NORML Women Make Waves

October 22nd, 2009 By: Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director
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We’ve published several blog posts over the past weeks emphasizing the role of women in marijuana law reform.
Why? Well, for starters, women are now voicing their support for sensible marijuana law reform in record numbers.
According to this week’s Gallup poll, support for marijuana legalization has jumped 12 percent among women since 2005. By comparison, support among men rose just four percent over this same time.
In short, if we are to succeed to pushing public support for marijuana regulation to majority levels in this country then we — unquestionably — need the greater support of women.
Fortunately, NORML has its own core group of female activists who are unabashedly speaking out publicly in favor of cannabis law reform. Their efforts are changing public opinion and garnering mainstream media attention.
Here are just a few recent examples.

Kathleen Parker: Legalizing Pot May Be Women’s Work
[Note: Kathleen Parker is a syndicated columnist. Her most recent commentary, spotlighting NORML-ally Jessica Corry, ran in newspapers across the country under various headlines.]
Today’s activist, more likely, doesn’t have facial hair, but she does have kids.
Lately to the smallish conservative crowd, notably once led by anti-prohibitionist William F. Buckley, is Jessica Corry of Colorado, a married, pro-life Republican mom, soon to be “freedom fighter of the month” in High Times magazine.
Recent partakers undoubtedly will have to rub their eyes for a double take when they spot Corry, who spoke last month at a NORML conference (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) in San Francisco, wearing an American flag lapel pin, a triple strand of pearls and a gold marijuana leaf pin.
Another day, another stereotype in the dust bin.
… Corry is hardly alone and, in fact, may be part of a “toking point.” (Is there a drug yet for “Tipping Point Fatigue”?) In its October issue, Marie Claire magazine featured “Stiletto Stoners” about accomplished career women who prefer to relax with pot. A September Fortune cover story, “Is Pot Already Legal?” examined the issue. In April, former (2006) Miss New Jersey, Georgine DiMaria, [Editor's Note: Georgine is an active member of NJ NORML.] outed herself as a stealth marijuana user to treat her asthma.

Next we have Salon.com:

Salon.com: Meet the marijuana moms
The real crux of Parker’s article, another idea she picks up from Corry, is the prediction that it will be women who lead the charge for legalization. It was the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform, both point out, who in 1929 spearheaded the movement to get rid of the ban on alcohol. (Thanks, ladies!) Parker also cites a Marie Claire article on “Stiletto Stoners,” high-achieving women who smoke weed, and the recent revelation that Miss New Jersey 2006 uses medical marijuana to calm her asthma. I would add the example of Marie Myung-Ok Lee, a mother who wrote in Double X about feeding her autistic nine-year-old son pot (in cookie form).

And finally there’s this excellent commentary in the L.A. Daily News penned by NORML Legal Committee member Allison Margolin, who rightfully criticizes Los Angeles District Attorney for threatening to prosecute “100 percent” of the city’s medical marijuana dispensaries.

Pot crackdown flies in the face of law and sense
[excerpt] Whatever the perverse reasons motivating the district attorney’s position, the issue is not why but how to stop this alarming waste of resources. The media has focused on the fact that the amount of dispensaries in L.A. has mushroomed over the past year and on the ease with which marijuana users are obtaining recommendations. No one has focused on the fact that the war against dispensaries is another chapter in the escalation of the drug war, another excuse to send people to state prison, another mechanism to disenfranchise people whose medicine is not respected by law enforcement as legitimate.
This has to stop. In the wake of prison overcrowding and budget crisis, sending more people away and depriving the state of taxes they are currently reaping from dispensaries is not the answer.
This week, the LAPD is expected to crack down on medical marijuana dispensaries across Los Angeles. The time for action is now – before more people are caught up in the system, before more resources are wasted and before more lives are ruined.

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