Denver NORML executive director Jordan Person and six other members of the organization recently returned from a lobbying trip to Washington, D.C., and based on her experiences, members of Congress are not just more comfortable talking about marijuana issues these days. They're really into it. 

Paul Armentano is NORML’s Deputy Director. NORML has been a player in the marijuana legalization effort since the jump. I talked to both by phone to find out the best way to beat a drug test, if the stuff they sell at the local head shop works, and what home remedies can help beat a drug test. Here’s what they had to say.

This money could be used as a serious investment in communities, says Justin Strekal, political director at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, an advocacy group devoted to the legalization of recreational marijuana. "We've seen that it has generated over a billion dollars in tax revenue over the last few years, and just this year we saw the largest ever amount of money being allocated for new school construction (in Colorado). A significant amount of that allocated money was from the taxes generated from the sale of marijuana. There are more jobs in marijuana than there are in the coal industry," NORML's Strekal says.

"Voters believe that ending America's failed marijuana prohibition laws is a common sense issue, not a partisan one," said Paul Armentano, deputy director of the reform advocacy group NORML. "It's time for their elected officials to take a similar posture, and to move expeditiously to amend federal law in a manner that comports with public and scientific consensus, as well as with marijuana's rapidly changing cultural and legal status," Armentano added.

Nine states — Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington — have legalized the adult possession and use of marijuana. In the coming months, some or all of these states will likely be joining them.

"Voters believe that ending America's failed marijuana prohibition laws is a common sense issue, not a partisan one," said Paul Armentano, deputy director of the reform advocacy group NORML.

"It's time for their elected officials to take a similar posture, and to move expeditiously to amend federal law in a manner that comports with public and scientific consensus, as well as with marijuana's rapidly changing cultural and legal status," Armentano added.

"We're simply looking at the impact that legalization has on the economy, on crime rates, on housing prices, on everything that it could possibly have an impact on. I'm not sure how that is biased," said Erik Altieri, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), which worked to create the bill.

Reps. Tulsi Gabbard and Carlos Curbelo (FL-26), along with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), introduced bipartisan legislation to evaluate states’ marijuana policies. The Marijuana Data Collection Act directs the National Academy of Sciences to create a federally recognized report on state-level marijuana legalization policies, including both medical and non-medical use, and their effects on public health, safety, the economy, the criminal justice system and more. The information compiled in the report would provide scientific data and statistics on the impact of various marijuana policies on our nation.

In a statement, Evan Nison, National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Law New Jersey executive director, applauded Grewal's memo for delaying — and possibly preventing — thousands of unfair prosecutions.

"These offenses can follow people around for their entire lives and make it more difficult to get a job or college education," Nison said. "We‘re thrilled to see this kind of action and are excited to continue the public discussion on legalization."

“We are in such a partisan, polarized political state that my fear was that if we allowed a branch of the federal government to do this, that no matter which administration was in power, the political party that was out of power was going to be concerned that this was a biased report,” Paul Armentano, the Deputy Director of the marijuana advocacy group NORML, tells Rolling Stone. “If we allowed the National Academy of Sciences to do this report we avoided that potential conflict.”

in February of 2017, the DEA removed the gateway drug theory argument from its website, and now there is a growing cohort of individuals (such as The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, NORML) and Americans for Safe Access (ASA), who are arguing that pot should be considered as a possible gateway-off drug so as to help in the terrible effects of withdrawal from opiates and a way to keep from relapse.

And handing off the oversight of the industry to a part-time, five-person regulatory body that includes members who have publicly announced opposition to legal use of marijuana was not a brilliant move, said Paul Armentano, deputy director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws(NORML), adding that most medical pot initiatives across the U.S. have been implemented quickly and competently in states where lawmakers are on the same page as voters.

