August 10, 2000

NORML Foundation Receives $1 Million Matching Grant

        Washington, DC:  The NORML Foundation announced today that it had received a $1 million contribution from a supporter who wants to encourage and stimulate a healthy public debate over marijuana policy.  NORML Foundation Executive Director Allen St. Pierre said the gift, the largest in the organization's 30 year history, "will provide us with the opportunity to launch a national media campaign against arresting responsible marijuana smokers."
        The generous donor, a supporter who has been successful in the business and corporate world, supports NORML's goal of ending marijuana prohibition and stopping the arrest of smokers.
        "Like millions of Americans, he's someone who knows from personal experience that marijuana smoking should not be a crime," St. Pierre said.  "He has been quite successful in the world of science and business, and he has decided to devote some significant resources to reinvigorating this movement.  NORML and its members are extremely appreciative of his support.  Now our challenge is to identify donors willing to make a contribution towards matching this grant."
        NORML Board Member Ann Druyan, a writer, producer and CEO of Cosmos Studios, was instrumental in obtaining this grant, and immediately pledged $25,000 towards the $1 million matching fund.  Another board member, Paul Kuhn of Nashville, TN, chair of the NORML Foundation Development Committee, pledged $50,000 towards the match.
        "This grant gives a voice to the tens of millions of responsible, productive citizens who wish to see an end to this senseless persecution," said Ms. Druyan.  "It represents the hope of an antidote to the propaganda and pseudo science of the drug war profiteers."
        Supporters willing to help the NORML Foundation match this grant should please contact the NORML Foundation, 1001 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 710, Washington, DC. 20036.
        For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Foundation Executive Director at (202) 483-8751.

Drug War Failure Takes Center Stage At Los Angeles Shadow Convention

        Los Angeles, CA:  On Tuesday, August 15, the nation's failing drug war takes center stage as elected officials, marijuana law reform activists, medical marijuana patients, and those affected by the drug war are set to gather at the Los Angeles Shadow Convention.
        Featured speakers include Gov. Gary Johnson (R-NM), Rev. Jesse Jackson, Reps. Tom Campbell (R-CA) and Maxine Waters (D-CA), Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, along with drug law reform leaders, medical marijuana patients and drug war victims.  Topics to be addressed will include consequences of the failed drug war; the rise in arrests of non-violent drug offenders; the growing prison population; alternatives to prison, such as treatment and prevention programs; racism and the drug war; public health issues; and how the drug war effects children.
        "People are finally starting to wake up to the fact that the drug war makes no sense," said Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director of The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation, which is organizing the Shadow Convention proceedings on the drug war.  "The war on drugs is not a war on crime, as politicians would have us believe. Instead, it is a war on the poor, a war on public health, and a war on our basic Constitutional rights."
        NORML will have a booth at the Shadow Convention and NORML Executive Director Keith Stroup will make a brief address.
        "The Shadow Convention gives us an opportunity to focus attention on issues which the Democratic and Republican conventions have chosen to ignore, such as the need to stop arresting responsible marijuana smokers," Stroup said.  "I urge concerned citizens to join us in Los Angeles for this unique opportunity."
        For more information, please contact Tony Newman of The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation at (212) 548-0383 or (917)969-3571 or visit www.shadowconvention.com.

Trial For Former Gubernatorial Candidate To Resume Next Week

        Auburn, CA:  The trial of Steve and Michele Kubby is expected to resume on Tuesday, Aug. 15 after over a year of delays.
        Steve Kubby, a 1998 Libertarian gubernatorial candidate in California, was arrested with his wife on January 19, 1999 after Placer County Sheriffs raided their Tahoe home and confiscated 265 marijuana plants and computer records and hardware.  The prosecution contends that the Kubbys were planning on selling the marijuana to the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative.  The Kubbys, both medical marijuana patients, deny the allegations, saying they worked with the OCBC to insure their marijuana garden complied with local guidelines.
        "My wife and I are victims of those who seek to gut Proposition 215 and punish those behind it," Steve Kubby said.  "We are but two of dozens of patients and caregivers who acted in good faith following the passage of Prop. 215 and have been cynically arrested by narcotics agents who seek to invalidate the voters' will and the present state law."
        For more information visit Steve and Michele Kubby's website at www.kubby.com.

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