“Right now our enemy is [Attorney General] Jeff Sessions,” said Justin Strekal, the political director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). “He, quite frankly, hates us.”

"This happens in anything that burns," says Dale Gieringer, coordinator of California NORML and a published marijuana researcher in his own right. "It happens in cigarettes and it happens in pot flowers."

Marijuana remains a hot topic in Portsmouth as the Cleveland Branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) has been collecting signatures to decriminalize marijuana in the city of Portsmouth, an initiative similar to what has already been done in Toledo, says Executive Director for Cleveland NORML Alison Kareem.

NIDA contracts with the University of Mississippi to grow marijuana for federally sanctioned studies. That monopoly makes it nearly impossible for researchers to access the high-grade cannabis they need, said Justin Strekal, political director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

“The VML is smart to adopt resolutions that are so strongly favored by voters and in much needed areas of criminal justice and healthcare reform,” said Virginia NORML’s leader, Jenn Michelle Pedini. “Municipalities would be wise to follow their recommendation and adopt similar resolutions in their legislative agendas.”

Keith Stroup, legal counsel at the marijuana advocacy group NORML, said that many of the government employees who are in favor of legalization aren't in positions that require drug testing. “Those in charge are anti-marijuana, but that doesn't represent what most people believe in the higher levels of these agencies. Most people at the Department of Justice are frankly embarrassed by Attorney General Sessions.”

NORML Executive Director Erik Altieri says Holder presents an interesting case study in terms of how a US Attorney General grapples with the growing movement to legalize marijuana in our country, particularly compared to Jeff Sessions.

“It is true that the Department of Justice under Holder sought prosecutions against some state legal medical providers and as Attorney General he came out firmly in opposition to the Proposition 19,” said Altieri. “It is also true that during the legalization campaigns of 2012 and in the years that followed, Holder and his Deputy Attorney General James Cole publicly set a tone that implied the administration would take a firm hands-off approach to state marijuana laws, a strategy they codified in the now famous Cole Memo.”

Bortell received an invitation from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) to lobby her representatives in Washington D.C. this past September. But she couldn't go, and instead could only Skype: Since Bortell can't go anywhere without her cannabis medicine, she couldn't travel without committing a federal felony by transporting a Schedule I narcotic across state lines.

Erik Altieri, executive director of the pro-legalization group NORML, said it might take longer than January "to set up the regulation process and to work out how the new recreational market will exist alongside its already quite large medical market."

“If they are showing an uptick (in marijuana-positive drug tests), it could be people are feeling freer to use it,” said Ellen Komp, deputy director of California NORML, a cannabis advocacy and lobbying group. “It doesn’t mean the workplace is less safe, because you’re picking up usage off the job.”

“It’s about moving the ball forward,” said Kevin Oliver, executive director of Washington NORML, the state’s largest marijuana consumer group. “It’s fourth-and-one and you’re either going for it, or waiting and coming back with hope for a Hail Mary.”

The Atlanta City Council voted on Oct. 2 to decriminalize marijuana.

The new ordinance, which passed unanimously by a vote of 15 to 0, will reduce the penalty for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana to a $75 fine and no jail time...

“The ongoing enforcement of marijuana prohibition financially burdens taxpayers, encroaches upon civil liberties, engenders disrespect for the law, and disproportionately impacts young people and communities of color,” said NORML Executive Director Erik Altieri, “It makes no sense from a public health perspective, a fiscal perspective, or a moral perspective to perpetuate the prosecution and stigmatization of those adults who choose to responsibly consume a substance that is safer than either alcohol or tobacco.”

“There are countless online retailers that are advertising CBD on a flimsy legal construction that hemp-derived CBD is legal,” NORML political director Justin Strekal tells Freedom Leaf. “The DEA has explicitly reiterated their stance that CBD products are still federally illegal. Those who traffic CBD under the delusion that it’s legal in all 50 states are nothing but liars, hucksters and thieves.

