IT'S NORML TO SMOKE POT

San Francisco is the most pot friendly large city in the country, so
it is no surprise that the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws (NORML) held its national convention there on April
18-20.

Over 570 people from all walks of life streamed to the Crowne Plaza
Union Square Hotel to hear speakers from State Senator John
Vasconcellos to the host of ABC-TV's Politically Incorrect Bill Maher.

Demanding that the government lay off pot smokers, mothers decried the
arrest of their children, medicinal marijuana users heralded its
beneficial properties, civil libertarians denounced the violations of
the constitution and pot smokers praised the plant for its enjoyable
effects and the lack of harm of any significant extent.

So what is a "pot" convention like? Like any other convention with
speeches, panel discussions, rubber chicken luncheons, exhibition
booths, tons of brochures and parties. Of course, the parties were a
little different as there was very little alcohol consumption. Instead
people in suits and ties, elegant dresses, GQ casual, Hollywood chic,
jeans and t-shirts and even a few died in the wool 60's style tie-dye
long hairs passed around joints and pipes with the herb that humans
have been using since before we were human.

DAY I

In a room filled to capacity, Keith Stroup, founder and executive
director of NORML, welcomed the attendees as he stood next to large
reproductions of NORML's $500,000 print, broadcast and outdoor
advertising campaign. The campaign features New York's newly elected
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his candid admission that he smoked pot
and "enjoyed it." Stroup's call for pot smokers to come out of the
closet set the tone for a conference featuring advocates for
legalization, medicinal use and respect for individual rights.

Following Keith Stroup, was the conventions keynote speaker, San
Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan. In 1996, he was the only
district attorney in the entire state of California to endorse
Proposition 215 which legalized medicinal marijuana. As District
Attorney, Hallinan opposes prosecution for marijuana possession and
follows a policy to not seek prison sentences for any marijuana
conviction. Pointing out the inconsistency that it required a
constitutional amendment to ban alcohol and only a legislative vote to
ban marijuana, Hallinan informed the audience that "to consider
marijuana in the same category as heroin and crack cocaine, as federal
statues do, makes no sense and does not reflect reality."

A video message was then shown from Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura,
a long-time advocate of marijuana decriminalization, congratulating
NORML on the convention and to "show my support for the good work you
are doing."

The convention's first panel discussed the need to inform the public
about marijuana and marijuana users. Mikki Norris, founder of the
American Hemp Council and co-creator of the award-winning photo
exhibit Human Rights and the Drug War, brought the delegates to their
feet when she exclaimed "I want to see a time when we are judged on
the content of our character, not our urine."

Featured on the panel was Information Technology entrepreneur John
Gilmore. Coming out publicly, Gilmore declared "I'm a millionaire. I
smoke pot." Willing to put his money where he puts his joints, he has
pledged to fund NORML's efforts to end marijuana prohibition to the
tune of one million dollars a year for ten years. Claiming the use of
marijuana is widespread by "techies" he chided the many pot smoking
high tech entrepreneurs for not supporting NORML and other drug law
reform organizations.

Panel number two presented the latest information on drug testing. The
panel's moderator, Dr. John Morgan of the CUNY Medical School, pointed
to the 30,000 forensic drug tests undergone by Americans every day
creating a two and a half billion dollar a year "urine testing
industrial empire."

With the recent Drug Enforcement Administration busts of medical
marijuana providers, the panel on Patient Support Groups was full of
fire and indignation. The panel featured a trio of providers at the
center of the storm. Jeff Jones, director of the Oakland Cannabis
Buyer's Cooperative, discussed the nationwide attention his
organization received last May when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that
the club could not use medical necessity as a defense against federal
law for distributing medicinal marijuana as allowed by California's
Proposition 215.

Also on the panel was Dr. Mollie Fry, director of the California
Medical Research Center, who denounced the theft of her patient's
medical records by the DEA. Scott Imler, director of the Los Angeles
Cannabis Club told how, over a six-hour period, DEA agents seized all
their records and equipment including the horticultural equipment used
to produce medicinal marijuana for their patients. HBO is producing a
documentary on the club and the impact the raid had on the club's
almost 1,000 patients, the majority of them suffering from
complications due to AIDS.

The following panel on the Continuing Legal Battles Over the Medical
Use of Marijuana amplified the callousness and indifference of our
local, state and federal governments to laws enacted by the electorate
that they do not approve. Don Abrahamson, Legal Counsel for the Drug
Policy Alliance, discussed how the unrelenting efforts by the Justice
Department to censure any discussion between doctors and their
patients violates the first amendment with its threats to revoke the
prescription writing authority of any doctor recommending marijuana.

