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? [14] ANEWS (1:343/70) ?????????????????????????????????????????? ECHOMAIL008 ?
 Msg  : 195 of 207                                                              
 From : Mike Swartzbeck             1:109/70.816            30 Dec 92  23:41:00 
 To   : All                                                                     
 Subj : Resistance 1/2                                                          
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
.MSGID: 1:109/70.816@fidonet A767E423
.PID: MacWoof 1.5.3
NORML Announces the Organization of "The Resistance"
Part 1 of 2

Following is a message from the new national director of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), announcing the
"Organization of 'The Resistance'", November 1992.

The following is posted without any permission whatsoever from NORML, although
I'm sure they'll be pleasantly surprised.


I am writing this on the occasion of the election of a new President of the
United States, which presents us with a unique opportunity that we must seize.
During the election campaign there was much talk about "change", but the only
talk about marijuana consisted of jokes about "inhaling". This is the first
change we must make.

Marijuana prohibition is no joke to someone who is sick with cancer, AIDS,
glaucoma, or to someone in a wheelchair. Marijuana prohibition is no joke to
people losing their property for possession of a gram of vegetable matter, or to
someone serving a sentence longer than the average sentence for murder for
growing a few plants. So, we must begin by making marijuana prohibition an issue
that is taken as seriously by the media and by our friends, and by this new
administration, as it is by the enemies of our freedom.

We must begin by demonstrating that we take our own issue seriously by building
a new NORML and building coalitions ont only within the fractured marijuana
reform movement, but also with our allies across the political spectrum. If we
do not do this, how can we expect others to take us seriously? Marijuana
prohibition has never been a joke, so it is past time for reform movement to
stop being a joke.

During the last twelve years what I have called the Narcocracy has taken on a
life of its own, corrupting not only law enforcement, but also education and
even the military. It has become its own "special interest", independent of, --
and now threatening -- the political process that created it.

Of course, if this tyranny was not self-imposed, if soe foreign power had done
this to us, there would long since have been a genuine "resistance movement".

"The Active Resistance" will be the name of a new NORML publication we will
inaugurate along with the new Clinton administration, but it also must be the
new name for the reform movement as a symbol of our new-found seriousness and
commitment to what has become a genuine life-and-death struggle between the
friends of freedom and the forces of tyranny.

The average American may think that this is a dramatic overstatement, but the
average American has no idea about what is really going on in our country. The
sick and dying are being denied medicine to ease their suffering. Lives are
being wrecked and Americans are being corrupted by the spoils of the "drug war".

In the "Velvet Revolution" led by the great Czech Vaclev Havel, the people of
Prague told the Communists and their thugs, "Don't be afraid. We are not like
you." This must be precisely our message to the Narcocracy and its
collaborators. We are not like them. They use lies, violence, and hatred to get
the American people conditioned to give up their freedom. We must use truth,
courage, and love to lead them to reclaim their rights.

I believe that medical access to marijuana is not peripheral to marijuana
prohibition, although logically it should be. In fact, it is central.

First, nothing more conclusively demonstrates the fanatic cruelty and dishonesty
of the Narcocracy than this. Second, the Narcocracy knows that it cannot afford
to have hundreds of thousands of Americans with legal access to marijuana and
who consequently cannot be terrorized into silence the way millions of smokers
(perhaps even you?) are today.

Consequently, we must now coalesce around this issue, in the way that resistance
movements have historically grouped in an impregnable mountain redoubt. This is
an unassailable high ground on which they can't win, from which we will begin to
take back freedom for everyone.

<continues>

--- MacWoof Eval:21Dec92
 * Origin: Don't be afraid. We are not like you. (1:109/70.816@fidonet)
.PATH: 30039/816 109/70 343 25 396/1 13/13 138/112 343/300


? [14] ANEWS (1:343/70) ?????????????????????????????????????????? ECHOMAIL008 ?
 Msg  : 196 of 207                                                              
 From : Mike Swartzbeck             1:109/70.816            30 Dec 92  23:42:00 
 To   : All                                                                     
 Subj : Resistance 2/2                                                          
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
.MSGID: 1:109/70.816@fidonet A767E456
.PID: MacWoof 1.5.3
NORML Announces the Organization of "The Resistance"
Part 2 of 2


Inevitably the Narcocracy will charge that the reason that we want to give
medicine to sick people is to stop them from arresting healthy people. This is
an illogical half-truth, which closer to the truth than they usually get. But,
in fact, America needs the "medicine" of truth and freedom as badly as the sick
and dying need medical marijuana because freedom is sick and dying, and America
is going blind.

Of course, all this begins with money, and that is where each of you can make a
crucial difference, whatever constraints there may be on your ability to
participate openly in The Resistance. This is something which I understand all
too well.

The process of building a new NORML is really quite simple, after all, this is
not General Motors that we are turning around. It really is just a matter of
basic management and money. Building new coalitions depends first on having the
new NORML capable of handling rapid growth. We must move to a new office, have a
small but efficient staff, and we must be able to afford the travel, mailing and
other communications that are basic to any movement. How these resources are
used, of course, is the crucial question.

Along with upgrading our publications, the first outreach on the medical issue
will be a new association, The Emergency Coalition For Medical Cannabis. I
believe that we can get very substantial support for this from the entertainment
industry. I have already laid the foundation for this in both Los Angeles and
Nashville. But we cannot proceed with this until we have our own house in order.
How fast this can be done is purely a function of the available resources.

As I said in the beginning, we now have a unique opportunity. The new Clinton
administraton must come into office knowing that the marijuana issue is one to
be taken seriously and cannot be ignored with the demagogic drivel about "drugs"
that  characterized the discredited Bush Administration.

During the first hundred days the agenda for the new administration will be set.
The question for us is simply: will medical access to marijuana be on that
agenda? Will marijuana be recognized as an issue separate from "crack and smack"
or will the Narcocracy be allowed to continue to undermine the basic rights of
the American people?

The answer to these questions is largely in your hands. Please give as
generously as you can and reach out to your friends and get them to do likewise.
If any would be more comfortable contributing to the Emergency Coalition (which
is not tax-deductible at this time) they may do so. But please do not let this
moment in history pass without being a part of it. Rights are not given; they
are taken. Freedom must be won, and re-won, again and again.

Thank you for taking the time to support NORML, and consider these points.
Please make a generous contribution today, and please call me if you have any
questions.


Sincerely,
Dick Cowan
National Director

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)
can be reached at 1636 "R" Street NW, #3, Washington DC 20009
Phone 202.483.5500    Fax 202.483.0057



--- MacWoof Eval:21Dec92
 * Origin: Don't be afraid. We are not like you. (1:109/70.816@fidonet)
.PATH: 30039/816 109/70 343 25 396/1 13/13 138/112 343/300