HBO to Air R&R Hall of Fame Awards - Saturday at 9

Inductees include VIPs Laura Nyro (inducted by Bette Midler), Donovan, and the Beastie Boys, read more.

(Sadly, Adam Yauch of The BB's just died)

Details from HBO

Read a report on the R&R Hall of Fame Awards

Cops & Moms Week of Action for Mother’s Day

NORML Women’s Alliance, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and other Reform Organizations Team Up for “Cops & Moms Week of Action”

Washington DC- Mothers from around the country will join with law enforcement and students at the National Press Club on May 2nd in honor of Mother’s Day. The press conference will launch a new coalition of national organizations that will represent mothers, police and students that seek to finally end the disastrous drug war. The NORML Women’s Alliance, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition,Student for Sensible Drug Policy and others will share powerful stories of losing loved ones to the criminal justice system, and the social repercussions of prohibition.  The coalition will unveil the “Mom’s Bill of Rights” and highlight a series of activities around the country timed to Mother’s Day.

Read more about local actions near you. 

                                                 

                           Moms United to End the War on Drugs Bill of Rights

Mothers, parents and families are leading the charge to end the violence, mass incarceration and overdose deaths that are a result of current punitive and discriminatory drug policies. We are building a movement to stop the stigmatization and criminalization of people who use drugs or who are addicted to drugs. We urgently call for health-oriented strategies and widespread drug policy reform in order to stop the irresponsible waste of dollars and resources, and the devastating loss of lives and liberty.

We declare and assert these basic rights for all mothers:

1.     We have the right to nurture our offspring, and to advocate for their care and safety.

2.     We have the right to be free from the shame and stigma caused by negative labels encumbering our children who suffer from addictive disorders and the parents who raise them.

3.     We have the parental right to policies and practices that recognize addiction as a disease in need of treatment, rather than a willful behavior to be criminalized.

4.     We have the right to be represented by informed policymakers who work to reduce the barriers to education, housing and employment opportunities that our sons and daughters encounter after they have been arrested for drug possession.

5.     We have the right to honest, accurate, safety-first drug education in our schools, rather than scare tactics.

6.     We have the right to respectful, nondiscriminatory harm reduction strategies that honestly address and treat the chronic relapsing disease of addiction, and to policies that are informed by and consistent with scientific research, compassion and reason.

7.     We have the right to life-saving overdose prevention and intervention strategies, which should not be impeded or pre-empted by criminal justice policies of arrest and incarceration.

8.     We have the constitutional right to protect our homes and families from the unreasonable search and seizure tactics of drug “warriors”.

       9.  We have the right to communities where our children can live, learn and play without fear of drug war violence.

 

      10. We have the right to have our roles as parents protected and supported, rather than disregarded  

            and terminated by incarceration for nonviolent drug offenses.

      11. We have the right to protect the future of all our children from a drug war which is waged

            predominantly against families, as well as communities of color and poverty.

     12. We have the right to speak out publicly to end the war on drugs, which has become a war waged

           against our own families and communities, in order to protect the futures of our children.

 Endorsed by: A New PATH, Mothers Against Teen Violence, Broken No More, GRASP, St. Ann’s Corner of Harm Reduction

   

      

Happy Birthday Isak Dinesen, a Modern Scheherazade

Meryl Streep played her on film; Timothy Leary, Aldous Huxley, Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe courted her; she flew in planes and hunted lions with Denys Finch Hatton in 1930s Africa, and was a bestselling author.

Born on April 17, 1885, Isak Dinesen (aka Baroness Karen von Blixen) was the Danish author of "Out of Africa" and many, many stories, some of which have been made into film (e.g. "Babette's Feast").

According to Isak Dinesen, The Life of a Storyteller by Judith Thurman, Dinesen and Finch Hatton were great fans of Baudelaire, and "Friends remember that Denys and Tania liked to experiment with the sensations hashish, opium, or miraa could give them. Denys arranged the cushions on the floor before the fire and reclined there, playing his guitar. Tania sat 'cross-legged like Scheherazade herself' and told him stories." (Miraa is kava, an indigenous African herb that has a mild hallucinogenic effect. Dinesen refers to it in her story "The Dreamers" by its other name, murungu.) In another of her tales, "The Monkey," an old abbess drugs her dinner guests with a love potion, leading to an evening of "exalted lewdness" (Thurman). 

Streep as Dinesen in the film "Out of Africa"
with Robert Redford as Finch Hatton.

Dinesen wrote to her mother from Africa in 1924, "The greater part of humanity needs excitement, some slight intoxication, pleasure, and danger too. I think that if it were in my power to do anything at all for humanity, I myself would like to amuse them. I think it is wonderful that such delightful peacable people as you exist; but there is need for more than this, and I shall allow myself to make use of Shakespeare's words: 'Dost thou think, because thou are virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale? Yes, by St. Anne, and ginger shall be hot I' the mouth too."

Dinesen died in 1962, but her stories live on. Orson Wells, a fan of Dinesen's who planned to make a series of films from her stories, directed a 1968 film starring Jeanne Moreau based on Dinesen's "The Immortal Story." "Babette's Feast," a film based on another of her short stories, won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1987. 

Read more about Very Important Pothead Isak Dinesen.

VIPs Laura Nyro and Donovan Inducted Into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Sandwiched between Guns N’ Roses, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Beastie Boys as Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees yesterday were Very Important Potheads Laura Nyro (pictured right), the revered and "mercurial" songwriter of "Stoned Soul Picnic" and other hits, and Donovan, the first British rock star to be popped for pot.

At the ceremony, VIP Bette Midler wiped back tears as she inducted Nyro, who died of cancer in 1997.

“She was the very essence of New York City,” Midler said, “Not in a gritty, real sense, but in a passionate, romantic, ethereal way. She would take ordinary people in the most ordinary situations and spin them into heroic figures.” She called Nyro an artist for whom "love was the main thing."

Nyro is the only modern influence Joni Mitchell acknowledges, and she's inspired a host of others. The Fifth Dimension, Blood Sweat & Tears, Three Dog Night, and VIP Barbra Streisand all had hits with her songs. Elton John and Elvis Costello discussed Nyro's significant influence on both of them during the premiere episode of Costello's interview show Spectacle on the Sundance channel. Read more about Laura Nyro.

Donovan's early "Green" philosophy was taken from the "hallucinogenic shamanism of the Celts" for whom Mother Earth is a Goddess, according to The Autobiography of Donovan (2005, St. Martin's Press). By his account, the documentary "A Boy Called Donovan" which aired in January 1966 nationwide in Britain, showed his "beatnick" lifestyle and attracted the interest of the newly formed Drug Squad, who made the singer their first high-profile arrest for hashish. To this day, he is labeled a "criminal" on US Visas and needs a "waiver" to enter the US.

“I thank you for this bright green laurel resting now upon my brow,” Donovan said upon accepting his induction. “I thank you, goddess, and I thank you, muses, and I thank my fellow artists all.”

Of course, the Beastie Boys broke the reefer/radio sound barrier on "Licensed To Ill," with lyric, "I got friends in high places that are keeping me high." Countless rap tributes to the weed followed.

Billie Joe Armstrong of the pot-loving band Green Day introduced Guns N’ Roses, and Kid Rock (who sang of "Smoking funny things") was one of the musicians who played tribute to the inductees. It's a good bet there are more marijuana lovers among them.

RIP Mike Wallace

Mike Wallace, who fronted 60 Minutes and helped bring investigative reporting to TV news, has died. Wallace's breakthrough piece on marijuana in 1968 helped open the debate on legalization at a time when the "drug" was "sometimes used in desserts."

"Marijuana is a scare word in our society," Wallace said, revealing he encountered many who refused to discuss the subject. "An increasing number of people are questioning custom and convention," he reported, "and they are willing to defy the law."

In the story, Wallace comments that marijuana use has moved "from the GI to the career girl." He interviews one woman who worked at a national magazine saying she smokes pot simply because she enjoys it. "It's not Soma from a Brave New World," she says, adding that the frenetic pace of modern life almost makes it necessary to smoke pot.

Wallace asked one medical expert, Dr. Brill, whether or not marijuana was more dangerous than alcohol. He replied, that was unknown. Brill called the old "reefer madness" myths a "gross exaggeration," while stressing that marijuana was not harmless. Dr. James Goddard, who was publicly flogged for saying alcohol was more harmful than marijuana, was shown in a congressional hearing where he opined that marijuana users were rebelling against society in ways similar to the youth of the 1920s who used alcohol in violation of the Volstead act.

