Meeting Notes Jan 6th, 2010
January 6, 2010Marc Katz, Democratic Candidate for Lieutenant Governor, Pushing for Medical Marijuana in Texas
January 21, 2010
Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:57:08 By: Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), the nation’s oldest and most well respected grassroots marijuana law reform organization, is pleased to announce the launch of the NORML Women’s Alliance.
The NORML Women’s Alliance is a nonpartisan coalition of prominent, educated, successful, and geographically diverse professional women who believe that cannabis prohibition is a self-destructive and hypocritical policy that undermines the American family, sends a mixed and false message to our young people, and destroys the cherished principles of personal liberty and local self-government.
Says NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre: “The prominent role of women in the effort to end marijuana prohibition is pivotal, necessary, and long overdue. According to recent national opinion polls by Gallup and others, the dramatic rise in the public’s support of marijuana law reform is being driven primarily by an increase in support among America’s women. The NORML Women’s Alliance will bring a contemporary approach to the public policy debate, and will proudly represent the interests of modern, mainstream women who believe that the negative consequences of marijuana prohibition far outweigh any repercussions from marijuana consumption itself.”
Charter members of the NORML Women’s Alliance include: NORML Foundation chair and film producer Ann Druyan, attorney and political activist Jessica Corry, editor Shelby Sadler, best-selling author Barbara Ehrenreich, Beverly Hills NORML director Cheryl Shuman, NORML Foundation board member Jeralyn Merritt, Esq., cannabis activist and author Mikki Norris, Cannabis Action Network and Berkeley Patients Group founder Debby Goldsberry, NORML board member and director of Oregon NORML Madeline Martinez, law professor Marjorie Russell, and former ACLU president Nadine Strossen. This founding group of women also includes medical physicians, researchers, business leaders, editors, publishers, mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers.
The NORML Women’s Alliance holds the following positions:
1. The NORML Women’s Alliance believes that the fiscal priorities of marijuana prohibition are wasting billions of dollars on a failed policy.
2. The NORML Women’s Alliance believes that marijuana prohibition violates states’ rights, and improperly expands the reach of government into the families and personal lives of otherwise law-abiding citizens.
3. The NORML Women’s Alliance advocates for an open, honest conversation about marijuana with America’s youth that is void of all propaganda and misleading information.
4. The NORML Women’s Alliance endorses the science-based evidence regarding the therapeutic applications of medical marijuana as well as the continuation of research into the subject.
5. The NORML Women’s Alliance strongly opposes the sexual exploitation and objectification of women in pot-culture and business marketing.
“A marijuana policy that fosters children selling marijuana en mass must immediately change and be replaced by one that effectively stops children from trafficking in marijuana,” says Sabrina Fendrick, coordinator of the NORML Women’s Alliance. “The NORML Women’s Alliance seeks to replace a failed, tax coffer-draining and child endangering 73-year old cannabis prohibition with functional, tax-producing and youth-friendly cannabis policies consisting of legal and social controls that are not at all dissimilar to our existing and ever-evolving alcohol policies.”
Further information about the NORML Women’s Alliance is available online here.