Events > Global Marijuana March
Info on Eugenes Global Marijuana March as well as any related Items. Click > here < for other NorthWest Marchers info, Click > here < for 2009 info, Click > here < for more events.

[    Press Release in WORD (doc)   |   Adobe (PDF) version   ]

WHAT: 11th Annual Eugene Global Marijuana March in coordination with 250+ cities around the world.  

WHERE:  Lane County courthouse, 8th & Oak.  

WHEN:  Saturday, May 1, 2010, the event begins at 11am.  Worldwide, GMM events are held the first Saturday in May, or thereabouts.  

WHY:  Because the people deserve to know the truth about marijuana.  

WHO:  You and everybody you tell and bring.

On Saturday, May 1st, in Eugene, Oregon, USA, we will be celebrating the Global Marijuana March with festivities the entire day. Assemble 10:30am at the Lane County courthouse, 8th & Oak. March starts at 11:00am, Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza, Lane County Courthouse, led by Rev. Will I Am Winget and ends up at the Federal Building, 7th & Pearl. See list of Speakers below; our own Dan “DanK the Bagman” Koozer and Jim Greig will trade off as the MC's.  Please bring all of the available MJ & MMJ rally signs that you can.  

Also, there will be an after-march party from 4 until 10 with two bands, at the VP office, to celebrate our success and plan next years action.  Smokestack (blues rock) will play one or two sets, then Vial Experiment (Alice in Chains-metal) will play until close. The address is 687 River Ave., Eugene, Admission is $10 and this event is Open to the public, however, OMMP CardHolders, please NOTE: There will be a place for patients to medicate.

Jim Klahr, is the Chairman of the Advisory Committee for the Dept, of Human Services, Oregon Medical Marijuana program; CEO for Oregon Green Free; Co-Chief Petitioner for Initiative 28; and a OMMP patient, listed with UNOS awaiting a liver on the OHSU transplant program.

Christine McGarvin, MSSW - Vice-Chair of the Advisory Committee for Medical Marijuana and Chair of the ACMM Outreach Committee, and President of the Oregon Green Free South Chapter in Medford. She has a Master's of Science degree in Social Work, with emphasis on mental health, addictions, and drug policy, and has done additional graduate work in Anthropology. She is currently writing a book about the History of Medical Marijuana in Oregon called The Oregon Pipeline: Cannabis at the Crossroads.

Dr. Arthur Livermore is a businessman, activist and the Executive Director of the The American Alliance For Medical Cannabis-Oregon.   Dr. Livermore earned a B.A. in Biology at Oberlin Collage before graduating from the University of Oregon Medical School in 1973. Currently he is conducting cannabis research at the Falcon Cove Biology Laboratory, and is the National Director for the American Alliance for Medical Cannabis. He has been published in numerous professional journals, has traveled throughout the world and is a member of National Thespian Society and the National Honor Society. For more on Arthur Livermore Consultants, Arch Cape, Oregon, 97102, Telephone: 503-436-1882, or visit - http://www.bizwiki.com/computer-software/8972712/arthur-livermore-consultants.htm

We Stand Here Today! by Arthur Livermore

When I was a young man of 16 years, I had the privilege of being one of the thousands who marched on Washington D.C. and listened to the "I have a dream" speech of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Little did I know then of the value and far-reaching effect that speech would have on me as I progressed through life seeking my own freedom to speak out and bring about a change of mind and heart toward the medicinal value of a prohibited plant. We stand here today as a positive reflection of that value. We stand here today for all of those who have been and are presently suffering untold miseries because they have and are using cannabis as an alternative medicine for their illness. Visit - http://www.letfreedomgrow.com/articles/or070505.htm

American Alliance For Medical Cannabis, 44500 Tide Avenue, Arch Cape, OR 97102. Phone: (503) 436-1882, or visit - http://www.letfreedomgrow.com/

Laird Funk, ACMM member and medical marijuana activist since the 80's, was a Chief Petitioner for marijuana legalization measures in 1986, 1988 and 1990. In 1991 he unsuccessfully petitioned Board of Pharmacy to reschedule marijuana, then in 1992 authored first his first medical marijuana initiative. In 1993 he wrote SB 865 introduced by Sen. Frank Roberts which passed hearings in Health Committee.(first iteration of principles found in OMMA.) In 1996 he was the Co Chief Petitioner on 865 introduced as initiative. In 1997 he helped author the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, then in he was 2006 appointed to the Advisory Committee for Medical Marijuana.

Edward 'Nurse Ed' Glick, Voter Power Clinic Manager, member advisory board for Patients Out of Time, longtime MMJ activist and former RN, has conducted extensive research and is currently petitioning the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program to allow PTSD to be included in the approved conditions list.   He is also author of The Oregon Medical Marijuana Guide (OMMG), which is Available Online at the Contigo-Conmigo website. visit - http://www.or-coast.net/contigo/index2.html  

Nurse Claims He Was Fired For Pot Advocacy

A longtime Samaritan Health Services nurse is contesting his dismissal, claiming he was fired not because of his job performance but because he has been an outspoken advocate of medical marijuana. An executive of the health care network disputes that claim. Ed Glick was terminated April 18, 2006 from his job as a nurse at Samaritan Regional Mental Health Center in Corvallis after he refused to take a drug test. Visit - http://mercycenters.org/action/Case_Ed.html - for more.

