Marijuana.com

Jake

The thread title is basically the question I'd like to get answered here...

Issues like abortion (effects 51% of the population) and gay marriage (effects 11% of the population) are big time "issues" that come up when discussing almost any candidate in any race. It's an issue that people just "know" about the person.

What should we do in order to elevate legalization to this status?

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Noeone

We should give people AIDS, give them a personal steak in this, especially the DEA.
How we are going to infect thousands of people with AIDS is another question entirely.


In all seriousness though I don't think there is any reliable way to get the public at
large to care about the issue without the raw media attention abortion and gay
marriage got. Not to mention we are still fighting against a long history of mind
numbing propaganda, and ungodly funding.

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In any case civilization has made mankind if not more bloodthirsty, at least more vilely, more loathsomely bloodthirsty. In old days he saw justice in bloodshed and with his conscience at peace exterminated those he thought proper. Now we do think bloodshed abominable and yet we engage in this abomination, and with more energy than ever. Which is worse? -Fyodor Dostoevsky

Buzzby

Women (51%) and gays (11%) actually seem to give a damn about abortion and gay marriage. They are quite vocal about it. This creates a secondary interest in the people around them. Marijuana users, OTOH, don't seem to give a shit about legalization.

Only 0.25% of the estimated 24,000,000 marijuana users have elected to join any one of the three major pro-legalization organizations. If we don't care, why should anyone else?

I'd say that the first step in getting the non-smoking public to actually start caring is to actually start caring ourselves.

Join NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws)

Join MPP (Marijuana Policy Project)

Join DPA (Drug Policy Alliance)

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Viper420

Alot of people care and want marijuana to be available to sick people but here is where the problem comes in at and you can see it in California. There are a huge number of people who are fakers. People who claim to need marijuana for illnesses but in reality just want to get high. 60 minutes did an excellent job in exposing this. Until that problem is cleared up extensively then we are going to be right where we are at now.

feedyourhead187

The issue comes down to claims-making. It's a sociological concept that describes how certain issues are turned into significant "social problems" on a large scale.

The prohibitionists did it in the 1920 with alcohol, then in the 1930s with marijuana; yet there was no precedent for it in public opinion.

We have to find a way to FRAME the problem so that the average person cares. We've been trying to do it from the compassionate medical angle, but it doesn't work because of "fakers" and the FDA claiming there are alternatives.

The problem needs to appear as...less relative. For instance, one angle could be to approach it from a LIBERTY standpoint. The government's role is to minimize the harm that comes to the public, but they're not supposed to infringe upon people's individual liberties by doing so. The government doesn't tell you that you can't drink bleach or commit suicide, yet you can't light a plant on fire and inhale the smoke? We can try and connect it to the public backlash against the patriot act and the government's infringement of basic liberties.

In a way, this problem requires some serious skewing of the facts and manipulating of people's emotions and sensibilities. Just like the construction of any social problem. That doesn't change the fact that it is a REAL issue, a REAL problem, and that prohibition is a ridiculous, stupid idea. But the public doesn't believe that.

We need to make the issue applicable to everyone in some way. I don't know how to do that yet.

 

SpiralArchitect

Good question Jake. I think Buzzby is right, we need to first make the point that we are passionate about marijuana legalization to get the nonsmoking community involved. People just don't realize how wrong these laws really are because they don't find them to involve them, the point needs to be driven that this is an injustice towards freedom of American citizens - not just marijuana.

In fact I am planning on making my first contribution to NORML very soon (in a Thanksgiving-way. I am grateful to enjoy herb, and it is about time we start voicing our opinions, me especially).

There are other things we can do too I guess, spark up conversation with non-smokers about their views on legalization and perhaps tell them of the unjustices you have witnessed not only personally as a smoker, but the nation as a whole.

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Buzzby

While word-of-mouth is great, to make an optimum impact we need to get our message out into the mass media. Protests get very little coverage. We need to provide the funds to buy advertising in print, radio, and television.

The ONDCP spends $120,000,000 a year on television advertising alone. The three major pro-legalization organization scrape by on a combined budget of less than $18 million for everything. In a propaganda war, which this is, the side that can buy the best propaganda wins. There is one full-time pro-marijuana lobbyist in DC. Big Pharma, Big Tobacco, and Big Alcohol have scores of them, and they have deep pockets to contribute to political campaigns. We're hardly even in that game.

If every cannabis consumer in this country contributed 1% of what they spend on weed and paraphernalia, the movement for legalization would have $400,000,000 a year to spend on changing the laws in the USA.

Join NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws)

Join MPP (Marijuana Policy Project)

Join DPA (Drug Policy Alliance)

Mike C

Raciscm, classism and lack of justice and liberty is usually a good starting point. And if they have kids or friends or family members they care about, ask them how they would feel if they were arrested or penalized even for the slightest experimentation with marijuana. That usually works. For an idea of the racism thing check the video under my thread "Massacusetts Marijuana Decrim Hearing"..

Viper420

And after you've fixed all those problems, marijuana, along with most mammalian species, will be extinct by then.

Iwasfn47

Very very interesting info Buzzby. Next spare $25 that i find I'm sending to norml and becoming a member.