And How It Informs About Who Supports Cannabis Prohibition…

“Supporting marijuana use is an example of domestic terrorism—it puts the public at great risk and threatens the very fabric of our society.” -Ron Brooks, President of National Narcotics Officers’ Association, 4/11/08

In my many annual public appearances and media interviews advocating for cannabis law reforms, the question will often arise ‘if NORML and the other drug policy reform groups are right that there are safe and viable alternatives to cannabis prohibition laws, who then opposes you in trying to amend current state and federal laws?’

The recent political endorsement given to former Republican congressman and ardent drug warrior Doug Ose by the National Narcotics Officers’ Association (NNOA) provides a handy opportunity that helps reveal exactly who are America’s prohibitionists and what are their motivations against ending cannabis prohibition.

Who Actually Supports (Or Profits From) Cannabis Prohibition?
At this juncture having worked over 17 years at NORML/NORML Foundation, my standard reply, without achieving doctoral dissertation length is 1.) There are five basic subgroups of Americans who strongly oppose any reforms in cannabis laws, and 2.) These subgroups constantly seek to deepen and enhance prohibition laws, i.e., politically and culturally oppose citizens and organizations who don’t favor prohibition laws; advocate for greater criminal sanctions and fewer civil liberties (more penalties, longer prison sentences, higher fines, and more of the ‘Big Three Ps’: police/prosecutors/prisons) and civil penalties (forfeiture, drivers license suspension, loss of child custody for parents who consume cannabis, denial of college loans to students busted for pot, removal from public-assisted living housing, etc…).

The Five Pillars Of Pot Prohibition
For all intent and purposes, in my opinion, educators, religious leaders, health organizations, military leadership, business and insurance institutions, and economists are not rabid supporters of cannabis prohibition per se. However, the five subgroups of Americans who do support rigorous cannabis prohibition laws and penalties are:

Full Story

One’s very first impressions of Steve Bloom’s and Shirley Halperin’s Pot Culture, An A to Z Guide to Stoner Language and Life are of extremely high quality publishing, immense and comprehensive review of pot culture and a passion for cannabis.

Said with a degree of cocksureness, there are not too many people in the world the director of NORML would fear in a ‘pot culture’ quiz, however, I quiver at the prospect of facing Bloom and Halperin in such a contest! I’d be hard pressed to identify a better written and published pro-cannabis polemical, especially its ability to chronicle pot culture through the lens of pop culture, notably the entertainment industry.

The expansive photos, nifty graphics, along with Steve Marcus’ eye-catching cartoon art are of immense high quality, reflect the authors’ mastery of subject matter and demonstrate genuinely hard publishing work (the photo credit work alone appeared to be a full time job). Abrams Image, the book’s publisher, has produced a publication equal to the authors’ passions.

One of the book’s features I particularly like are the numerous celebrity guest contributions and commentaries, among the many:
-Adrianne Curry writes about ‘How to hide the smell’
-Kal Penn opines on ‘Playing a movie stoner’
-Melissa Etheridge on ‘Medical Marijuana’
-Tommy Chong writes the book’s introduction
-Jonah Hall demonstrates ‘How to make apple pipe’
-Redman teaches ‘How to roll a blunt’
-Matthew McConaughey ‘Talking Dazed’

Written in an easy to read A to Z format, there are virtually no ‘stoner’ questions left unanswered, from ‘when did 4:20 start?’ to ‘what are the most stoner-friendly movies and TV shows?’ Pot Culture ably melds pop culture, politics and activism into a very informative and entertaining mix—not usually an easy task for a polemical, but Bloom and Halperin pull it off well.

Steve is a lifetime member of NORML and a frequent contributor to NORML’s daily podcast, Daily AudioStash.

Upon completing Pot Culture I came to a familiar affirmation regarding cannabis prohibition: The more the government prohibits cannabis, rejects law reform efforts, spends tax dollars on enforcement and tries to suppress pot culture, the more the pot subculture (and economy) flourishes, expands effectively unabated and is ever-increasingly being embraced by mainstream media and culture.

Along with a pleasant, informative and comprehensive tour de force of the intersection of cannabis and commerce, Bloom & Halperin’s Pot Culture profoundly demonstrates the resiliency of cannabis consumers in the face of a historically alcohol-dominant culture and so-called stoners’ abilities to create a nurturing and sustained pot culture.

Interested in reading Pot Culture? You can do so and join NORML’s law reform advocacy efforts at the same time. Nice twofer!

One of the only things that makes me madder than seeing the day in, day out waste of public resources and abuse of citizens’ rights associated with pot prohibition are some of the absurd stepchildren born of the government’s zeal in trying to enforce cannabis prohibition laws, quash popular culture and stymie entrepreneurialism.

Case in hand, a federal bureaucracy, the US Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau is harassing a family-owned microbrewery in Northern California for some creative marketing, while looking the other way regarding the advertising practices of a huge, politically powerful beer company.

Treasury technocrats are taking umbrage with the Mt. Shasta Brewing Company’s use of bottle caps imprinted with ‘Try Legal Weed’, claiming that beer (AKA a drug) can’t have a drug reference, even when the reference is the name of the brewery’s hometown and last name of the city’s (Weed, California) 1880s wood baron founder (Abner Weed).

Mt. Shasta Brewing Company’s already sold 400,000 brews with names like Shastafarian Porter and Mountain High IPA (an additional catchy slogan on these notable craft beers: ‘A Friend in Weed is a Friend Indeed’), and had started printing up an additional 400,000 bottle caps in February when the feds put the kibosh on these funny and effective marketing double entendre.

Vaune Dillmann, Mt. Shasta Brewing Company’s 61-year-old owner and a former cop, irked by the government’s heavy handedness and lack of a sense of humor, is vexed by the obvious double standard that the feds don’t harass Budweiser for their now ubiquitous slogan ‘This Bud’s for you’.

Dillmann tells the LA Times’ Eric Bailey, “They Sell Bud. We Sell Weed”.

The ‘Weed’ beer debacle reminds me of a another recent and equally absurd government effort to ‘protect’ citizens from marketing imagery prohibitionists and well intending public health officials don’t like…