Our NORML chapter is trying to make a difference by making micro-loans to small business owners in countries adversely affected by our drug war. Consider joining our Northern Wisconsin NORML Kiva Lending Team or even forwarding this to a friend.
We have set a goal to reach 25 new members by December 31st, 2011. Won’t you please help us reach that goal? You don’t have to make a loan right away (or at all) but we would appreciate your support as a team member either way. Read more about our goal here.
Rositas Del Ocho Group
In this Group: Carmela Cristino Mateo, Elizabeth Lopez Samano, Epifania Sandoval Dominguez, Eldida Mateo Alejandro, Gloria Flores Morales, Laura Gil Florentino, Maria Florentino Hernandez, Maria Guadalupe Trejo Ramirez, Maria Del Pilar Gonzalez Vieyra, Silvia Samano De Jesus, Maribel Samano Octaviano* not pictured
This group is called “Rositas del Ocho” (The Little Roses of the Eight). The members chose this name because these ladies are from neighborhood #8 and enjoy Damask roses (otherwise known as roses of Castille). Most of the residents raise sheep. This group consists of eleven members.
Elizabeth López Samano is one of the members of this group. She is 27 years old and completed her education through the preparatory level. Elizabeth is a housewife and merchant and says that her business is fundamental to her ability to move forward and contribute to her family’s expenses. She has two sons. Sra. Elizabeth sells roasted pork tacos at the flea market every Monday. She has been in this business for eight years. Her dedication has resulted in her customers choosing her because of the good service she provides. This loan will help her buy feed for the pigs that she raises, as well as condiments she uses for preparing pork tacos. She dreams of someday having a larger establishment so that she can satisfy the demand for her product.
Medical marijuana bill reintroduced
Updated: Thursday, 01 Dec 2011, 11:17 AM CST
Published : Wednesday, 30 Nov 2011, 8:38 PM CST
Laura Smith, FOX 11 News
MADISON – Could medical marijuana be legalized in Wisconsin?
Proponents are trying once again to change the law.
Legislators who introduced a new bill Wednesday say it would allow seriously ill people access to marijuana to ease their pain.
“I’m certain at some point we will pass this in Wisconsin,” said State Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison).
Pocan and State Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) are introducing the latest proposal to legalize medical marijuana.
“We find there’s so much more support in this state than opposition and elected officials are simply behind public support on this,” said Pocan.
The measure would allow access to marijuana for patients with conditions like cancer, glaucoma, AIDS and HIV.
It also creates a maximum amount of marijuana a patient may receive.
Plus, the bill sets up a registry with the Department of Health Services.
“As far as a doctor goes, it should be a tool in their arsenal,” said Jay Selthofner, founder of Northern Wisconsin NORML (https://www.northernwinorml.org/). It’s a non-profit whose goal is to legalize marijuana in the state.
“As long as we can allow patients to use the medicine, allow caregivers to provide it in some way, shape or form, as long as we can take the patients off the battlefield on the war on drugs, I believe it’s a winning bill,” said Selthofner (http://www.jayselthofner.com/).
Medical marijuana opponents, including some drug addiction specialists, say there is no real advantage to having another drug available on the market.
“We have a lot of trouble with prescription drug abuse, we have a lot of trouble with alcohol, we have people who are addicted to marijuana and that seems to be as disruptive in people’s lives as any other drug,” said Thomas Fuchs, Director of LE Phillips Libertas Treatment Center in Chippewa Falls.
The bill was last attempted when Democrats controlled the Legislature in 2010, but it couldn’t find enough support then to pass. Now Republicans control both the Senate and the Assembly and it’s believed unlikely to win favor this time either.
“At this point I would be inclined to oppose it not that I think it would get to the floor, but I just think the idea has too many red flags surrounding it right now to be able to proceed,” said State Rep. Andre Jacque (R-Bellevue).
Pocan admits he doubts the bill will pass, but feels it’s important to keep the discussion going.
