from the Detroit Metro Times:
Getting NORML
A brief history of the movement to legalize marijuanaBy John Sinclair
Published: October 27, 2010
Looking ahead to next month's long-anticipated popular vote to legalize recreational use of marijuana in California, it seems like a million years ago when I went to the West Coast in 1972 to campaign for the original Proposition 19 — the first California Marijuana Initiative.
Out of prison for only a few months and still celebrating the reversal on appeal of my conviction for possessing two joints that had forced me to serve 29 months of a 9-1/2-to-10-year sentence in the Michigan prison system, I had been recruited by my friend Mike Aldrich to join him on the board of directors of a pioneering marijuana legalization organization called Amorphia: The Cannabis Cooperative.
Amorphia was spearheading the campaign to repeal the state's laws against adult use, possession and cultivation of marijuana, and Aldrich was assembling a team of activists to tour the state's college campuses, give press conferences, and speak publicly on behalf of Proposition 19.
So, at his behest, I joined Keith Stroup, a young lawyer from Washington, D.C., who headed another fledgling organization called NORML — the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws — and a number of local luminaries to drum up support for CMI. As I recall, Keith and I went on to make appearances in Phoenix, Ariz., and Santa Fe, N.M., on the same legalization tour, had a ball, and became fast friends for many years to come. ............(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://metrotimes.com/columns/getting-norml-1.1054493