Background on National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (U.S.)
Keith Stroup, ca. 1975
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws is one of the oldest lobbying, advocacy and activist organizations dedicated to ending marijuana prohibition in the United States. NORML was founded in the fall of 1970 in Washington D.C. by friends Larry Schott and Keith Stroup (pronounced Strop), who met while working for the National Commission on Product Safety. Stroup was a lawyer and Schott was the Chief Investigator for the Commission. Schott gave Stroup a deeper appreciation for marijuana and the marijuana culture. The two were motivated to start NORML following the arrest of a friend for possession of a small amount of marijuana during a traffic stop. Influenced by the pro-consumer advocacy of Ralph Nader and formed out of the progressive political environment of the late 1960s, the two imagined NORML as a "respectable" advocate for marijuana smokers. Early support for the group was hard to come by save for a donation of $5000 from The Playboy Foundation. NORML opened its first office in early 1971 in Stroup's basement.
Throughout the 1970s NORML attempted to capitalize on the work of the Nixon administration appointed National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse which, after a year of investigation and testimony (including NORML's), ruled that marijuana was in essence harmless and should be "decriminalized". The Commission defined decriminalization as fines for possession of small amounts of marijuana in lieu of jail time and keeping criminal penalties for sale or distribution of larger amounts. Nixon flatly rebuked the Commission's findings. Their conciliatory gesture towards drug users did not match Nixon's hard-line "law and order" platform of the time. NORML used the Commission's findings, as well as an early decriminalization victory in Oregon, to attempt to convince state legislatures across the United States to decriminalize Marijuana. This was not the preferred strategy of all marijuana reform groups. Early on in its history there were disagreements between NORML and other groups, like Amorphia in California, on whether to decriminalize through state legislation or legalize through citizen ballot initiatives. NORML believed that ballot initiatives were expensive and not likely to pass considering the climate of the country at the time. Regardless, in 1974 NORML and Amorphia merged and Amorphia became the California state chapter of NORML.
In 1973 NORML established a sister organization, with funds from the Ford Foundation, called the Center for the Study of Non Medical Drug Use whose aim was to steer money towards non-political efforts such as lawsuits and publishing. Also during the 1970s, NORML discovered, through the efforts of people like Lynn Pierson, Bob Randall and Alice O'Leary, the medicinal benefits of marijuana to people suffering from the effects of multiple sclerosis, chemotherapy and glaucoma and began to work on medical-reclassification.
In the wake of Richard Nixon's resignation following Watergate, the political mood of the country shifted in a more tolerant direction. In 1975, five state legislatures passed decriminalization bills and the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that personal use of marijuana at home was protected by the right-to-privacy provision in the state constitution. It was during this time that NORML began to gain respectability in the political middle. Their annual conferences were attended by government officials, doctors, lawyers, state legislators, activists, Yippies, Libertarians, Republicans, and Democrats. State chapters opened in dozens of states. With the election of Jimmy Carter in 1976 and his endorsement of decriminalization in 1977, NORML had a friend in the White House. However, their influence was not to last.
During their annual conferences, NORML hosted a Saturday night party which became legendary throughout the political and media culture of Washington, D.C. for the availability of quality marijuana and cocaine. Reflective of the permissive climate of the late 1970s the party was a mix of conference attendees, politicians, journalists and drug dealers indulging in all manner of intoxicants. During the 1977 conference party, Dr. Peter Bourne, the Director of the White House Office of Drug Abuse Policy, attended and was seen using cocaine. A year later, Keith Stroup leaked this information to the press in retaliation for the Carter administration's failure to stop the use of paraquat by the Drug Enforcement Agency. Paraquat was an herbicide used in Mexico to eradicate marijuana plants that was potentially harmful to smokers. Following the revelation, NORML lost its connections to the White House and the NORML Board of Directors pressured Stroup to resign as Executive Director in 1979. This was followed by a growing backlash against the steady gains of marijuana reformers from the Right which culminated in the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Following his departure, Stroup dedicated his time to criminal defense work on drug cases.
Throughout the "Just Say No" 1980s, NORML struggled to stay alive, withstanding financial troubles, waining membership, disagreements over strategy, and societal intolerance for drug decriminalization and legalization. NORML's popularity suffered in the wake of well-funded anti-drug parent groups that found favor among a population witnessing the devastating affects of hard drugs like cocaine, heroin and crack. During this time the organization was kept alive by National Directors George Farnham, Kevin Zeese and Jon Gettman. NORML took on legal challenges to aggressive D.E.A. policing tactics, the schedule 1 classification of marijuana, and drug testing in the workplace, among their regular programs. Gettman was responsible for collecting large amounts of qualitative data on U.S. marijuana production and arrest rates as well as building the grassroots/activist base of NORML and strengthening the organization of state chapters. He is best known for his attempts at petitioning the U.S. Government to remove marijuana from the Class 1 schedule. In the late 1980s, following an IRS audit initiated by a U.S. Congressman, the Board of Directors fired the National Director and administered the organization itself. Allen St. Pierre was hired in 1991 by the Board as the sole staff member and helped hire Richard Cowan, a Yale-educated, gay, quaker, libertarian, Texas oil man as the new National Director. Cowan's appointment earned NORML new press attention for its incongruities as well as new donations which helped turn the fortunes of the organization.
The appointment of Richard Cowan proved to be divisive and instigated what is referred to as the "NORML Civil War". In mid 1994 Cowan was alleged to have made several financial improprieties with NORML funds. The Board disagreed on the nature and extent of the improprieties and how to handle it. Cowan, with support from some Board members and staffers, voted to dissolve the existing Board and elect a new Board. The new Board included Lester Grinspoon, Ann Druyan and John Morgan who then appointed 14 additional Board members including Keith Stroup. The removed Board members, led by David "Skippy" Busch, the head of the D.C. NORML chapter, filed suit in D.C. Superior Court to nullify the new Board. What followed was a fractious legal episode that lasted several years. The fallout of these events included a physical assault and the firing of Rob Kampia, a NORML staffer who ended up founding the competing Marijuana Policy Project with an allegedly stolen NORML mailing list.
Following the tumult of the Board lawsuit and IRS audits, Keith Stroup returned as National Director in 1995. In 1997 under the advice of the IRS, NORML split into two separate organizations; a 501(c)4 lobbying organization and a 501(c)3 tax-deductible, nonprofit called the NORML Foundation. Allen St. Pierre was chosen to lead the Foundation. He then took over as National Director following Stroup's retirement.
With the legalization of medical marijuana in California in 1996 via Proposition 215, and Stroup's restructuring, NORML was once again stable and able to capitalize on a wave of public support for addressing the marijuana issue. Despite the aggressive anti-drug policies of the George W. Bush White House, which included equating drug use with supporting terrorism, public support for marijuana legalization continued to grow, culminating in citizen ballot initiatives in 2012 that legalized the recreational use of marijuana in Colorado and Washington state. This, combined with the election of Barack Obama and the permissive policies of his Attorney General Eric Holder, ushered in an unprecedented era in which the end of marijuana prohibition seems within reach.
Following state legalization and the ensuing "green rush" by investors, incongruities between state and federal laws, and the patchwork of state tax policies and regulations, NORML continues to advocate on behalf of the interests of the marijuana consumer.