Pubdate: Thu, 15 Nov 2012
Source: Reno News & Review (NV)
Copyright: 2012, Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsreview.com/issues/reno/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2524
Author: Brad Bynum

NORML Man

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws was 
founded in 1970. Mike Meacham is the executive director of the 
Northern Nevada NORML. For more information, visit 
http://norml.org/nv/ item/northern-nevada-norml.

Tell me about NORML.

NORML is an organization that works to provide information to the 
public about marijuana and its current laws. We also work to reform 
laws to make them more citizen friendly. NORML stands for the 
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Law, and that's 
what we work to we do. ... There's all kinds of propaganda about how 
marijuana makes you go crazy. As it is now, it's classified as a 
class-one felony, which puts it up there with cocaine, 
methamphetamine and heroin. ... It doesn't makes sense to be 
classified with those drugs. You can't overdose on it. You can't 
really hurt yourself on it. The worst side effects are hunger and 
laziness, things that don't really affect anybody but the user. You 
don't see anybody wanting to get in a fight on marijuana. You don't 
see people having ill will just because they've smoked. .. It 
should've been legal years and years ago. Actually, it was. Right 
now, what's going on is exactly the same as what happened with 
alcohol. Alcohol went through a period of prohibition, and was still 
used widely in the underground. Same thing is happening now. People 
have been using marijuana in the underground for years and years, and 
it's starting to become mainstream because all the propaganda is 
becoming dissolved.

What's your reaction to the decriminalization of marijuana in 
Colorado and Washington?

Well, they should've done it 20 years ago. It should have never been 
illegal in the first place. But I'm very happy that it's been 
accepted in Colorado and Washington, and the way that it is in 
California. I think that Nevada as a whole could benefit from it, by 
legalizing it and taxing it. We could do a lot with it. With the 
right information and the right control, it could lead us to being a 
much healthier nation.

Washington and Colorado are supposedly going to get a big boost in 
tourism. Do you think Nevada has missed the boat?

I wouldn't say that we missed the boat, but we should ... talk about 
making the West Coast the place to be. ... I think if we legalized it 
outright, we'd still have plenty of tourism in Vegas and in Reno of 
people close by [in California] who weren't able to smoke or weren't 
willing to lie and say that they needed it [for medical reasons]. I 
think we should still take the opportunity to legalize it.

How does Nevada's medical marijuana work now? And what are the 
problems with it?

Right now, as of 2001, medical marijuana in Nevada is something that 
you have to go through the health department for. ... There's been a 
lot of trouble with people finding doctors to discuss their 
illnesses. And there's no way, once you obtain your medical card, for 
you to purchase or obtain it legally. Right now, Nevada is a 
grow-your-own state, and it's caused huge problems for people trying 
to safely obtain their medicine.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom