With great regret and chagrin to report, CBS has rejected a contract deal with NORML to place a pro-cannabis law reform advertisement on the biggest electronic billboard in Times Square (The CBS ‘Super Screen’ at 42nd St) claiming that the advertisement is too political. NORML had a contract for the 15 second spot below on the giant billboard (and a second one featuring President Obama and New York City’s high cannabis arrest rate with its shocking racial disparity in enforcement).

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Dear NORML Supporter: It is not often that I feel compelled to write to NORML’s membership and supporters regarding the day-to-day operations of America’s leading marijuana lobby group. Then again, in my tenure as Executive Director of NORML and the NORML Foundation, there’s never been a time like right now.

Over the past several months NORML’s public prominence and political influence has grown by leaps and bounds. As I write you today I’m reflecting upon two of the most significant – and productive – weeks in NORML history. As we close the year 2009 I am proud to say that NORML has galvanized its position as the leading marijuana law reform organization. Why do I say this? Take a look at the events of these two weeks late this fall, and decide for yourself.

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An unfortunate college photo of Barack Obama comes back to bite. During Obama’s freshman year at Occidental College, a classmate took a picture of the “cool cat.”

Despite the bizarre claims of some prohibitionists and law enforcement representatives that ‘no one in America gets arrested or goes to jail for cannabis charges’, NORML receives hundreds of emails and letters a week from our fellow citizens who’ve been negatively impacted by cannabis prohibition laws–notably due to an encounter with law enforcement.

A few weeks ago I received a letter from a father of a young man arrested and incarcerated on minor cannabis-related charges in Arlington, Virginia. The father’s lament is deep and profound, beyond the standard pleas for help NORML so regularly receives. So much so that I asked him if he would send NORML the original letter for publication.

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In my opinion, the Nobel Peace Prize is well awarded. It may be also the strongest-ever political act of the premier peace-forwarding organization in the world. They offer the prize to President Obama not only for his achievements but also as an allotment of authority to work on the world stage, at a time when he needs it.

Here the Nobel Prize is not a symbol of recognition but a vehicle to end wars.

Many were surprised by the announcement. But I think we lose perspective on how momentous it is for an African American to be the leader of our powerful nation. Our President has shown himself to be quite adept at his job. His time in office so far, less than a year, has hinted at an influential presidency. The world looks at all of this, rightly so, as a major shift in the global political landscape.

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