Ed Glick has been a champion in our movement for some time now. This story comes from the Corvallis Gazette-Times. It should be noted that Glick is not an OMMP patient, rather just a regular person like many who choose to self-medicate with cannabis yet do not fit under the definitions of the OMMA. With the critical shortage we have in nursing today, it is ridiculous that Samaritan Health Services would want to dismiss nurses for something as trivial as their after-work use of marijuana. However, that is the way the laws are written and we cannot blame Samaritan or the State Board of Nursing for following the rules. We must work to change the laws so good people like Nurse Ed are protected. Visit - http://www.ornorml.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=1239

Medical Establishment Abandons Patients and Ethics, Is There a Doctor (or Nurse) in the House? By Ed Glick

Nursing is caring. Twenty years ago I began to learn what real suffering looks and feels like. I watched helplessly while beautiful young men would, in three months time, age 50 years, dying from a disease no one knew anything about at the time. I have watched tobacco-cancer eat the lungs, livers and hearts out of people. They had no idea, when they began using this legal herb, the consequences in store for them. I’ve cared for all of these people because they were suffering, and because I am a nurse.

Today I sadly witness another widespread—and preventable—tragedy of human suffering. It is the pain of ill and dying people, legally persecuted for using an illegal herb, and simultaneously denied their appropriate medicine by the medical establishment. This is the everyday experience of cannabis patients, the “untouchables” of American medicine. Visit – http://www.alternativesmagazine.com/21/glick.html

Art Witkowski more info to follow.

Elvy Musikka is one of the four surviving recipients of US Government grown marijuana, under the Compassionate Investigational New Drug (IND) program.  She receives 300 joints a month from uncle sam for glaucoma, which translates to 12 a day on the average. She has been receiving her government-issued supply since October 1988 and is the first woman to get it. 

This is her story:

“In late February 1975 I went to see Dr. Rosenfeld, a general practitioner in the Ft. Lauderdale area. He concluded a very thorough examination and said my eyes had been stricken with glaucoma. My [intraocular fluid] pressures were in the high 40s [pressure in the low teens is normal], and Dr. Rosenfeld insisted I see an ophthalmologist immediately. His suspicions were confirmed and I was started on pilocarpine eyedrops.

“By the spring of 1976 the pilocarpine itself was becoming a problem. I began seeing circles but assumed they were a symptom of the glaucoma. Wearing contact lenses was uncomfortable and my pressures were going up. A new doctor suggested I consider marihuana because it was likely that otherwise I would go blind. He told me this as a friend, not a doctor; it was then that I began to realize that sometimes doctors have to choose between Hippocratic oaths and hypocritical laws. I was most fortunate this man had a heart.” Visit - http://www.marijuanalibrary.org/MTFM_Musikka_1993.html

Elvy Musikka Speaks About Medical Cannabis

“We were forced to exercise our instincts of self-preservation...because we understood that a man-made law could not possibly wipe away our common sense when it came to survival.” Elvy Musikka speaks out at HempStalk in Portland, Oregon, 2007. visit - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNxqtXUxg-w

Elvy Musikka, Glaucoma patient, one of only eight legal medical marijuana users in the Federal IND Program, Successfully Defends Marijuana Cultivation

Photo: Elvy holds her can that she gets every month containing 300 IND issued joints. Living in Florida, Elvy Musikka bought the Reefer Madness story, hook, line and sinker. As her already bad eyesight continued to deteriorate, she endured prescription pharmaceutical drugs which had uncomfortable side effects, but little effect on her glaucoma. Turning to ever more desperate measures, Elvy agreed to undergo a risky surgery on her better, right eye. The operation left her blinded in that eye. Only then did she consider suggestions to try using marijuana to reduce the buildup of inner eye pressure. To her grudging surprise, she found that it seemed to work. Visit - http://www.hr95.org/musikka.htm

Name: Elvy Musikka, Title: Medical Marijuana Patient in the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Investigational New Drug (IND) Program, Position: Pro to the question "Should marijuana be a medical option?"

Reasoning: "I am patient no. 3 of 8 who today currently receives medical marijuana through the federal government of the United States. [...] By 1991, I am aware of at least 50 patients who through extensive medical records, reputable doctors, and sometimes through courts -- such as in my case -- were able to convince all three drug-related agencies, FDA, DEA, and NIDA, that for us, marijuana isn't just medicine, it is the most efficient, reliable and safest part of our treatment and sometimes it is our only treatment." Letter to President Bill Clinton, Jan. 13, 1997. Visit - http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/viewsource.asp?ID=005418

If you would like Elvy to speak at an event, or to address legislature in your community, also to testify at medical marijuana trials, call her directly at 916-320-9052 –or- Visit - http://www.elvymusikka.com/

Also, Special guests -

Claire Syrett, is the Field Organizer for the ACLU of Oregon and brings her life-long passion for protecting civil liberties to her work with volunteers and members. Her organizing efforts are focused in region to educate and activate civil liberties supporters on many issues including restoring habeas corpus, protecting and celebrating free speech, limiting the use of Tasers and educating the next generation of civil liberties defenders about their rights. Claire has been with the ACLU of Oregon since 2006.”

