Gene's Update from the Field - Northern WI NORML (2010

Hi, I’m Gene and I am currently acting as Field Director for Northern Wisconsin NORML. We have an odd situation in the marijuana movement right now. On the National level there is great reason for optimism as more states legalize recreational and medicinal pot. On the industrial hemp issue we are very close to a full scale breakthrough allowing hemp farming across the country.

On the other hand, things seem gloomy in Wisconsin. Wisconsin doesn’t allow state wide voter initiatives and we have a bunch of Republicans in power who seem very unlikely to pass any pro pot legislation. One of the first questions I hear is “what can we do right now”. If you need instant gratification, like thinking we are going to legalize pot in Wisconsin next year, that ain’t gonna happen.

However, the marijuana movement is like a giant snowball that we have finally started to move. For the first time ever, a majority of people favor legalizing and regulating pot. There are tons of things we can do to keep that snowball rolling down the hill. I now address the activists in the field who will effect that change.

One of the first things you will have to decide is how open you can be about your pot use as this can effect what you can do or how you can do it. I completely understand that many people have to be discreet because of their job situation, child custody issues, etc. If you can’t be public that isn’t a problem as it’s easy to do more on the private end to compensate. So let’s run down a few ideas…..

Letters to Politicians

One of the old standards is telling people to write their legislators. I believe there is a link on the website to find out who the legislators are in your part of the state. It’s usually best to write in relation to a particular bill. The problem with this idea is that no matter how hard you try to convince, guilt, or coerce people to do this, the reality is that very few actually do. Because these politicians get so few letters it could be argued that each letter has more importance. It could also be argued that that a very small amount of letters might be perceived as a fringe element by the politician. On the positive side, many politicians live in world where they are not likely to be exposed to pro pot arguments so any chance at doing that might be helpful.

Lobbying

You can lobby your area politician directly. I’m going to cop out on this one and refer you to Jay or Rich on our board who are better versed on how this is done.

Letters to the Newspaper

Another option is to write a letter to the “Open Letter” section of your local newspaper. In my opinion, if you were going to write only one letter, it would be better to send it to the paper. While it’s true a lot less people read the paper today, politicians or their staff still read and monitor what’s in the paper as one of many ways to gauge which way the public opinion wind is blowing. Your letter to the paper will reach the politician and many more as well. Some papers will allow you to be anonymous or use a pseudonym. I’ve had people tell me they could write a letter, but wouldn’t want to sign it . Others tell me they could sign a letter, but aren’t very good letter writers. If you meet either of these categories let me know and maybe we can put the two together.

Educate the Public

Probably one the best things we can do right now is to continue to educate the public. The old saying is “If the people lead the politicians will follow”, so by continuing to move public opinion in our direction only good things can follow. This can be frustrating for those who want immediate cause and effect, but it’s necessary to build a good foundation to succeed in long run.

We have an educational booth which has displays on industrial, medicinal, and recreational cannabis. It also contains books, literature, brochures, and a few small hemp related items for sale. We own and have access to canopies for outdoor events. The booth is a good way to interact with the public and other activists and sign up members. In theory a hemp/cannabis booth could be done at a wide variety of events. If one of our members wanted our group to have a booth somewhere I would expect them to research the details such as date, cost, non-profit discount?, set up requirements and regulations. We would then have to see if the costs were within our budget and there was someone available on that date. A board member or long time member would have to be available to oversee the booth. It would also be helpful if the person suggesting the booth was available to help with set-up/takedown of the booth etc. In the long run, we need to enable more field activists to access this booth.

Another possible project is to go to your local library and see what type of books they have available on cannabis. Believe it or not, there still are plenty of parents etc. who go to the library to find out the facts on marijuana. At the library you can get a form to suggest books etc. that you think the library should purchase. It would be great to suggest one pot book that deals with industrial hemp, one on medicinal, and one relating to recreational or personal freedom ideas. Some books combine all. Any suggestions on which books to recommend?

Many businesses have a bulletin board where you may be able to put up one of our chapter cards. It’s always a good idea to ask first. No sense putting up a card without permission only to have it pulled down a few minutes later.

One of our board members suggested the idea of using YouTube to promote our group or bring attention to particular pot issues in Wisconsin in an entertaining way. Anyone with ideas or experience in this regard?

Fundraising

There are a lot of things we can do that don’t require money, but there really is a lot more we could do if we had a little more in our budget. Nobody in our group is getting paid a wage or salary, so any money could go directly into projects like hosting expert speakers? Marijuana legalization forums with a panel of expert speakers? How about actually covering the expense for someone to do a hemp booth? This by itself could be the difference between doing 2 cannabis booths a year or 20 a year. So obviously we are open to anyone with fund raising ideas or experience. I’m going to throw out a couple ideas to see if this resonates with anybody.

What about a benefit concert? I’m not talking about the next Weedstock where thousands show up and there is a big dose of police presence. How about a small benefit concert at a local pot friendly establishment with a couple of locally popular bands or performers. Bands to donate their services and cover charge to benefit the chapter. Food and drink go to the venue. I don’t want anyone to take offense, but I would be thinking of musicians that already have a following, not bands with little or no following wanting to use NORML to promote themselves. Do you know any venues that would be open to us having a benefit concert? Do you know any musicians willing to donate their services? Would you be willing to help out in some way at a benefit concert?

