The gravesite closest to President John Kennedy in Arlington belongs to a courageous, but assassinated congressman from Long Island, Allard Lowenstein, who fought many years to bring an end to the Vietnam War. His tombstone reads: “If a man stands his ground and there abides, the whole world will come round to him.” As the four decade long war against cannabis consumers comes to a crashing halt in America, I think of those words today.
I think too of the 1960’s folk singer, Phil Ochs, who once penned a remarkable song, “The War is Over.” The drug war now is. We have won. Nothing can stop us now.
We have climbed every mountain, challenged every foe, met every test, and we have proved to America that marijuana is medicinal, cannabis is recreational, and responsible adults ought to be able to consume it under the law, not outside it. The days of jail and bail need to go the way of Jim Crow laws. Let’s find a scale instead.
The public has spoken. Whether it is CNN holding a nationwide poll, or regional balloting in rural and urban communities, the marijuana majority is finally, after all these years, being heard. The popular numbers for allowing citizens to access cannabis are over 80%. Politicians have seen the polls, and their failure to listen to you will now take a toll on them.
Still, there is a lot of work for NORML to do, and many ways for you to continue to help us. Complacency leads to a bad place. We can’t just kick back on the carpet and roll joints just yet. Let me outline ten steps you can employ to carry the momentum forward. We still have to move the needle, control the debate, and gain supporters.
First of all, let’s not forget while the tide has turned in 22 states, our America has 50. Don’t be fooled by the long lines in Colorado as long as we are still jailing people with long sentences in Cheyenne. Organize locally and let your chapter’s voice be heard loud and clear in every state capitol. Whether you focus the debate on harm reduction, medical use, or decriminalization, get the discussions going where you live.
Second, in those states where progressive legislatures are taking the first steps to alter their cannabis laws, participate actively in the process. Insure that the regulations are reasonable, that taxes are not prohibitive, and that the consumers are protected. Insist that the instruments of decriminalization do not become tools for over-regulation. Make sure the product is pure. NORML has always been the voice of the cannabis consumer. Now we need our individual members to become the voice of NORML.
We need to guarantee that the cannabis delivered to the marketplace is pure and clean, free of herbicides or criminal cartels that would corrupt these new initiatives. You need to insure that the rules for your dispensaries are fair, and that your friends are following the rules. If we allow the process to become fractured, our own goals will be shattered.
Third, remember this drug war has taken a toll on innocent people. Your friends have been jailed, denied scholarships, turned away from jobs, and altogether demonized with criminal records for marijuana arrests. Don’t just work to free the leaf today. Work to rectify and right all the wrongs of yesterday. We are in the process of undoing the social stigma of being a cannabis consumer. Let’s see if we can also undo some of the many legal injustices already inflicted.
Fourth, don’t use this time of change to criticize the voices who for so long opposed us. Respect their willingness to alter their own course. We don’t need to demean those who fought us. We need to now have them on our side and to fight with us.
A few days ago the former Republican governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, told me that he had been wrong in the past about the medical uses of marijuana. As he runs again on the Democratic ticket, he has endorsed a statewide constitutional amendment to provide medical marijuana for Floridians. We need new friends. Let’s welcome them today so we are better situated tomorrow.
I was in a local retail store the other day, and ran into a 65 year old salesman with Bell’s palsy.
“You know,” he said to me, “I have been smoking for years and it has helped me so much, so much more so than all the prescriptions the doctors have given me. But I couldn’t tell anyone.”
I understand, of course, and so must we all. We have to respect that so many of our friends had and still have reason to fear. There are jobs and lives and freedoms still at risk.
Still, the fifth thing I would ask of you is to learn what the LGBT community has learned in fighting for its rights. Come out of the closet. Speak up and be heard. Today, become one of the millions who, like Howard Beale in the great 1976 movie Network, called upon America to tell the government to leave us the hell alone in our living rooms; that you are a human being and your life has value.
Beale railed that we should all get up, go to our windows, and shout out loud, “I am mad as hell and I am not going to take this anymore.” It’s time for us to do so; time to speak the truth from the beaches of South Florida to the ports in Seattle to the sediment that is Washington, D.C.
Sixth, so how do you do that? Send NORML a couple of bucks and join our member’s base. Go to Café Press and buy one of our gold buttons or t shirts or hats. Wear it proudly. Walk down the street with it and watch how a friend says, “Right On.” You deserve to celebrate. You are on the right side of history. You always have been.
Seventh, you don’t need a gun to stand your ground and be proud. You see, you have never really been the criminal. It’s the laws that locked you up, took away your freedom, and jailed your friends that have always been criminal. It’s the justice system that was more unjust than just.
