Damn.. Still reeling in the dashed hopes of prop 19, and from the sounds of it, the last vote in was devastating to other movements as well. SO, now what? Obviously, there was plan B. Whats the next step for pushing towards legalization, and how can it be made to happen? How are we going to unite together and end this BS? Obviously more education, to those still in the dark? Its just CRAZY, as I'm sure you all know. I'm confident it will be ended before my kids are faced with that choice, between making that choice. I also know standing up for something in America, and saying you enjoy a herb can land you in jail with loss of family, career, and reputation. Catastrophic. Pets being shot, families being turned in by DARE organizations in the schools, and the list is continuous and heinous. What was I told? Drugs are BAD.. your brain will fry like that egg. etc It really pisses one off when they find out lied to by the Government, who has forced others to continue to the lie. Putting people in cages over a plant, that can help many, is ridiculous. Which group in your opinions is the primary one going for ending the prohibition? Norml? MPP? Shit.. the internet elected Obama. Did marijuana legalization NOT make the #1 concern of the people when they did those internet polls? Twice I believe. To my memory they have not done another internet poll like that.. [ends ranting] Some of you are lucky to have been in a state where change has been orchestrated. Some of us not yet. Cannabis, used for medical or not, is 'good' with responsibility. Are we as human beings, and appreciating of an amazing gift, joining up and saying, "Enough of this bullshit?" I'd like to know. Time to end prohibition. It happened with alcohol. Lets aim for 2012! Perhaps we all use the internet again, and unite up. Sound good?
I dont have an answer for you but have been thinking the same thing. I believe the effort is just not as orgainized as it can and needs to be to reach our goals. We need a leader and a real united group to stand up for us as americans who feel marijuana should be legalized
Plan B? Plan B is that we rethink this whole grassroots thing and go national. A grassroots legalization organization sounds nice, but it seems that there are a lot of factors that make it a loser. Local coverage and ads being viewed less than national items comes to mind. Firstly, trying to use the whole mmj movement as a springboard to legalization is a BAD idea, dispensaries/dealers/growers have to much local authority over likely voters. And non pot smokers have been feeling weird about the dispensary system. We need to spend 2011 building support in some key areas; find ways to convince grower/dispensary owners that legalization is in their best interest AND find a way to tap into the senior citizen vote (where prop 19 got a hurting). Maybe spend the first six months of 2011 doing some serious research, find out WHY seniors are anti-legalization (and don't just say its because they're old/republican/christian... most of them probably have a reason they think is very valid why drugs are bad, m'kay?). Once we know why our biggest opposition block is voting against us, then we can start to hammer those points harder. Grandma thinks that legalized pot will mean that the neighbor kids are all gonna be driving on her lawn? We can counter that. Things like that. Then we need to spend some time working up a good framework of a petition, something the community can get behind. Then each of the 24 states that allows for the voter initiative need to put up a prop for consideration based on that communally built framework. Finally, 2012 is our year. People are thinking about pot. Prop 19 will be in the backs of some peoples minds, and presidential elections tend to bring out a LOT more of the younger voters. If 24 states had legalization on their ballots, and we had a national organization that was supporting all of the state organizations, then that might give us a big enough stick to leverage legalization in a couple of states. And that's the foot in the door.
I really like where your are going with this and agree with you 100%. I guess my question is who has the power to organize this type legalizaton movement and give it the type of steam it needs to get rolling, NORML? also we would need politicians running for election who support the movement ( are there any? )
Great post overall, I especially think you're right on regarding these two points: Agreed, and well stated! I would also offer that grabbing the torches and pitchforks and venomously slandering the constituency who voted 'no' will do more harm than good. Trying to really dig in and look at things from their various perspectives and looking for ways of building bridges instead of burning them sounds like an altogether more copacetic strategy than lashing out and turning everyone into enemies. And for those of you/us who are willing and able to be a little more open and upfront about their pot smoking while remaining civil - showing that a person can in fact be a recreational pot smoker while still maintaining an intelligent, healthy, productive and non-threating life - is always one of the best ways to get the fence-sitters on our side of the green.
that is exactly right everyone who voted did so for a reason ( legitimate or not ) the key to victory is understanding peoples concerns and fears of the legalization of marijuana and adressing those with accurate information by knowledgable and trustworthy people. I believe everyone who is involved in marijuana in any way has a responsibility to become informed on the subject. Knowledge is a powerfull tool and is going to be the key to victory. I believe the type of people who are currently oppose to the movement are more willing to accept the logic from educated and successfull people then from the kid with long hair and facial peircings who hangs out in front of the mall. We have to be able to relate to and educate these conservitive americans and show them the light!
