USA - Marijuana conference draws crowd

[Euphoric]

Hundreds of lawyers, marijuana advocates and civil libertarians will be showing up in Universal City this weekend for the 2007 National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws conference.


A mix of celebration and serious discussion on marijuana prohibition, the NORML conference is scheduled for today and Saturday at the Sheraton Universal Hotel.


Some of the more than 50 speakers include best-selling travel author Rick Steves, NORML founder Keith Stroup and “The Guru of Ganga” Ed Rosenthal.
Some of the topics planned for discussion are a look at progress in ending marijuana prohibition in various states, a look at what initiatives are planned for upcoming elections and a discussion titled: “Will you still arrest me when I'm 64.”


Medical marijuana appears to be a focus at the conference, there are also breakout sessions with titles like “Cannabis consumer safety” and “The activists' tool box: Combining traditional and innovative strategies,” are also on the schedule.


Last year, more than 500 people registered and attended the conference, which was held in San Francisco.


The culmination of the conference is the High Times Magazine

“Stony” awards ceremony, taking place Saturday at the Knitting Factory. The awards honor the best, according to the magazine, marijuana-friendly people and projects in the entertainment industry.


Tommy Chong is scheduled to host the “Stony” awards.


More information on the conference can be found at www.norml.org.

http://www.times-standard.com/ci_715...2987EAE1F.html

[FuBai]

It's annoying that the creation of this sub-culture where people are called "ganga-gurus" and they have "stony" award festivals is probably doing more harm than good in terms of getting drugs legalised and the integration of drugs within society. Much like the hippy movement, it creates a class of people with objectionable hair styles, clothes and view points who form a society of their own and do little but criticise the conventional establishment. This leaves the rest of society feeling threatened and, because of the plethora of other activities and view points regularly expressed by these under-societies it makes them easier to reject, because the politicians don't have to actually deal with the arguments about cannabis, they can just criticise other aspects of the culture that have nothing to do with legalisation, painting a negative picture of all those who want legalisation in the media. If you are serious in getting marijuana legalised then be serious about it - go about it in a way that works, rather than creating a sub-society where people don't have to integrate to the same extent we should be aiming to be normal, integrated citizens who use cannabis. Anyway, I just think the whole sub-culture thing is counter productive and hands objections to politicians on a plate.

[Nature Boy]

Prohibition breeds sub-culture though. It's a natural progression. Obviously it forms a rift that the conservative majority will frown upon but it also ensures that people on the other side get more passionate about it. Even from a moderate stance, ignoring all the bad science and tabloid headlines associated with pot, I really don't see what's so offensive. "Pot-heads" are a passive bunch for the most part, as were hippies. They're easy to poke fun at if you're not one of them yourself but generally they're not bad people. It's a shame more people can't realise this. There must be some sort of dogmatic belief within many people that don't allow them to notice.

[Lunar Loops]

Don't think it's that they are seen as 'bad' as such, more a case of they are not taken seriously. SWIS has to admit that he does sometimes cringe when he sees what the mainstream would regard as a stereotypical pot smoker (new age traveller type, who suffixes every statement with "man") attempting to argue their point on TV. SWIS sees no problem with them (and may not be far removed himself), but he knows that joe establishment will just switch off once they see such a person and any valid arguments they may have are lost before they even open their mouths. Like it or not (and SWIS doesn't), it is a fact that the establishment see people like that as lazy scroungers who are only interested in getting high.

This is a media game we are involved in and it's all about perception.