cannabisnews.com: NORML Students Fight for Unusual Cause





NORML Students Fight for Unusual Cause
Posted by FoM on April 25, 2002 at 10:08:46 PT
By Sarah Zadvinskis, Contributing Writer 
Source: Washington Square News 
“My mom has an inkling of it — I have not told my father yet,” freshman Nathan McClune says of the cause that consumes a great deal of his time. Born and raised in Kansas City, Kan., McClune, a philosophy major in the College of Arts and Science, is keenly attuned to conservative ideology and his parents’ sensitivities. Nonetheless, his name appears boldly as “founder and president” on the Web site introducing NYU’s newly-formed chapter of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. 
NORML has been the nation’s leading voice against marijuana prohibition since 1970. Most recently the organization has been in the news for using the New York Mayor, Mike Bloomberg, as a grinning “poster boy” in one of their advertisements advocating the legalization of marijuana, based on a comment Bloomberg made to an interviewer saying that he had smoked pot and enjoyed it. “I’ve been an advocate since my freshman year of high school,” McClune said of his involvement with NORML. “Somewhere around that time, I wanted to take a political stance. But out of respect for my parents, and living in Kansas, which is an extremely conservative state, I just waited until I left. So, I was waiting to get here to do it.” At a typical NORML meeting, McClune arranges the chairs in a circle and sits comfortably among the group of 11 attending. Someone in the group comments that over half of the regulars are absent for this particular meeting. Current projects include an ad campaign, an art exhibit, an NYU NORML newsletter and Web site, which McClune wants to use as a venue for artists and writers of the group to express themselves. The group discusses putting together a three-page newsletter. Of the 11 attending, almost everyone has committed to contributing. Faces smile at ideas for slogans: “Nugs not drugs” and “Different smokes for different folks.” Someone suggests an icon for the letterhead: an NYU-like torch with a pot leaf. There is also talk of a new group called ParaNORML, which would not be directly related to marijuana, but would meet for introspective thinking and yoga classes. Conversation is engaging, and students are open to debate. One person brings up the issue of the use of marijuana as a psychotropic drug, making himself vulnerable by discussing how marijuana has been helpful with his bipolar disorder. Another student responds by asking, “But, isn’t marijuana a depressant?” “I guess it depends on the person smoking,” McClune says, head tilted forward and occasionally pulling his fingertips, palms facing out, from roots to ends of his wavy blondish hair. The group does not advocate that everyone should smoke, only that everyone should have the right to choose for themselves. “People might just be coming to the meetings because they, I think, can identify with NORML,” McClune says. “They’d like to be able to smoke for recreational reasons and not feel like a criminal. I mean, because that’s basically what the system instills in all the smokers. As soon as you light up, you automatically feel like a criminal. The government makes you out to feel like you’re doing something wrong. They assimilate you with hard drug-users — addicts, cokeheads, heroin users.” McClune fears that the government’s labeling of marijuana in the same class as harder substances creates a dangerous situation for many young people. “There’s quite a difference between smoking a bowl and pulling a line,” McClune said. “And if people go in thinking, ‘Well, the government lied to me about pot, they probably lied to me about cocaine and I can use that the same way that I do pot,’ it creates a horrible situation.” McClune proposed the concept of NORML to NYU’s Office of Student Activities this fall. While the idea was approved, the group will not receive funding until next fall. Expenses are currently paid out of McClune’s “own pocket,” most of which go toward the flyers made to inform students of the group’s weekly meetings. The flyers have been necessary because as a new group, NORML’s meeting rooms often change from week to week. Unfortunately, advertising through flyers has been a difficult task. McClune hopes the Web site and newsletter will help. “For every advertisement that we put up on campus, we have to ask permission from the guards of the building,” McClune said. “We show them the advertisement and they say no.” “In a way, we are being denied our right to advertise,” McClune said. “But there’s no need to fight it. I just turn away.” “A lot of people think at NYU that they can make a difference,” McClune says. “I think that’s one of the things that really ties the people at the meetings together — that they care about it. They feel like in New York City and the Village that we have a chance to do something here that a lot of people don’t at other universities.” “I want to wait until we have a little more establishment and our activities are going through before I tell them something,” McClune says, referring to his parents. “So if they say anything like ‘What the hell are you doing?’ I can say, ‘I’m doing this.’” And he will say it with pride. Source: Washington Square News (NY Edu)Author: Sarah Zadvinskis, Contributing Writer Published: Thursday, April 25, 2002 Copyright: 2002, Washington Square NewsContact: opinion nyunews.comWebsite: http://www.nyunews.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:NORMLhttp://www.norml.org/NYU NORMLContact: Nathaniel McCuneE-mail: nyunorml cannabisaction.net NORML Ad - Pictures & Articleshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/ad.htmMarijuana Advocates Cheer on Hallinan http://freedomtoexhale.com/nc.htmThese Guys Inhaled - San Francisco Examiner http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12580.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by E_Johnson on April 25, 2002 at 11:16:47 PT
My first letter of the day
Dear editors,I was quite shocked when I learned that NYU student Nathan McClune was allowing building security guards to dictate his First Amendment rights to him. Dude, there's nothing in the Bill of Rights that makes weed illegal, but there is something in the Bill of Rights that makes denying the right to advertise a NORML meeting illegal.If you have a chapter of the ACLU on campus, you may want to have a talk with them. If not, then go to http://www.aclu.org and write them and ask them for help. By the way, Nathan, those are my rights too that you are letting them violate. The First Amendment belongs to everyone, not just building security guards at NYU. 
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Comment #2 posted by E_Johnson on April 25, 2002 at 11:07:27 PT
Is there an ACLU chapter on campus perchance?
Again with fewer anger-induced tpos:“For every advertisement that we put up on campus, we have to ask permission from the guards of the building,” McClune said. “We show them the advertisement and they say no.” Dude, their saying no is more illegal than weed.There's no one single word written in the Bill of Rights about weed being illegal, but there is plenty that is written in the Bill of Rights that says denying you the right to pass flyers for a political meeting is illegal.You are going to have to MAKE them obey the law!!!!!!!“In a way, we are being denied our right to advertise,” McClune said. “But there’s no need to fight it. I just turn away.”No, not "in a way" -- you are DIRECTLY being denied your right to advertise, and sorry but there is a need to fight it.As a fellow citizen of this country I demand that you fight it because those are MY rights too that you are letting them violate.
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Comment #1 posted by E_Johnson on April 25, 2002 at 11:06:01 PT
Is there an ACLU chapter on campus perchance?
“For every advertisement that we put up on campus, we have to ask permission from the guards of the building,” McClune said. “We show them the advertisement and they say no.” Dude, their saying no is more illegal than weed.There's in the Bill of Rights about weed being illegal, but there is something in the bill of Rights that says denying you the right to pass flyers for a political meeting is illegal.You are going to have toe MAKE them obey the law!!!!!!!   “In a way, we are being denied our right to advertise,” McClune said. “But there’s no need to fight it. I just turn away.”No, not "in a way" -- you are DIRECTLY being denied your right to advertise, and sorry but there is a need to fight it.As a fellow citizen of this country I demand that you fight it because those are MY rights too that you are letting them violate.
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