Drug Education Should Reflect Reality Not Deny It

[Fact: Drugs are pervasive in our society and, one way or another, adolescents will be exposed to mind-altering substances.]

It is an unmistakable reality that a significant number of high school students will try marijuana.  According to the recent 2011 Monitoring the Future Survey, nearly 40 percent of all high school seniors admit to having smoked marijuana in the past year – a percentage that has held relatively stable since the study’s inception over 35 years ago.

Some want to use this fact as a justification to deny any opportunity to rationally discuss marijuana, its use, and its risks with children in an open and honest manner.  They think that saying anything about marijuana other than encouraging its total abstinence is condoning its use.  This couldn’t be further from the truth.

When society teaches sex education, are we suggesting that all the teenagers go out and engage in sexual intercourse? No.  Rather, it is an acknowledgement that the best way to reduce the negative effects associated with sex (unwanted pregnancy, STD’s, etc) is through honest, objective information that allow people to understand their options and provides them with the tools they need to make informed decisions.

When we talk to teenagers about the dangers of drinking and driving, are we condoning alcohol use among minors?  No, of course not.  It is, however, a reality that many adolescents will a) likely consume alcohol as seniors in high school and b) have access to a car. Yes, we encourage students not to drink. But, we urge them specifically not to drink and drive.

We can all agree that teens should not smoke pot, or be using any mind-altering substances. Those are important, developmental years. Still, teens should be educated regarding how smoking marijuana can affect their body’s development specifically, how to reduce any harms associated with its use, and to distinguish between use and abuse. There should be honest, truthful drug education.

As Kristen Gwynne states in her AlterNet article, “Give young people accurate information, and they will use it to make better decisions that result in less harm to themselves, because teens, like everybody else, do not actually want to get hurt or become addicts.”

She goes on to say, “Giving students honest information about drugs [will]…increase the odds that they will use drugs safely, and reduce the likelihood of experiencing the [relative] harms associated with [it].”

By contrast, the Drug Czar and federal law advocates for complete prohibition, limited information explaining the real effects of marijuana and condemning any opportunity, as Gwynne states, to provide “education that helps teens understand their health options, and ways of reducing the harm of drugs.” When it comes to our children, like everything else we teach in school for development and behavioral growth, drug education should be based in reality, not a denial of it.

In the words of Thomas Jefferson, “If a state expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”

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NORML Women Talk Strategy in the Nation’s Capital

NORML’s youtube channel, NORMLtv, recently launched a new video series entitled ‘NORML Update,’ which highlights reform efforts by NORML chapters and affiliates.

In the latest installment, the NORML Women’s Alliance Steering Committee convenes in Washington, DC to talk strategy for the coming year. The women met in the shadow of the White House to discuss new and innovative ways to move public opinion towards the legalization of marijuana.

Ordinary women doing extraordinary things brought about the repeal of alcohol prohibition and NORML believes women will provide the final push needed to legalize cannabis. Historically, women support legalization at much lower levels than their male counterparts. It is the mission of the NORML Women’s Alliance to increase this base of support through addressing and vocalizing the concerns of modern, mainstream women.

Subscribe to NORMLtv and visit NORML’s Facebook page for announcements regarding future ‘NORML Update’ episodes and how you can have your group featured.

Coming Up Next on NORMLtv: Executive Director Allen St. Pierre fields user questions on ‘Ask NORML’

NORML Women’s Alliance to Hold First Major Fundraising Weekend Dec 17-19 at KushCon II

NORML women will be descending upon Denver, Colorado next week to hold their first major fundraising event at KushCon II’s three-day lifestyle convention.  From Friday, December 17 to Sunday, December 19 the Colorado Convention Center will be buzzing with thousands of medical marijuana experts and enthusiasts in the largest cannabis lifestyle convention of the year, and the NORML Women’s Alliance (NWA) will play a prominent role.

Hydrobotanical Engineering, LLC, the company that owns the GrowBots franchise, has generously donated one of their major products, the GrowBot Garage to the NORML Women’s Alliance to be raffled at KushCon II.  Tickets will be sold throughout the weekend at the NORML Women’s Alliance booth inside the Denver  Convention Center.  If you are in town for KushCon II make sure to stop by the NORML Women’s Alliance booth to show your support and buy your raffle ticket (only $20 a ticket).

Several women of the Alliance’s newly formed steering committee will be in attendance, including Cheryl Shuman, Director of Public Relations and Media for Kush Magazine, KushCon and DailyBuds.com. Other NORML women who will be speaking and performing throughout the event include Nashville singer Greta Gaines, New Jersey NORML head Anne Davis, Esq, Colorado NORML’s Georgia Edson and NWA director Sabrina Fendrick.

The NORML Women’s Alliance fundraising weekend begins with a business-to-business networking event sponsored by the Medical Marijuana Business Alliance and KUSH Magazine on Thursday, December 16^th where the elite of the cannabis industry will gather to celebrate the movement and organize product and service giveaways expected to raise thousands of dollars.  For more information on the NWA’s involvement with KushCon II, please contact Cheryl Shuman at cheryl@dailybuds.com, 818.223.8011 or 818.835.7131.

