A NORML Mom Returns to the Capitol

Me w/ activists Kim Smith & James Meissner

Following my attendance of the town hall for the #Cartersville70, I headed to the Georgia Capitol to lobby for marijuana law reform. I had been there once before two years ago. Back then, I'd stood outside chamber doors holding a booklet about the medical benefits of cannabis. Georgia had recently passed a measure to legalize the limited use of CBD oil for treating a narrow list of approved conditions. Our hope as lobbyists that day had been to expand the qualifying conditions, as well as to add a provision allowing in-state cultivation.

When I returned to the Capitol earlier this February, the Georgia cities of Clarkston and Atlanta had decriminalized possession within city limits, and a few conditions had been added to the list of approved medical conditions.  While we still have a significant journey ahead, we were armed not just with the request that our representatives read a handbook and do something, but rather with the names of 10 EXISTING MEASURES for them to support:

HB 465 and HR 340 for Industrial Hemp

HB 645 and HB 764 to facilitate the cultivation and possession of low THC oil

HB 505 to halt the civil forfeiture practices detrimental to many people facing marijuana charges

SB105 for reducing penalties currently associated with marijuana possession

SB 295 for regulating the retail sale of marijuana

SB 296 and HR 36 to expand Georgia's existing medical marijuana program

SR 317 to authorize the study of medical marijuana in Georgia

Whether it takes days or years, some form of these bills and resolutions WILL be up for vote by Georgia citizens, and the majority of people reading this WILL EXPERIENCE an end to marijuana/cannabis prohibition in Georgia.

Peachtree NORML had planned a rally to follow the lobbying, but the permit was pulled one day prior to the event due to an increase in the prospective attendees. Georgia State Senator Michael Williams spoke out in favor of Peachtree NORML before the General Assembly and asked that we still be allowed to gather. While the number of attendees diminished significantly after hearing the announcement that the original permit had been pulled, a few of us heeded Senator Williams' call to come out anyway. Among those present were the typical mix of patients, parents, veterans and civil rights activists, as well as creative and corporate community leaders. Spanning a spectrum of political and spiritual beliefs, our highly personal experiences with cannabis have consistently inspired each of us to stand in compassionate solidarity. With Senator Williams among us, Atlanta musician and activist Aviva guided us in forming a circle, from which many stepped forward as individuals to share our stories and call for support. 

With real change on the horizon, this is a crucial time to step up and use your voice. Please be confident in telling your representatives and senators to end prohibition. You can get started doing this by going online HERE and discovering who your personal congress people are.

While NORML operates at both the national and state level, it is also important to become active within your city and county. For those who live in my area, I am presently working with fellow activist Melissa Leachman-Taylor to form an Etowah chapter of Peachtree NORML. For updates, please follow us on Facebook here. Also, please follow Peachtree NORML here for information about a re-scheduled rally in Atlanta.

Finally, let this post be like a seed. Share it, and watch the movement grow.

A NORML Mom Supports the #Cartersville70

Dee Dawkins-Haigler & I supporting #Cartersville70

On New Year's Eve 2017, I heard fireworks popping off in every direction around Kingston, Georgia, the small rural rail town where I live within Bartow County. A few miles down the road in Bartow's county seat, Cartersville, Georgia, fireworks were also being fired, and a 21-year-old was celebrating her birthday.

While investigating a call from someone who thought they heard gunshots, local policemen found nothing in the area other than the birthday celebration, which they proceeded to raid. Allegedly some attendees were simply asked to go home. Meanwhile, in what seems to be an extreme act of racial profiling, 70 others were arrested and held within the Cartersville jail for three days or more pending charges.

Rumors about a drug and artillery ring flew across the local and national news, but the only contraband actually discovered among all 70 apprehended young people was less than one ounce of marijuana. The case quickly drew the attention of Racquel McGee, a leader of the Atlanta-based Georgia Alliance for Social Justice. Racquel grew up in Cartersville, Georgia, and quickly set about bringing justice to those within her hometown. With the aid of civil-rights minded defense attorney Gerald Griggs, charges against 69 of the #Cartersville70 were dropped, and he is optimistic about the future outcome of the one person still facing charges.

Clearly, the type of marijuana law reform championed by Peachtree NORML, OnePlant United and Georgia Care Project is central to the case of the #Cartersville70. If marijuana were no longer stigmatized, it could be utilized as a versatile medicine and mind-opening form of adult stress relief. Law enforcement would no longer have grounds to disrupt and damage the lives of nonviolent offenders.

The #Cartersville70 also reminds us that marijuana initially received its status as a federally controlled substance—not because of being a hazardous gateway drug—but rather because of its potential as a gateway through which illegal immigrants and marginalized American citizens can enter the prison industrial complex.

While incarcerated, several members of the #Cartersville70 experienced abuse and denial of their basic rights. The arrests themselves also present multiple civil rights violations which have drawn the attention of the NAACP—along with additional social justice organizations, activists, community leaders and politicians. Many of these gathered, alongside members of the #Cartersville70, to speak last night at the Cartersville Civic Center. While all shared their uniquely engaging takes on marijuana and civil rights, the simple through line can be summarized as follows:

Keep learning, being active and speaking your mind—regardless of your color or creed. Remember that it is the American people's right to change laws which feel inherently unjust. Use your right to vote to elect leaders who authentically represent you. 

One such leader, Dee Dawkins-Haigler, pictured with me above, has been active within the Georgia General Assembly since May 2008 and is currently running for Secretary of State. While researching the possibility of introducing marijuana reform to Georgia alongside representative Allen Peake, she has visited Colorado and witnessed the state modeling how to return the profits from the cannabis industry back to the people. “We cannot legislate morality forever,” Dee says. Based on her experience, she says it's time “to let the grown folks decide what they're going to do.” 
 

For those of you who agree, there are a few things you can do right now. While these apply directly to Georgia residents, they can be modified to work anywhere.

1. Come to Atlanta's Gold Dome this Thursday to lobby for state-wide marijuana decriminalization and de-classification. Click here for details.
2. Reach out to local officials to let them know that the #Cartersville70 matters to you. This can happen over the phone, over email or in person at local city council meetings.
3. Write editorials to local papers and post in social media with the hashtag #Cartersville70.
4. Join Peachtree NORML, and keep in touch with me about a new Bartow/Floyd chapter.

