SITUATION NORML 2009

Reconciling Medical Pot Use and Legalization

More than 500 devotees of the cannabis plant attended the 38th annual
NORML convention at the Grand Hyatt in San Francisco September 24-26.
The crowd was not only larger than in previous years, but people
seemed to be listening more intently to the speakers, less apt to gab
outside the auditorium. NORML's goals have been remote and vague for
decades; now they seem attainable and in need of definition.

Local media coverage centered on the "Regulate, Control, and Tax
Cannabis Act of 2010" that is likely to be on the California ballot
in November 2010. If approved by the voters, it would allow adults
over 21 to cultivate, possess, and share up to an ounce. Distribution
would be regulated and taxed by local governments.

The prime mover behind Tax Cannabis 2010 is Richard Lee, an organizer
with a record of accomplishment --founder of the Bulldog Coffeeshop,
Cafe Blue Sky (one of Oakland's four permitted cannabis
dispensaries), and Oaksterdam University (a trade school for the
burgeoning industry). Lee also helped lead the 2004 campaign for
Oakland's Measure Z, which made the use of marijuana by adults a
low-priority matter for the police.

To make the ballot, Lee's team has to get 433,000 registered voters
to sign petitions over the next five months. A professional
signature-gathering outfit has been hired to coordinate the efforts
of paid volunteers.

C.W. Nevius of the Chronicle belittled the initiative's chances of
winning. "I doubt voters in conservative Orange County will be
thrilled to vote for the Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Act of
2010," Nevius opined. He was covering sports in 1996 and might not
know that Proposition 215 carried Orange County with 52% of the vote,
overcoming opposition by Attorney General Dan Lungren, Governor Gray
Davis, former Presidents Ford, Carter and Bush, Democratic Senators
Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, 57 of 58 district attorneys
(Terence Hallinan being the lone supporter), the sheriffs' lobby, the
police chiefs', the police officers', and former Surgeon General C.
Everett Koop.

Some of Rich Lee's former allies are not supporting Tax Cannabis 2010
because it would penalize smoking in the presence of children and
stiffen the punishment for providing cannabis to those under 21.
Dennis Peron is among the detractors.

The Harborside Model

A call for a slower approach to legalization was issued by Steve
DeAngelo, executive director of Oakland's extremely successful
Harborside Health Center. About 70% of the American people support
legalization for medical use, DeAngelo noted, but fewer than 50% are
for full legalization. "Why do so many Americans feel comfortable
with people possessing cannabis but not obtaining it unless they are
sick?" he asked. "What is the source of their reservations?"

The answer that DeAngelo said he'd gleaned from neighbors,
bureaucrats, cops, and other sources, is: "their discomfort springs
from the lack of any positive image of what legal cannabis
distribution would look like." People envision "armed dealers setting
up shop and slinging weed on the corners of their suburban
neighborhoods." They don't want their kids exposed to "glossy ads for
reefer in the style of Anheuser-Busch."

The way to win the hearts and minds of these swing voters, according
to DeAngelo, is to establish professionally run dispensaries
throughout California and other states where they are allowed. He
called on NORML (and has been urging the Marijuana Policy Project and
Drug Policy Alliance) to back dispensary-friendly initiatives in
states that have yet to enact medical-marijuana laws.

DeAngelo recently formed a consulting firm with the directors of two
other high-end dispensaries --Don Duncan of the Los Angeles Patients
Group and Robert Jacob of Sebastopol's Peace in Medicine. They advise
newcomers to the industry and owners of existing dispensaries who
want to upgrade their operations. It wouldn't be surprising if this
group developed a dispensary brand that is franchised nationwide.

DeAngelo, 51, has been a pro-cannabis activist since his early teens.
A cynic might say that he is now advocating a political strategy to
advance his business interests. DeAngelo says that he created the
business to advance his political strategy. They spent $400,000 to
create a dispensary that Oakland would regard as an asset, not a
threat. Indeed, Harborside is a secure, clean, well lit, spacious,
facility. The budtenders are knowledgable and helpful. Members of the
collective can get acupuncture and other alternative health care,
free. The seting is a small business park, away from young passersby.
The inventory is extensive and varied. All the cannabis that growers
provide gets tested for pathogenic mold and cannabinoid content at
the Steep Hill analytic lab, a visionary project that DeAngelo backed
as an investor. Harborside pays taxes to the state and to the city
(an obligation that DeAngelo and Rich Lee offered to incur).

