Today, a bi-partisan group of representatives introduced the first federal bill since 1937 aimed at ending marijuana prohibition. To coincide with the bill’s introduction NORML is launching a new public service announcement featuring NORML Advisory Board member, country music icon, and cannabis enthusiast Willie Nelson. In the video below, Willie calls on you to support this important legislation and to contact your elected officials and encourage them to do the same.
NORML has launched a bill specific Facebook page, where you can keep up to date on all the latest information. It can be accessed here. You can also utilize our Take Action Center to contact your elected officials and urge them to support HR 2306, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011, here.
Subscribe to NORMLtv or follow us on Twitter to stay posted on all the latest video content coming from NORML, including much more on this important legislation.
Done!
Yea Willie!!!
willie your the best!! the money is in the mail!!!
I am very glad to hear that the HR 2306 legislation was presented to the House today. That took guts and an intuition for when something is right to do.
If only they could also propose in the bill to call it anything other than marijuana too!
Way to go Willie!!! Thank-you NORML!!!
I’ll support it if he sings Blue Eyes crying in the rain to me. :o)
I did too and hoping for the best.
Just sent my support here in Florida. Thanks NORML for providing the link and keeping us in the loop. It would be great if this bill passes.
President Carter has been speaking out lately, get him to do a PSA! He has street cred.
News junkie spoiler alert: CNN host and a former drug czar lacky ganged up on Tommy Chong and called him an addict tonight. Keith Oolbermann and Janeane Garofalo talked about this bill and basically stopped at medical cannabis being good. Seemed they have alot of prejudice themselves about “potheads”.
Not really happy at the press coverage about this. Never give us a fair shake. They think fair and balanced coverage (nope… don’t watch fox) means getting both sides, but if one side is lieing… you should point that out maybe?
I think we need a two front offense to get the message out to end the prohibition of Cannabis — Marijuana and Hemp. Hemp is the cash crop that will bring in the big revenue that people/government is looking for. Marijuana will reduce Law Enforcement spending and bring additional revenue.
“Don’t forget cannabis is more than MARIJUANA. Hemp, which doesn’t have enough THC to get a baby high, would be legalized too. Hemp is the product that will bring billions of dollars of revenue to the State by producing industry products and consumer goods. We will see the benefits from the legalization of marijuana with the reduce cost of enforcing the prohibition laws and increase in tax revenue.”
How did we arrive, as a nation, where fools such as Keith Olberman, Janine Garafalo, Glenn Beck, Bill O, Hannity, and all the other “I never held a real job, but I’m more worldly than thou” set policy for everyone? How? Because people stopped thinking and decided to outsource that to smarmy assholes on television. Let’s not forget who saw the dawn of television and said “We GOTTA have that!!! Don’t just stand there! Get busy! I want one of those in every home!” That person was Adolf Hitler. He immediately realized how the TV could be used to not only influence public opinion, but to literally implant ideology into peoples’ minds. The first TV broadcast in history is a Nazi Party rally with Adolf Hitler speaking.
Oh, our rulers and their unofficial propaganda ministers don’t wear spiffy uniforms and jackboots anymore (well, they don’t, but the people they send to enforce their will do) but the message is the same: “Do as we say and believe as we say and no one will get hurt.”
I am 58 and I thought it was norml to hide. thank the force that be and pray for a landslide vote in 2012
HR 2306 speaks of marihuana. The definition is unchanged, so the semantic confusion will still exist.
Marijuana and cannabis are not mentioned in the bill,
but are mentioned in the CSA.
Does this have any “gotcha’s” that a determined Agent could pull? How does this affect corporations?
After all this time, it just seems too good to be true.
Thank you NORML.
I Love you Norml Seriously I’ll Smoke one to the future. the times they are a changing! 😛 WOO
I’ve already contacted my rep to urge him to support it. But he’s kind of a conservative wack-job, so I don’t have high hopes. (Its a bummer living is a conservative district. Especially when you live is a blue state like me.)
Excellent PSA. Kudos to NORML and Willie Nelson.
I’ve heard every opinion and argument [both ours and theirs] to come down the pike. Here’s the bottom line! – “Manna is my my Sacrament – given to me by God himself.” You’re going to have to shoot me dead – for me to give it up! But then – I’ll still be honoring it in my next life – so! – stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
It’a about time for some action…. It is the only “drug” for me.
I don’t mean to be a downer, but doesn’t Rep. Frank introduce a legalization bill with a lot more limited scope just about every session (kudos to him for trying!)but it gets tabled and sent to committee where it dies every time?
