 "Photo: Logo courtesy of NORML.")
You can smell it in the forest and hear songs praising it blasted from dorm rooms. It seems like almost everyone here at HSU loves weed, but right now there’s no club for all those stoners, smokers and midnight tokers.
NORML on campus fell apart after only three years and left HSU cannabis culture without any official representation.
As an advocacy group, NORML lobbies Congress and state governments for legalization of marijuana. Some of their causes include promoting the use of marijuana as medicine and the use of hemp as a cheap alternative to many industrial supplies.
Keith Stroup founded the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) in 1970. NORML is based in Washington, D.C. and has over 100 chapters nation-wide.
The emphasis of the campus club was on responsible use. Co-founder Eric Leonhard said that one of his main aspirations was to get rid of Humboldt’s stoner image.
The NORML club’s goals included protecting medical users, responsible recreational users, and legalizing hemp for industrial uses. The club served as an advocate for 215 patients who were not allowed to medicate on campus.
Leonhard founded the NORML club in 2005. He wanted to show that marijuana users could be productive members of society.
With the help of graduate student David Lawlor, Leonhard began building the club out of his dorm room. He was interested in the organization in high school, and had assumed that HSU would already have a NORML chapter. As Lawlor said, “HSU just seemed like a great place for a NORML club.”
For a while, the club seemed to be doing everything right. Before long they couldn’t seat everyone in their South Lounge meetings, with over 65 people at the average gathering.
The club won the Service Learning food drive for two years in a row and broke the school record with almost 1400 pounds of food one year. By the fall of 2007 the NORML club had over 400 members.
It did not last.
Dan Faulk was the club advisor. He said that by 2008 the club had started to decline. “Gradually NORML became more limited, less democratic, less organized. There was very little effort to recruit new members. That interest in including and listening went away,” said Faulk.
HSU alum Jason Robo was the last club president. He said when he became president, he didn’t receive the support and guidance he needed to keep the club going. When he was ready to move on, he couldn’t find a successor.
The last NORML event at HSU was on March 12, 2008. Marijuana activists Jack Herer and Eddy Lepp spoke, and three bands played. After that, NORML on campus quietly died out.
Lawlor said that it was difficult for a club unaffiliated with any academic program to stay organized and focused. “It’s hard to hold a club together,” said Lawlor.
Throughout the club’s existence there had been some resistance from the administration, but in the end the problem was a lack of people interested in assuming leadership roles.
Leonhard believes that there is still room for a NORML club on campus. He said that eventually the right student will come along and take up the mantle, because the same injustices that motivated him are still going on. “The war on drugs is economically devastating to society,” said Leonhard. “Drug use is still just as prevalent.”
Faulk said that although it isn’t currently active, the NORML club is ready for students to revive it. Students who are interested in giving the campus NORML new life can head to the clubs office for more information. “It’s disappointing to see a club that was particularly good at involving students go that way,” said Faulk. “These are important times, where are the students?”
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NORML Outreach Coordinator