TSC Talks guest Keith Stroup, Founder of NORML, may be a down-home country boy, from Southern Illinois, but he sure did make it in the big city (from Box #10 w/Jim Croce). Keith takes me on a walk, through the annals of his legendary history as a founding father of the marijuana legislation movement in the US. From his early years growing up in Southern Illinois, to Georgetown Law School where he became politically radicalized by the Vietnam anti-war movement, and he started using cannabis.
After getting his law degree and working with Ralph Nader, he was inspired to start a consumer group for cannabis users and using his legal skills to try and impact public policy rather than simply “to assist your individual clients get richer, stay out of trouble or whatever.”
On founding NORML: “First off, I enjoyed smoking it but I also had become part obviously, of the underground culture of millions of smokers around this country, and began to be aware of the hundreds of thousands of people who were being arrested and having their lives destroyed because of a senseless policy. So I got some friends together a couple of colleagues of mine at the time and we found it normal as marijuana smokers lobby. ”
From here Keith goes on to outline his work with NORML over the years along with key moments in the history of marijuana legislation, starting with the foundational motivation of avoiding being drafted, “but for that Vietnam War and that experience of having lived through that terrifying experience and thinking you’re going to be drafted and sent to war, I don’t think I ever would have had the interest to start NORML, but because of that, it that I jumped into it with both feet. I think I was a bit naive at the time. I remember someone asked me how long I thought it was going to take. And I said I thought it would take at least 10 years. Well, that was in 1970. So it’s taken us a little longer than that, where I think we’re in our 45th year at NORML, but it is now finally happening”
Keith discusses the shift in public opinion under the influence of more conservative leaders; “Well, we underestimated the possibility of the public mood shifting. And as of the late 70s, early 80s, you had Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan. (The) “Just say no” movement, the parents movement, there was a period there where we began as a country to evaluate drug proposals on whether they were good for children. Well, no one is suggesting that children should be using marijuana or alcohol or any other drugs. But nonetheless, that was started the test and as a result, after we got the 11th state to decriminalized in 1978, we didn’t win another statewide victory for 18 years”
Bringing us to the current day, Keith discusses the latest legislation approved by the house judiciary committee, ” And one of the reasons that the bill at the House Judiciary Committee approved just yesterday, right is so important is because it’s called the MORE act. And among the things that would do the most important is it wouldn’t just lower marijuana to a lower schedule under the Controlled Substances Act, it would, in fact, remove it altogether from the Controlled Substances Act. ”
Keith has been a trailblazer in pushing forward on marijuana legislation nationwide and encourages anyone interested in understanding more about their state laws to visit the website https://norml.org/ and click on their state to read all the applicable state and federal legislation.
There’s a lot more here, check out Keith’s links and thank you, Keith, for your groundbreaking work to reform marijuana legislation over the last 50 years!
NORML: https://norml.org/. https://norml.org/about/item/r-keith-stroup-jd
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-stroup-68997b6/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keith.stroup
Twitter: https://twitter.com/keithstroup
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keithstroup/
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Stroup
Recent articles:
https://www.arlingtonmagazine.com/life-after-50with-cannabis/3/
https://www.cannabisindustrylawyer.com/keith-stroup-norml/
https://www.playboy.com/read/weed-warriors