Look, NORML is not asking for everyone to be allowed to smoke pot in an elementary schoolyard, and we never have been. And we are not asking you to drive high and be stoned all day either. We never have. We are asking that you be able to drive your own decisions freely, without the fear of arrest and prosecution. Tell your congressman if he can get probation for snorting cocaine you ought to get a reward for just smoking a joint.
Eighth, get educated. Be in front of the debate. Surf our website. Learn about hemp and cannabis and decriminalization or legalization. Be able to speak intelligently and argue cogently for your cause. Hell, yes, there is a big difference between shooting heroin, smoking meth, and using a vaporizer to inhale high quality THC cannabis. Marijuana eases stress, reduces muscular spasticity, retards glaucoma, and treats the side effects of chemo.
Yes, responsible adults can distinguish between products that are good for you and stuff that is real bad. It’s a simple debate to win. We make similar choices everyday when we buckle our safety belts and look both ways before we cross a street.
Ninth, your local newspaper editorial boards are speaking out as well. Dozens of major newspapers have now endorsed marijuana decriminalization. All are doing op-ed pieces pro and con. Do not let antagonistic and regressive articles go unchallenged. Write back and be heard, in print, on the net, and in public. Speak out.
Tenth, well this last bud’s for you. Tell me what you think. Neither NORML nor myself has all the answers. This is a column on the NORML blog with room for comments below. Our national office does large things with small numbers. We still need your advice and input; your concern and commitment. So here is your chance.
Talk to me and the rest of the staff. Fill the space below with your wisdom and words; the direction you want NORML to go. We have been working together for decades, but there are still roads to ride, joints to roll, and paths we can take together.
You tell me, what’s next?
A national symposium in Washington, D.C.?
A nationwide write-in to the Obama Administration, telling them finally and firmly to back off from using federal agents to enforce marijuana prohibition laws? It’s time they did so, don’t you think?
Let me know.
If you want to reach me personally, you can on twitter, @normkent.
Thank you.
Whether you are baking in Colorado, shoveling snow in New York, or sunbathing in Florida, have a great New Year.
Onward and upward always. We will get there together.
-Norm Kent, Chairman, NORML Board of Directors
Thank you NORML for all of the hard work to get this far. Going to the supermarket, I can buy microbrews from at least 10 or 15 local cities and probably 5 or 10 or so out of state cities. It amazes me how liberal my state’s laws are with alcohol. There are even more microbrews I can experience at local bars (every bar has one now) and even three different brews at a local pizza place! I hope that we can get to that point with cannabis, too.
I don’t know much about activism, but I thought I’d throw in my $0.02. One thing I’ve heard people use as a justification for continued prohibition is that they believe that everyone who wants to use cannabis already knows how to get it. I don’t understand the logic behind that idea (don’t legalize because anyone who wants it can get it anyway—I’m sure there’s a fallacy there but I don’t know what it’s called), but I wanted to say it’s false. Currently I treat my depression and anxities with alcohol and cigarettes. It works, somewhat; at least it keeps me from doing something I’d really regret. It’s at least better than these anti-depressants with bajillions of side effects that doctors give out, and I need something. I wish I didn’t, but I do.
I had access to cannabis once a long time ago, and replacing alcohol with cannabis practically changed me into a new person. I liked who that person was: intelligent, thin and fit, reasoned, well-adjusted, open-minded, and happy. Mostly happy as I remember, happy, debt-free, and saving money like I’d never been able to save before in my life. I was even able to develop a habit of daily exercise. I smoked about two or three times per week; somehow getting high after work and on the weekend just three days out of the week tops was able to give me what I needed to establish much better habits. I don’t think that will ever happen again until my state legalizes, and God knows I’ve tried to change into that person again without cannabis, but it’s beyond my ability. I don’t understand why it should have worked or why I can’t do it again on my “own,” and I wish I didn’t need it, but apparently I do need it unless I’m happy being a tobacco-smoking alcoholic who will probably die of some self-inflicted cardiovascular disease before I’m 50.
I just wanted to clarify. I am not asking anybody to help me find where to get cannabis without a cross country road trip out west. Even then, possession is illegal where I am, and I am not currently inclined to break the law. Yes, I did before when I was young and stupid, but I have too much to lose these days. I just wonder how many other people are in a position like mine where no, they’re not suffering from a disease, yes, they’re getting along in life, but their life might be so much more if only they knew where to get cannabis.