David Nicks, who serves on NORML's legal committee and has represented
many of the medicinal marijuana providers targeted by the Justice
Department, discussed upcoming court battles. As part of the defense
strategy, he will be introducing recently discovered government files
that prove a conspiracy by government prosecutors and law enforcement
officials to circumvent and thwart the requirements of Proposition
215, thereby violating the very laws that they have been sworn to uphold.

A reception and award ceremony hosted by High Times magazine featured
San Francisco City Supervisor Mark Leno. During the reception a fire
alarm went off caused by the smoke from a couple pot aficionados
cloistered in a hallway. An electronic voice told everyone to
immediately vacate the premises by way of the nearest stairway. The
celebrating crowd new all too well what had really happened and
continued to gather round tables heaped with a variety of hotel style
hors d'oeuvres as they feted many of the major players in the
marijuana law reform movement. So ended the first day.

DAY II

The troops returned to convention headquarters at 8:30 a.m.to hear
State Senator John Vasconcellos, chief sponsor of Senate Bill 187.
This landmark legislation would set up a statewide registry and
establish guidelines for medical marijuana patients under Proposition
215. Having passed both the assembly and senate, the bill only awaits
the governor's signature. Senator Vasconcellos urged supporters to
"hold rallies, circulate petitions, contact Davis contributors and
appointees and urge them to let the governor know they want him to
sign the bill."

The senator pointed out that "marijuana is benign, yet it is portrayed
as the end of the world. It represents a cultural war against the
60's, which opened us up to each other. Marijuana is the symbol for
freedom, democracy and opportunity."

The first panel of the day featured a look back at the 1972 Schaeffer
Commission report on Marijuana and Drug Abuse. Featured on the panel
was Tom Ungerleider, a member of the commission who discussed the
report's history and how the commission came to recommend the
decriminalization of marijuana. Although President Nixon had appointed
every member of the commission, he denounced the commission's finding
and then launched the Drug War that still plagues America today.

The following panel was a look at the policies on marijuana followed
by Canada and Western Europe. Eugene Oscapella from the Canadian
Foundation for Drug Policy stated that Canadian laws on marijuana are
considerably less harsh resulting in a "rate of incarceration for
marijuana offenses that is one-sixth of the U.S. rate." He denounced
the paid DEA informants operating surreptitiously in Canada as
violating his country's laws and sovereignty.

Peter Cohen, from the Drug Research Center of the University of
Amsterdam, spoke of the movement away from prohibitionist drug
policies to ones incorporating harm reduction throughout Western
Europe. Discussing the various legal reforms to decriminalize
marijuana, he singled out Portugal as one of the most progressive
which "on July1, 2000 decriminalized all drugs making use and
possession subject only to administrative sanctions."

From tips on how to camouflage your crops to how to find a good
lawyer, the next panel entitled "Avoiding a Pot Bust and Surviving If
You Are Busted" presented down to earth information on current law
enforcement techniques to ensnare pot smokers. As panelist Jeff
Steinborn pointed out, "if you are smoking pot, you are being hunted
like a deer."

A panel of distinguished medical researchers and doctors comprised the
day's final panel and centered on "Marijuana and Health - Both The
Risks and Benefits." Leading off the discussion was Dr. Ethan Russo,
editor of the Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics. His research with
smokers who utilized medicinal marijuana furnished by the United
States Government demonstrated that they suffered no significant
harmful side effects from their daily use of this medicine over
periods ranging from ten to fifteen years. During his presentation he
noted that marijuana not only provided relief from their debilitating
symptoms, but also enabled these patients to use significantly fewer
prescription drugs.

Another panelist, Dr. Donald Abrams, Professor of Clinical Medicine at
the University of California at San Francisco, recounted the
difficulty he encountered attempting to get marijuana from the U.S.
government to conduct his studies. Finally after several years, he was
able to obtain marijuana and conducted the study. In addition to
finding that marijuana had no negative interactions with any of the
AIDS "cocktail" drugs, he found conclusively that medicinal marijuana
would affect weight gain in men suffering AIDS Wasting Syndrome. A
distinguished AIDS research specialist, Dr. Abrams' research has been
published in a multitude of medical journals including the American
Journal of Clinical Pathology and the Journal of American Medical
Association, but his research utilizing marijuana has been rejected by
three journals. "Its all politics," he says, "just politics."