Doug McVay, now with the Berkeley Patients Group, has been active in drug policy reform efforts since organizing a NORML chapter at the University of Iowa in 1983. He went on to work with Voter Power on the Oregon Marijuana Initiative/Ballot Measure Five campaign during the 1985-1986 election cycle as their petitioning coordinator and assistant director. Doug worked for NORML as their Activists/Projects Coordinator from 1987 to 1990. In 1989, he co-founded and began working with the Cannabis Action Network (CAN). Doug is a member of the Board of Directors of Cannabis Action Network. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

Doug was also the editor of Drug War Facts and maintained the Common Sense family of websites, including: CSDP, Drug War Facts, Drug War Distortions, Managing Chronic Pain, and Addict In The Family before moving to the west coast. Doug now works at the Berkeley Patients Center, one of the leading dispensaries in the San Francisco bay area.

Howard Woodburn, one of the founders of LEAP,   retired as a detective from Bath Township. As an officer he was recognized by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, MADD, for his focus on arresting drunk drivers. In 2003 he rode 'Paul Revere' style from Georgia to Oregon to educate Americans on the failure of modern prohibition. In 2005 he rode from Los Angeles to New York City advocating a public health approach to drugs. Due to his travels on horseback, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society. Shortly after leaving police work, he became a bi-lingual speaker at Texas Rotary and Kiwanis clubs promoting an end to the War on Drugs. In 2002 he and four colleagues founded Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, serving on the Board of Directors from 2002 – 2007. He has been representing LEAP in Washington, DC since 2005. He is in Eugene on the MAMA tour.  He will be speaking at the march, then at our public library at 4PM.

Rev. Will I Am Winget is a citizen-activist and co-host of the Eugene weekly public access TV show "Cannabis TV". His church, The Church of the Caring, has cannabis as their sacrament, More info available through their webpage - ChurchOftheCaring.org

Jim Greig is an Organizer for Americans for Safe Access ( http://www.safeaccessnow.org/ ), a member of the Board of Directors for Voter Power ( http://voterpower.org/ ) and Willamette Valley NORML ( http://w-v-norml.org/ )  and GMM co-organizer for the last five years with Dan.  

Dan Koozer is the other co-organizer of the GMM. He is also a co-founder of the Cannabis Liberation Front in 1996, co-founder of the Emerald Empire HempFest in 2003, and just became a board member of Voter Power. Further, he is the producer of the Emerald Empire Hempfest and the weekly TV show "Cannabis TV"  - where he makes regular appearances as “DanK the Bagman”.  He is also the Chapter President of Willamette Valley NORML and will be the co-Master of Ceremonies for this years Global Marijuana March along with Jim Greig.

[    Press Release in WORD (doc)   |   Adobe (PDF) version   ]

About the GMM 

The Million Marijuana March is an annual global event celebrating the benefits of cannabis and hemp that takes place, for most participants, on the first Saturday in May. On that day – referred to as Jay Day by some organizers – people in hundreds of cities around the world rally and march in unison for cannabis law reform. A peaceful party to celebrate our gains and to re-energize for the next steps. The main purpose is to raise awareness about the issues, to inform and educate thru the publicity involved. Secondly, we want to register every person there and further empower them by providing whatever is needed to getting them to the voting booth at the right time. Also we want a good show, a nice time for every one - entertaining as well as informative. And, at the same time, we can also raise a little money and fund some projects for the cause - like sponsoring OMMA patients who can't afford a fee or a Hemp Initiative. We pick up steam every day, we gain more sponsor$ and other support each time we talk about it.

Also, different groups with related agendas can be represented. We can use this opportunity to stand united as one voice.

The GMM is an event that has been going on for somewhere around 25+ years and has years of tradition of which many are unaware. It started as the Yippie! organized "May Day 5th Avenue Pot Pride Parade" in New York City and in 1996 became known as the Million Marijuana March. Even though the event still occurs on the first Saturday in May, it has now established tradition of its own, spreading beyond NYC.

The emphasis of the following years events are turning from that street party into a productive political venue that the NAACP and the ACLU would be proud to co-sponsor. We folks in Salem are doing this successfully, we believe. Let's honor our counter-cultural elements, history, heroes and activists, but at the same time be aware that we need to better coordinate our efforts for the maximum politically-positive media spin and potential resulting benefits for our on-going political efforts.

Ours are not the minds we need to be concerned with. Its success depends on our ability, each and every one of us, to become a teacher.

For more info, try these LINKs >

• For updated full list and maps, go to > www.globalmarijuanamarch.com

• There is also some international MMM networking going on at this CannabisCulture.com message forum > http://forums.cannabisculture.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/cfrm

• MERCYs MMM page > http://mercycenters.org/events/MMM.html

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