Finally, I want to emphasize again the importance of recognizing that marijuana reform is about more than the right to use a plant for medicinal or responsible recreational purposes. It is fundamentally a civil rights issue. As such, it does not exist in a vacuum. It is directly connected to the work of organizations like NAACP, ACLU, Amnesty and more. Personally, I am dedicated to cultivating these connections and bringing them to light with fierce compassion.

As always, if you were moved by my words, please share them. Let this post plant a seed we can grow together.

A NORML Mom Celebrates! #DecrimATL, #FeeltheBern, #MaytheFortBeWithYou, #KillerMike

A Mighty Step Forward

Killer Mike likes my shirt! Read to the end for details.

In the midst of a culture riddled with violence, natural disasters, economic uncertainty and threats to our civil rights, small steps continue to move us forward. Tonight, I'm celebrating the good news: Atlanta, Georgia, just passed a city ordinance to decriminalize cannabis! It is official: Possessing up to one ounce of marijuana in the city of Atlanta no longer guarantees a criminal record. Rather, it can be resolved with a simple citation and $75 USD fine.

While law enforcement officers will have leeway in choosing whether to honor the new ordinance or the harsher penalties called for by Georgia state law, today's vote shows major progress. It at least allows people a chance of escaping the dead-end downward spiral which an arrest record can cause. It also sends the message that, while cannabis use isn't for everyone, it isn't a crime either.

Legalization is the next step. I have total admiration for all my friends within Peachtree NORML who have worked relentlessly to insure that people keep talking--among themselves, with their local government officials, at their places of work, at their places of worship, in the media, and via their personal art and activism--about the benefits of cannabis and the need to reform the laws surrounding its use. Georgia Care Project also deserves tremendous credit for bringing change to Atlanta.

The same is true for the government officials who support our work as activists. This past Saturday  I witnessed Senator Vincent Fort give voice to his promise to legalize cannabis in Atlanta should he win his current campaign to become mayor. Fort, backed by none other than Senator Bernie Sanders and Atlanta's own hip-hop activist Killer Mike, explained that legalization is a significant human rights issue. I learned Saturday that Atlanta tops national charts for limited class mobility. I also learned a leading reason for this is the crippling series of events which often follow an arrest for possession of marijuana.

Unintentional Complacency

Unfortunately, one thing I've encountered in my activism is a stunning lack of enthusiasm for legalization as a social justice issue. If policies do not impact people directly, in ways they immediately feel, many become dismissive. For them, the systemic racism inherent to the drug war does not matter if they are not a person of color themselves. Likewise, the threat of arrest for marijuana doesn't hit home if they either abstain or have lived successfully under the radar for many years.

The same principles apply to other issues facing Atlanta right now as well--specifically the loss of homes to imminent domain, the fight for a living wage and public education reform at both the K-12 and university level. The urgent need for solutions is lost on those who have never lived in a threatened zone, never struggled to meet their basic needs, never sought learning alternatives for their children, or never graduated with advanced degrees and no employment in sight.

In my opinion, the passage of today's decriminalization ordinance can galvanize people to wake from  unintentional complacency. This is thanks to its potential to eliminate some deeply held stigmas. For example, unconscious racism, passed down through generations, will abate when fewer people of color are arrested over time. Likewise, I feel derogatory attitudes toward drug use will abate when adults openly demonstrate responsible use of marijuana.

Most importantly, people who have intentionally placed themselves within boxes because they wish to be "law-abiding" will feel more empowered to take ownership of their health and to fulfill their desires for the peace of mind and physical pleasure which cannabis use can bring. Signaling that use isn't inherently criminal affords people greater safety stepping outside their self-imposed comfort zones and literally experiencing new ways of perceiving reality.

My Grandmother's Boots

Thanks to my maternal grandmother, Laura "Nini" Yarbrough, I've had a unique opportunity for experiencing life in another person's shoes. This is because Nini died August 24 and left me the legacy of her wardrobe. My favorite item is a pair of high-heeled burgundy boots.

Nini always showed tremendous intelligence and a level of social awareness which transcended the norms of her time, especially in rural Alabama where she came of age. She always "got" my poetry and was proud I attended the Women's March on Washington. Nonetheless, she made peace with a homemaker's life and dedicated much of her personal energy to challenging healthcare providers whom she ultimately discovered had done her as much harm as good.

One of the last times I saw Nini, I thanked her for the story she passed on to me, and I pledged to continue carrying her energy out into the world. I take great pleasure in knowing that I am bringing her spirit into spaces where I feel she would never have stepped, yet nonetheless inspired me to go.

So far, my favorite of these places has been a photo opp with Killer Mike after the rally I attended Saturday. While Bernie Sanders and Vincent Fort made a respectful but swift exit, Killer Mike remained longer to take pictures with fans and to chat with the media. I find it fitting that, of the three, he is the artist, the one who shares his cause not so much by speaking about it as by allowing us to feel it--through his music mostly, as well as through the experience of knowing him, albeit fleetingly. Very patiently, he took time to calmly connect with each person gathered around him. He looked at, not past, each of us and found something positive and unique to say. Based on our energy, he gave hugs and high fives, extended invitations to come see him in his barber shop and to keep in touch. When people asked him to back their causes, he kindly asked to see some information first, establishing a boundary with grace.

 When it came to me, he said he liked my shirt. I was in "NORML Mom mode," showing up in support of the decriminalization measure which passed today.

From a Moment to a Movement

After the rally

It strikes me that Killer Mike's celebrity both protects him and leaves him vulnerably exposed. Thus, there is courage in his kindness. As I've described, he also handles himself with a striking amount of humor, humility and honor--for his own positions and for the humanity we share.

Speaking to the public, Killer Mike directed us to transform moments of inspiration into a movement supporting a greater cause, and I feel this greater cause centers on the ability to recognize and embrace our inherent and shared humanity. Doing this will allow us to begin re-shaping some of our driving cultural stories so that we can better address major challenges of our time--from climate change, to police brutality, to affordable housing, to minimum wage, to healthcare, to education reform, to nuclear war, to religious oppression, to freedom of expression, to a transition from capitalism to whatever comes next.

