Randy Quast – Acting Executive Director
Randy had a successful career in the Less-than-TruckLoad (LTL) trucking industry. His achievements include building a small family-owned trucking company into a profitable, multi-million-dollar company focusing on quality, customer service, and employee pride. Quast Transfer was considered one of the premier LTL carriers in the country and was the recipient of many quality and safety awards.
After selling his company in 1998, Randy had more time to spend with his four children and to pursue his love of flying. With no more business reasons to fly, Randy began flying volunteer flights for Angel Flight and AirLifeLine (groups that arrange to fly people with medical needs that can’t afford to fly.) Randy’s airplane, with a turbine engine and pressurized cabin, allowed him to fly missions in weather when others could not. He had logged over 2,500 hours of pilot-in-command time, and in 2000, Randy was elected to AirLifeLine’s board of directors. In 2001 the board hired him as President & CEO while he remained a board member.
In 2007, Randy’s home was broken into while he was out having dinner. After dinner, Randy arrived home to greet several police officers in his home. While the police were securing Randy’s house, they discovered a few ounces of marijuana. The next morning, a drug task force raided Randy in his home SWAT-style. Randy was charged with felony possession but received a stay of adjudication for two years, with all charges dropped and eventually dismissed.
Randy attended his first NORML annual conference in September 2009. Randy says that he was so impressed and inspired by NORML people that he committed right there and then to bring an official chapter of NORML to Minnesota. Randy is a founding member of Minnesota NORML.
In 2014, Randy was elected to NORML’s board of directors. He served as board chair from 2017 – 2020 and currently serves as board treasurer for NORML & The NORML Foundation.
Paul Armentano – Deputy Director
Paul Armentano has over two decades experience working professionally in cannabis policy. He is the Deputy Director of NORML. He also serves on the faculty of Oaksterdam University in Oakland, where he is the Chair of Science.
His writing on cannabis and cannabis policy has appeared in over 1,000 publications, scholarly and/or peer-reviewed journals, as well as in more than two dozen textbooks and anthologies. He is a regular contributor to TheHill.com as well as to numerous other print and online publications. Mr. Armentano is the co-author of the book Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? (2009, Chelsea Green), which has been licensed and translated internationally. He is also the author of the book The Citizen’s Guide to State-By-State Marijuana Laws (2015), available from Whitman Publishing. He is the author and editor of the NORML-produced publication Emerging Clinical Applications for Cannabis and Cannabinoids, which summarizes over 400 peer-reviewed studies specific to the safety and efficacy of cannabis among different patient populations.
Mr. Armentano was the principal investigator for defense counsel in the federal case US v Schweder et al., one of the first legal cases in decades to challenge the constitutionality of cannabis as a schedule I controlled substance. He was also an expert in the successful Canadian constitutional challenge, Allard v Canada, which preserved qualified patients right to grow cannabis at home.
He is the 2013 Freedom Law School Health Freedom Champion of the Year and the 2013 Alfred R. Lindesmith award recipient in the achievement in the field of scholarship. He is the 2019 Al Horn Memorial Award recipient in appreciation of advancing the cause of justice.
Mr. Armentano works closely with numerous state and federal politicians with regard to drafting and enacting marijuana policy reforms, and he is a frequently sought speaker on the topic at legal and academic seminars.
R. Keith Stroup, Esq – Legal Counsel
Keith Stroup is a Washington, DC public-interest attorney who founded NORML in 1970. Stroup obtained his undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Illinois in 1965, and in 1968 he graduated from Georgetown Law School in Washington, DC. Following two years as staff counsel for the National Commission on Product Safety, Mr. Stroup founded NORML and ran the organization through 1979, during which 11 states decriminalized minor marijuana offenses.
Stroup has also practiced criminal law, lobbied on Capitol Hill for family farmers and artists, and for several years served as executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL). In 1994 Stroup resumed his work with NORML, rejoining the board of directors and serving again as Executive Director through 2004. He is currently serving as Legal Counsel with NORML.
In 1992 Stroup was the recipient of the Richard J. Dennis Drugpeace Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Drug Policy Reform presented by the Drug Policy Foundation, Washington, DC. In 2010 he received the Al Horn Award for Advancing the Cause of Justice from the NORML Legal Committee. And in 2012 Stroup received the High Times Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 2013 Stroup published the history of NORML entitled It’s NORML To Smoke Pot: the 40 Year Fight for Marijuana Smokers’ Rights.
Morgan Fox – Political Director
Morgan Fox is the Political Director at NORML, focusing on congressional lobbying and changing federal cannabis laws. As a professional cannabis policy reform advocate since 2008, Morgan has been directly involved in dozens of successful state ballot initiative campaigns to establish medical and adult use cannabis programs, as well as legislative victories at the local, state, and federal levels. He has been featured in hundreds of print, radio, television, and online publications. Morgan was most recently the Media Relations Director and chief spokesperson for the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) before joining NORML, and spent nearly a decade at the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) prior to that. He lives in Washington, DC, and when he’s not working to end prohibition and repair the damage it has caused, he can usually be found exploring the numerous parks and playgrounds of our nation’s capital with his children.
JM Pedini – Development Director
JM Pedini is the development director of NORML. JM oversees NORML’s global chapter affiliate network and ensures availability of resources and tools necessary to leverage the organization’s powerful grassroots support.
They also serve as the executive director of the state affiliate, Virginia NORML, where their work has directly resulted in the legalization of medical and adult-use cannabis, decriminalization of personal marijuana possession, and the establishment of the Virginia Legislative Cannabis Caucus and the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority. Appointed to the Governor’s Marijuana Legalization Work Group and as co-chair of the Legal and Regulatory Subcommittee, their current focus is on the Commonwealth’s continued effort to establish a fair and equitable adult-use cannabis regulatory structure that prioritizes consumer safety.
Prior to drug policy reform, they enjoyed a successful entertainment and media career with The Walt Disney Company.