Cannabis Column - #34

Jon Gettman is a long time contributor to HIGH TIMES. A former National Director of NORML, Jon has a Ph.D. in public policy and regional economic development and consults with attorneys, advocates, and non-profits on cannabis related research and public policy issues. On October 8, 2002, along with a coalition of organizations, he filed a new petition to have cannabis rescheduled under federal law. This column will track that petition's progress.
The 7 Skills You Need to Make Legalization Happen

If you want marijuana legalized, you’ll have to ask for it. Legalization is not something to wait for, nor is it something that will be delivered to you by a few public interest groups. If you want it, then you’ll have to do something about it. The path to marijuana’s legalization begins within your own life. What can you do to make legalization a reality? While the cause itself is complex the ultimate answer is fairly simple. Develop your own power as a citizen and as a voter. Here are seven important skills that will enhance your influence on the political system in this country.

These seven skills will increase your power as a voter. But before you even consider how to increase your power as a voter you have to first establish your status as a voter and a participant in our political system. Here is a guide to finding out who your legislators are and what legislative districts you live in. It includes links to every state legislator, access to maps of legislative districts, and links to look-up services to identify your legislators.

Every supporter of marijuana’s legalization needs to a) know which legislative districts they live in, b) register to vote, and c) vote regularly. Those three activities are the source of your power as a voter as they make you a "likely voter". In other words, those three simple activities make politicians, legislators, their staffs, and public opinion polls pay more attention to you and treat you with respect. Those activities are the source of power and influence for voters.

These seven skills will help you increase that power and use it to bring about the legalization of marijuana.

1) In your own words. It is the common practice of lobbying groups to provide supporters with sample letters to send to legislators. This is a convenient and effective practice, and it is standard procedure any time an important matter is before a legislature. Learn to write your own letters. It's not hard to learn the format, and there are plenty of opportunities to get helpful tips and to practice. These are simple skills to acquire and valuable in many other areas of life. Get some experience writing to your legislators on some routine matters, such as asking them about their priorities for the coming session. Every congressional representative is up for election every two years, so, for example, this next two months is a great time to contact them and find out where they stand on legalization and why.

2) Do what you do. You don't need to become the perfect citizen activist to contribute to the legalization of marijuana. We live in a diverse and complex society. Social and political change of this nature requires diverse contributions and activities to persuade these diverse networks to support legislative efforts to bring about marijuana's legalization. If you are a student then you can further legalization by studying the issue. If you are a graphic artist then you can further legalization by creating ads, posters, and other graphic tools that enhance communication and social understanding of this cause. If you work with new technologies then you can contribute to legalization by applying those technologies to efforts to reach and persuade different social groups to support legalization. Not only should you support legalization in your own words, you should support it in your own way. If you do what you do then your example will inspire your friends and colleagues in ways the rest of us can't even imagine.

3) Play against type. The stoner stereotype is just an excuse to ignore young people. Think about it. Even when it's applied to someone middle-aged the real accusation is that the 'aging hippie' never grew up. Adults get frustrated with teenagers and young adults from time to time, and when they go off on a little rant it's usually about how "kids" aren't focused, lack manners, wear strange clothes, use odd language, lack respect for their elders, have no ambition and are probably damaging their health with the latest fad. The stoner stereotype is just an exaggeration of these age-old complaints about the young. So another source of power is learning how to do things right and showing off that you know how to behave more effectively than many people twice your age. Young people are smart, creative, ethical, values-driven, and hard-working. Use those traits to your advantage.

4) Be the customer. We live in a consumer society where customers are treated, more often than not, with respect. Contrary to the popular saying the customer is not always right, but the vendor who doesn't listen to a customer is always wrong. Successful legislators understand this and constituent service such as answering questions and providing help with government agencies is a well-known key to re-election. Responding to customers is also a popular practice for many businesses. People enhance their power as consumers when they learn how to make effective complaints. Many of the procedures for complaining about service in everyday life are also effective for communicating with legislators. Think about the format of a successful complaint: here are the facts, here's why this was wrong or unacceptable, and here's the remedy I think is justified under the circumstances. It may be that your meal was late and you deserve a free desert, or that your car wasn't repaired and you deserve a free tow back to the garage. Remember that legislators are your representatives; it's their job and the job of their staffs to provide you with service. It's their job to treat you like a customer or client.

5) Stay positive. You don't advance the cause of legalization by focusing on all the reasons marijuana is illegal. Treating legalization like a lost cause guarantees that it will never take place. It's very easy to come up with a list of reasons why marijuana will never be legalized. But all that does is discourage people from focusing on why legalization will take place. Critical thinking is an important part of staying positive. The goal is to imagine feasible ways marijuana will become legal and then use critical thinking as part of the work required to make it happen. There are a lot of nasty realities woven into the tapestry of prohibition, but we have to transcend that with a positive vision of change to motivate the natural supporters of marijuana's legalization.

6) Develop memory. Make notes, keep records, build files. Maybe that's not you. Just keep the replies you receive via email or letter from any public official you contact. They become very helpful when you write them again in the future. For example, a legislator might argue that they oppose marijuana's legalization for a list of reasons. It is effective to refer and respond to that list of reasons in a reply of your own. It is also effective to remind legislators of their past positions and hold them to them. A legislator may defend his/her opposition to marijuana legalization because they are concerned about the threat of lung cancer. Recent research suggests that marijuana smokers have a low risk of lung cancer, providing an opportunity to respond to this concern and eliminate it as a hurdle to legalization. Developing support for legalization is as simple as making a list of reasons against it and refuting them one by one. Of course legislators don't always respond to individual arguments from constituents. That's why it' necessary to develop skills to make effective use of one's power as a voter. Over time legislators are influenced by contact from constituents, especially as they hear from more and more people, in their own words, advocating different approaches to stubborn issues. Developing memory helps make communication with legislators a productive discussion focused on reasonable disagreements over the issues.

7) Work the system. Would you rather let the system work you? You enhance the effectiveness of all of these skills by learning how the system works and using that knowledge to your advantage. There's no mystery to getting legislatures to change laws. It may be difficult to accomplish, but the process itself is plain to see and easy to understand. You don't need experts to tell you what to say, how to act, and how some plan is going to succeed. It's simple enough. We have a political and social system. We learn procedures and make them work for us everyday, whether we're ordering lunch, learning how to use new software, getting a drivers' license, or registering for a class. Changing laws has its own set of procedures. The more you understand them the more effective you will be at using your power as a voter. The starting point, though, is the set of three fundamentals introduced at the beginning of this article: you need to know which legislative districts you live in, register to vote, and vote regularly. The next step in working the system is to develop communication skills and use them to develop relationships with your legislators at both the state and national level.

These seven skills are vital to the success of efforts to legalize marijuana in the United States. These skills empower individuals to become an effective force for change through the use of their fundamental rights in our democratic system. Use these skills to become a strong independent and effective voice for marijuana's legalization in the United States. HIGH TIMES is always working on new ways to support the cause of marijuana’s legalization, and will continue and expand its efforts to help you use these skills to develop your power as a voter.

Lets make legalization a priority, now, for both the movement and the nation.