By encouraging freedom of expression and action, decriminalizing marijuana allows us to be just a little bit more in touch with our inherent humanity, and this is one of the reasons why it excites me so much.

To help Atlanta take their latest victory forward into a greater movement, please consider joining Peachtree NORML or the Georgia Care Project in their efforts to move from decriminalization to legalization. Also, if you have the opportunity to vote for Vincent Fort, please do! I know campaign volunteers will remain welcome from now until the election as well. To explore Fort's platform and access details about election day and volunteering, please visit VincentFort.com.

Finally, I thank you for reading this column and ask always that you allow this post to be a seed. Share it, and watch it grow!

A NORML Mom Takes Not One Step Back

Saturday, April 22, citizens gathered across the globe to march for science. In the the wake of a US presidential administration which candidly denies scientific evidence in favor of “alternative facts” made up to suit their personal agendas, international support for scientific inquiry is vital. Climate change, natural resource management, and sustainable technology are obvious focal points. However, the medical uses of marijuana (and other federally illegal drugs) is another trending topic within the scientific community. So, for that matter, is the social science supporting an end to prohibition period. In keeping with these causes, I celebrated science Saturday 4/22 at the Morehouse College of Medicine, where I attended Not One Step Back: A One Day Strategy Session on the Drug War, Mass Incarceration and Public Health, brought to Atlanta by the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA).

Based in New York, the DPA works nationwide to fulfill its stated mission: To advance those policies and attitudes that best reduce the harms of both drug use and drug prohibition, and to promote the sovereignty of individuals over their minds and bodies. In other words, DPA advocates for responsible use of all drugs, as well as for a society within which this is possible.

One major hurdle to achieving responsible drug use is de-stigmatizing the drugs themselves. An even more important hurdle is de-stigmatizing the people who use them. The de-stigmatization of people requires a major re-shaping of society into a system which centers on respecting our shared humanity rather than on celebrating business acumen and the accumulation of wealth. This means, ultimately, dismantling capitalism, white supremacy and patriarchy—you know, the trinity which forms the bedrock of America. It's a big task and a tough sale—especially when small, personal victories occurring between the Civil Rights Movement and the present suggest there is not much amiss and that anyone who thinks otherwise is either wrong in some way or deserving of ridicule.

Rising above the stagnant thought pattern that nothing is wrong requires people to see on a broad scale how systemic white supremacy, patriarchy and capitalism both sustain, and are sustained by, mass, ongoing oppression. We must recognize that, by simple virtue of our citizenship, we are part of this oppression. We must not condemn ourselves for this. Likewise, we must not justify our role. We must instead own it, as objectively as possible, and then take deliberate steps toward a better way of existing. Furthermore, we must act from self-motivation. No good comes from stalling your own evolution in the name of wanting someone else to do their work first. It is natural to evolve together, each person and group of people moving at different paces which ebb and flow over time.

I discovered the DPA via my work with PeachTree NORML. Unlike so many people I meet, I have known NORML existed virtually my entire life. The primary reason for this knowledge is simply my education. I read voraciously and pay attention to world around me. However, even knowing about NORML and sympathizing with the cause, I did not join until I hit a turning point a couple years ago after someone rear-ended and totaled my car. The investigating officer issued a ticket to the driver who hit me and then returned licenses to everyone except me. Instead of receiving my license, I was arrested on a bench warrant for missing routine traffic court. I then spent about 9 hours in custody waiting to be officially booked.

I am white. I had enough money to pay a cash bond. I was cable of navigating the system well enough that charges against me were easily resolved and my license restored within days of leaving jail. The officers I encountered treated me civilly. The inmates were kind. Nonetheless, I saw enough to know that not everyone received such gentle treatment, despite the fact that most people I encountered were there on charges of nonviolent drug possession. I was also acutely aware that, while the officers were choosing to treat me like a person, it wasn't their obligation. Until I paid for my freedom, I was a number. Being stripped of my autonomy, albeit briefly, made me more acutely aware of both my day to day oppression and privilege. For me, this was motivation enough to use my privilege to help end oppression, and marijuana reform felt like a good place to start.

Considering that the movement to legalize marijuana continues to spread (despite Attorney General Jeff Sessions' utter distaste for it), it seems many may view it as a gateway to more sweeping reform. During lunch at Not One Step Back, each table was assigned one of three conversation topics, and one of these was marijuana. The other two, the opioid epidemic and prison reform, provide further insight into both the breadth and depth of the issues DPA confronts.

On one level, the opioid epidemic feels unique in its focus on the abuse of prescription, rather than federally illegal, drugs. It demystifies the image of users by portraying them as people who uphold major social norms and usually play by the rules, so to speak. For some, it will take little effort to draw the connection between users of prescription opioids and users of heroin. However, for others, the starkness of this divide speaks volumes about how deeply people are stigmatized for engaging in behavior perceived as deviant and/or associated with a specific social class.

The medical community enforces this divide via its tendency to over prescribe to one group and in its refusal to adequately treat the other. Once members of the first group develop a clear dependency, they become assimilated (by degrees) into the second group. Meanwhile, a third group of individuals, capable of both exercising and benefiting from, responsible opioid use are given little to no say in a society which insists that users must either be exploited, pitied or shunned. The resulting feeling of hopelessness likely affects many individuals who ultimately use opioids to take their own lives. In this sense, the opioid epidemic may also be seen as evidence of our culture's limited capacity to adequately recognize, treat and accept the reality of mental illness.

While study of both the opioid epidemic and marijuana's history of prohibition each shed light on the role prejudice plays in the drug war, prison reform is the issue which brings this home. This is because understanding the prison industrial complex makes the following clear:

It isn't so much that the criminalization of drugs has led to disproportionate arrests of people of color as it is that the US government needed to justify its arrests of people of color and thus criminalized drugs as a means of achieving its fundamentally racist agenda.

This is why so many of the speakers at Not One Step Back refer to themselves as abolitionists. Slavery within the United States hasn't ended. It has simply changed form. People of color are essentially harvested from their communities daily to fuel an industrial complex which relies on prison populations for cheap labor to sustain a capitalist economy run primarily by rich, white men—who themselves are dehumanized by the very system they lead. The system feeds principally on fear, and the counter to that it not bravery but love. Call it incredibly hokey. This doesn't change its truth.

