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Journal (The Ember Update)Wednesday, June 16Blue Ridge Mountains in MayI just finished putting together a photologue of the four weekends Kevin and I spent at the cabin recently. Click on any thumbnail below to enter the click-through slide show:
Thursday, June 3NORML Conference 2004[Click any thumbnail photo to enlarge.] Every year the NORML Conference is held around 4/20 and this year it was in Washington DC. I had a good time attending with Andy and Kristin (Alison showed up the last day) and A, K and I are pictured in the first photo here. While there I got to catch up with my old California employer Rob (from
UnderOneLeaf) and my replacement,
Thomas (pictured). We also met a student named Mitzi (sp?, pictured with
Kristin), numerous wheelchair-bound medical marijuana patients, and listened
to lectures by notables such as author Eric
Schlosser and Carl Sagan's wife Ann Druyan (she's such a sweetie!
… and Carl
Sagan was an Avid Pot Smoker). Congressional Lobby DayThe first day of the conference was taken up by an hour or so of instructions on how to lobby our congresspersons and representatives, and the rest consisted of us walking between office buildings on Capitol Hill and keeping our meetings. NORML worked with other drug reform organizations to set up the Congressional Lobby Day and made all of our appointments. Around 150 people nationwide showed up to lobby, but Andy, Kristin and I were very surprised that we were the ONLY people from Maryland (just outside DC). NORML did a great job of preparing folder packets of information on four topics for us to educate ourselves and our representatives about (we got as many folders on each topic as we wanted). Andy picked Decriminalization, Kristin Medical Marijuana (the Hinchey/Rohrabacher Amendment), and I chose Section 305 of the CLEAN-UP Meth Act of 2003. We met with Aides and Directors in the offices of Steny Hoyer, Barbara Mikulski and Paul Sarbanes. Mikulski's representative was very attentive and appeared to be the most interested in learning what we had to say. Sarbanes' two representatives were professional, but one remained silent the whole time (his boss had decided to join our meeting) and the boss had a politicians way of trying to listen and reassure that we should continue to vote for Sarbanes, while not really committing to our point of view. By the way, please join MPP, NORML, DPA or any of these fine organizations to help us change this country's unjust drug laws. In the main congressional office building is Alexander Calder's last sculpture, Mountain and Clouds. Actually, the maquette for the sculpture was his last piece, the sculpture was carefully realized after his death. These photos, when enlarged, show the multi-storied sculpture from above. Medical Marijuana & Bernie Ellis
Bernie lives on his farm in Tennessee. As he describes in a letter he shared with me, he suffers from, "pain associated with degenerative joint disease in my spine and hips and a Karpov’s cyst in my spine, and [...] pain and sleep disturbances associated with fibromyalgia." He has used cannabis for relief with the knowledge of his two doctors. Bernie was also growing plants which he was giving to four very sick friends, two of whom have died since 2002. That same year, Bernie was raided by the Tennessee Marijuana Eradication Task Force, after they were tipped off by, as he puts it, a "'confidential informant' (who may have been a local drug dealer I had refused to sell to three days earlier." Bernie told me that he'd only ever supplied his four sick friends and thought the drug dealer's solicitation suspicious. During the 10-hour raid Bernie cooperated with the Task Force, and his willingness — as well as his many framed citations from notable politicians, etc. — gave the Task Force pause in arresting him outright. He also wrote, "I had begun a correspondence with one official in the New Mexico governor’s office regarding my potential involvement in that state’s proposed medical marijuana program. At the time of the raid, I had a seven page proposal ready to submit to New Mexico on that issue, a copy of which I allowed the Task Force officers to take with them." Confused by the combination of his illegal activity and the obvious signs that Bernie is an upstanding citizen, the Task Force never did arrest him. However, because of the charges they brought against Bernie, he's now facing a jury trial and possibly a decade or more in prison, the forfeiture of his farm, the loss of all of his savings (already virtually depleted in the meantime by legal fees) and the possible dissolution of his business. Bernie is obviously not a slacker, a stereotypical pothead, a blight on society. From what I've learned, he has helped many people during his career and in life. Last year he sent a letter to his business associates, doctors and patients, neighbors and others, explaining his situation and asking for prayers and, if possible, letters of support to the judge. Bernie gave me a stack of quotes from the letters he subsequently received. There were passages from 78 people (78!) vouching for his character, describing him as a humanitarian, a good neighbor, an in at least one case, a life-saver. What good will putting him in jail do? Let's see. Bernie won't be able to continue his outstanding good works. He won't be able to conduct his business. He won't be able to pay taxes. But I guess our Marijuana laws are justified, right? They say he's a bad man so it must be true, right? And it's worthwhile to incarcerate Bernie, even though corrections costs alone equal $26,134 per inmate per year (as of 1999) and $78,154 per inmate per year for the combined costs of corrections, judicial, legal and police costs … that's worth it, right? Oh, and please join MPP, NORML, DPA or any of these fine organizations to help us change this country's unjust drug laws.
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