Right now 16 states, plus Washington D.C., have legalized medical marijuana. That includes Michigan.
Roll Call:
Rich Martin – Present
Jay Selthofner – Present
Norml NOX – Present
Jessica Franke – Present
Brian Halsley – Not Present
Rich opened the floor for public comments.
Linda and Dani discussed the Moms for Marijuana Quilt and a Northern WI NORML entry for Wisconsin. Jay, the Treasurer, stated that we can have $30 set aside for the fabric and materials. Linda will chair the project, and has already filled out the form online. Jay also filled out the form. Yet the Wisconsin slot on their website is not filled – Linda will follow through with that. Linda, Dani, Elizabeth, Jessica will work on the project.
Elizabeth also discussed the Big Green Sustainable Music Fest and the Big Green Market. She wants to chair the project herself, but she would like someone to help her with it and to come down with her that day. She is still working out the details. Rich and Nox can provide her with tents and other materials needed. She got 2 volunteers, new members, who she will coordinate with.
Jay Selthofner gave the Treasurer’s Report
We only had 4 new members for the month of July. 2 of them came from the last meeting. All donations came through one source. We need to drum up new members and donations.
Rich moved on to Merchandise. We discussed Dana Beal briefly. Before Dana left, Jay had him autograph some of his T-shirts. Jay wants to use them for fundraising, where we would split the profits with him 50/50. Dana is really hurting for money right now, needs to fly in experts for his trial and other things, so Jay thinks we should do some kind of fundraising project to help in any way that we can. All present agreed.
Rubber Bracelets – we had discussed at the last meeting that we needed to get more rubber bracelets before Harvest Fest. No one took over that project. This time, Linda has volunteered to take over the project. Suggestions for slogans are needed.
Next item on the agenda is the Introductory Activist Guide, created by Selthofner Consulting, which we will post on the website when it is complete. Jay gave a brief overview of the guide for newcomers. It is a very professional looking trifold design.
Steering Committee: we need members to join our steering committee. Jay discussed the benefits of joining the steering committees of not only our own chapter, but other chapters as well. We can be inspired by what the other chapters are doing and try some of their ideas ourselves.
New Business: Rich informed the group that Rich and Jessie attended the Madison planning meeting for Harvest Fest a few weeks ago. The Madison NORML and other crews there last year told us that we had the best booth. However that doesn’t mean we can’t be EVEN BETTER this year! We want to disseminate information, but we also want people to come over and see what we’re doing. Rich wanted to have a game or some kind of attention-grabbing event at our booth this year. He asked for ideas. Elizabeth had an idea that she described, a game that gets people to answer questions about the uses of hemp. We will continue to ask for ideas and at the next meeting, hopefully we can get our plan finalized by then. Jay pointed out that we need many more volunteers this year. We need people to walk in the crowd and call people over, etc. Rich pointed out that now is the time to make posters. Start thinking about ideas now! We need volunteers to help make signs that we can hand out at Harvest Fest before the march to the capital.
There will be a Pre Harvest Fest Disc Golf fundraiser to pay for the insurance for Harvest Fest. We had a discussion regarding the fundraiser. Do we, as a chapter, spend our donation towards the fundraiser, or towards the insurance directly? We can only afford to do one. We were just about unanimous saying that we would prefer to support the insurance, not the disc golf event, with our cash for the best impact.
At 6:30, Penny Bernard Schaber came upstairs and spoke to us briefly regarding medical marijuana. She is well informed and supportive of our cause. In her opinion, the biggest obstacle right now is that, because cannabis is a schedule 1 drug, it cannot be studied adequately in order to prove the medical effectiveness of it for so many conditions. Jay asked her a couple of questions and will send her some additional information to follow up. She stressed that WE, as NORML, need to educate the public because the general perception of doctors, educators, parents and others are that Marijuana is a “gateway drug”. They are completely unaware that the Gateway Theory was officially disproven and is not correct – the public needs to be educated so that they will understand why MMJ is effective rather than harmful. We need to show them that it’s not addictive and that it’s not a gateway to other drugs. She spent about 20 minutes speaking to us and invited us down to her listening sessions any time.