Yesterday, my husband shared with me the obituary of Nick Sands. In my opinion, it's beautifully written, and I suggest you read it here. We had recently learned about his work as a chemist via the documentary The Sunshine Makers. This documentary focuses on the role Sands and his colleagues played in manufacturing LSD and pioneering an ongoing psychedelic revolution. In The Sunshine Makers, Sands admits to originally thinking that widespread use of LSD would change the world by allowing everyone to transcend their internal barriers to experiencing authentic love. After years of successfully “turning people on,” he remained dedicated to his mission despite openly recognizing its flaws—made evident by the fact that widespread use of LSD failed to bring an end to violence and oppression. Personally, I agree with Sands that LSD (& other drugs) can be useful in sparking real change toward a more loving, authentic, life honoring existence for everyone. Yet, I do not think that the use (or even abuse) of any substance can ever have as much power as the use (and also abuse) of our voices.

DPA does lots of important work. It simplifies the process of alerting our elected officials when drug policy reform is up for debate. It supplies clean syringes and life saving medicines (like Naloxone) to people who need them. Perhaps most importantly, it facilitates meetings like Not One Step Back which give people a forum for sharing their stories and, thereby, creating needed changes to both drug policy and society as a whole. DPA will be returning to Atlanta in October for a comprehensive 3 day long event, and you can register for that here. I will see you there.

A NORML Mom Connects w/ Cherokee County

Connections are NORML. Scroll down to read more.

In my mind's eye Larry Hill is always sitting beside my husband's grandfather Dan. At 85, Dan came to live with my family for several months last year prior to relocating to an assisted living facility this spring. Dan bonded with Larry on the 4^th of July when they both showed up at a concert in north Georgia wearing the same hat. The hats marked them each as much decorated veterans of the US Army, and they became fast friends.

A few weeks ago, Larry and his son Danny were apprehended in Gilmer County, Georgia, for their work growing and distributing cannabis. They claim the venture was largely a labor of love, motivated less by profit than by a spiritual calling to help people in need. Their primary focus was the manufacture of cannabis oil formulated to treat or alleviate the symptoms of many illnesses for which the use of cannabis oil is actually deemed legal in Georgia. Of course, the problems with Georgia's existing medical marijuana laws are multi-fold:

1. The process of being approved for a Georgia medical card is much more difficult than simply receiving a diagnosis, and many people are dissuaded from even attempting it.
2. While card holders can legally consume cannabis oil in Georgia, it remains illegal to cultivate cannabis within the state or to transport it across state lines.
3. The formula of cannabis oil approved for medical use in Georgia lacks the potency to effectively treat the approved conditions.

Immediately following the Hills' arrest, the Gilmer County Sheriff's Department made a post to Facebook showing grinning police officers hunkered around the plants they'd seized. While the intention behind posts like this seems to be instilling fear and garnering support for being “tough on drugs,” the result is often quite different than anticipated. In Georgia, this is largely thanks to Peachtree NORML, whose members flood these posts with comments condemning the drug war, educating the public about responsible use and declaring that unjust laws are far more criminal than the citizens who break them. Peachtree NORML's response to the Hills' arrest was so forceful that the sheriff's department removed the post. It is also thanks to our online response that Danny Hill realized NORML (the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Law) even exists.

The more I become involved in NORML's work, the more I realize how many potential allies remain in the dark about us. While that may initially seem disheartening, I actually find it to be a source of encouragement. All hands are far from on deck. I'm excited to see how much we can accomplish when all supporters step into the light. Last night Larry and Danny Hill, who are presently out on bond, visited a crowded room at Las Palmas in Holly Springs. They had come to deliver a speech to members of Peachtree NORML based in Cherokee County. Just being there, they played an important role in inspiring more people to act.

For those of you who may be wondering, NORML formed as a national organization in the 70s and has chapters within each state. Peachtree NORML, which meets in Atlanta near 5 Points, is Georgia's official chapter. Peachtree NORML has branches in different regions of the state, and the Holly Springs-based Cherokee County group is one of these. Peachtree NORML came to Holly Springs in fall 2016 thanks largely to the initiative of its leader Connie Malhiot. However, in addition to being devoted to the cause, Connie is also admirably devoted to her family, and they have needed an unanticipated amount of support in the past months.

While Connie's limited involvement has slowed momentum in Cherokee County to some degree, last night I encountered a group of devoted, passionate and self-directed members who have staying power of their own. I also witnessed them attract more members in real time. A mother and daughter duo (clad in t-shirts they custom design to protest the Trump administration) traveled from Lawrenceville to learn what they can do to forward NORML's work. Meanwhile, the Cherokee County Democrats were meeting in the room next to us. As we were leaving, their group approached us, and we began a conversation about the ways our causes intersect.

In my opinion, this is the way of the future. Individuals and identity groups alike need to come out of the closet and stand together on common ground. NORML provides an excellent platform for doing this, and there is no time like the present. Long regarded as a day of celebration for cannabis enthusiasts, 4/20 will be here tomorrow and is bringing with it tons of opportunities for Atlanta activists to connect, both Thursday and throughout the weekend. Links to recommended events are at the bottom of this post.

While you're exploring the links to this week's programs, please take a moment to check out our new allies' causes as well. You can find out more about Cherokee County Democrats here. Pictured second from the right, Rebekah Shelnutt is a defense attorney whom you can connect with by emailing shelnuttlaw@gmail.com. Harlem Howard is pictured on the far right in one of her shirts. Please go here to view more of her designs and to read more about her history with medical marijuana.

Now, here's what's up in Atlanta this week:

420 Safe Access Rally (Thursday, 4/20, 9 AM – 1 PM, Washington Park, Atlanta)

Liberty Plaza 420 Rally (Thursday, 4/20, 10:30 AM - 4:20 PM, Liberty Plaza, Atlanta)

Not One Step Back, A One Day Strategy Session on The Drug War, Mass Incarceration & Public Health in the Age of Trump (Saturday, 4/22, 9:30 AM - 5:30 PM, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta)

You are also always invited to attend Peachtree NORML's monthly meetings. Information about the next one is here.