Another potential fundraising method is to use donation lock boxes. These boxes each have their own key and lock which is maintained by our chapter. The small signs attached to each box can be changed to best reflect the venue they are placed. The boxes are fairly attractive and only about 6″ wide and can be placed on a counter or hung up on a wall. These boxes could be used at various types of business or events. Do you know any pot friendly businesses or business owners that would let us put up a donation box? I think these boxes have a lot of potential if used in a creative way.

We also have acrylic brochure holders and business card holders. These sit on a counter or could hang on a wall. If you know a pot friendly place that would let us put out our cards or brochures, they may appreciate a holder so the stuff doesn’t end up scattered all over their counter.

Some pot groups have used internet fundraising sites like Kick starter to raise money. Usually you have to come up with a goal oriented project which resonates with the public. For example, if you say you want to raise 500 bucks for office supplies that isn’t going to generate a lot of interest. One of the NORML chapters in southern Wisconsin used Kick Starter to raise about 7500 dollars to put up a pro pot billboard (more on billboards later) The right activist might be able to able to have a big impact with a vehicle like this.

Other Ways to Help the Group

How you could help the Chapter would largely depend on your skills or interests.

Do you have any Graphic skills as in laying out brochures, posters, ads, etc?

Do you have any Art skills (T-shirts, posters, etc.)

Do you know any pot friendly printers, screen printers, etc that may give us a good price?

Do you have any experience with fundraising, media, surveys, websites, video production, etc. etc.

Do you have any knowledge of large scale personal data collection?

Another Roadside Attraction

I have an idea to erect a series of small rhyming signs with a pot friendly message along a state highway. This of course would need to comply with all state or local ordinances. Do you know anyone with land along a highway that might be willing to consider letting us do such a project? I would be happy to meet or communicate with landowner to explain in more detail. More on this later.

City Wide Referendum

Although Wisconsin does not allow state wide voter initiatives, many cities do allow city referendums. The requirements vary and some cities only allow for advisory referendums. The basic idea is that if you collect enough signatures from registered voters in that city for your petition you can get it on the ballot in the next election for the public to vote on. Pretty exciting, but also difficult to do. Several attempts have been made to get measures on the ballot around Wisconsin, but none of them were successful at even getting enough signatures to get a measure on the ballot. If you think that you and a couple friends are going to go out part time with no funding and collect enough signatures it’s very unlikely to happen. The planning for an effort like this should start a year or two before the attempt even starts. In most cases a survey should be done before the effort is even started. Yes, a survey would take some time and money, but it could save you many times more time and money. What if you do a phone survey and find that only 45% of the voters are in favor of the referendum you plan? You could spend a massive amount of effort and money to change the 45% to 50% or more. A more logical idea would be to change the wording of your referendum. For example, if the original ballot measure suggested that pot be practically legal with little or no fine, you could change it to a measure where people don’t get arrested and have a criminal record and only get a fine and citation. If the next survey of the re-worded measure shows positive numbers you could proceed. What’s the point of going to tremendous effort of getting a measure on the ballot unless you know it’s likely to pass? The reason I am spending time discussing this is because a pot friendly measure in a bigger city could be a big game changer in Wisconsin politics. For those of you who might consider pursuing this avenue we could refer you to those who have made previous attempts so you could get a better idea what’s involved.

City Government

Some cities around Wisconsin have decided on their own, without any outside influence, that reducing the penalties for minor pot offenses makes sense. Arresting people ties up the already over-crowded jails and plugs up an already busy court system. Giving someone a citation without hauling them off to jail saves the person a criminal record, but still satisfies those who think the pot user needs to be punished in some way and saves the community a bunch of money. It would be very useful if some ambitious activist could document the cities around Wisconsin which have taken this more progressive approach. This information could be a powerful tool to show other city governments a better way to deal with the issue.

Adopt a Highway

Some our activist members up in the Rhinelander area signed up Northern Wisconsin NORML for the Adopt a Highway program up there where they are responsible for cleaning a section of the highway of litter. In exchange our chapter gets a sign on highway listing our group as the ones doing the cleanup on that stretch of highway. A great way to create good will in the area and bolster our image in the community.

Billboards

Billboards can be a powerful way to express opinions and get public attention. In Colorado a group called Safer.org used billboards successfully to show pot was safer than alcohol and pot users were normal responsible citizens. They are very expensive and short lived. They can cost anywhere from

several hundred dollars a month up to thousands a month depending on where they are located. Recently NORML chapters in southern Wisconsin spearheaded an effort via Kick Starter to raise close to 7500 dollars to produce a billboard on a major highway for one month. I was critical of this effort because it focused on a message attacking a couple legislators who were not in favor of medical marijuana. These politicians had no viable candidate running against them and had no interest in changing their position, so the billboard really had no achievable goal and I felt a series of billboards on smaller highways with a positive message ( as in CO) would have been far more effective. Never the less, the effort is to be commended for showing that fund raising web sites could be a powerful tool for fundraising. Perhaps the right activist in our group could use a vehicle like this to create a positive effort.

As you can see it would take me pages to explain all the possible ways you might help and we are pretty open to exploring ideas. If you want to contact me you can email me at the email associated with the chapter Gene@northernwinorml.org or my personal email crayfishman@wi-net.com or give me a call 715-677-4201 Look forward to hearing from you. Keep in mind I can get pretty busy with my own businesses so don’t be put off if I don’t respond instantly.

Gene