cannabisnews.com: Parley On Pot: Aspen May Go 'Up in Smoke'





Parley On Pot: Aspen May Go 'Up in Smoke'
Posted by CN Staff on June 09, 2007 at 17:27:02 PT
By Jeff Kass, Rocky Mountain News 
Source: Rocky Mountain News
Colorado -- Yes, people probably will smoke pot this weekend amid the Aspen legal seminar sponsored by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. But that is not allowed during the seminar - two days of serious talks on criminal defense issues including drugs, alcohol and terrorism.
"People are doing business," NORML founder and legal counsel Keith Stroup said. But he said, "There's probably a significant amount of marijuana smoking going on at social events." Washington-based NORML has a trademark, annual legal seminar around December in Key West, Fla., but it plans to make Aspen its annual off-season summer seminar site. This is the second year in a row the group has come to the mountain town, and the seminar features a bit of, ahem, experimentation this time: In addition to 43 attorneys, a record 41 pro-marijuana activists have signed up, Stroup said Friday. The featured speaker Saturday is Tommy Chong, half of the humorous pot-smoking duo, Cheech and Chong, from the 1978 movie Up in Smoke. Chong was arrested in 2003 as part of a crackdown on drug paraphernalia sold over the Internet. He was sentenced to nine months in prison. Chong, 69, has titled his Aspen talk "Why pot is still illegal and why Dave is still not here." In answer to the first question, pharmaceutical companies, the liquor industry, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the prison system all have interests in keeping marijuana illegal, Chong said by phone from Los Angeles Friday. "Dave" is a reference to a guy in a 1970s Cheech and Chong skit who knocks on the door and begs his confused buddy to let him in because "I got the stuff with me. I think the cops saw me." The buddy says "Dave's not here." But why is "Dave" still not here, nearly 40 years later? "Dave is in jail," Chong says. The send-off for the NORML seminar will be a Sunday cookout at the Woody Creek home of the late writer Hunter S. Thompson, where his widow, Anita Thompson, lives. Hunter Thompson joined the NORML advisory board in 1973, a role he continued until he killed himself in 2005. On Friday, Anita Thompson said she wasn't surrounded by bales of marijuana but bags of food including potatoes, onions and strawberries in preparation for the cookout. (OK, two gallons of Tanqueray gin were there, too.) Thompson himself fought a number of legal battles, and Anita said of the criminal defense attorneys coming to her home, "I think (Hunter) would welcome them and cheer them on for the work they're doing." Source: Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)Author:   Jeff Kass, Rocky Mountain News Published: June 9, 2007Copyright: 2007 Denver Publishing Co.Contact: letters rockymountainnews.comWebsite: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/NORMLhttp://www.norml.orgCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #2 posted by The GCW on June 09, 2007 at 21:23:49 PT
JohnO,
About the bible belt types,The bible belt types would do well to actually acknowledge and obey the Bible.Acknowledge the part where God (The Ecologician) indicates He created all the seed bearing plants saying they are all good on literally THE VERY 1ST PAGE.Acknowledge the only Biblical restriction placed on cannabis (kaneh bosm) is to use it with thankfulness (see 1 Tim. 4:1-5).The Christ, teaches Us to love one another and in so doing says We have then obeyed all the commandments (see John 14-16); it is difficult to love someone and support caging them for using what God says is good on the 1st page...Many bible belt types seem ignorant on the cannabis / plant reality. I think that is due in part to the "Sin of the Priests" -See Malachi 1:6-14 NASBThe Green Collar Worker
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by JohnO on June 09, 2007 at 20:23:28 PT:
Dave's not here! 
My wife and I still have a nice chuckle over that one. Anytime someone says something a little dumb or incomprehensible, one of us will use that phrase in the hearing of the other, our own little inside joke. She's determined that she'll never use cannabis until the day it's status changes to legal, I on the other hand reserve the right to ignore the law if the occasion suits me. These days that's pretty rare as I have to keep my mind on running my own small business, not a lot of room for being stoned when I have to enter other people's homes and act appropriately. Cannabis seems to make me very animated, and people can usually tell. I can't be overtly liberal in a mostly conservative state dominated by bible belt types. Just rambling, John.
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment