic Party is to end the federal prohibition of marijuana," said Justin Strekal, political director at National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

"Leaders in the Democratic Party are increasingly recognizing that leading the charge on legalization is not only good policy, but good politics," Justin Strekal, political director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, NORML, said in a press release Thursday. "The constituencies which the party claims to stand for are the ones who have most felt the weight of prohibition and the lifelong consequences of prohibition."

The festival – taking place on April 20 – is being organized by Aiken NORML, a local chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, and the event will be held Friday at Seeds Cafe, Farm and Market, 245 White Pond Road in Williston. The festival will begin at 4:20 p.m.

Corey Hedgepeth, newly appointed executive director of Charlotte NORML, spoke with Creative Loafing about why expanding legal access to cannabis is about more than getting high.

When asked about the gap between public officials opinions and that of the general public, Erik Altieri, executive director for NORML, an organization that is dedicated to moving public opinion toward the legalization of adult use of marijuana, did not see the gap as a problem.

'Consistent with past votes, we anticipate that voters in Utah and Oklahoma this November will decide to amend the law in a manner that comports with available science, public opinion, and the rapidly changing cultural and legal status of cannabis,' Erik Altieri, executive director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, told Daily Mail Online in a statement.

Keith Stroup, Legal Counsel for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) asserts, “The City Council appears ready to fully legalize and regulate marijuana sales in the District, but Congress has blocked that for now. So the only legal source of marijuana within the District is to cultivate your own marijuana, and most smokers do not want to spend the time or effort to do that. So obviously there is a thriving ‘gray market’ that provides marijuana to those who smoke, including the ruse of ‘gifting.”

Justin Strekal, political director for NORML, is confident the Utah and Oklahoma measures will pass.

"America's appetite for cannabis is not going away," Strekal said. "We are in the death rattles of prohibition."

The government's "Schedule I" designation is the most restrictive classification for controlled substances, reserved for the most dangerous, most addictive drugs with no medical value. Heroin and PCP are Schedule I drugs, and despite an overwhelming body of scientific evidence supporting its medical value and safety, so is marijuana.

Justin Strekal, political director for NORML, is confident the Utah and Oklahoma measures will pass.

"America's appetite for cannabis is not going away," Strekal said. "We are in the death rattles of prohibition."

“We applaud this commitment from President Trump, who promised during his campaign to take a federalist approach with regard to marijuana policy,” said NORML Executive Director Erik Altieri. “That campaign promise was not reflected by Trump’s appointment of longtime marijuana prohibitionist Jeff Sessions to the position of Attorney General or any of the actions that Sessions has taken since becoming the nation’s top law enforcement officer.”

Others welcomed him to the movement. "Regardless of motive, former Speaker Boehner is still held in high regard by a large percentage of the GOP membership and voter base," Erik Altieri, executive director of NORML, said in a statement. "We look forward to his voice joining the growing chorus calling for an end to cannabis criminalization."

Jeff Riedy hopes one day there will be. The "long-time" marijuana user, activist and co-organizer said the plant helps keep him calm and off pharmaceuticals. He serves as the executive director of Lehigh Valley NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Erik Altieri, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said Sessions’ hiring did not reflect Trump’s promise to protect state’s rights.

“We applaud this commitment from President Trump, who promised during his campaign to take a federalist approach with regard to marijuana policy,” Altieri said in a statement. “That campaign promise was not reflected by Trump’s appointment of longtime marijuana prohibitionist Jeff Sessions to the position of Attorney General or any of the actions that Sessions has taken since becoming the nation’s top law enforcement officer.”

“As the novelty of medical cannabis wears off, it is to be expected that further legal and regulatory changes such as this will be proposed with the goal of treating cannabis in a manner that is similar to other conventional medical treatments,” said Paul Armentano, deputy director for cannabis advocacy group NORML.

“Former Speaker Boehner is still held in high regard by a large percentage of the GOP membership and voter base,” Erik Altieri, executive director of NORML, a marijuana advocacy group, said in a statement. “We look forward to his voice joining the growing chorus calling for an end to cannabis criminalization.”

Erik Altieri, the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a pro-marijuana advocacy organization, said Mr. Boehner had opposed “even the mildest of marijuana law reforms.”

“He’s really just a sign of the times in terms of where the American public is going,” Mr. Altieri said.

About 61 percent of Americans said marijuana should be legalized in a Pew Research Center survey from October, compared with 31 percent in 2000. A Gallup poll from October revealed similar results, with 64 percent saying they supported legalization.

But there remains a stark partisan divide. While 69 percent of Democrats supported legalization in the Pew survey, just 43 percent of Republicans did. In the Gallup poll, 72 percent of Democrats supported legal marijuana, compared with 51 percent of Republicans.

Mr. Altieri said Mr. Boehner could have more credibility among opponents, able to meet them where they are. And he said it would be crucial for Republican leaders to take charge of the issue, considering the party’s control of the federal government and numerous state capitols.

“We are very pleased to see that neither Congress nor the White House bent to the will of Attorney General Jeff Sessions when it comes to his anti-marijuana crusade,” Justin Strekal, political director of NORML, said last week in a statement.

Patrick Nightingale is a lawyer who represents clients with drug addictions and is the director of marijuana-advocacy group Pittsburgh NORML. He says many of his clients enter the criminal-justice system due to interactions with opioid-related drugs and, over the years, he has seen an increase in clients whose first interaction with opioids was a prescription for legitimate pain.

“Regardless of motive, former Speaker Boehner is still held in high esteem by a large percentage of the GOP membership and voter base and we look forward to his voice joining the growing chorus calling for an end to our failed prohibition,” Erik Altieri, NORML’s Executive Director, told Newsweek in an email. “Anything that expedites the ability for patients to access this safe and reliable treatment alternative and put an end to the practice of arresting otherwise law-abiding citizens for the possession of a plant should be welcomed with open arms.”

Boehner’s acceptance of marijuana tracks with evolving beliefs about the drug and its uses among Americans and even Republican lawmakers, Erik Altieri, executive director for the Washington-based marijuana advocacy group NORML, told The Washington Post.

But, Altieri said, Boehner probably would have been more influential if he supported marijuana use for veterans while he was speaker. The Department of Veterans Affairs continues to struggle with treatment options for post-traumatic stress and other mental health conditions.

“It would’ve been more helpful for him advocating for this 10 years ago,” Altieri said.