This Week's News from NORML

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Volume 12 Issue 37 September 17, 2009 norml.org This Week's News from NORML

• Final Days To Register For NORML's 2009 National Conference
  Day Passes, Walk-Up Registration Available
  
  
• 20th Annual Boston Freedom Rally To Take Place This Weekend
  
  
• Pot Arrests For Year 2008 Second Highest Total Ever Reported
  
  

Final Days To Register For NORML's 2009 National Conference
Day Passes, Walk-Up Registration Available
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Washington, DC: NORML's 38th annual national conference, "Yes We Cannabis," takes place next week – on Thursday, September 24, Friday, September 25 and Saturday, September 26 – at the Grand Hyatt in downtown San Francisco. Join NORML's staff and Board of Directors – and over 500 policy activists, medical patients, cultivators, doctors, politicians, and clinical investigators – as we congregate and celebrate in one of America's most 'cannabis friendly' cities.

Panels at this year's conference include:

• Palliative and Curative Relief Through an Effective Herbal Medicine
• The Zeitgeist of Legalization: Why and How Did This Happen?
• Putting the Mexican Cartels Out of Business
• Pot, Parenting, and Legalization
• Cannabis and Athleticism
• Has Support for Legalization Reached a Tipping Point?
• Marijuana as a Local, State, and Federal Revenue Stream

Detailed information regarding registration, accommodations, speakers, and after-hours parties is available online at: Conference 2009: Yes We Cannabis! - NORML.
Don't miss this unique opportunity to mingle with hundreds of other like-minded reformers in one of the most marijuana friendly settings in the world. Join travel host and best-selling author Rick Steves, two-time Superbowl champ Mark Stepnoski, the self-proclaimed 'Mayor of Oaksterdam' Richard Lee, professional mixed martial arts champion Toby 'Tiger Heart' Grear, California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, former professional wrestling superstar Rob Van Dam, former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper, Oakland City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan, High Times Magazine Cultivation Editor Danny Danko, former ESPN producer Sean Neumann, and hundreds more at this year's NORML national conference.
For more information on this year's conference, please call (202) 483-5500 or register online at: Conference 2009: Yes We Cannabis! - NORML.

20th Annual Boston Freedom Rally To Take Place This Weekend
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Boston, MA: The Massachusetts chapter of NORML (MassCann) will hold its 2oth annual Freedom Rally this Saturday, September 19, at the Boston Common in downtown Boston. The annual event is the largest marijuana law reform gathering on the east coast.
Speakers at this year's event include: NORML Founder Keith Stroup, High Times Associate Publisher Rick Cusick, Miss New Jersey 2006 Georgine DiMaria, mixed martial arts champion Toby 'Tiger Heart' Grear, New Jersey NORML President Chris Goldstein, NH Common Sense Executive Director Matt Simon, NORML Outreach Coordinator Russ Belville, and Student for Sensible Drug Policy Northeast Outreach Director Stacia Cosner, and many others. Musical artists include DJ Slim, Graveyard BBQ, and Prospect Hill, among others.
MassCann NORML will also be holding an awards banquet in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Friday, September 18.
For more information on the 20th annual Boston Freedom Rally, please visit: http://www.bostonfreedomrally.com.

Pot Arrests For Year 2008 Second Highest Total Ever Reported


Washington, DC: Police arrested 847,864 persons for marijuana violations in 2008, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime report, released Monday. The total marks a three percent decrease in marijuana arrests from 2007, when law enforcement arrested a record 872,721 Americans for cannabis-related violations, but still remains the second highest tally of annual arrests ever reported.
According to the new report, Marijuana arrests now comprise one-half (49.8 percent) of all drug arrests reported in the United States.
Of those charged with marijuana violations, approximately 89 percent, 754,224 Americans were charged with possession only. The remaining 93,640 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.
Marijuana arrests were highest in the Midwest and southern regions of the United States, and lowest in the west.

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500, or Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org.

NORML and the NORML Foundation: 1600 K Street NW, Suite 501, Washington DC, 20006-2832
Tel: (202) 483-5500 • Fax: (202) 483-0057 • Email: norml@norml.org

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