From: maxwell@deep-13.gizmo.com
Subject: Re: Citizens For Fair Drug Laws
Organization: Gizmonics Institute Inc.
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 18:23:08 GMT
X-Posted-From: fnalo.fnal.gov
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

So schrift n9020351@henson.cc.wwu.edu (James Douglas Del-Vecchio):
>jeh49415@ucbeh.san.uc.edu writes:

>>On another topic,  shouldn't NORML and other pro-legalization groups be trying
>>to buy TV time to get the message across?  WE are getting stomped in the drug
>>war because we don't get the message out.  Sometimes I think that NORML
>
>	YOU are getting stomped in this drug war because your members are
>all high on pot and broke.                              
>
>>national is infiltrated by the FBI or DEA.  Don't put these  activities past
>>these groups.  
>
>	It is infiltrated by lots of people with no money and no influence.
>

JD is perhaps a teensy bit flamey here, but he's definitely correct when he
observes that NORML (and every other anti-prohibition group) is full of people
with no influence. 

There are several reasons for the relative powerlessness of the movement, the
biggest one being that people generally don't get politically involved until 
*after* they've been arrested. (There are exceptions, of course.) Knowing the 
arrest patterns of the Wo(s)D we can quickly understand how the movement has
come to be relatively powerless. Paranoia about becoming aressted comes a close
second.

I think we can do some things to help people get over their aversion to joining
the fight.  

First off, it helps to be a good example.  JD's observation that "... your
members are all high on pot ..." shows what I'm talking about.  It's not true,
but that *is* the perception of many non-involved pot smokers. One thing to do
to counter the misconception that all activists are burned-out stoners is to
always wear a token of the movement. For instance, I have a little gold pot
leaf lapel pin (just like Richard Cowan and Eric Sterling) that I *always*
wear-- it identifies me as an activist, and believe me, I'm no no burned-out
stoner. 

Another thing to help counter the stoner misconception is to do activist
activities in addition to  smoke-ins.  The IMI had pretty good pretty luck when
we set up an information table next to Officer Friendly at a community fair
this summer.  (We were sandwiched between the cops and a rehab hospital-- guess
who had the most visitors!)

We need to disabuse people of the fear that by joining NORML they
become targets of the law. I don't have any big suggestions here except to
stress that if you're involved in the movement, you shouldn't deal and you 
shouldn't grow. 

It helps (in 'murrica) to stress the that the U.S. Constitution provides for
freedom of association. Some groups, such as the IMI, have encrypted their
mailing lists in order to protect this right for their membership against
criminal elements in the prohibitionist cadre.  

Remind non-involved smokers that people are serving prison time for *them*.
 

l8r esterling@igc.apc.org (Eric Sterling) writes:
> 
> 
> Where do turkeys come from who think that NORML is infiltrated by the
> FBI because it doesn't have 100s of thousands of dollars to buy TV
> ads?  You must think that money grows on trees.
> 
> Certainly there are government agents who maintain surveillance (probably
> illegal) on NORML -- but its leadership is not made up of infiltrators.
> 
> A second problem -- which maybe you haven't thought of -- is that the
> news media have the right to reject advertising they don't want to 
> accept.  Mike Rosing at the Illinois Marijuana Initiative actually
> produced some excellent anti-prohibiton ads -- but they were rejected
> by the media outlets that he attempted to buy time on.

And don't forget an *excellent* pair of video ads done by Paul Hager and the 
Hoosier Cannabis Relegalization Coalition (HCRC).  (Paul's hassles with TCI
had a lot to do w/ me going nonlinear and becoming active.)

peace.max
mmonnigh@igc.org
maxwell@fnal.fnal.gov
IMI member.






In article <1484000073@igc.apc.org>, esterling@igc.apc.org (Eric Sterling) writes:
> 
> 
> Where do turkeys come from who think that NORML is infiltrated by the
> FBI because it doesn't have 100s of thousands of dollars to buy TV
> ads?  You must think that money grows on trees.
> 
> Certainly there are government agents who maintain surveillance (probably
> illegal) on NORML -- but its leadership is not made up of infiltrators.
> 
> A second problem -- which maybe you haven't thought of -- is that the
> news media have the right to reject advertising they don't want to 
> accept.  Mike Rosing at the Illinois Marijuana Initiative actually
> produced some excellent anti-prohibiton ads -- but they were rejected
> by the media outlets that he attempted to buy time on.
> 
> Since you're obviously very concerned about this, why not write the
> script for a 30 second spot of the kind that you would like to see -- it's
> only a hundred or so words, so it won't really strain you -- aned
> and take it down to your local TV station and ask them if they would
> sell you the time to put on such an ad.  And post your proposed ad,
> we'd all like to see it -- especially from someone who hasn't been
> "infiltrated."
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs,alt.drugs