Rich discussed meeting the Kottonmouth Kings (famous cannabis band) in Milwaukee a couple of days ago. There is a picture of him with them up on facebook. We ask all members that if they are aware of any 420 friendly bands that are coming to the area, they let us know so we can try to meet them if any of our members want to go and represent NORML at their concerts.
Elizabeth has volunteered to be a contact (chair?) for the Big Green Sustainable Music Festival on August 18th. They had asked Jay to speak but that date doesn’t work for him. However having a NORML booth there is a great idea. She is meeting with these people tomorrow. Linda and Dani volunteered to help her with this. So did the two new members.
Rich briefly discussed the Wisconsin Drug Law Planning meeting that Rich and Jessie attended in Madison last weekend. We had discussed removing the felony status for a 2nd offense. We also discussed the DUID laws. Rich brought up that the current drugged driving tests, only test for metabolites (which are the leftovers after cannabis has been metabolized). However Active Delta 9’s, which show whether you are actually high at the moment of testing, are the only valid way of telling whether you are guilty of Drugged Driving. We need to make sure that this is part of the legislation.
Jay discussed that we have 33 senators, 99 assembly reps. We have 99 areas of Wisconsin that we need to cover. He thinks someone needs to head a project to make up an info sheet about each district so that residents of each district can easily print their own flyers with tear-off tabs with the phone numbers of the reps on each sheet. This way we can look at Google Analytics and see which districts have lots of clicks, which districts have no clicks, and figure out where our time and effort needs to be spent on education and events. We need someone to take over this project and create 99 documents and then just add the name / picture / phone number… this should not be started until immediately after the elections in November. Please let us know if you want to volunteer for this project.
August 30th (thursday) there is a controlled substances board meeting in Madison. The meeting will be a couple hours long, very boring, has to do with ALL drugs not just cannabis, and then at the end, each citizen who wants to will get 60 seconds of public comment time. We have tried to have a cannabis activist at every meeting to make sure they know we are paying attention. If you plan on speaking, please wear professional suit/tie clothing. If not speaking, then wearing your cannabis activist shirts is fine.
There was a last call for comments or chapter business. There were no comments.
Jay adjourned the meeting at 7:22pm.
Last chance to collect signatures prior to our next Lobby Day on February 15th, 2018 in Madison and before time runs out in the 2017-2018 Legislation Cycle.
The Signature Page is for active Wisconsin Legislation regarding Recreational, Medical, Decriminalization and CBD production.
We need as many of these signed and in our hands prior to our next Lobby Day in Madison. Lobbyists and Activists will be delivering them to elected officials throughout the day. These signed forms help them set up meetings and get face to face time with elected officials.
There will be a link to the Target Districts below also, but any city, village or town Wisconsin can sign and should. If you plan to join us in Madison on February 15th or need the signature form emailed to you, please email us directly at NorthernWiNORML@gmail.com or call 920-931-4207
Join NORML today!
Here is a printable PDF of the active legislation signature page:
If you cannot collect signature pages in your community, you can still encourage people to contact their elected officials online. Here are the links to the Action Alerts on each piece of legislation. (Remember, our signature form has all active legislation on one form, one signature needed and helps us get in the office vs the online email goes to the elected official via email.)
Please volunteer and collect a few signature pages and forward them onto our chapter at PO BOX 542, Ripon WI 54971
Legalize Opportunity
Here are the links to active legislation action alert links:
Marijuana Banking
Washington, DC: More than one-quarter of US House members have signed on to newly introduced legislation to facilitate greater access to banking for state-licensed cannabis operators.
The 2019 version of the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act was introduced last Thursday and now has 113 co-sponsors — the most ever for a marijuana law reform bill.
Under federal law, banks and other financial institutions are discouraged from entering into relationships with marijuana-specific businesses. This has led to the industry operating on a largely ‘cash-only’ basis.
