[420 Girl]

Twenty years from now, Jennifer Foster thinks that the marijuana prohibition will be relegated to the history books.

And if this happens, some of the early steps toward decriminalization in this state can be traced to the North Carolina National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (Norml) inaugural meeting Sunday evening at The French Broad Brewing Co.

Norml is a national nonprofit organization supporting the removal of all criminal penalties for the private possession and responsible use of marijuana by adults.

The purpose of Sunday's meeting — and a benefit concert that followed at The Garage at Biltmore — was to raise money for the group's nonprofit status as well as to discuss creative reform strategies and to educate about bills in committee in the N.C. General Assembly that would allow marijuana use for medical purposes.

“(Lifting the ban on medical marijuana) is something that's really urgent … people will die,” said Foster, organizer and an Asheville attorney. “We really want for people to know that this is something people support.”

The goal is to have Norml branches throughout the state, said organizer Alex Bumgardner, of Gastonia. The UNC Asheville graduate said there is a presence in Charlotte and Asheville already, but the group had its first meeting in Asheville “because the momentum is already there.” About 150 people have already expressed more interest in the group, Foster said.

She said that in her 15 years as a criminal law attorney, she's heard countless stories “about how criminal penalties of marijuana use and possession wreck lives.”

“There is no real rational basis for marijuana to be illegal when alcohol is not,” Foster, “it just doesn't make sense.”

For Bumgardner, the impact of decriminalizing marijuana would be far reaching, suggesting the state's textile industry could be revived by the legal production of hemp, a nonpsychoactive cannabis strain. The time and money spent to enforce the laws prohibiting marijuana could also “be dedicated elsewhere,” he said.


NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Asheville Citizen-Times
Author: Carol Motsinger
Contact: Asheville Citizen-Times
Copyright: 2010 Asheville Citizen-Times
Website: National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws launches chapter in Asheville

* Thanks to MedicalNeed for submitting this article


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