cannabisnews.com: Chat with Richard Cowan - Marijuananews.com Chat with Richard Cowan - Marijuananews.com Posted by CN Staff on February 22, 2003 at 09:17:43 PT Invitation To Cannabis News Special Chat Source: Cannabis News You are invited to a Special Chat with Richard Cowan.On February 22, 2003 at 9 PM ET Cannabis News will Host a Special Chat with Richard Cowan, editor of MarijuanaNews.com, a former National Director of NORML, and a member of the board of directors of the NORML Foundation. Here are just some of Richard Cowan's achievements: Writing and speaking on public affairs, 1972-present.December 6, 1972 -- National Review Cover Article "Why Conservatives Should Support the Legalization of Marijuana." In his book Smoke and Mirrors, Dan Baum said that this article "opened a second front in the War on Drugs." Time Magazine even carried a story about the article.http://www.marijuananews.com/smoke_and_mirrors.htmMarijuananews.com was launched on the twenty-fifth anniversary of this article. December 5, 1986 -- National Review Cover Article: "How the Narcs Created Crack." This article has been cited in various scholarly journals as the origin of the economics of contraband, "The Iron Law of Prohibition: the harder the enforcement, the harder the drugs."http://www.marijuananews.com/marijuananews/cowan/how_the_narcs_created_crack_by_r.htmWritings on other subjects have appeared in a variety of newspapers and other publications, including the Atlantic Monthly.Television appearances include interviews on numerous news programs, including CNN, and a variety of talk shows including Posner/Donahue.From February to September, 1997, founding editor of The Medical Marijuana Magazine an online publication.Much of the original content of this site, was adapted from there. It is published by the well known author and medical marijuana user, Peter McWilliams, and is worth visiting just to see the great graphics on the Home Page. -- http://www.drugsense.org/mcwilliams/www.marijuanamagazine.com/ August 1992 - August 1995:National Director of NORML, The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Currently:Senior Policy Advisor to NORML. -- http://www.norml.org/Editor and Publisher, marijuananews.com -- http://www.marijuananews.com/Member of the Advisory Board of the Drug Policy Foundation. -- http://www.drugpolicy.org/One more personal note: Prior to my becoming the National Director of NORML I had always been a very private person, the sort that stepped to one side when someone was taking a picture. I went from that to saying on national television -- in response to a question by Phil Donahue -- that I had smoked marijuana almost everyday for -- then -- 27 years. (Now 30, and still counting.)I was always taught to minimize the use of the first person singular. When I was at NORML, this was easy. For one thing, I depended entirely on Allen St. Pierre. Although marijuananews.com is very much a first person singular activity, I hope all the more that you -- the reader -- will get involved by writing me and keeping me informed about what is going on around the world, especially what is not reported in the establishment media. You can also meet Mr. Cowan at the upcoming NORML Conference in April. NORML Conference 2003 - San Francisco, CA -- April 17-19, 2003 -- http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5524For more biographical info see: http://www.marijuananews.com/cowan.htm The topic will be current issues concerning Cannabis Reform. Scheduled Time: February 22, 2003 at 9 PM ETTo access the chat:http://www.cannabisnews.com/chat Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #5 posted by FoM on February 23, 2003 at 09:10:08 PT Richard, It Was Great Since the news is slow I've been working on the transcripts and am ready to send them to Richard Cowan to view and approve. I might have them up in an hour or two if Richard gets back with me quickly. Sorry about the glitch but it was ok to move to your chat room and it turned out just fine! We are getting good at dealing with problems aren't we? LOL! [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by Richard Lake on February 23, 2003 at 08:13:47 PT: Yes, it was a superb chat! Set a new record for activists visiting our chat room at one time. 35 folks with a whole lot of good questions for our special guest, Richard Cowan.Moving the chat became necessary when for reasons Matt Elrod is exploring so they can be fixed, the CNEWS chat was not accepting more than ten folks at a time. We suspect it could be related to the number of processes allowed on the CNEWS server, or something, since the chat software for CNEWS is identical to that for the DrugSense Chat. CNEWS runs on a different server that MAP/DrugSense. The MAP/Drugsense family of hosted websites has long outgrown one larger server and is now spread out over three, at least, maybe more. Not something I keep track of.Folks, the chat transcript is the largest we have ever had for a guest chat, well over 70k of text. To get it into readable format for a webpage takes time. When I have done them it was a good day's project for chats half that size.So while I am sure some of you are looking forward to reading the transcript, as I am, please understand that it may take FoM a while to get it done. After all she must keep CNEWS going as a first priority.Thanks FoM for all that you do! [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by FoM on February 22, 2003 at 19:55:46 PT Great Chat Everyone! It will take me a few days to get the transcripts done and I will post them as soon as I am finished. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by FoM on February 22, 2003 at 18:17:55 PT Technical Difficulty We are moving the chat because of a temporary glitch in our chat to DrugSense Chat. Richard Cowan is there and we hope to see you too.http://www.drugsense.org/chat/ [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on February 22, 2003 at 17:15:08 PT A Friendly Reminder We are all set for this evening's chat with Richard Cowan. He is really looking forward to it and so am I. Hope to see you there close to 9 PM ET tonight. We are having thunder storms and lightning. Then after midnight snow! Strange weather for February. I hope I don't have problems staying connected but if I would disappear from the chat it would be because of the current weather. Otherwise I will be there with bells and whistles on. LOL! [ Post Comment ] Post Comment