“What is the Drug Czar afraid of the truth?”
Washington, DC: In response to NORML’s upcoming Congressional Lobby Day, to be held on Thursday, April 22, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) is holding a special briefing session before Congress to speak on the alleged dangers of marijuana, specifically the use of cannabis as a medicine.
The special White House-sponsored briefing, entitled, “Medical Marijuana: Myth and Facts,” will be held Wednesday in the Rayburn House Office Building at 2pm, less than 24 hours before hundreds of citizens from around the nation are scheduled to meet with their members of Congress to lobby on behalf of various pending marijuana reform bills, including H.R. 2233, “The States’ Rights to Medical Marijuana Act.”
“The timing of this ONDCP briefing is no coincidence,” NORML Executive Director Keith Stroup said. “This is a last-minute push by the drug czar’s office to promote their anti-pot propaganda less than 24 hours before seriously ill patients, activists, students and parents will converge on Capitol Hill to lobby in favor of saner marijuana policies. What is the Drug Czar afraid of – the truth?”
NORML’s first ever Congressional Lobby Day is being held in conjunction with the organization’s 2004 National Conference, which takes place April 23-24, at the Hamilton Crowne Plaza Hotel in Washington, DC. Several hundred citizens from the United States and Canada are registered to attend the conference and lobby day, entitled: “We’re Here. We Smoke. We Vote.”
“For many politicians, NORML’s inaugural Congressional Lobby Day will be their first look at our emerging constituency,” Stroup said. “They will see that the marijuana law reform movement is no longer a political fringe group, but rather, that we are a diverse, politically active group of responsible Americans who represent the interests of tens of millions of marijuana smokers nationwide.”
Days two and three of the 2004 NORML Conference will feature panel discussions and speakers on a variety of marijuana-related issues. Panels include: “Marijuana and Your Health: What You Need to Know That the Government Won’t Tell You,” “Don’t Become Another Statistic: How Not to Get Busted,” “The Federal Assault on Marijuana Smokers,” “Where Do We Go From Here: Strategy for the Next Five Years,” as well as a “High Times 30th Anniversary Panel,” which will examine editorial changes at the magazine and the launch of High Times’ Grow America.
Featured speakers at the conference include best-selling author Eric Schlosser (author of Fast Food Nation and Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market); Boston University Law Professor Randy Barnett, chief legal counsel in Raich/Monson v. Ashcroft, in which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found the federal prosecution of state-sanctioned medical marijuana patients to be unconstitutional; High Times publisher Richard Stratton; and the Drug Policy Alliance’s Marsha Rosenbaum.
Other scheduled events include a benefit screening of Ron Mann’s latest documentary Go Further (starring Woody Harrelson), a joint reception sponsored by NORML and High Times, and NORML’s annual Saturday night “4:20” benefit party.
Complete conference information, including conference agenda, registration and hotel information, is available online at:
http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5888
For more information on the 2004 NORML Conference and Congressional Lobby Day, please contact NORML Associate Director Kris Krane at (202) 483-5500.