Last month, members of the US House, Consumer Protection and Financial Institution Subcommittee heard testimony in favor of federal banking reform. NORML submitted testimony to the Committee, opining: “In short, no industry can operate safely, transparently, or effectively without access to banks or other financial institutions and it is self-evident that this industry, and those consumers that are served by it, will remain severely hampered without better access to credit and financing. Ultimately, Congress must amend federal policy so that these growing numbers of state-compliant businesses, and those millions of Americans who patronize them, are no longer subject to policies that needlessly place them in harm’s way.”
The SAFE Banking Act is one of several marijuana-related bills introduced in Congress in recent days. Other legislation includes The Ending Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2019, The Marijuana Justice Act, The Next Step Act, and The Marijuana Data Collection Act of 2019.
For more information, contact Justin Strekal, NORML Political Director, at (202) 483-5500, or visit NORML’s Legislative Action Center.
Northern Wisconsin NORML is a regional chapter for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws serving the Fox Valley, Northern and Central Wisconsin. The chapter has designed a system to support activist team members in the field. We are proud to welcome NORML Alia to our team. She will be working in the Fond du Lac and Green Lake County Areas, as well as providing outreach to areas of Northern Wisconsin where she is originally from.
NORML Alia has been active in supporting reform and has donated to NORML, participated in past events, initiated signature drives, distributed Activist Kits for donations and now has decided to dedicate some additional time and resources to the chapter during the 2012 campaign to push the Wisconsin Medical Cannabis Act through committee and allow our legislators to vote on the issue. We need to know where these legislators stand on medical cannabis, we need to you to contact them. NORML Alia is here to help.
While in the field, NORML Alia expects to canvas and collect signatures in target districts, she will also be distributing information, fliers, activist kits and collecting donations. She will also be sharing with you some stories in the field and her insights on activism as a blog author for Northern Wisconsin NORML. While not always being able to attend the monthly meeting in Appleton, her activism is greatly appreciated and we look forward to reading and hearing more about her soon.
Please donate to Northern Wisconsin NORML, as your support, activism and donations are creating a sustainable movement in the Fox Valley, Northern and Central Wisconsin. If you are interested in becoming an Field Activist Team Member, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Thank You!
Use the National NORML Emailer System to locate and send your legislator a pre-written support letter: http://www.capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=57993501
Return any forms to a meeting or contact NorthernWiNORML@gmail.com to arrange a Field Activist Team Member to pick up your signature forms, donations and answer any questions you should have, or better yet invite Northern Wisconsin NORML to speak to your organization, business or table at your event.
When: Tuesday July 19th, 2011 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Where: Appleton Public Library, 225 N. Oneida St, Appleton, WI 54941.
What: Awareness Meeting for Fox Valley NORML supporters.
NORML will have a variety resources that will be explained during the meeting, updates on events occurring statewide throughout the summer and fall, as well as providing up dates on Wisconsin and Federal Legislation. Activists and chapter leaders will be on hand to field questions and listen to attendees concerns and suggestions.
Those interested in becoming a community leader, field director or more involved with the growth of the chapter should definitely attend this event. Directors Jay Selthofner and Richard Martin will be moderating the meeting and plan on addressing the grassroots of activism with attendees.
The local chapter, www.NorthernWINORML.org will be giving away copies of The Pot Book and additional promotional materials at the event and again on August 17th at the Harmony Cafe in Appleton.
We look forward to seeing you at this event, which is open to the public and no membership is required to attend.
Please notify the people in your community that care, bring a friend and do not miss this event in the Fox Valley. Feel free to notify and invite your elected officials and community leaders.
Please visit the NORML chapter’s website at www.NorthernWINORML.org for more information. Thank you.
Those activists in the Fox Valley area are encouraged to help assist with the planning of the event, please contact Rich@NorthernWINORML.org or Jay@NorthernWINORML.org
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