I will be coming out Saturday and look forward to seeing you there. As always, when we're talking, we're winning. If you like this post, let it be a seed. Share it and watch it grow.

A NORML Mom Finds Some Treasure

Treasure comes in many forms. In my world, the deepest treasures are usually related to experiences, literature/art, and plant medicine. A couple weeks ago at Charis in Atlanta, I found the first two types of treasure.

My loyal readers will recognize Charis as a regular fixture in my life, but my children have been in the dark. Sensory processing differences and Autism Spectrum Disorder make reading extra challenging for them, so they embrace our local Barnes & Noble more for the train set, hot chocolate, music and movies. The books feel almost like an afterthought.

While Charis warmly welcomes guests with free herbal tea, it's definitely a book lover's bookstore. I expected my children to case the floor and head for the door, but instead they sat down in rocking chairs with stacks of books. I was stunned.

Then, I looked up and made another happy discovery. On prominent display, near the area where I sometimes read poetry aloud, was my friend Lasara's book, Jailbreaking the Goddess: A Radical Revisioning of Feminist Spirituality.

These things may seem small, but I am grateful:

1. My children and I established some unexpected common ground.
2. I saw evidence that my children's therapy is having results.
3. Finding Lasara's book felt like some kind of cosmic hello from our mutual friend, Corina, who died around one year ago.

We remained there for about one hour reading, snapping our selfies, and exploring the store's dusty corners and bright spaces. No one questioned my NORML shirt or so much as batted an eye. What struck me most about this was my sense of privilege.

In Jailbreaking the Goddess, Lasara writes about deconstructing long held ideas as they apply to our culture and ourselves. Offering full disclosure about her background and motivation, she states : I recognize the privilege I hold and have made a commitment to using that privilege as a tool for dismantling the system within which it exists.

Drawing on that same energy, I acknowledge my privilege to wear my NORML shirts unquestioned to progressive bookstores where my special needs children thrive. I will use this privilege to continue giving voice to a movement whose greatest beneficiaries still struggle to tell their stories and to attain safe access to a plant they need.

There is much to be happy about regarding Georgia, and the wider USA's, slow embrace of cannabis reform. However, I fear Peachtree NORML's executive director Sharon Ravert is still correct in her recently publicized statement: There are three words in Georgia that can get you killed: I smell marijuana.

As always, these posts plant seeds. Please like, share, and help the movement grow! Also, here are links to some of the biggest stories and opportunities in local and national cannabis reform right now:

NORML's Action Center (A petition urging support for an existing bill to end federal prohibition of marijuana is available here.)

Liberty America's 420 Rally & Creativity Contest (4/20 event in Atlanta, GA)

Not One Step Back (4/22 workshop in Atlanta, GA)

PS: Aside from being an inspiring read, Jailbreaking the Goddess fits like a puzzle piece within a workshop I'm developing for ATL Craft about magic, mental health and removing stigma. I'm excited to share more about that in upcoming posts. Meanwhile, Atlanta readers, please go visit Haley Murphy's new shop in Atlanta's Old 4th Ward across from Sister Louisa's Church of the Living Room & Ping Pong Emporium. ATL Craft is a great place to discover treasure within the city.

A NORML Mom Gets on the Bus

Here I am with my "Bus Buddy" Activist Mom Cheryl C.

Everything about my departure to Washington DC has been somewhat delayed, including this post. Instead of being perched behind my laptop at a comfy coffee shop, I am typing from my phone while twisted into the aisle seat of a chartered bus. It strikes me that I don't quite notice just how uncomfortable this is when I am speaking to my new friend and "bus buddy" Cheryl or even when I'm writing. It's amid the dark silence, within which the other women appear to be sleeping, that my legs and mind bend and ache. In other words, it's best to keep active, thinking forward.

As I write this now though, having just departed a gas station with my Revolution Tea in hand, the women around me are waking up loudly. There are grunts, groans, cheers, doubts, apologies, and spilled coffee. It strikes me that our collective voice right now does not exactly feel like the breeding ground for a progressive revolution, and yet, I remind myself, again, that the many disparite threads uniting us is potentially this movement's greatest strength.

One of my personal threads, as always, is my drive to end cannabis prohibition. I am wearing a button on my hat today to show this. I wore the same button on my jacket last week when I traveled to Athens to participate in photographer Kaylinn Gilstrap's march-inspired photo story for The Bitter Southerner. That feature is set to run after we marchers return, and my interview with Kaylinn and her assistant Devin will post then as well. For now, I can give you a head's up: They dig my button and are ready to smell change in the air.

Traveling onward, I ask you think of me today. Yesterday some riots turned violent, and I need you to picture me all wrapped up in protective smoke. ;) Thank you always for spreading the word and helping it grow.

Close-up of my button against my yellow march hat. Yellow is the official color of GA marchers in honor of the monarch butterfly. Hats were hand knitted in GA & funds raised help finance women's bus rides to Washington.

A NORML Mom Stays Home

I travel often, not exactly big trips, but a handful of small ones. I feel like at least half my life passes behind the wheel of my car. My children know this, and, for them, one of the biggest gifts of the holiday season has been the days I've spent at home. These give to me as well. Lots of joy and wonder comes from watching my son's epic ninja battles with his shadow. I also feel a tender pride in witnessing my daughter as her childlike wonder at the stories she's been told for years transforms, slowly and sweetly, into a more mature awe at the magic of all which remains unknown and ripe for discovery.

Since my husband filled my gift boxes with awesome NORML gear this Christmas, much of my time home has been as NORML mom. As I've been enjoying the opportunity to focus on my immediate family, it also strikes me that many people have this right taken due to an unwinnable war--not so much on the drugs themselves as on the people who are too easily stigmatized and vilified for their decision to use them.

NORML Dad swings in on the Christmas action

As an advocate for responsible adult cannabis use, I'm particularly struck that even the mildest stigma against this implies users are trying to escape their lives and condemns them for doing so. This disturbs me because my experience has been that regular, responsible users are not seeking escape. They are more likely using their preferred medicine to step out of the chaotic web of thought which generally holds them back so that they can better accept and embrace each moment as it is and, thanks to this, function as more effective and engaged partners, parents, professionals and people.

