Community | May 08, 2010 | 9 comments

Mom's new bake sale: Pot activists trying to persuade moms marijuana is safer than booze

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By KRISTEN WYATT , Associated Press
Last update: May 8, 2010 - 11:30 AM


DENVER - Moms got tougher drunk-driving laws on the books and were directly responsible for passing and then repealing alcohol Prohibition. Now marijuana activists are trying to enlist the nation's mothers in legalization efforts with a sales pitch that pot is safer than booze.

The nation's largest marijuana legalization lobby recently started a women's group. The Moms4Marijuana website draws thousands. And just in time for Mother's Day, a pot legalization group in Denver has created a pink-carnation web card asking moms to support legalization.

These marijuana moms argue that pot is no worse than alcohol, that teens shouldn't face jail time for experimenting with it and that marijuana can even help new mothers treat postpartum depression.

"I know so many mothers who support this but aren't willing to come out and say it," said Sabrina Fendrick, head of the Women's Alliance at the Washington-based National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML.

Marijuana activists say they need more moms to publicly back pot use if they are to succeed with public officials.

"The mother is the first teacher, who you turn to for direction in life," said Serra Frank, a 27-year-old mother of two in Boise, Idaho, who founded Moms4Marijuana in 2005. It has no formal membership, but Frank says its website has had more than 12,000 visitors.

Pot activists say both genders sometimes find it easier to attend protests or lobby lawmakers about pot than to tell their mothers they smoke weed. So legalization groups hope that if moms, arguably the nation's most powerful lobby, get on board with making pot legal, laws will change in a hurry.

"All the things moms get behind, people listen," said Diane Irwin, 48, a medical marijuana grower in southern Colorado who also is a mother of two.

more at link:
http://www.startribune.com/nation/93191634.html?elr=KArks:DCiUMEaPc:UiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU
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    Community,   Drugs,   H.E.M.P.,   Make Marijuana Matter,   8 more
  2. tags:
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9 comments // Mom's new bake sale: Pot activists trying to persuade moms marijuana is safer than booze

  • hunzedog
  • davzap
  • Leonard_Krivitsky
    • 0
      Leonard_Krivitsky  

    • The decision by the people of this country concerning legalization of the marijuana medicinal plant that has been used by humans for thousands of years is based in choosing between two opinions. The first one, articulated by the "father" of marijuana prohibition in the 1930-s and the second one by Dr Grinspoon, one of the leading contemporary experts in this country.

      These are the the direct quotes from the prohibitionist Harry Anslinger pushing the "Marijuana Tax Act" of 1937 that led to the demonization of this quintessential medicinal plant:

      "There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.”

      “…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.”

      “Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death.”

      “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.”

      “Marijuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing”

      “You smoke a joint and you’re likely to kill your brother.”

      “Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”

      And this is what Dr. Grinspoon said in 2006 about Cannabis Sativa medicinal Plant:

      "Cannabis will one day be seen as a wonder drug, as was penicillin in the 1940s. Like penicillin, herbal marijuana is remarkably nontoxic, has a wide range of therapeutic applications and would be quite inexpensive if it were legal".
      Dr. Lester Grinspoon, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Los Angeles Times, May 5, 2006 "

      These are two opinions the citizens around the country will be asked to compare and to choose from. I do not believe that the choice is exceedingly difficult one. What I believe is that the fear-tactics must be rejected once and for all, and at least medical marijuana should be legalized in all 50 States ASAP.

    • 2 years ago
  • freecrack
    • +1
      freecrack  
    • Leonard_Krivitsky:

      you are asking for a great deal of reasonable thinking from an institution that has repeatedly declined to default to reason and common sense.

      i say if it is percieved that its availability must be based on its medical merits put it through the same drug trials that vicodin,oxycodone,or any other pharmicudical drug must go through and compare its benefits versus its detriments.

      it would end up on cvs shelfs as an otc drug not an illegal social detriment

    • 2 years ago
  • freecrack
    • 0
      freecrack  

    • what a sad commentary on how we function as a society that people need to be persueded to believe basic facts.
      acohol kills how many a yr compared to marijuana?

    • 2 years ago
  • Brian_Green
  • elementalist
  • Kurta
    • 0
      Kurta  

    • It IS safer than alcohol, by far. I don't even think it's a contest. I sometimes miss those days of getting high.

    • 2 years ago
  • pandaman2105
    • +1
      pandaman2105  

    • my mom knows how much i support it.
      perhaps i could convince her to join this progressive league :)

      mothers definitely get things going better when it comes to causes and such, this could definitely incite the change we're wanting!

    • 2 years ago
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