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Marijuana will take one more symbolic step toward the mainstream in September when the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) holds its 39th annual national conference at Portland's Governor Hotel.
The conference, Sept. 9-11, will be able to tout marijuana reforms on voter ballots from Maine to South Dakota. But locally, the question will be whether the event can bridge the political fault line that opened this year when Oregon's two largest marijuana advocacy groups backed separate cannabis initiatives.
Oregon NORML backed an initiative to legalize marijuana called the Oregon Cannabis Taxation Act (OCTA). But the measure failed to get enough support to qualify for the ballot. Meanwhile, a more incremental measure to legalize retail medical pot dispensaries, backed by the group Oregon Green Free, not only made it to the ballot but appears to be gaining public momentum.
The result has been to divide local activists into two camps that show little sign of reconciling by September.
"It's a historic point," said NORML executive director Allen St. Pierre. The group promotes the decriminalization and legalization of cannabis as well as its industrial and medical uses. St Pierre sees the convention as an opportunity to bring a wide array of people from industrial hemp businesses to lovers of Cheech and Chong movies together under one roof. "We'll have up to 600 advocates, researchers and politicians from around the nation."
The convention will feature an appearance by Rick Steves, the buttoned-down medical marijuana advocate and National Public Radio host. Other speakers include former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson and U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer.
Organizers expect Blumenauer will use the conference as an opportunity to announce his support of a bill co-sponsored by Reps. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Barry Frank (D-Mass.) that would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level.
But what really makes this year's conference historic is that it's happening on the eve of California's Proposition 19. If passed on Nov. 2, the measure would legalize, regulate and tax pot in the most-populous state in the nation. Some polls show the measure has as much as a 50 percent approval rating. The passage of Prop 19 would most likely catapult the measure in front of the Supreme Court and possibly force a wholesale revision of federal marijuana prohibition.
The promise of overturning almost 100 years of marijuana criminalization has proven seductive for Oregon activists as well.
Oregon NORML's executive director Madeline Martinez ruffled feathers this year by not throwing the state chapter's weight behind the dispensaries initiative, known as I-28. Instead Oregon NORML backed the OCTA that would have legalized industrial hemp production, licensed pot cultivation and regulated pot sales through a system of state stores.
Unlike I-28, OCTA failed to qualify for the ballot and led to cross words between NORML and Oergon Green Free, I-28's chief backers and the state's largest medical marijuana group.
"NORML didn't even help OCTA," said 28-year-old OCTA campaign volunteer Mike Statz. "They just showed up at a couple of events. How messed up is that?"
Statz said that not only did Oregon NORML not put enough effort into the OCTA campaign, but that it has failed to support I-28 now that it's making a run to the ballot.
"They should be throwing money at the dispensaries initiative," Statz said.
Having soured on Oregon's pot politics, Statz says he has no intention of attending the September NORML convention.
Even though the national NORML office recently issues a statement publicly supporting I-28, it's unclear if that will bring medicinal activists back into the fold.
"There's been a big schism for a while now," said Sandee Burbank, executive director of Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse, which runs medical marijuana clinics. "It will be interesting to see if there is a united front kind of thing" at the convention.
Jim Klahr is one of I-28's chief petitioners. Klahr says there is a growing community of medical cannabis users who no longer need to push for legalization.
"There's some truth that NORML and other group got medical marijuana passed [in the first place] as a gateway to legalization," said Klahr. "But now it's like the baby has gotten out of control."
Last week, I-28 picked up endorsements from a new focus group called the Citizen's Initiative Review, as well as from former Portland Mayor Tom Potter.
"Things are starting to fly," said Klahr who doesn't plan to attend the NORML conference. "I don't think I'm going to be invited either."
With that much momentum behind I-28, and so little local support from NORML, is the nation's leading marijuana reform group risking irrelevancy?
"Oregon is very active," said Scott Car, who works in the Portland offices of The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation. Carr says that despite the rhetoric, the country's marijuana advocates may be more united than Oregon's politics would lead some to believe.
NORML's St. Pierre says there's a larger issue. "At a time of legalization, the argument for dispensaries fails," he said. "So there's a natural friction there."
St. Pierre says that the three-day NORML conference is set up to accommodate both groups. The first two days will focus on marijuana "legalization and culture." The third day is dedicated to medical cannabis.
"It's basically two separate conferences in one," he said.
NewsHawk: MedicalNeed: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: EnzymePDX - Portland News, Arts, Tech, Culture and Sustainability
Author: Cornelius Swart
Contact: Contact Us - EnzymePDX
Copyright: 2010 ENZYME MEDIA, INC.