Is there anything that we can do to make sure this bill gets out of committee and actually has a chance? I’m all for complete legalization of marijuana, but we need to figure out exactly what can be done to keep this bill from being killed behind closed doors.
[Editor’s note: Contact your member of Congress and insist that they become a bill co-sponsor. The bill can’t die in a back room deal with numerous co-sponsors and it will never advance without numerous co-sponsors!]
P.S. to 17
I don’t give a fiddler’s damn what they [or anyone on this planet] say or do – it’s my Sacrament – and – God’s eternal law. So! if they insist it’s not – and – I can’t – all I have to say is – “Go tell that to God.”
Not to worry folks! And I gave up Fox News long ago. Facts are:
Alcohol prohibition, the 18th Amendment wasn’t repealed because the work of the Temperance Society was deemed incorrect or not based on science, it was repealed because America needed the tax dollars alcohol could provide, and because the boot-leggers and brewers were Americans. And because of the extreme violence prohibition caused. The “demands” of the American Citizen for alcohol were unstoppable – and that’s human nature. Also, God gave us hops! Just as God gave us cannabis!
HB2306 is a significant first step! Not all Americans agree cannabis should be legal like alcohol and tobacco, but a good 50% of Americans either do or recognize prohibition doesn’t work, and also recognize the Constitution of the United States is sacred.
Maybe HB2306 won’t make it, but at least it shows that we can elect representatives who are educated and understand that Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness is a right, and not just for the elite.
It raises the question, since the “Republican Packed House” is a Republican majority and for that reason it is doubtful the bill will pass, who exactly let these foxes into the hen-house, well the Tea-Party of course. So it begs the question, exactly what does the Tea-Party want??? Limited government? Freedom for basic human rights in America? A non-special interest’s government? The answer is obvious if these Tea-Party Republicans actually do vote against this bill… because this bill represents the basic principals this country was founded on…
And if they vote it down, then we all know they are more interested in the emperor, who dances naked before us in America, proclaiming, (s)he is not, naked, but rather, clothed in the garb of Wall Street. And we all know the kinds of clothes Wall Street wears!!!
Fear not… In God We Trust.
We shall soon find out.
@ # 21 I’ve never heard of a “fiddler’s damn. I have heard of a fiddler’s dram.
23. joad
Well! you have now! The Fiddler don’t give a damn while he’s playing his music. Gosh – it almost sounds like how the feds feel about us. Well! two can play that game.
22. BobKat
I believe I’ve asked you before – but – are you sure you’re not a Genesist? Damn – you sure sound like one.
The government needs to worry about frying bigger fish than marijuana. Get the hard drugs off the street. No one ever o.d. of cannabis.
26, The American Genesist:
I probably am… I always found cannabis to be enlightening, and a spiritual experience. I’m not into organized religion, but believe strongly in God as Nature. To make me join a church, any church to use cannabis is contrary to what I believe, as what I believe is we can be solo believers in God, and for me I communed with God in Nature, with or without cannabis, but I miss that intimate connection that cannabis could bring about.
Willie you got my support. Lets all hope it goes through.
28. BobKat
Genesists are individual children of the Source [key word – individual]. We believe in God and God’s Sacrament. We maintain “Equilibrium of the Soul” through meditation in CDXX Communion. A Genesist’s church is our “conscience.” The Source has provided us our Sacrament through nature – and – we accept it with thanksgiving. I hope this defines Genesists a little clearer. Good CDXX Communion.
When writing your representatives be polite and provide some facts of how criminalization of Cannabis has eroded the rights and freedom of all Americans. Don’t be afraid of standing up and identifying yourself. I for one would cherish being the first to see an officer at my door with a warrant signed by a judge for a letter written to my representative for just stating my views on Cannabis laws and the war on drugs.
The best!!
It’s so crazy that you can get drunk as hell and fall off your porch, but you can’t smoke a little weed and mellow out, I think the wrong drug is legal.
34. Bud Campbell
I know just how a Robert “Bud” Campbell would think – “The wrong drug that is illegal is…prohibition.”
I’m tired of hiding, tired of getting chastised, chided and ostracized when I don’t hide, tired of touchy social situations that determine my favorite herb’s availability, tired of having to be friendly with people I’d just as soon not know so well, tired of the lack of safety and accountability, tired of having to pay whatever for whatever crap is available when I know how easy it is to get quality seed and grow quality product that is pure and safe, can I stop now? I”m tired.