The NORML Women’s Alliance is a nonpartisan coalition of prominent, educated, successful, geographically diverse, professional women who believe that cannabis prohibition is a self-destructive and hypocritical policy that undermines the American family, sends a mixed and false message to our young people, and destroys the cherished principles of personal liberty.

A Mary Jane Mother’s Day

By: Serra J. Frank – Moms for Marijuana

I am the founder of Moms for Marijuana and I support the NORML Women’s Alliance (NWA) in their fight for the educated regulation of Marijuana. Along with the NWA, Moms for Marijuana proudly represents like-minded mothers from all walks of life. On Mother’s Day, the NORML Women’s Alliance will introduce you to a couple of Moms for Marijuana by highlighting several stories of mothers and grandmothers who hold their heads up high and proudly say “I am a mom for Marijuana.”

A lesson of history is that people enjoy altering their state of mind. History has also shown us that the prohibition of any substance is not beneficial to society and creates a violent and dangerous black market; which opens a gateway that allows our children to easily obtain these substances.

Society tolerates drug use such as alcohol and tobacco. The taxes from these substances help our schools and our communities. Open access gives adults a safe source for obtaining their drug of choice, despite the health and social ramifications that come from the decision to consume these drugs. Alcohol and tobacco consumption creates an industry that generates hundreds of billions of dollars and employs millions of people each year. Regulation and restrictions make these substances more difficult for our children to obtain.

Research has shown that Cannabis (Marijuana) is a safer alternative to drinking alcohol or using tobacco. Yet we continue to drive sensible adults to choose a more harmful substance because of Marijuana’s legal standing; and make criminals out of those who only wish to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Our country’s policies regarding the Cannabis plant are clearly misguided, uneducated and futile. Continuing to allow the enforcement of hypocritical and detrimental laws as well as tolerating failed policies is destructive to our society and the wrong message to send to our children. By avoiding discussion and change, we condemn them to repeat the mistakes of our past.

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Support the NORML Women’s Alliance on Facebook at www.facebook.com/normlwomen

Welcome To The NORML Women’s Alliance

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), the nation’s oldest and most well respected grassroots marijuana law reform organization, is pleased to announce the launch of the NORML Women’s Alliance.

The NORML Women’s Alliance is a nonpartisan coalition of prominent, educated, successful, and geographically diverse professional women who believe that cannabis prohibition is a self-destructive and hypocritical policy that undermines the American family, sends a mixed and false message to our young people, and destroys the cherished principles of personal liberty and local self-government.

Says NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre: “The prominent role of women in the effort to end marijuana prohibition is pivotal, necessary, and long overdue. According to recent national opinion polls by Gallup and others, the dramatic rise in the public’s support of marijuana law reform is being driven primarily by an increase in support among America’s women. The NORML Women’s Alliance will bring a contemporary approach to the public policy debate, and will proudly represent the interests of modern, mainstream women who believe that the negative consequences of marijuana prohibition far outweigh any repercussions from marijuana consumption itself.”

Charter members of the NORML Women’s Alliance include: NORML Foundation chair and film producer Ann Druyan, attorney and political activist Jessica Corry, editor Shelby Sadler, best-selling author Barbara Ehrenreich, Beverly Hills NORML director Cheryl Shuman, NORML Foundation board member Jeralyn Merritt, Esq., cannabis activist and author Mikki Norris, Cannabis Action Network and Berkeley Patients Group founder Debby Goldsberry, NORML board member and director of Oregon NORML Madeline Martinez, law professor Marjorie Russell, and former ACLU president Nadine Strossen. This founding group of women also includes medical physicians, researchers, business leaders, editors, publishers, mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers.

The NORML Women’s Alliance holds the following positions:

1. The NORML Women’s Alliance believes that the fiscal priorities of marijuana prohibition are wasting billions of dollars on a failed policy.

2. The NORML Women’s Alliance believes that marijuana prohibition violates states’ rights, and improperly expands the reach of government into the families and personal lives of otherwise law-abiding citizens.

3. The NORML Women’s Alliance advocates for an open, honest conversation about marijuana with America’s youth that is void of all propaganda and misleading information.

4. The NORML Women’s Alliance endorses the science-based evidence regarding the therapeutic applications of medical marijuana as well as the continuation of research into the subject.

5. The NORML Women’s Alliance strongly opposes the sexual exploitation and objectification of women in pot-culture and business marketing.

“A marijuana policy that fosters children selling marijuana en mass must immediately change and be replaced by one that effectively stops children from trafficking in marijuana,” says Sabrina Fendrick, coordinator of the NORML Women’s Alliance. “The NORML Women’s Alliance seeks to replace a failed, tax coffer-draining and child endangering 73-year old cannabis prohibition with functional, tax-producing and youth-friendly cannabis policies consisting of legal and social controls that are not at all dissimilar to our existing and ever-evolving alcohol policies.”

Further information about the NORML Women’s Alliance is available online here.