Whatever the case may be, I certainly feel that possession of cannabis is never a reason for there to be an empty chair in anyone's home. Our future attorney general Jeff Sessions has said "Good people don't smoke pot." All I can say to this is that he and I must have very different definitions of Good People.

While staying home today, I am taking steps (if just from my laptop) to help the leaders of NORML continue their work defending, protecting and increasing people's right to use cannabis in the USA.

My local chapter of PeachTree NORML is currently accepting donations to its end of year gift matching campaign, through which an anonymous donor has agreed to match all contributions up to $7500 USD. Please click here to learn more!!

Meanwhile, NORML's national headquarters is building a team of 100 monthly contributors prior to the end of 2016. Please click here to learn more!!

Finally, if you would like to see more of my writing and have $1 to spare per month, please consider becoming my patron. Click here for the details!!

As always, when we're talking, we're winning. At the very least, please spread the word and watch it grow. 

A NORML Mom Returns to Athens

NORML Mom & Dad @ Pain & Wonder

I turned 34 a few weeks ago. My parents gave me treasures from Barnes & Noble, and my children invited our neighbors over for an impromptu dance party, which I catered with pre-purchased Halloween candy and a random bag of chips. A few days later, NORML Dad and I went car hunting in our cannabis clad shirts and turned the outing into a daring adventure to Athens, Georgia, complete with tattoos.

Athens is special to me, as well as to my relationship with cannabis.

I was born there in 1982. I left during my infancy and didn't return until I enrolled at The University of Georgia in 2001. At UGA, I silently mourned that my secret high school love interest seemed more interested in a plant than in knowing me better. I also celebrated the way my new friends embraced me as an honorary member of their “smokers circle,” despite the fact that I did not smoke anything (tobacco or cannabis) at the time. Really, we all just found solidarity in our strangeness and felt more at home passing time together on the lawn than alone in our dorm rooms. That the smokers circle typically lived up to its name seemed almost beside the point to me.

In retrospect, I think it's extra cool that my stoner friends trusted me to be sober among them. While I was already a strong supporter of legalization as a human rights and medical measure back then, I hadn't yet had the personal experience needed to appropriately contextualize marijuana's effects on the psyche. In more direct terms: It was overly easy for me to demonize weed as needed, wrongly holding it more accountable for individual's bad behavior than the individuals themselves. This was key in interactions with my ex-boyfriend, whom I once demanded break his bong as a condition of staying with me.

@ Bromsgrove Apartments,
Former Scene of a Tragic Bong Breaking

Sorry, man. I totally blame my youth.

Revisiting Bromsgrove Apartments (the scene of the historic bong breaking) with NORML Dad some 12 years later, I'm thankful that I have a higher perspective now. I am also happy that I'm not alone. As of this month's election, a total of 7 states (CA, NV, MA, ME, plus CO, WA & OR) have approved the legal use of recreational cannabis. Of course, I also recognize that there is still a strong stigma to overcome and a lot more about its effects for everyone to understand. Some links to some of of the best articles I've encountered thus far about the new legislation are listed here for your reading pleasure:

Business Insider's Report on the Programs Supported by Cannabis Tax Revenue

NORML Founder Keith Stroup on the Recent Wins for Cannabis 

An Overview of Denver's Prop 300 Authorizing Public Pot!

I'm also working on my own project and would love your support making The Safety First Book Campaign reality. To contribute, please click here!

As both Safety First and this post are concerned, please spread the word and help it grow!

Finally, Athenians, take note: The local Athens chapter of Peachtree NORML continues to meet monthly. Please click here for a calendar, and go connect! Local chapters of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy have also been doing an excellent job of raising awareness and promoting positive change in Athens.Thank you!

A NORML Mom Joins the Coffee Party & Starts a Project, Safety First: A Story of Cannabis & Change

Want some liberty with your coffee? How normal is that?

I returned to Peachtree NORML's Atlanta meetings when Peachtree NORML returned to the heart of Atlanta, AKA Manuel's Tavern. The past several months have passed with somewhat lower-than-usual attendance while I tended to my son's recovery and Manuel's underwent a major renovation. Peachtree NORML's return found us, no longer sequestered in our designated room off to the side of the bar, but rather in back of the main dining area behind a thick red curtain.

The symbolism of our new curtained position runs deep if you choose to ponder it. Yet, what stands out most to me about the return to Manuel's is the atmosphere of friendship which permeates the meetings, as well as the fleeting quality of the conversations seeded there. Within Peachtree NORML, we have attorneys, activists, parents, patients, politicians and people doing time on pot-provoked probation. We are all quick to listen to one another and to treat each other with kindness. Yet, we don't quite seek each other out of the crowd either. It is necessary first to speak up and, from that, to allow the unique connections to form. For some of us, that comes easily. However, for others, it strikes me that subdued silence is still a very natural response to supporting something which, for decades, has carried a necessary sense of secrecy coupled with a strong stigma.

During my return to Peachtree NORML, I thought of the importance of speaking up first when our guest, Georgia State Senate candidate Tamara Johnson Shealey, took the floor. She has a powerful, pro-cannabis, pro-human rights message, but had to be reminded by our other guest, attorney Walker L.Chandler, to speak so that all could hear. Later in the evening the need to speak up resurfaced when I rose to purchase a new NORML shirt. This inspired me to say something about NORML Mom to handful of people near me, which in turn motivated me to take a picture. I decided, on a whim, the shot would be better if I weren't in it alone, so I enlisted my newest acquaintance, Bobby Rodrigo.

While Bobby had spent most of the evening sitting attentively with Peachtree NORML veteran member Ted Metz at the table next to mine, he opened his mouth to reveal a boisterous, “larger than life,” personality built on his dynamic career as a journalist, activist, business owner, board member of Coffee Party USA and producer/host of the related radio show  I Take Liberty with My Coffee.

I had never heard of the Coffee Party prior to meeting Bobby, so I checked them out online. According to the official website:

Coffee Party USA is a grassroots,transpartisan movement that aims to restore the principles of our republic and spirit of a representative democracy in America. It started on Facebook as a popular fan page in January 2010 and has since blossomed into a national 501c4 non-profit organization with a network of nearly a million people.

