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NORML campaign: Stay on the Grass
Students are encouraged to "Stay on the Grass" Mar. 19 in NORML's campaign to educate the community about marijuana.
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, was founded by Keith Stroup 20 years ago and is a non-profit citizen lobby organization. NORML was first introduced to the St. Cloud campus in the fall of 2000 but has kept a low profile until recently.
"Due to the controversial nature of the group we have focused on maintaining our professionalism and breaking the stereotypes and assumptions people make about our chapter, our group, when it comes to marijuana," SCSU NORML chapter co-founder and senior meteorology major LeeAnn Ilminen said. "But now we are ready for a change, we are ready to come out of the green closet per se."
According to Ilminen, NORML's main focus is on legalizing marijuana for responsible recreational use by otherwise law abiding adult citizens, medicinal purposes and religious practices.
"Of course there should be regulations on it, as there are on alcohol. It's not a free for all," Ilminen said.
The group also focuses on what NORML board member and second-year art education major, Kevin Myers, refers to as marijuana's "cousin," hemp, which was grown in mass amounts in America during the 1930s and '40s.
"The prohibition of hemp has resulted because hemp and marijuana are from the same plant species, Cannabis sativa," Myers said. "Even though the amount of THC (psychoactive compound in hemp) is less than 1 percent."
The "Stay on the Grass" campaign, which is part of a week-long drug awareness program sponsored by NORML, was conceived by member Holly Santiago, a third-year student and mass communications major.
"I hope the program makes people start talking. People need to talk about these issues. It's important to vocalize what the effects of marijuana really are," Santiago said.
Students will get a chance to do just that at an open microphone which is part of "Stay on the Grass" activities.
"The open mic sessions will allow people to come up and say 'Hey, I'm a responsible adult, I have two jobs, I go to school and I smoke marijuana' or 'I support industrial hemp,'" Myers said
In addition to the open mic sessions for all students and faculty, there will be informational kiosks and vendors selling food and clothing made out of hemp to fundraise for the National NORML conference in San Francisco on April 8. To add multiple perspectives to "Stay on the Grass" Ilminen invited other student organizations to get involved as well.
"We want it to be a big diverse event," Ilminen said.
Another part of NORML's drug awareness week is the "Shattered Lives" exhibit that will be on display in Atwood from March 18 to 22.
"It's a clothesline display that will feature stories of people whose lives were ruined by the war on drugs," Ilminen said.
NORML collected the pictures and stories exhibited from various sources, including and exhibit called the November Coalition and book called "Shattered Lives," originally brought to Ilminen's attention by Mary Gaines, a panel speaker during NOVA's Annual Week of Nonviolence.
"Mary works with children and people whose families were affected negatively by the war on drugs. By using the pictures and stories, people can put faces to statistics and that really helps spread awareness," Ilminen said.
There will also be a large, white piece of paper for students to write feedback on.
NORML will have a kiosk in Atwood March 18 - 22 with information available for students and answers to questions they might have. Right now though, they are still in the preparatory processes.
"We are making posters, clothes and setting things up," said Trevor Howard, NORML member and third-year BCIS major.
Most of the preparation goes on at NORML's Sunday afternoon meetings called "Sunday Underground."
"Basically anybody who can't make the meetings on Tuesday at 2 p.m. can come, and it's much more laid back because we are at somebody's house, not at school, and we eat food and hang out and work on our projects," Howard said.
And NORML has another big project right around the corner.
According to Howard, the annual "Hemp and Harmony" concert at the Red Carpet is scheduled for April 21 with King Freud, 420 All Stars, and Hydrophonics on the tentative roster.
Howard hopes "Stay on the Grass" will lend NORML more campus visibility and attract interest to the organization with approximately 20 active members currently.
"I hope we open some people's eyes and they will support our cause and what we are doing," Howard said.
Student and community members interested in joining NORML can attend meetings on Tuesdays at 2 p.m. in the St. Croix room in Atwood, call LeeAnn Ilminen at (320) 253-5784 or [email protected].
Kristen J. Kubisiak can be reached at: [email protected]
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