DAY III

In an attempt to demonstrate that marijuana law reform is not just
supported by those old wacky hippie communal pot freaks, the first
panel in the morning was entitled "Left and Right Agree on Ending
Medical Marijuana Prohibition." Featured on the panel was nationally
syndicated columnist and author Barbara Ehrenreich. A left-wing
progressive she argues that the War On Drugs is actually "a war on
poor people and people of color." Pulling no punches, she noted that
the upper echelons in business don't take drug tests explaining "you
squat and pee so you know where you are in the corporate hierarchy."

Joseph McNamara is a research fellow at the Hoover Institute, a
conservative libertarian think tank located on the campus of Stanford
University. As the Chief of Police in the cities of San Jose and
Kansas City, he was speaking from first hand experience when he said
"police are indoctrinated to hate drug users and see them as the
enemy." His Libertarian philosophy was evident when he explained, "in
the first 140 years of our country, you could ingest any drug. I want
to restore the freedom of those first 140 years." His understanding
that the War On Drugs was more than just politics was made clear by
his statement that "the drug war is a holy war and in a holy war you
don't have to win - you just keep fighting."

A panel of industrial hemp producers and hemp-product manufacturers
discussed the many uses of hemp and noted that many countries,
including our neighbor to the north, allow its farmers a significant
cash crop by allowing them to cultivate and harvest industrial hemp.
David Frankel, lawyer and industrial hemp activist decried how the
U.S. Justice Department is pulling the rug out from under this
fledging industry by "creating legal technicalities to criminalize
people."

Always crowded throughout the conference, the hotel's cavernous
ballroom was filled with a capacity exceeding standing room only crowd
anxious to hear Bill Maher, host of ABC's controversial program
Politically Incorrect. A long-time advocate for ending marijuana
prohibition, Maher called for "the vast silent majority" of pot
smokers to awaken the public and insisting on a new attitude when he
noted that "pot people are tolerant and open minded. We should be
intolerant." Alluding to the on-going scandal of sex abuse in the
Catholic Church, Maher protested that hundreds of thousands of pot
smokers are in jail, but "no cop ever kicked in a rectory door."

Not holding back, Maher exclaimed that he "can't forgive Bush and Gore
for their hypocrisy." Embarrassed by his colleagues who toke but don't
help, he deadpanned that "I don't want to mention any names, like
Harrison Ford and Ted Turner," as he lashed out at the rich and famous
for their refusal to stand up and end their own personal hypocrisy.
Racing up to a thundering finish, the audience rose to its feet
cheering as Maher declared "unless people start dying, it won't become
legal, so I volunteer to be the first victim. Somebody kill me with
pot tonight."

Appropriately following Maher was a panel entitled "Growing Your Own
Medicine" and featured expert marijuana cultivators.

Although hosting such a panel could bring the IRS down on NORML,
Anthony Feldstein of NORML's Legal Committee outlined the legal issues
surrounding marijuana cultivation with special emphasis on
California's Proposition 215. Focusing on indoor cultivation, Chris
Conrad, Bobby B. and Kyle Kushman discussed cultivation, costs and
camouflage.

The panel on "Future Leaders" was an appropriate ending panel. Kris
Krane, NORML's national chapter coordinator proclaimed "ending the
drug war is this generation's new anti-war movement," and then
presented students and youth leaders from Florida to Washington to
prove it. In addition to calling for an end to marijuana prohibition,
the panelists describing themselves as "the DARE generation" and "the
Turn In Your Parents Generation" called for an end to denying students
financial aid because of prior drug convictions, an end to student
drug testing and a boycott of companies that engage in drug testing.

Taking a view towards all of society, LeeAnn Ilminen from the
Univeristy of Minnesota in St. Cloud called for more women to become
involved, as "women are the fastest growing segment of non-violent
drug offenders in jail." One of the few minority representatives at
the conference, African-American civil rights activist Van Jones,
challenged the assembled audience and the youthful panelists by
declaring "when you end the prohibition of drugs, end the prohibition
of jobs, end the prohibition of clean air and water, then you will be
the greatest generation."

Encapsulating the essence of the conference in his closing remarks,
NORML Executive Director Keith Stroups told the cheering, emboldened
audience to take these messages home to their families, friends and
colleagues. "We are part of the human rights movement. We must come
out of the closet. We will have zero tolerance towards those who want
to arrest marijuana smokers. And foremost, this is a fight about
personal freedom."