The website got good marks from legalization activist Ellen Komp, deputy director of California’s chapter of National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

The website is “fairly accurate,” she said, but added, “The risks with pregnancy are somewhat overstated, telling women they should not use cannabis for nausea or even if they are thinking of getting pregnant.”

Bruce Margolin, executive director of the L.A. chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said the on-site ban would leave some consumers without a place to use cannabis, since many hotels and apartment buildings ban smoking and that consumption also would not be allowed in public.

"The current status with denying on-site consumption means that they have no place to go unless they own a residence or have access to a residence, which is completely unfair," Margolin said.

The arrest increase “only further demonstrates the need for state lawmakers to respect the will of the majority of their constituents and end the practice of marijuana prohibition once and for all,” said Justin Strekal, political director of NORML, which seeks to liberalize marijuana laws.

“It’s ridiculous that the city doesn’t consider that,” said attorney Bruce Margolin, executive director of the L.A. chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Margolin said he was offended that even as cannabis was on the verge of local legitimacy, “the City Council is still treating marijuana users like criminals.”

While the Post report included pushback quotes from two representatives of prominent cannabis industry trade groups, they didn’t talk to anybody like Paul Armentano, Deputy Director of NORML. He’s a longtime expert on these matters, with the peer-reviewed papers to prove it.

Armentano argues—I believe convincingly—that “increased prevalence of THC detection in drivers tells us little about accident risk,” as it could simply be evidence of increased use among the general public, increased testing by law enforcement, or both.

For Armentano, there’s only one metric that really matters: Odds ratios.

The nation’s oldest marijuana reform group called the court’s decision a common sense ruling. “Available science has never established the predictive validity of Standard Field Sobriety Tests for identifying subjects who may be under the influence of controlled substances other than alcohol,” said NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano.

Armentano also pointed to the scientific realities of the current state of cannabis testing, or lack thereof: “Given these realities, the court was correct to rule that subjects’ subjective performance on these tests ought not to be viewed as persuasive evidence of cannabis-induced impairment.”

"With clear public support in favor of outright legalization, presidential aspirants now recognize that marijuana reform is something that can no longer be ignored," Justin Strekal of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) said in an interview.

U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, along with four other Republican and Democratic senators, co-sponsored the Marijuana Effective Drug Study Act of 2017. 

Speaking recently at the Heritage Foundation, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said that the Justice Department is "reviewing" an Obama administration memorandum that calls for the agency to take a largely "hands-off’ approach to states that are regulating adult marijuana use.

Jordan Person, executive director of NORML's Denver chapter, represented Colorado's interests during the lobbying trip, meeting with several senators and state representatives to talk about cannabis prohibition.

Paul Armentano, deputy director of the advocacy group NORML, said such institutions were needed to establish training standards and to directly educate workers and doctors, very few of whom have had any instruction on the subject. “It is likely that medical schools will continue to shy away from cannabis education until the federal scheduling of cannabis is amended and/or the plant’s therapeutic utility is formally recognized by the FDA,” he said.

"We’re very pleased to see that the legislature is taking seriously the need for there to be social consumption regulations in place to give those who chose to responsibly consume cannabis the opportunity to do so in a manner similar to how we have bars for alcohol," said Justin Strekal, political director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

"There will be very little to any participation in the program by physicians, and there will be very few patients that will be served by the program," predicted Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch issued a pun-laden statement Wednesday announcing legislation that would remove hurdles for medical marijuana research, but legalization activists aren’t laughing. “It’s high time to address research into medical marijuana,” said Hatch, a conservative Republican. “To be blunt, we need to remove the administrative barriers preventing legitimate research into medical marijuana, which is why I’ve decided to roll out the MEDS Act.”

Justin Strekal, political director for the pro-marijuana group National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, known as NORML, said few states have attempted what Iowa tried to do, though data is limited. “This is just another example of lawmakers overcomplicating something for the sake of overcomplicating it, rather than implementing a system that actually serves their constituents,” he said.