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Mirkarimi receives award at NORML conference for the SF dispensary plan |
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Written by Tristin Coffman
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Saturday, 10 June 2006 |
Comic Tommy Chong made a special guest appearance when the grassroots of cannabis reform met in San Francisco April 20-22. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, NORML, held its well-attended annual conference in the Bay city to educate, network and strategize with US activists. Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi welcomed the attendees and received an award for spearheading the city’s dispensary ordinance.
“NORML is the toker’s lobby,
“NORML is the toker’s lobby, 
” said director Allen St.Pierre in welcoming the crowd. “We have the best name recognition of any drug policy reform group in the country.” He said that NORML, norml.org, relies upon its chapters to do local work and upon activists to pay membership dues that fund the Washington DC-based group and its efforts. Despite government claims that cannabis reformers are well-funded, St. Pierre said NORML is struggling and needs donations.
 HONORED - SF Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi received an award April 20. - Oaksterdam News photo by Rob Ryan
“The Drug War is an American obsession, not an American monopoly,” said Richard Cowan, warning of prohibition’s tentacles. “The US is working with many of the most repressive and brutal regimes in the world to maintain a UN majority in support of a global albatross. Human rights and civil rights are trampled.”
No sooner had the lights gone out for a screening of AKA Tommy Chong, a documentary on him and the 2004 federal paraphernalia raids, then they came back on as the hotel shut down the show claiming that smoke detectors were about to unleash a torrent of water on the audience. Chong, of the famous comic duo “Cheech and Chong,” told the audience that he had been politicized by his arrest after decades of seeing himself as a simple comic. “I guess it was a mistake to put my face on the front of a bong,” he quipped, “that made it really hard to deny it was mine.”
Cannabis Consumers Campaign director Mikki Norris was honored for women’s leadership, O’Shaugnessey’s editor Fred Gardner for journalism, SB Norml director Lauren Vasquez as sudent activist, Jane Weirick in memorium, and Dr. Tod Mikuriya for his pioneering work in medical cannabis. Oaksterdam News publisher and OCLA boardmember Richard Lee was High Times’ activist of the year.
Dr. Tom O’Connell spoke of his work with state patients. “The architects of Prop 215 faced arguments that cannabis was not a real medicine. They were working from the wrong patient profile and responded by putting forth a serious-illness model without knowing what would really happen. Now they’re painted into a political corner that is not rooted in the real patient base, which is often those people who already had experience with using cannabis and other drugs. … They’re the ones who are experienced with cannabis and not afraid to try it when a medical problem arises.”
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Tristin Coffman |
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 24 September 2006 )
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Volume 2 
The Men's Wearhouse George Zimmer
