UPDATE: Join the NORML Nation HERE!
One of the most valuable resources that 
NORML possesses is our members. They are our lifeblood and the driving force behind the multitude of statewide and local reform efforts taking place around the country. That’s why NORML is pushing to build our ranks in advance of the 2016 election by launching the weeklong NORML Nation Membership Drive. As many of you know, presidential elections tend to attract a larger pool of younger and more politically progressive voters. We hope to tap into this expected voting block to achieve unprecedented successes in 2016.
2016 will be a watershed year for ending marijuana prohibition at the local, state and federal level. NORML and NORML chapters are engaging in multistate strategy to assist with marijuana-related ballot initiatives and legislative reform efforts, and we and the NORML PAC are pushing for federal reform by lobbying members of Congress in support of The CARERS Act, The Marijuana Businesses Access to Banking Act, and The Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act, as well as additional budgetary amendments and regulatory reforms.
Funds that we raise through this membership drive will help us cover costs related to our ongoing lobbying efforts and expand our network of NORML Chapters. Also, a portion of the proceeds will be used to establish our Chapter Grant program which will dedicated to directly supporting NORML-led local reform efforts.
If you’re already NORML Chapter Leader or Member, you can earn money for your local NORML Chapter through the NORML Nation Chapter Contest! The top three chapters with the most referrals to the NORML Nation will earn $1,000, $500, and $250! I’ll be sending around an email to Chapter Leaders with more information about the NORML Nation Chapter Contest.
Thank you in advance for helping us make this a successful membership drive. You can help us reach our goal by encouraging others to become members of NORML and to donate to our work. You can also join the NORML Nation Membership Drive Facebook event, and invite your friends!
You can read more about NORML’s ongoing legislative efforts by visiting our ‘Take Action Center’ here, and/or the NORML PAC here.
Reading this blog begs the question: Why not provide bigger grants to enrollment booths at events, concerts and festivals that gather the most members? Capping the award at $1,000 is fine when you’re shooting at random… but what if we target events where NORML can pick up quite a few memberships and sell a quite few tee-shirts, can’t we up the Anne? What’s really stopping us?
NORML should take the initiative and sue the Federal Government in a class action lawsuit that we could all participate in and contribute to for all the harm done to us by the Marijuana Laws.
[Editor’s note: NORML has over 600 lawyers involved with the organization, and they’re always looking for creative ways to launch impact litigation. Numerous constitutional challenges have been filed over the years—ranging from medical access, scheduling, religious sacrament, industrial hemp, due process…even botanical challenges on the plant’s genus in the criminal codes—with the trial and appellate courts providing little-to-no legal relief to NORML (and the organization’s oft litigation partners at ACLU, DPA, ACT, Cato, NACDL, FAMM, etc…).
In federal court in Philadelphia a judge initially allowed a class action lawsuit brought by sick and dying medical cannabis patients, but in the next phase an ensuing judge dismissed the case, and no other similar efforts have re-hurdled the first stage successfully.
Most of the lawyers affiliated with NORML, ACLU, Cato, DPA, etc…be them liberal or conservative, are remarkably smart, creative and aggressive litigators who, where ever possible, try to launch litigation that will either aid individuals harmed by cannabis prohibition or they’re seeking an end to the prohibition all together.
Even with binding state initiatives and legislation starting to quickly erode pot prohibition’s facade in America, there is much more to come in the realm of cannabis and litigation as long-failed prohibition policies give way to more constitutionally-friendly, free-market oriented policies.
Stay tuned.]