One observer impressed by the Harborside model was Roger Parloff of
Fortune Magazine, who writes in the current issue, "Medical
marijuana... has given legalization advocates in California a
first-ever opportunity to devise and showcase a business prototype.
They've been afforded the chance to show a skeptical public that a
safe, seemly, and responsible system for distributing marijuana is
possible. If they succeed, they'll convince the fence sitters and
lead the way to a nationwide metamorphosis. If they fail, the
backlash will be savage. If communities cannot adequately regulate
the dispensaries, they'll descend into unsightly, youth-seducing,
crime-ridden playgrounds for gang-bangers, and this flirtation with
legalization will conclude the way the last one did: with a swift and
merciless swing of the pendulum."

In his talk to NORML, DeAngelo quoted Parloff"s summary of the
current situation, adding, "As one of those with his head on the
chopping block, I am very concerned about that pendulum." Then he
laid out his what-is-to-be-done:

"We must demand the effective licensing and regulation of
dispensaries... Today, 50% of California jurisdictions still prohibit
dispensary operations, and many others unnecessarily restrict their
operations. We must do the sustained political footwork needed to
move them to effective licensing and regulation.

"We must embrace the not-for-profit, community-service model of
cannabis distribution. When you boil down the fear of our 25% of
swing voters, I would submit that it likely comes down to them not
wanting us as a society to make the same mistakes with cannabis that
we made with alcohol and tobacco: glamorization, excessive
advertising driving inappropriate use, profit-making corporations
enticing their children into lifetimes of dependency."

DeAngelo does not support Tax Cannabis 2010. "If legalization
initiatives lack effective distribution regulations," he argued,
"they will likely manifest the worst fears of the key swing voters. A
legal but unregulated cannabis market would turn into a free-for-all,
leading to a public-relations mess."

Looking beyond California, DeAngelo called for legislation and voter
initiatives that "contain provisions that will enable the creation of
an effective distribution system. All too often our movement has
traded easy victory for laws that fail to adequately protect us... We
have accepted medical cannabis laws that severely restrict the
ability of doctors to write recommendations, which is the first step
in creating a market large enough to sustain dispensaries.... We have
accepted severe restrictions on the quantity of medicine patients may
cultivate, or on their right to collective gardens-which are the
first steps in creating a sufficient supply of medicine-another
pre-requisite of an effective marketplace... We have accepted bans or
restrictions on the right of patients to trade and distribute
medicine amongst themselves, with obvious implications for developing
a positive image of cannabis distribution.

"These self-defeating half steps must end. If we accept these kinds
of restrictions, we will never be able to place positive images of
cannabis distribution in front of our fellow citizens. We will blow
this historic opportunity to win them over.

"Flip the Switch"

DeAngelo told his NORML audience to fast forward five or six years to
a time when, if events follow his scenario, "tens of millions of
Americans have become legal cannabis consumers. Almost everybody has
a friend or a relative with a recommendation, and knows that it has
done them no harm, and indeed probably a whole lot of good. Fears and
reservations about the distribution of cannabis have been allayed,
and replaced with acceptance. Scientific research has solidly
established both the safety and the medical efficacy of cannabis for
a wide range of ailments, including everyday ailments.

"Across the nation, thousands of not-for-profit, community service
dispensaries have created a positive model of cannabis distribution.
There's no reefer in the 7-11; kids aren't being subject to the
machinations of a created market, and communities are benefiting from
tax revenue, charitable donations, and community services. In short,
a safe, seemly, and reliable distribution system will already be in existence."

At this point DeAngelo would have the reform movement push for
legalization by advocating reclassification of cannabis as an
over-the-counter drug. "At dispensaries all across the country," he
concluded with a flourish, "we will stop asking for medical cannabis
identification, and simply ask for adult identification. We will flip
the switch at the dispensary door, and all adult Americans will have
what hundreds of thousands of Californians now have: free, safe, and
affordable access to cannabis."

Say what you will about Steve DeAngelo, the man does not have a hidden agenda.