Website: Coming to Portland in September: Marijuana Drama - EnzymePDX
The conference, Sept. 9-11, will be able to tout marijuana reforms on voter ballots from Maine to South Dakota. But locally, the question will be whether the event can bridge the political fault line that opened this year when Oregon's two largest marijuana advocacy groups backed separate cannabis initiatives.
Oregon NORML backed an initiative to legalize marijuana called the Oregon Cannabis Taxation Act (OCTA). But the measure failed to get enough support to qualify for the ballot. Meanwhile, a more incremental measure to legalize retail medical pot dispensaries, backed by the group Oregon Green Free, not only made it to the ballot but appears to be gaining public momentum.
The result has been to divide local activists into two camps that show little sign of reconciling by September.
"It's a historic point," said NORML executive director Allen St. Pierre. The group promotes the decriminalization and legalization of cannabis as well as its industrial and medical uses. St Pierre sees the convention as an opportunity to bring a wide array of people from industrial hemp businesses to lovers of Cheech and Chong movies together under one roof. "We'll have up to 600 advocates, researchers and politicians from around the nation."
The convention will feature an appearance by Rick Steves, the buttoned-down medical marijuana advocate and National Public Radio host. Other speakers include former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson and U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer.
Organizers expect Blumenauer will use the conference as an opportunity to announce his support of a bill co-sponsored by Reps. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Barry Frank (D-Mass.) that would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level.
But what really makes this year's conference historic is that it's happening on the eve of California's Proposition 19. If passed on Nov. 2, the measure would legalize, regulate and tax pot in the most-populous state in the nation. Some polls show the measure has as much as a 50 percent approval rating. The passage of Prop 19 would most likely catapult the measure in front of the Supreme Court and possibly force a wholesale revision of federal marijuana prohibition.
The promise of overturning almost 100 years of marijuana criminalization has proven seductive for Oregon activists as well.
Oregon NORML's executive director Madeline Martinez ruffled feathers this year by not throwing the state chapter's weight behind the dispensaries initiative, known as I-28. Instead Oregon NORML backed the OCTA that would have legalized industrial hemp production, licensed pot cultivation and regulated pot sales through a system of state stores.
Unlike I-28, OCTA failed to qualify for the ballot and led to cross words between NORML and Oergon Green Free, I-28's chief backers and the state's largest medical marijuana group.
"NORML didn't even help OCTA," said 28-year-old OCTA campaign volunteer Mike Statz. "They just showed up at a couple of events. How messed up is that?"
Statz said that not only did Oregon NORML not put enough effort into the OCTA campaign, but that it has failed to support I-28 now that it's making a run to the ballot.
"They should be throwing money at the dispensaries initiative," Statz said.
Having soured on Oregon's pot politics, Statz says he has no intention of attending the September NORML convention.
Even though the national NORML office recently issues a statement publicly supporting I-28, it's unclear if that will bring medicinal activists back into the fold.
"There's been a big schism for a while now," said Sandee Burbank, executive director of Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse, which runs medical marijuana clinics. "It will be interesting to see if there is a united front kind of thing" at the convention.
Jim Klahr is one of I-28's chief petitioners. Klahr says there is a growing community of medical cannabis users who no longer need to push for legalization.
"There's some truth that NORML and other group got medical marijuana passed [in the first place] as a gateway to legalization," said Klahr. "But now it's like the baby has gotten out of control."
Last week, I-28 picked up endorsements from a new focus group called the Citizen's Initiative Review, as well as from former Portland Mayor Tom Potter.
"Things are starting to fly," said Klahr who doesn't plan to attend the NORML conference. "I don't think I'm going to be invited either."
With that much momentum behind I-28, and so little local support from NORML, is the nation's leading marijuana reform group risking irrelevancy?
"Oregon is very active," said Scott Car, who works in the Portland offices of The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation. Carr says that despite the rhetoric, the country's marijuana advocates may be more united than Oregon's politics would lead some to believe.
NORML's St. Pierre says there's a larger issue. "At a time of legalization, the argument for dispensaries fails," he said. "So there's a natural friction there."
St. Pierre says that the three-day NORML conference is set up to accommodate both groups. The first two days will focus on marijuana "legalization and culture." The third day is dedicated to medical cannabis.
"It's basically two separate conferences in one," he said.
NewsHawk: MedicalNeed: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: EnzymePDX - Portland News, Arts, Tech, Culture and Sustainability
Author: Cornelius Swart
Contact: Contact Us - EnzymePDX
Copyright: 2010 ENZYME MEDIA, INC.
Website: Coming to Portland in September: Marijuana Drama - EnzymePDX
