Getting NORML: A brief history of the movement to legalize marijuana

[marmar]

from the Detroit Metro Times:



Getting NORML
A brief history of the movement to legalize marijuana

By John Sinclair
Published: October 27, 2010


Looking ahead to next month's long-anticipated popular vote to legalize recreational use of marijuana in California, it seems like a million years ago when I went to the West Coast in 1972 to campaign for the original Proposition 19 — the first California Marijuana Initiative.

Out of prison for only a few months and still celebrating the reversal on appeal of my conviction for possessing two joints that had forced me to serve 29 months of a 9-1/2-to-10-year sentence in the Michigan prison system, I had been recruited by my friend Mike Aldrich to join him on the board of directors of a pioneering marijuana legalization organization called Amorphia: The Cannabis Cooperative.

Amorphia was spearheading the campaign to repeal the state's laws against adult use, possession and cultivation of marijuana, and Aldrich was assembling a team of activists to tour the state's college campuses, give press conferences, and speak publicly on behalf of Proposition 19.

So, at his behest, I joined Keith Stroup, a young lawyer from Washington, D.C., who headed another fledgling organization called NORML — the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws — and a number of local luminaries to drum up support for CMI. As I recall, Keith and I went on to make appearances in Phoenix, Ariz., and Santa Fe, N.M., on the same legalization tour, had a ball, and became fast friends for many years to come. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://metrotimes.com/columns/getting-norml-1.1054493

[Octafish]

1. John Sinclair is a patriot.

Whether it was weed or the war, John Sinclair has always stood against the fascistic turds.

[walldude]

2. First time I had heard of NORML was

in Cheech And Chong's Up In Smoke. Cheech wore a NORML shirt in that movie. Of course back then I couldn't just Google it. I had to ask like a hundred people before I found out who they were and what they were doing. Joined right away.