Thank you to the hundreds of you who joined NORML in the past week. Your free DVD copy of “Evergreen” is on its way to you now. (Evergreen is an exciting new documentary that tells the story about how my friends and I helped legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana in Washington State.)
My state finally considers responsible, adult recreational use of marijuana to be a civil liberty. And now, we are working to legalize marijuana in Alaska and Oregon. If you’d like to get involved, you’re still welcome to contribute $50 to NORML and get your DVD copy of Evergreen. Click here to find out more.
Again, this is not “pro pot.” This drug policy reform work is “anti-prohibition” and I consider it good citizenship. Our country’s insistence on criminalizing marijuana is an expensive and racist disaster and, one by one, states are opting out. I’m so proud of the work we’re doing and the support from caring citizens who understand that we can take crime out of the equation and treat marijuana abuse as a health and education issue – and recognize its mature adult use as a civil liberty.
We have momentum. And there is a lot more to do. That’s why I’m donating these DVDs to NORML for this campaign. And that’s why I’m spending this week in Oregon on a ten-city, seven-day, barn-storming tour.
(By the way, if you’d rather just stream Evergreen online, you can find it on iTunes and on Netflix.)
Many of you know that I am a board member of NORML and an advocate for marijuana policy reform. And if you’ve understood my position, you know that I’m not in this to be “pro pot.” I am involved to end an expensive, racist, and counter-productive prohibition as wrong-minded and costly to our society today as the prohibition against alcohol was back in the 1930s.
An exciting new documentary movie called “Evergreen” tells the story about how my friends and I helped legalize, tax and regulate marijuana in my home state of Washington. (And is the closest I’ll ever get to “starring in a movie”.)
Since the last election, my state, along with Colorado, considers responsible adult recreational use of marijuana a civil liberty. And now, we are working to legalize marijuana in Alaska and Oregon. If you would like to get involved in this work (which I consider good citizenship), here’s a great opportunity to support us. Simply join NORML with a donation of $50 and they’ll send you a free DVD copy of “Evergreen.”
In what I call “the lower 48” states, hundreds of thousands of people—not rich white guys but black and poor people—are arrested each year for marijuana possession. But, in Washington and Colorado, thousands who would have been arrested are not, saving our states millions of dollars and avoiding untold heartache. Great things are happening as our country is, step-by-step, ending the war on marijuana and undoing the prohibition of our age. We have exciting momentum. There’s lots more to do. That’s why I’m donating these DVDs to NORML for this campaign. And that’s why I’m packing up and heading to Oregon next week for an intense week of media and lectures in ten different cities.
Good travelers travel with all their senses…and that includes our noses. Here are a few angles on touring Amsterdam that involve your olfactory skills:
Perhaps the Dutch are so into flowers because of the population density and the tight quarters they live in. You see it in the paintings and you see it in the markets–the Dutch have long had a love affair with flowers. I’ve even purchased a bouquet in the market just to brighten up my hotel room…to go Dutch. A popular souvenir for many visitors is a packet of tulip bulbs.
In the flower market, one of the most popular packet of seeds is one that may have you doing a little explaining at US customs. While Washington State has legalized marijuana, I still can’t legally grow it at home, so this starter kit may not be a good idea. But it is thought-provoking (and a reminder that many Europeans do enjoy growing their own).
While the 20-somethings line up for the Heineken Experience–a malty, yeasty, amusement ride of a brewery tour just down the street, an older crowd celebrates their visit to the Van Gogh Museum by crossing the street and stepping into the House of Bols: Cocktail and Genever Experience. Dutch gin has a long and bleary heritage and you learn all about it here along with a fun chance to test your olfactory skills. This line of scents each has a hidden identity. Pump the spritzer, sniff, and guess the scent–then pull back the cover to see what it was. I failed miserably, getting only butterscotch correct. While there are plenty of beer and wine tasting tours and experiences in Europe, what are your favorite hard liquor experiences on the Continent?
I normally fly home from Europe in time for Hempfest, when over 100,000 people cap the summer by gathering in a Seattle park to call for the civil liberty to smoke marijuana in America. Because my home state passed I-502 (a referendum legalizing the adult recreational use of marijuana), the 22nd Annual Hempfest was the first one where smoking pot was legal at this “protestival.” I really wanted to be there, but I wanted to be in Russia and Iceland more, so I missed it.
