Press Release; Drug Czar's Office To Hold Special Capitol Hill Briefing

[benburch]

Drug Czar's Office To Hold Special Capitol Hill Briefing

24 Hours Before NORML's First Ever Congressional Lobby Day

"What is the Drug Czar afraid of – the truth?"

Washington, DC: In response to NORML's upcoming Congressional Lobby
Day, to be held on Thursday, April 22, the White House Office of National
Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) is holding a special briefing session before
Congress to speak on the alleged dangers of marijuana, specifically the
use of cannabis as a medicine.

The special White House-sponsored briefing, entitled, "Medical
Marijuana: Myth and Facts," will be held Wednesday in the Rayburn House
Office Building at 2pm, less than 24 hours before hundreds of citizens
from around the nation are scheduled to meet with their members of
Congress to lobby on behalf of various pending marijuana reform bills,
including H.R. 2233, "The States' Rights to Medical Marijuana Act."

"The timing of this ONDCP briefing is no coincidence," NORML Executive
Director Keith Stroup said. "This is a last-minute push by the drug
czar's office to promote their anti-pot propaganda less than 24 hours
before seriously ill patients, activists, students and parents will
converge on Capitol Hill to lobby in favor of saner marijuana policies.
What is the Drug Czar afraid of - the truth?"

NORML's first ever Congressional Lobby Day is being held in
conjunction with the organization's 2004 National Conference, which takes
place April 23-24, at the Hamilton Crowne Plaza Hotel in Washington, DC.
Several hundred citizens from the United States and Canada are registered
to attend the conference and lobby day, entitled: "We're Here. We Smoke.
We Vote."

"For many politicians, NORML's inaugural Congressional Lobby Day will
be their first look at our emerging constituency," Stroup said. "They
will see that the marijuana law reform movement is no longer a political
fringe group, but rather, that we are a diverse, politically active group
of responsible Americans who represent the interests of tens of millions
of marijuana smokers nationwide."

Days two and three of the 2004 NORML Conference will feature panel
discussions and speakers on a variety of marijuana-related issues. Panels
include: "Marijuana and Your Health: What You Need to Know That the
Government Won't Tell You," "Don't Become Another Statistic: How Not to
Get Busted," "The Federal Assault on Marijuana Smokers," "Where Do We Go
From Here: Strategy for the Next Five Years," as well as a "High Times
30th Anniversary Panel," which will examine editorial changes at the
magazine and the launch of High Times' Grow America.

Featured speakers at the conference include best-selling author Eric
Schlosser (author of Fast Food Nation and Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs and
Cheap Labor in the American Black Market); Boston University Law Professor
Randy Barnett, chief legal counsel in Raich/Monson v. Ashcroft, in which
the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found the federal prosecution of
state-sanctioned medical marijuana patients to be unconstitutional; High
Times publisher Richard Stratton; and the Drug Policy Alliance's Marsha
Rosenbaum.

Other scheduled events include a benefit screening of Ron Mann's
latest documentary Go Further (starring Woody Harrelson), a joint
reception sponsored by NORML and High Times, and NORML's annual Saturday
night "4:20" benefit party.

Complete conference information, including conference agenda,
registration and hotel information, is available online at:
http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5888

For more information on the 2004 NORML Conference and Congressional
Lobby Day, please contact NORML Assistant Director Kris Krane at (202)
483-5500.

[tom_paine]

1. ALL Busheviks are afraid of the truth

Because they lie so much, so frequently, and so odiously.