Henry Giordano, head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, argues in the same hearing, "You have to have a possession penalty or we can't control the traffickers." Giordano's agency was soon merged with the Bureau of Drug Abuse Control to form the BNDD, precursor of the DEA. As Douglas Valentine details in his book The Strength of the Pack, the agency has been rife with corruption since its inception.

Wallace went to Phoenix House in New York City, where, it was claimed, 398 of 400 addicts of heroin and other drugs started with marijuana. But there is no direct causative link, the story stressed, and marijuana is not physically addicting. "It is the personality of the user, not the drug itself, that leads to harder drugs," Wallace reported. The segment aired results of Dr. Leo Hollister's clinical experiment, dosing subjects with liquid THC. "I'm in a Bronicelli [sic] painting," the subject said, grinning. Dr. Stanley Yolles of the Institutes of Mental Health admitted there was only "a little" evidence marijuana was harmful, while stressing the need for further study.

In May 1999, The History Channel aired, "The 20th Century with Mike Wallace; Drugs, the Enemy Within," another well researched piece.

Another beloved US broadcaster, Walter Cronkite, called for legalization. As dramatized in the movie The Insider, 60 Minutes squashed an expose on the tobacco industry, leading to the now-better show, Frontline.

NORML Women's Alliance Calls for Grand Jury Investigation in to Child Custody Policy

The NORML Women's Alliance has been putting boots on the ground across the country, bringing women together to fundraise, strategize, and raise consciousness about how marijuana prohibition is affecting families.

Now, the local NWA group in Butte county California, in alliance with the national office and Butte County residents, has called for the Grand Jury of Butte to investigate the County Children Services Division, including a financial audit.

The Press Release from NWA links to a video I've been calling "Hear This and Weep," recorded the day medical marijuana grower Daisy Bram's two children, aged 15 months and three weeks, were taken away from her. The children were held by Butte County CPS for more than four months.

A few days after NWA filed its grand jury request on March 9, Daisy had charges re-filed against her. Tamara Lujan, NORML Women’s Alliance Community Leader for Butte County, said, "We can come to no other conclusion except this is a retaliatory measure, from the Butte County DA’s office.” Butte has an extraordinarily high rate of permanent removal of children, according to a report from the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform.

Women (and men) can join the NORML Women's Alliance by entering their email addresses at www.norml.org/women, where information about forming a local affiliate can also be found. NWA members in California can join California NORML and get their quarterly newsletter for $15.

McCartney in "High" Profile Child Custody Case?

"At 69, Paul McCartney Swears Off Marijuana" the headlines ran. McCartney told Rolling Stone he'd given up the weed because of his 8-year-old daughter with Heather Mills, who he divorced just after she said she wouldn't tolerate his toking.

McCartney has just remarried, and he and Mills are back in divorce court. Although no journalist thought to ask, I'll bet Mills brought up the marijuana matter over child custody. Why do I think so? Because not a week goes by that I don't hear from a mother or father involved in a custody battle whose spouse brings up their pot use to get some leverage for themselves.

The revelation is key because McCartney has been about the highest (ha) profile proponent of marijuana legalization for decades. He helped pay for a July 24, 1967 advertisement in the London Times that called for legalization of pot possession, release of all prisoners on possession charges and government research into marijuana's medical uses. (Other signatories included VIPs John Lennon and Francis Crick, co-discoverer of DNA.) He told RS he's still for legalization, and is "a bit surprised" that it hasn't happened yet.

So perhaps by making this public statement McCartney's parental rights will be protected, but what of countless others who aren't so lucky? What effect the breaking up of families has on the children we're all supposed to be fighting this drug war about is unknown.

Meanwhile, Redbook magazine has an article in its current issue titled, "Pot Parents" that explains, through experts and parents, that those who are accustomed to the effects of smoking are no more dangerous to their children, even in an emergency, than parents who think nothing of having a beer while babysitting. Charles Sophy, medical director of the County of Los Angeles Department of Children, told Redbook, "Every day he sees parents who have underestimated the repercussions of smoking pot — in rare cases, he's seen children sent to live with relatives."

Hear this and weep.