But I did get home in time for High Times’ Cannabis Cup, which was celebrated in Seattle this year. And I was honored with their Lifetime Achievement Award for my work in helping to end the US government’s determined war on marijuana. (Yes, it’s early for a lifetime achievement award but, like the “most interesting man in the world” honors, I hope to earn two.)
Imagine being on stage in a smoke-filled room looking out over a thousand stoners and trying to get some serious ideas into the heads of these heads. I thought you might enjoy my three-minute attempt to do just that with this little video clip.
It’s been a good year for drug policy reform in the USA. Last November, Colorado also legalized the adult recreational use of marijuana. Last month the Obama administration gave us the go-ahead to make it a taxed and regulated market like alcohol. And the scare-mongering claims against I-502 (mostly by people who profit from the black market and fear legalizing pot will hurt their bottom line) have proven wrong. Here’s my take on a new kind of travel that’s no longer illegal in two states–and I’d bet is coming soon to what I now call “the Lower 48.”
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
Overlooking the commotion of the Washington DC Travel and Adventure Show.
Last week, I embarked on my second annual “Road Trip USA.” I had such a wonderful time doing my cross-country trip last year, I just had to do it again — this time focusing on a dozen fine communities in the Eastern Seaboard, South, and Midwest.
My trip this year began in and near our national’s capital. I kicked things off giving two talks at Asbury Methodist Village retirement community in Gaithersburg, Maryland. I could spend the entire year doing talks like these, as “progressive care organizations” pay well to have me give a talk at their facility (partly to attract prospective retirees who may want to move in). And I really enjoy these talks — I find older audiences impressively young at heart.
From there, I spent the weekend giving two talks each day (travel skills and Italy) as the headliner for the Washington DC Travel and Adventure Show. They pay us well to have a booth there and for me to give my talks, as they need to attract lots of people to pay the $10 admission. These talks are challenging for me because there’s a huge crowd and the venue is immersed in travel-fair commotion — noisy booths, other speakers just behind a curtain, and folk-dance shows. Our booth was really lively, and we gave away 3,000 newsletters and mounds of tour promotional material.
I enjoy checking in with the other speakers at these shows. This time, I got to hang out with Arthur Frommer a bit. My travel writing inspiration and mentor is a gracious man, still teaching travel as he has since his first book back in the mid-1950s. The first thing Arthur asked me was, “And how is your son, Andy’s, little tour business going?”
My DC time was also busy because of everything else going on in that city. My daughter, Jackie, just happened to be flying in for an alumni gathering at Georgetown. She needed a place to crash, so she moved into my hotel room for two days. I wasn’t sure how she’d feel sharing a hotel room with her old man — but it didn’t matter, as she spent each night out with her college friends, and I barely saw her.
“Filling up” a Tesla, it’s not regular or unleaded…it’s AC or DC.
I enjoyed breakfast with the Egyptian tourism director, who assured me Egypt is stable enough for Western travelers to feel comfortable. (I’ll see if that’s true, in person, next month.) One evening I taped a pledge drive at WETA. The next I went to the European Union Ambassador’s mansion for a party. Jackie couldn’t believe I was heading out to the party without a tie, so I bought one at the hotel gift shop on my way out. That turned out to be a very good move. Ambassadors from nearly a dozen smaller European countries were invited there to meet me over drinks. I enjoyed being lobbied by each of them to give their country — from Belgium to Latvia to Greece — more attention. The EU is underwriting our radio program, and this evening provided a great opportunity for me to connect with them. It’s rare that I meet people as enthusiastic about Europe as a whole (rather than individual countries) as I am. The EU staff is evangelical about Europe.
As I’m newly elected to the board of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, my last DC night was spent at dinner connecting with the director and founder of NORML. The three of us talked about the drug policy reform business and coordinating a good plan to build upon our recent victories in Washington State and Colorado.
My DC highlight was taking a few minutes to test drive a Tesla. Wow. I have never had such an exciting driving experience. Completely electric, with almost no moving parts, no gears, a big bright touchscreen computer terminal for a control pad, and rocket-like acceleration, I felt I was piloting the jet-like car of the future as I zipped giddily around our nation’s capital. (Too bad about the price tag.)
