NORML IN PORTLAND

Center of Marijuana Politics Shifts for Three Days to the Rose City

Portland becomes the center of the nation's marijuana discussion this
week when the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
convenes its 39th annual convention Thursday, Friday and Saturday at
the Governor Hotel downtown.

Several hundred activists, political figures and scholars are meeting
in Portland as the movement anticipates Election Day, Nov. 2, when
Oregon will decide whether to permit marijuana dispensaries for
patients who use it as medicine. But the even more significant
question arises in California, which could be the first state in 73
years to legalize personal use of marijuana.

The United States outlawed hemp and marijuana in 1937. Since its 1970
inception as a lobbying group in Washington, NORML has long
campaigned for the repeal of the federal ban and removal of criminal
penalties on adults who possess marijuana. The lobby also advocates
for farmers to be able to grow hemp as a sustainable crop, to make
cloth, rope, paper, building materials and other goods.

The Oregon chapter of NORML, with 2,200 members, is the largest of
NORML's 41 chapters in the United States. Madeline Martinez, the
Oregon chapter's executive director, said the national convention
last came to Portland in 1982, and she campaigned to bring it back
again. The meeting will overlap with Portland's annual Hempstalk
festival at Kelley Point Park Saturday and Sunday.

"Right now, we seem to be right on the cutting edge with California,"
Martinez said.

Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Portland will speak Thursday to
the convention. Friday's keynote address Friday will come from former
New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, an outspoken Republican advocate
formedical marijuana and drug-law reform. Travel writer and TV show
host RickSteves, who has long argued for marijuana legalization, also
speaks Friday.

Convention goers will also get an overview of pot's prospects in this
year's elections, a discussion on what the marijuana movement can
learn from the campaign to throw off Prohibition and a panel on women
and cannabis.