One of the hallmarks of membership is the agreement to sign a Civility Pledge, which sets ground rules for speaking up respectfully. The Coffee Party serves as a very timely reminder of the good which comes when a wide variety of people simply decide to speak up and listen.

I have joined The Coffee Party now and signed the pledge myself. However, my voice speaks loudest through my personal writing, and the last NORML meeting I attended left me inspired to go ahead and launch my own campaign, the Safety First Book Writing Project. Like NORML Mom, Safety First: A Story of Cannabis and Change will focus on removing the stigma surrounding cannabis in a way which is informative, entertaining and familiar while also broad in its scope.

As always, if anything here resonates, please spread the word and help it grow!

Also, please take note that select NORML Mom installments and similar work will be re-posted on Peachtree NORML's blog from now moving forward. I'm honored to connect with you here and there!

A NORML Mom Goes to the Mall

My kids like plushies & princess dresses. How normal is that?

After leaving the hospital with my son in April, I've become more reclusive. Meanwhile, fall is approaching, and a new school year has begun. This means I will begin commuting about 60 miles daily to and from Kennesaw, Georgia.

See. My children think differently.

My son is diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and my daughter functions from a similar space, somewhere sort of to the side of the spectrum, in the land of sensory processing and integration differences leading to learning delays. In layman's terms, she's brilliant but can't read, and a traditional classroom's sights, sounds, smells and energy also set off a series of alarms further getting in her way.

I have instead enrolled each of them in Appleseeds Learning Center, an awesome environment where children like mine (but very unique in their own ways) can interact with therapists, teachers and friends who meet them where they are (so to speak) and help them reach and exceed their learning and behavior goals.

Thus far, it's been working out well, and being self-employed myself pretty much means I can work anywhere my laptop can go. Recently, that place was Town Center Mall.

Personally, I'm not much for malls, but my children love Town Center, and sometimes it's the perfect way to decompress after school. We walk in, ride the escalators, head over to the soft play area and, usually, hit the Disney Store. If I'm lucky, my kids will let me work some more while they play, and that's exactly what I was doing the other day when I got re-introduced to my activism.

It happened casually and ,just a touch, awkwardly, enough to be endearing. A nice-seeming dad from across the soft play area approached me and commented on the NORML Women's Alliance sticker he and his wife had spotted on my laptop. It turns out his name is Marshall, and along with his wife and their friend Connie, he was on the verge on beginning a new chapter of Peachtree NORML, meeting in Woodstock to better serve the Northwest Georgia area. Thanks to his invite, this Tuesday, I re-entered the fray. I will be writing more about the new chapter (and the fantastic leaders and members I encountered there) in Peachtree NORML's upcoming newsletter, but I do want to go ahead and encourage anyone interested to connect with Northwest Georgia NORML via this link to their new Facebook page.

For the sake of my NORML Mom column, I want to share my personal take-away from meeting Marshall at the mall: 

Wearing the NORML gear out publicly isn't just an opportunity to educate. It's also an opportunity to connect with each other, to signal each other that we're here, ready and willing to work together.

I went back to Town Center Mall yesterday in a NORML shirt for this post's photo opp. No one blinked an eye really, but as I snapped the shot outside the Disney Store, I got to thinking: What does Disney (bastion of family-centered creative American culture that it is) think of pot?

Not much, one way or the other, it seems.

After some Googling, I found only musings on pot-smoking princesses, an interesting Leafly review of the strain Disney Blue and this article about how Osceola County, Florida (one of the places Disney World is located) has recently passed measures for decriminalization. As a result, Disney visitors caught with less than 20 grams of marijuana on the Osceola side of the property could walk away with no criminal record and a $100 USD fine. At least my search tuned up a little good news. It also pointed my mind back to Georgia.

Since I've been off-line, the town of Clarkston, Georgia, passed municipal laws which allow law enforcement to choose between issuing the standard state penalties or allowing people who possess less than one ounce of marijuana to pay a $75 fine and forego jail time. It's a small but important step, which you can read about here.

If you're feeling the movement, as always, please let this post be a seed. Comment, share & watch it grow!

A NORML Mom Goes to the Hospital

Healing's needed. How normal is that?

The accident happened the evening before Easter. It had been the kind of day when there is a lot of pent up energy bursting to be free. NORML Dad had just returned from West Virginia. Tons of guest musicians had come over for a cook-out. Some were having creative breakdowns and others creative breakthroughs. By the time dusk had almost settled, my kids had already required rescue several times as they darted perilously close to the road in front of the house.

When they finally migrated to the back yard, I felt enough relief to go inside the kitchen while NORML Dad finished up hot dogs and corn on the cob on the back deck. He was calling the kids over to eat when the screaming started. My children's rough housing ended up with the youngest falling face first on a small picket fence around his swing set and impacting his left eye.

Everyone mobilized as I dialed 911, headed to the local hospital and later was transferred to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Egleston. The initial diagnosis was an orbital fracture needing follow up care and maybe surgery but likely healing on its own. Then a routine visit to the pediatric ophthalmologist suggested there may be additional complications, some very serious. We were admitted to the children's hospital again for an MRI. As anesthesia rapidly hit, I felt my son go completely limp in my arms. I silently allowed myself to mourn what felt like his death. Later I accepted his generally good prognosis with gratitude humbled by uncertainty.

I had originally planned to spend this weekend in New York City. At UNGASS 2016, I would stand with Peachtree NORML and Moms United to End the Drug War. I was going to make history and connections. I was also going to receive a needed reprieve from the chaos of my life.

Now, there is nowhere I'd rather be than at my son's side. I'm also feeling more motivated than ever to inspire change in the area of marijuana legalization. I have directly felt the intensity of fearing for my child's life when the relative risk is low and treatment possible. I cannot imagine the pain which must exist when the risk is high and the best treatment's illegal to obtain. Something has to change. Better yet, something has to heal.

Marijuana legalization, in my opinion, represents a form of social healing. Like my son's physical recovery, this is a process which requires persistence and time.

One simple starting point is signing the Moms United Bill of Rights.

Another is joining local activist groups, including your NORML chapter.

