NORML Remembers Gatewood Galbraith

Gatewood Galbraith – a prominent Kentucky attorney, longtime cannabis activist, and perennial candidate for various state and federal offices – died in his sleep Tuesday evening as a result of complications from asthma and chronic emphysema. He was 64 years old.

[Listen to NORML SHOW LIVE's interview with Gatewood Galbraith - December 3, 2010]

Galbraith was widely known as an outspoken advocate for legalizing cannabis, particularly the non-psychoactive variety of the plant. While campaigning for public office, Galbraith typically wore suits made from hemp fiber and sometimes traveled in a station wagon fueled by hemp oil. He also formerly served on NORML’s Board of Directors.

Galbraith ran five times for governor — three times as a Democrat, once on the Reform ticket and last year as an independent. He also campaigned unsuccessfully for state agriculture commissioner, attorney general and Congress.

In 2006, Galbraith published his autobiography, “The Last Free Man in America.” He was also recently featured in the documentary film, “A NORML Life.”

Several notable state politicians – including Gov. Steve Beshear, House Speaker Greg Stumbo, and US Senator Mitch McConnell – released public statements lamenting Galbraith’s sudden passing.

Said Beshear: “(Galbraith) was a gutsy, articulate and passionate advocate who never shied away from a challenge or potential controversy. His runs for office prove he was willing to do more than just argue about the best direction for the state — he was willing to serve, and was keenly interested in discussing issues directly with our citizens. He will be missed.”

Added McConnell: “I am saddened to hear of the passing of Gatewood Galbraith. He was a truly memorable character who loved our state and its people.”

NORML Founder Keith Stroup said, “Gatewood was someone who placed a high priority on the legalization of cannabis, and firmly believed industrial hemp — including hemp based ethanol — could help save the planet. In his several campaigns for public office in Kentucky, he was fearless in his pro-hemp advocacy. He will be missed by all of us who care about legalizing marijuana.”

Adds Patrick S. McClure, a member of the NORML Legal Committee from Danville, Kentucky: “In spite of his controversial stance, he was much beloved on both sides of the aisle for his humor, his grace, and for always being the smartest guy in the room. He was funny, inspiring, and a true gift to young lawyers who were willing to listen to his bold stance against the machine, almost always given in a courtly and informed tone and tenor. Some Kentucky politicians may have gotten more votes, but none in my lifetime has been more endearing.”

Galbraith is survived by three daughters.

NORML expresses its sincere condolences to the friends and family of Gatewood Galbraith.

First Day of Summer: Got Your Hemp Pack?

Today marks the first day of summer and the last days of NORML’s 2011 spring membership drive, this week featuring a NORML & Rick Steves Travel Hemp Backpack for 50% off.

There are hardly better ambassadors for cannabis consumers than the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and best-selling travel author and popular TV host Rick Steves–who also happens to be on NORML’s Advisory Board.

These great hemp backpacks are made available by Rick in support of NORML’s longstanding law reform efforts and you can get these only from NORML and only this week for half off the donation amount usually needed to score one of these cool, conversation-starting hemp backpacks.

This special offer ends Sunday night, June 26…don’t procrastinate, please make a much appreciated and well utilized donation to a long standing non-profit organization that is in the nation’s capital (along with over 160 state chapters and affiliates) serving both cannabis consumers and the victims of Cannabis Prohibition laws–and putting the ‘grass’ in grassroots everyday!

Ask NORML: Hemp for Victory?

A new installment of ‘Ask NORML’ is now streaming on NORMLtv. This week’s topic, voted on by our Facebook fans, is marijuana’s non-psychoactive sister, hemp. In this segment, Executive Director Allen St. Pierre discusses hemp’s utility as well as its place in the overall marijuana law reform movement.

Subscribe to NORMLtv and visit NORML’s Facebook page for announcements regarding future ‘Ask NORML’ episodes. Please submit your medical use related questions here and we’ll do our best to answer as many as we can.

Get active; get NORML!

You can now follow NORMLtv on Twitter for up to the minute alerts on new content and community engagement.

Marijuana Prohibition Era Cartoon Par Excellence: Hemp’s Notorious Cousin

Thanks to the GlobalMana Foundation and the design group Northshorecartoon for publishing a very creative, funny and spot-on political commentary in the form of a short cartoon focused on the costly absurdity of the U.S. government banning the domestic production of industrial hemp.

Most all other countries (Canada, France, Great Britain, China, Switzerland, etc…) do not allow the lawful use of cannabis for non-medical purposes, yet, they allow for the production of one of the most utilitarian and environmentally-friendly row crops that humans have been cultivating and prospering from for thousands of years.

Regardless of whatever happens in state and federal governments with ‘marijuana’ laws in future regarding medical access, decriminalization or legalization, the US government must stop trying to enforce a complete and total blanket prohibition on all forms and uses of the amazing cannabis plant—notably, like other major countries have done regarding industrial hemp.

Benjamin Franklin Invented NORML (and the marijuana law reform movement)!

Today America Celebrates Ben Franklin’s 304th Birthday

By George Rohrbacher, NORML Board of Directors, medical marijuana patient

Of all of America’s Founding Fathers, only Benjamin Franklin was a signer of all three of our country’s essential documents, The Declaration of Independence, the Treaty that ended the Revolutionary War and the United States Constitution. Benjamin Franklin was also the only Founding Father who actively campaigned against the institution of slavery. As a scientist, Benjamin Franklin, the man who learned to control lightning, was as revered and world-famous in his day, as Einstein was in his. Franklin, among many other things, gave us the conceptual framework we still use every time we think about things electrical. He was the first to describe electricity as having positive and negative charges. Ben Franklin’s fingerprints are everywhere one looks in 21st Century.

Ben Franklin has often been called “the first American”, because, in so many ways, he embodied the brash new nation he helped create. His talents as an inventor and scientist are legendary. Consider a few of the useful creations that Ben left us: bifocal glasses, the wood stove and the lightning rod. They were all inventions he chose not to patent because he saw they were so potentially useful to the general public. They were among his many gifts to humanity. As the statesman, Ben Franklin was as essential to creating our new nation, as was George Washington, the soldier. Franklin’s unique combination of charm, celebrity and brilliance brought France in on our side of the Revolutionary War with the troops, navy and money necessary for us to win. As a proud citizen of a free society, Ben’s genius also flourished with his social inventions like the volunteer fire department, the lending library, the community hospital and, what has become, the University of Pennsylvania. As a writer, his prime work is The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, a bestseller, never out of print since it was written, nearly 250 years ago. It is the true story of a runaway printer’s apprentice who, at the age of 17, stole himself from his older brother to whom he was indentured until he was 21 years old. Franklin’s Autobiography is the original blueprint to the ‘American Dream’ of how to become a self-made man. Horatio Alger and Dale Carnegie, are simply Ben’s 19th and 20th Century adherents and proselytizers. Today in the 21st Century, self-help books cover whole walls in bookshops. Franklin was the author the world’s very first best-selling book in the self-help genre.

I made a few comments at NORML’s National Conference at the 2008 conference about why I believe that NORML is a legitimate offspring of Ben Franklin’s social genius. On my flight home, I looked out the airplane window and I saw Ben waving back at me. (more…)