[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
The NORML PAC is the political arm of NORML that permits us to provide campaign contributions to office holders and candidates for public office who support NORML-friendly public policy and legislation. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
As you probably know, non-profit corporations, such as NORML and the NORML Foundation, cannot by law provide any support, financial or otherwise, to candidates or office holders. NORML can lobby aggressively for legislative change and support voter initiatives, and the NORML Foundation can undertake educational and philanthropic work that supports and reinforces our policy goals, but neither organization is permitted to provide support for or opposition to candidates for public office. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
Under federal and state laws, political actions committees (PACs) are the only entities permitted to engage in partisan political matters. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
In the perfect world, candidates would not need to raise money to run for office, and those of us who advocate for legislative policy changes would not need to help candidates who are supportive of our positions raise money. But we live in the real word, and we must recognize that our ability to help marijuana-friendly candidates raise the necessary money to successfully run for office, or for reelection, is terribly important. For many of these office holders, our willingness to contribute PAC money to their campaigns is a sign of how serious we are about the policy changes we seek. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
We must continue to identify those members of Congress, and their counterparts at the state legislative level, who are supportive of our positions and we must register our appreciation for their support by making PAC contributions in this election year. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
The NORML PAC [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
Please make a generous contribution today to the NORML PAC to help us raise the money we will need over the next few weeks and months to support NORML-friendly candidates for office. Make your contribution today in the amount of $5000, $1,000, $500, $100, or whatever you can afford. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
Many candidates for public office will not treat the marijuana smokers lobby as a serious political force until we become more active at raising and distributing PAC money to our friends. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
Please act today.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Regards, [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
Allen F. St. Pierre [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Executive Director [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]NORML [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
P.S. You can double your impact and commitment to electing NORML-friendly candidates and policy makers by also donating directly to political office-holders and candidates whom NORML has already identified as being supportive of NORMLs law reform efforts. When doing this, please be sure and indicate in a cover letter that you are supporting the candidate because the NORML PAC has indicated they are NORML-friendly candidates. It is important that they know why you have selected them for your financial support. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
You can view the list of candidates and office-holders to whom NORML has previously provided NORML PAC donations.[/FONT]
Marijuana is the third most popular recreational drug in America (behind only alcohol and tobacco), and has been used by nearly 100 million Americans. According to government surveys, some 25 million Americans have smoked marijuana in the past year, and more than 14 million do so regularly despite harsh laws against its use. Our public policies should reflect this reality, not deny it.
Marijuana is far less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco. Around 50,000 people die each year from alcohol poisoning. Similarly, more than 400,000 deaths each year are attributed to tobacco smoking. By comparison, marijuana is nontoxic and cannot cause death by overdose. According to the prestigious European medical journal,
The Lancet, "The smoking of cannabis, even long-term, is not harmful to health. ... It would be reasonable to judge cannabis as less of a threat ... than alcohol or tobacco."
Get the facts. See our
Library
NORML supports the removal of all penalties for the private possession and
responsible use of marijuana by adults, including cultivation for personal use, and casual nonprofit transfers of small amounts. This policy, known as
decriminalization, removes the consumer -- the marijuana smoker -- from the criminal justice system.
More than 30 percent of the U.S. population lives under some form of
marijuana decriminalization, and according to government and academic studies, these laws have not contributed to an increase in marijuana consumption nor negatively impacted adolescent attitudes toward drug use.
See
Personal Use for more information.
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7042Enforcing marijuana prohibition costs taxpayers an estimated $10 billion annually and results in the
arrest of more than 858,000 individuals http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7042per year -- far more than the total number of arrestees for all violent crimes combined, including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7042[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
2008847,8642007872,7212006829,6252005786,5452004771,6082003755,1872002697,0822001723,6272000734,4981999704,8121998682,8851997695,2001996641,6421995588,9631994499,1221993380,6891992342,3141991287,8501990326,850
Of those charged with marijuana violations, approximately 88 percent, 758,593 Americans were charged with possession only. The remaining 99,815 individuals were charged with "sale/manufacture," a category that includes all cultivation offenses, even those where the marijuana was being grown for personal or medical use. In past years, roughly 30 percent of those arrested were age 19 or younger.
NORML supports the eventual development of a legally controlled market for marijuana, where consumers could buy marijuana for personal use from a safe legal source. This policy, generally known as legalization, exists on various levels in a handful of
European countries like The Netherlands and Switzerland, both of which enjoy lower rates of adolescent marijuana use than the U.S. Such a system would reduce many of the problems presently associated with the prohibition of marijuana, including the crime, corruption and violence associated with a "black market."
For more information, see
About NORML.
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
Medical Use[/FONT]
Marijuana, or cannabis, as it is more appropriately called, has been part of humanity's medicine chest for almost as long as history has been recorded.
Of all the negative consequences of marijuana prohibition, none is as tragic as the denial of medicinal cannabis to the tens of thousands of patients who could benefit from its therapeutic use.
Modern research suggests that cannabis is a valuable aid in the treatment of a wide range of
clinical applications.[
4] These include pain relief -- particularly of neuropathic pain (pain from nerve damage) -- nausea, spasticity, glaucoma, and movement disorders.[
5] Marijuana is also a powerful appetite stimulant, specifically for patients suffering from HIV, the AIDS wasting syndrome, or dementia.[
6] Emerging
research suggests that marijuana's medicinal properties may protect the body against some types of malignant tumors[
7] and are neuroprotective.
Currently, more than
60 U.S. and international health organizations support granting patients immediate legal access to medicinal marijuana under a physician's supervision.
See our
Medical Use section for more information.
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Legal Issues[/FONT]
Driven by the Drug War, the U.S. prison population is six to ten times as high as most Western European nations. The United States is a close second only to Russia in its rate of incarceration per 100,000 people. In 2005, more than
786,000 people were arrested in this country for marijuana-related offenses alone.
Marijuana prohibition causes more problems than it solves, and ruins thousands more lives than it supposedly tries to save. The
NORML Legal Committee provides legal support and assistance to victims of the current marijuana laws. NORML also monitors developments in state and federal law, and files appellate and amicus curiae ("friend of the court")
briefs in cases which may affect the interpretation of existing marijuana laws, or which will, hopefully, change them.
See our
Legal Issues section for more information.
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Industrial Hemp[/FONT]
Hemp is a distinct variety of the plant species cannabis sativa L. that contains minimal (less than 1%) amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. It is a tall, slender, fibrous plant similar to flax or kenaf. Various parts of the plant can be utilized in the making of textiles, paper, paints, clothing, plastics, cosmetics, foodstuffs, insulation, animal feed and other
products.
Hemp produces a much higher yield per acre than do common substitutes such as cotton and requires few pesticides. In addition, hemp has an average growing cycle of only 100 days and leaves the soil virtually weed-free for the next planting.
The hemp plant is currently harvested for commercial purposes in over 30 nations, including Canada, Japan and the European Union. Although it grows wild across much of America and presents no public health or safety threat, hemp is nevertheless routinely uprooted and destroyed by law enforcement. Each year, approximately 98% of all the marijuana eliminated by the DEA's
"Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program" is actually hemp.
Find out more about
Industrial Use.