“This is not a marijuana bill, it is an information bill," Justin Strekal, political director for NORML, said in an interview. "No member of Congress can intellectually justify opposition to this legislation. Our public policy needs to be based on sound data and science, not gut feelings or fear-mongering. Approving the Marijuana Data Collection Act would provide legislators with reliable and fact-based information to help them decide what direction is most beneficial to society when it comes to marijuana policy.”

Paul Armentano, deputy director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, offered a similar take. He said he’s not aware of any states that allow medical marijuana in prisons.

Emergency rules enacted by the Board of Health restricting patients from obtaining whole-plant herbal (inhalable) cannabis from licensed dispensaries violate the spirit of State Question 788. More importantly, the restriction undermines the health and safety of those patients the law is intended to protect.

In the six years since the first states legalized adult use, pot advocates have learned to craft more sophisticated ballot initiatives, said Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that advocates for legal weed.

Norma Sapp of The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws remains optimistic. 

"Yes it's going to be close. And we knew that going into it. But it's not impossible.  It depends on how fast they count the signatures," Sapp said. 

"Eric Marsch, executive director of the Southeastern Wisconsin chapter of NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), agrees there is more momentum behind legalization today. Still, he cautions, momentum is not a guarantee. In Wisconsin, the Republican legislative majority continues to resist ideas for reform, and Gov. Scott Walker, a frequent promoter of the “gateway drug” theory, supports prohibition even for medical use. If Wisconsinites don’t vote pro-cannabis candidates into office, Marsch says, legalization is unlikely to happen anytime soon. “When we talk to people now, they say, ‘It’s coming soon, we’re going to get there,’” Marsch says. “But we’re only going to ‘get there’ if people push for it. It’s not just going to happen on its own.”

Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML, a pro-marijuana legalization group, told Watchdog.org that although Michigan was slow to recognize the value of licensing and regulating medical marijuana, state officials have since “come on board, as one might expect.

Now the head of North Carolina National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, he and others are touring the Tar Heel State, talking with residents and hoping to see cannabis legalized in 2019. 

Brown said the group will be working in 2018, ahead of the 2019 long General Assembly session.

"We're trying to grow those numbers, provide them with the information they need to contact their representatives," he said. "Make meetings with them, see them in person, put a face to this issue that's going on in the state."

Non-binding referendums have been proposed in 15 counties, according to the Southeastern Wisconsin chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Jay and Narin Selthofner would like to grow marijuana on their Green Lake farm. With marijuana illegal in Wisconsin they’ve been working for years to change the law as co-founders of the area’s NORML chapter, NORML being the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

But while these tests were devised to quickly show an officer whether a driver has marijuana in their system, “cannabinoids are difficult to detect in oral fluids, as only a minute amount of the drug is excreted into the saliva,” writes Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML, a man who has established himself as one of the leading experts on the subject of stoned driving.

The event will host meetings of the Cannabis Organization of Retail Establishments (C.O.R.E.), the Cannabis Alliance, the Washington Sungrowers Industry Association and NORML (the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws).

“This is a big deal,” said Porcari, an organizer for the Western New York chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. “It’s finally coming to fruition.”

“It’s not a crime,” Porcari said of smoking marijuana. “People shouldn’t be looked down upon.”

“This awful event could have and should have been prevented,” Erik Altieri, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said in a statement posted by NORML.

According to the Attorney General's annual crime report for 2017, arrests for marijuana offenses dropped precipitously in California following the passage of Proposition 64, which legalized the recreational use for adults in November 2016.

Jeff Riedy, executive director of the Lehigh Valley chapter of NORML, said the marijuana plants likely had a street value of under $5,000. "I doubt they were even planning to sell this on the street. If you're a consumer of marijuana, 10 plants is nothing," he said. "Ten plants isn't even going to get you through the year."

"We simply cannot understand how a man is dead over an investigation involving 10 cannabis plants,” said Patrick Nightingale, executive director of NORML’s Pittsburgh chapter and a former Allegheny County prosecutor. “The whole investigation was ridiculous. I’ve seen law enforcement take down major heroin traffickers that haven’t engaged in this level of aggression.”