Marijuana Activist With Portland Ties Tapped As Interim NORML Director

Katelyn Baker

Well-Known Member
Randy Quast, who helped start local chapters of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, including one in Portland, will serve as interim director of the national group.

Quast, 56, replaces Allen St. Pierre, NORML's longtime director. St. Pierre announced this month that he would step down to devote time to his family. He and his wife recently had their first child.

"As a new father-at-fifty the frenetic workload and travel schedule that I've maintained for so long at NORML/NORML Foundation - compounded by low pay and no genuine prospects to increase one's compensation after twenty five years at the non-profit organization - to be the father that I've always aspired to become does not at all comport with continued full time employment at NORML/NORML Foundation," St. Pierre wrote in a post published on the NORML site this week.

He said he recruited Quast in 2013 to serve on the organization's board of directors. He noted that Quast, who sold his successful trucking business in the late 1990s, "has selflessly donated over half a million dollars in support of Minnesota, Portland and national NORML."

Quast remains active in Minnesota NORML and serves as treasurer of Portland NORML. He maintains a home in Southwest Portland. He said he plans to shuttle between Washington, D.C., and Portland to meet the demands of his new position.

Quast, meanwhile, is involved in a legal battle with Travis and Leah Maurer, two marijuana activists who were deeply involved in the campaign to legalize pot in Oregon. He sued the couple this year in Multnomah County Circuit Court seeking $1 million in damages.

In his suit, which is pending, Quast accuses the Maurers of breach of contract, defamation, negligence and fraud. The suit alleges that he entered into a business arrangement with the Maurers to grow and sell cannabis commercially. He claims he gave them nearly $700,000 to build the business and that they used $340,274.94 to cover personal expenses and debts. Travis Maurer has denied Quast's allegations.

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News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Marijuana Activist With Portland Ties Tapped As Interim NORML Director
Author: Noelle Crombie
Contact: Oregon Live
Photo Credit: AP
Website: Oregon Live
 
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