7-20-2010 Northern WI NORML Meeting Minutes

7-20-2010 Northern WI NORML Meeting Minutes

Ripon – we had a great news article in the Ripon Commonwealth Press. We recapped that for the new members and discussed it a bit. The poll on their website showed 94% in favor of some kind of marijuana law reform.

We also discussed an experience that Jay had yesterday while speaking to a long-time friend and business partner about marijuana. Jay felt discriminated against because a person who had always respected him in the past treated him differently once he found out he was advocating for marijuana.

We also discussed the Podcast that Jay did this week. Adam Curry (formerly a VeeJay for MTV) saw Jay’s campaign and suggested that they interview him on their podcast. We’ve gotten some traffic and feedback from it.

Jay also submitted our NORML meetings to channel 5 and a reporter and we received a comment back from a stranger on their website.

We discussed news both online and offline – how people are getting their news.

We also discussed the Marketplace article that was done about Jay’s campaign (it was based on the Ripon Commonwealth Press article by Tim Lyke, and referenced the JaySelthofner.com blog.

Green Lake County Fair – they returned the booth registration to Madison NORML and no one there ever told us – so despite having done the booth for 7 years or so in the past, the fair refused to let Jay have the booth this year because he is now advocating for Marijuana. Jay will get the info from Gary and then will report back to us next week with more information and a plan.

Jay tried calling the Waushara county fair to talk about NORML / Friends of Jay doing something at the fair, but they have not called him back at all yet.

Madison has unanimously approved the Referendum.

6 billion has been spent to prohibit marijuana prohibition so far and we’re only halfway through the year.

half a million arrests – about 400,000 of those were for possession only.

We discussed the fear of arrest and the fear of police brutality and the fear of having your life destroyed that causes people to be afraid to come forward, afraid to get involved, afraid to become an activist, etc.

We discussed LEAP and other factors that might make the police see things differently – which led back to the Berlin THC tour – when LEAP was here, he extended an open invitation to the police and other community leaders to come and see him speak and learn more one-on-one, but none of them did.

We had a really interesting conversation about the feral hemp that grows locally.

Back to the Dane County referendum – if you want to call your reps, consider saying something like:

An advisory referendum will ask Dane County voters in November whether they think the state should legalize medical marijuana after the County Board voted unanimously to place it on ballots.

Dane county recently passed this referendum unanimously. They said they would forward it to your county so that you can consider doing the same. Have you received it yet?

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt_and_politics/article_9d9ca489-22e1-57ca-86f6-5d0003c6250d.html