Another is actively sharing your own voice and others which help lessen the stigma against marijuana and its supporters.

If you've liked what you've read here, please spread the word and help it grow.

A NORML Mom Goes to the Capitol

The golden dome of the Georgia Capitol dominates its corner of the Atlanta skyline. It's a symbol of both art and order, beneath which something important must be happening, or so it seems. 

Today I ventured to the Capitol for the first time since my elementary school tour. I was coming for something dubbed Annual Cannabis Awareness Day. However, this title was more relevant to the information session on Georgia's emerging medical marijuana legislation which took place across the street an hour or so prior to my arrival. Instead, the action I got in on within the Capitol itself seemed no more focused on marijuana than on any other single cause. It was instead a frenetic jumble of beautifully contained chaos.

What I learned is that, every day of the legislative session, crowds of paid lobbyists and common constituents alike are invited to complete a slip of paper requesting a few minutes to chat with their selected state representative or senator on topics close to their hearts, minds or pocket books. A page (seemingly an intern or high achieving high school student) takes the slip to the named legislator's chambers and then either leaves a message or escorts the requested legislator to a red rope running down a crowded aisle where quick conversations happen and, hopefully, open the doorway to deeper communication.

In my experience today, intimidation within the Capitol halls fades quickly to exhilaration, and everyone walks away with the reminder that we're all human, struggling together to find our voices and make collective sense of the messy and mysterious existence we share.

Michelle, Sharon & I, women against prohibition

As the messy mystery of marijuana is concerned, I left the Capitol and headed to my beloved Little 5 Points, where I ate at Savage Pizza and penned some letters to my state legislators, Chuck Hufstetler (whom I hope to meet) and Christian Coomer (whom I've actually had the pleasure of meeting years ago). The subject of my letters is Georgia HB 722, a bill which Representative Allen Peake introduced to expand the Haleigh’s Hope Act. Initially, HB 722 removed THC caps, added approved medical marijuana conditions and allowed for in state cultivation. The most recent iteration of the bill, however, does little more than slightly expand the approved conditions list. My letters encourage my congressional leaders to reclaim Peake's original vision, especially the part which allows in-state cultivation. Left as is, approved medical marijuana recipients under Georgia law must break federal law to travel out of state to acquire the medicine they need.

Writing to my congressmen about this got me thinking a little more about why marijuana reform is SO important to me personally. I came up with 5 reasons:

1.Supporting marijuana reform means being able to admit that sometimes people are wrong. Generations of respectable folks have demonized marijuana and its users despite substantive evidence that the substance actually does more good than harm. It takes some serious strength for powerful people to say:  We've made a mistake. Let's make it right.
2. I want my children to grow up within a generation of strong people who know how to responsibly use marijuana and can spend their serious time focused on more important issues--like prison reform, smarter international policy and methods of coping with previous generations' ecological abuse of our planet.


3. I also want my children to have the freedom to relax and enjoy the added beauty which marijuana use can bring to simple things like listening to music, reading a book, going for a walk, or talking to family and friends without fear that they will be arrested or interrogated by the CPS.
.
4. The realization of marijuana law reform will be a great contemporary example of how democracy can work to actualize tangible change, thereby increasing general faith in our government and inspiring others to use the system to accomplish other meaningful goals. 


5. As Dr. Sanjay Gupta has said, marijuana is sometimes the only medicine that works. I cannot accept that is okay to deny sick people good and plentiful medicine simply because doing so breaks an outdated and prejudiced law.

NORML does a great job of allowing individuals to find legislation relevant to their state. To get started connecting with your legislators, click here.

Finally, I want to give a very special shout to Peachtree NORML's Sharon Ravert, Ted Metz, Dean Sines and Michelle, who gave me hands-on help navigating the Capitol today. Ted also took the photos displayed within this post and is running for US Senate! To find out more about his platform, click here.  In the first picture, also note the unintentional symbolism: There are fewer steps ahead of me than behind me, but it's still a climb. An elderly couple (representing older ways of thinking) is walking past, but there is still a shadowed figure at the door.To me, this represents challenges ahead of marijuana reform, which, when brought to light, will be overcome.

Introducing NORML Dad

Being a NORML mom also takes a NORML dad. While my marriage to my children's father seems to take its cues from one of the stranger couples in an Esther Perel guidebook, it has instilled me with an appreciation for the journey.

NORML Dad & I shakin' up a cocktail: Crickets at Night

In our household, "one step at a time" is the mantra as a bunch of slightly troubled adults try to make peace with themselves, their careers and the gaggle of children they are parenting and co-parenting together. Really, it's a familiar struggle. Yet,when most families insist their experiences fit within established, time-tested cultural parameters--mine doesn't. Instead, it feels more natural to us to create our own guidelines, often as we go along.

Marijuana-related reform is much the same. It's taking a deep dive into uncharted waters--not out of recklessness, but rather out of the need to finally chart the territory so that the next generation can safely use it for recreation and nourishment, with ease and tranquility.

Note: Uncle J. beside me is holding a spinach ball. Honest.

Christopher Ryan, aka NORML Dad, managed to survive 40 years (most as an artist and musician) without ever knowing NORML existed, and he was initially skeptical of my involvement with the organization. Then I purchased him a membership in National NORML, and he received a green t-shirt adorned with a classic rendition of a pot leaf. Grumpy about this at first, he wore it to Atlanta's Little 5 Points and hasn't looked back. People hugged him. Teared. Thanked him. And, finally, asked him about NORML's work.

 Little 5 Points carries a reputation. It's cool, hip, beautifully bizarre-- a mecca of creative consumerism and activism as well, being home to the natural foods co-op Sevananda, the feminist book store Charis and even Atlanta's own awareness-raising Pot Shop. Yet, still, knowledge of NORML remained low, and the discovery of its existence brought hope.

A very NORML Christmas Morning

 Due to the success of his outing to Little 5 Points, the green shirt is now a regular part of NORML Dad's wardrobe, appearing at Thanksgiving, New Years and our multiple celebrations of Christmas, effectively helping our children recognize a pot leaf as that special medicine their awkward parents work to support.

Thank you, NORML Dad. As the saying goes, knowledge is power. Also, images speak.

I love you, man.