I support NORML philosophically, monetarily (when I can), and I've volunteered for them. But... I just don't get the feeling that they're right to lead the fight. It's easy to look at the situation in California and nit-pick in hindsight, but I just don't feel that confident in their ability to lead, promote, or organize a number of state level grassroots organizations into an effective national coalition; Especially not in a year, which is really what our timeline looks like. Because if 2012 isn't our year, then we pretty much have to wait until 2016, because this just isn't happening at a midterm election. We need the younger voter turnout of a presidential election. Please keep in mind that I have the upmost respect for anyone fighting the good fight, and that my political background is in social justice and queer equality work, most of which is done at the community level, but supported by national organizations like PFLAG (good group, by the by). Rant/ But... what I really see is a stratification in pro-legalization groups that instill some really poisonous identity politics into the struggle. What I mean is this; most people who are "pro-(insert any social issue" are content to just sit around watching and waiting, while on one fringe you find some clean cut older guys in suits who talk to state senators and show up on the occasional talk show, and on the other fringe you have your pro-grassroots/direct action/community focused activists. In the pro-legalization camp, the two fringe groups never really work together cohesivly, which leaves the middle ground (most of our supporters) standing around saying "Well, gee...I'd like to help, but I just don't know what to do...". A good strategy uses both sides of the activism coin in such a way that middle grounders are pulled off their couches and out to an event. The marriage equality backers in Washington state have made a good example of this; For example, when the civil union expansion bill was up for question (I worked as a legislative assistant for Senator Murray, the author of the bill, at the time) you saw two near simultaneous events that drew huge amounts of support. Seattle pride and the pride parade were a great way for grassrooters to get out and get in direct touch with the community (including people who would have never come out to a drier political ralley) and let them know what was going on and what they could do to help. Because of the fact that we got to speak directly with a huge portion of the supportive community, there was a lot of support for a much quieter event later where a number of supporters stood outside the capitol building dressed in white and holding a vigil while community leaders spent a day meeting with every state senator/rep they could get access too. Something for everyone to do, at levels of activism that everyone feels comfortable at. Don't feel like dressing up and helping out at a voter registration drive? Well, how do you feel about going out wheat pasting flyers about the drive and legislation? Unfortunately, what we have right now is a "face" on the legalization movement that most of us think "does an OK job...", and a leadership who wants to avoid direct action and too much public attention in case something backfires. Well, either it's not working, or it's working slooowly. Our community level groups don't work with national groups, because they're constantly pushing away the kind of activism that angry young people are more likely to put energy into and pandering to centrist voters. Seriously, having a 21+ age limit on a legalization bill might seem like good policy in order to curb some of the pot + our kids talk, but it's undesirable to anyone 18-21, or OUR MOST SUPPORTIVE DEMOGRAPHIC. So, again, we come back to a multiplatform strategy that involves a direct action using grassroots organization to build public support while at the same time those of us who know how to speak politics need to be working our state reps and get the state government power structure more friendly to our cause. /Rant -shrug- its what I'm thinking, just my opinion and all. (sorry for just sort of rolling over the OP)
We didn't loose this based on money. In fact, Yes on 19 drastically outspent the No campaign. We lost this on age gap identity politics and young voter apathy.
CustomInk.com design: nonviolent created by jde81 I designed this and want to make it for myself and friends to wear and help those on the other side be aware of just who they are standing against. I may be wrong, but in the past, practicing freedom of speech gets things done, and I don't think when people directly see who they are hurting they will still want to oppose the majority of our generation, their kids, family, and friends. It's a small step but who else is keen to this ideal?
If you want to legalize marijuana, just ask "what can I do?" You're in luck, because I know exactly how to legalize marijuana. 1. Each and every person who likes to talk a big fight but is afraid to show their face needs to get out and unite their friends, their collegues, their teachers, and everyone they know. 2. You get together and you form a group. 3. This group goes out and talks to people, makes a name for themselves, and begins to work through the stoner stereotypes that have crippled this movement for generations. NORML is just a resource for developing infrastructure for your own legalization efforts. If you want to make a difference, you have to make the difference. Don't rely on rich people or NORML.