#34, Bud Campbell:
Or fall off an escalator (recently in the news)… or get lung, heart, and cancer disease from a proven carcinogenic plant… and suffer the ignorance behind society in general places on “cause and effect”, in that if tobacco causes cancer, therefore any other plant would too. Or, “the more alcohol one drinks the drunker one gets”, and therefore by extension, the more cannabis one uses the higher they get, and the more dangerous they get – which feeds into a misnomer that cannabis has the same effects on a person, and that cannabis with a high THC content is more dangerous than the pot hippies used in the 60’s and 70’s.
Also try and explain that the “high” from cannabis is a result of neurons in our brain that not only enjoy the effects, but our own bodies manufacture THC type chemicals as a normal means living. Try and explain, that the stronger the cannabis the less will need, to smoke, to get the desirable effect. And that more doesn’t mean better, nor higher, unlike alcohol which by it’s very nature it’s easy to succumb to more is better. It’s not, nor is more cannabis better, as the difference between alcohol and cannabis is the former is easy to overindulge in, the latter, you only get so high, so the user often will not over-indulge, simply a waste to overuse.
#36, Fireweed:
I know exactly how you feel. It amazes me how over the years, approx. 40, that I’ve secured my cannabis. Ironically for many of those years the song by Bob Dylan always stuck in my head – “Everyone must get stoned…”, and how it seemed cannabis found me, when I expected there was none to be found.
But your point, finding, having to be friends with some of these dealers, yeah, quite the experience. Meanwhile alcohol and tobacco sales had no requirement…
My life experience finding my cannabis was surreal… and never knowing who to trust, and vice-versa, the dealer not knowing who to trust. Led to quite the dynamics – social dynamics.
It’s been about 5 years since I’ve been able to buy cannabis… turning age 50 seemed the turning point. Now I put my time into pushing for reform, trying to enlighten people that cannabis is not the dangerous drug it’s made out to be. The worse part is the social stigma… knowing there are millions of people out there who enjoy cannabis, yet oddly, finding myself with girlfriends that dump me because they wanted babies and were concerned about the effects on sperm… which is a joke as most smoked tobacco, which is proven to harm sperm, and eggs, but it’s legal, so it’s okay.
Most of my life living in a closet of sorts… and for what? The misguided politics of pot? So yeah, I’m very tired of it too, and at 57 it’s like I’m too old to get stoned, and now is when my mind and body can most benefit.The laws and prohibition pushes it to younger age groups. A kind of self-fulfilling prophecy, as younger people tend more towards socializing, taking risks, and having the motivation to endure the dealers that they become friendly with, rather than us older people who realize, friendship is not who your dealer is.
You’re also correct about the quality… having to buy whatever is available. No regulation sucks! Cannabis is a commodity, and one much safer and more beneficial than legal alternatives. “Life, liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”, what a joke from where I stand. To add insult to injury my own state constitution prohibits infringement on on’r right to buy, grow and use commodities, of which cannabis, the plant is a commodity.
I fear I will die unhappy, and a premature death exactly because I live in a “Free Country”, that decides for me what I am free to do… in particular what recreational and spiritual drugs I am permitted to use. And my choices not good!
Please – Stop the Hurt… legalize cannabis.
36. Fireweed
Get some sleep – and start again tomorrow. But – tomorrow simply ask these prohibs for their resignation as a “Petition of non-confidence.”
I’m currently an 18 year old jazz guitar major in college and I’m on a scholarship. I go to school year round and work 30+ hours at my job each week. I maintain good grades and am looking to attain my AA in less than a year so that I can transfer to the University of Central Florida to begin working on attaining my bachelors degree. Sounds great right? The only problem is that 3 months ago I was arrested and convicted of two felonies and a misdemeanor, all related to marijuana. Should I, or the countless others charged for pot related “crimes”, really have a black spot on their record for enjoying a bit of Mother Earth’s finest? Really hope we as a nation can end this foolishness VERY soon!
Great video Willie! Keep on speaking the truth!
#39, Patrick:
Fortunately you’re getting your degree in music. That “black spot” might turn gold! If however you were in medicine, technology, economics, etc, the answer is of course NO – it shouldn’t be an issue, but it is. I was busted in 1985 for an empty pot pipe. I am in technology and have to look for jobs that don’t ask if I’ve ever had a misdemeanor charge. I don’t lie. People with assault charges, men especially – most jobs rather ignore charges of violence, since that’s “what men are known for”. But a drug charge – it will haunt the average person their whole life. And that is not right.