Usually I argue from the standpoint of reducing the power of drug cartels south of the border and from the standpoint that taxing and regulating will create more revenue, reduce expendatures on the criminal justice system, and take cannabis out of the hands of minors. I tend to avoid arguments based on the evidence that shows that cannabis is about as addictive as cheesecake (yum!) and that treatment is a more cost-effective way of dealing with abusers than punishment (and that recreational use doesn’t imply abuse!). Those don’t go over as well with authoritarians, of which there are a lot where I am. They seem to be more receptive to things like budgets, bottom lines, and how policy decisions affect those things. I believe we’re going to see some very solid evidence of all of that out of Colorado and Washington in the next few years.
I won’t be able to support NORML financially this year thanks to our collapsable economy, but I think I’m ready to put my real name on some letters to congress critters. It’ll be interesting to know what happens to Colorado and Washington from a budgetary standpoint. For my state, depending on how much worse things get, continuing with decriminalization and medical measures only may be too little when the state desperately needs more tax revenue yet is in a position where it also needs to attract new businesses, which means taxing corporations less. I know I would rather give my money to local businesses than driving across state lines, but if a state nearer to me than Colorado or Washington legalizes, my money may be leaving the state economy for good. As others have pointed out, it’ll also be leaving in green paper form, which means my local credit union and Mastercard won’t get their cut either. It’s too bad.
I also wanted to say that while I’ve read a lot of comments here advocating for individuals to grow their own plants and even for making it illegal for corporations to grow, personally I would prefer to buy cannabis that’s been prepared by somebody else. I don’t have a green thumb for the life of me. I buy organic tobacco, and I see no reason why I wouldn’t be able to buy organic cannabis, even if “organic” is a bit of a nebulous term. Maybe it doesn’t have to be a corporation, but I would much rather pay a business for the end product itself instead of attempting to grow it myself (although if it’s ever legalized where I am I suppose it might be worth a shot to try growing my own, but I don’t have a lot of confidence in my abilities lol).
Hope I didn’t write too much and thank you again for being the voice of the American people on this issue.
@Tsubasa, If you’re sure you can’t get any Cannabis to treat depression, consider researching OTHER SUBSTITUTES for tobacco– Alfalfa, Basil, Camomile, Catnip, Damiana, Dandelion, Eucalyptus, Fo-ti-tieng, Ginseng leaf, Hops flower, Oregano, Peppermint, Spearmint etc.– see Wikiversity.org: “Smoking cessation/ Herbal alternatives”.
If you really believe nothing but tobacco will do, have you tried REPLACING H-ot Burning O-verdose M-onoxide $igarettes with (A) electronic cigarette? (B) vaporizer (use with your brand of $igarette tobacco same as with cannabis or other herb)? (C) Long-Drawtube One-Hitter (google that for more info on how to vaporize with it)?
The above alternatives reduce or eliminate carbon monoxide, heat shock, combustion poisons, which themselves are “drugs” which may appear to relieve anxiety temporarily but not in the long term– please check it out.
Back in the late 70’s I worked at a federal research facility and we were doing research on marijuana the studies were done on primates and on rats. The studies looked to see if marijuana would cause hypertension in the test subjects, there were no side effects noted. There were no fatalities of the test subjects, we actually found little if no side effects we also noted that the animals were less aggressive than those who were given a placebo. In the 80’s I became an E.R. Nurse and over the last 25+ years as an er nurse I have never had a patient come in aggressive! attacking the police or staff! I have never seen a high speed accident involving marijuana,Now alcohol, amphetamines, hydrocodone, meth. Wev’e seen hundreds of cases involving those. I have been all,over the U.S. As a travel nurse and every hospital it was the same thing, If they brought someone in with an O.D. It was alcohol, meth, heroine, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, codeine , Demerol , Tylenol, HECK I have even seen a couple of water overdoses, sadly out of the five I have seen two of those ended with death. Now with marijuana I have seen weight gain in some people, I have seen people sitting around philosophizing about life, humor, the ideas ran the entire spectrum. No subject was taboo and the only outburst I have ever seen was the outburst of laughing and I repeat my self I have never seen violence from pot smokers although I have seen many lives destroyed from being caught and imprisoned for marijuana possession. ( Oh buy the way I did spend a year and a half as the nurse director in a state ran prison ) the prisoners that were there for pot possession , most were there for possession of amounts of less than one ounce there were some who were arrested for trafficating drugs but these people were also carring large amts of hard drugs like cocaine , meth, and other narcotics, they also we rearmed with serious weapons. The pot users were never carrying weapons. Let us hope that the day will come where marijuana is legalized and I’ll never touch alcohol again. Signed just an old hippie.
Let’s start towards freeing pot prisners
There’s an injustice
Dear DC