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The 41st National NORML conference took place at a downtown Los Angeles hotel over the weekend under the theme of “The Final Days of Prohibition.” With marijuana legalization initiatives on the ballot in three states and medical marijuana on the ballot in two others, the several hundred attendees could almost smell the scent of victory come election day — or at least a historic first win for legalization.

“This is a great movement, not because it’s about marijuana, but because it’s a movement about truth and freedom, the freedom to live our private lives as we wish,” NORML board chairman Paul Kuhn told the crowd in his conference-opening remarks. “A White House that serves liquor, a president who smoked a lot of marijuana, and a speaker of the house who is addicted to nicotine — they have no business demonizing us because we prefer a substance less dangerous than liquor or alcohol.” For Kuhn, as for many others at the conference, supporting the legalization initiatives was front and center. (While grumbling and gnashing of teeth was heard among some attendees, particularly over the Washington initiative’s drugged driving provision, no initiative opponents were seen on any of the panels or presentations.)

“We’re beyond the concept of legalization. Now, we’re supporting real laws, and no law will satisfy everybody in this movement,” Kuhn continued, implicitly acknowledging the dissension around the Washington initiative. “We have our differences, sometimes heated, and this is healthy and necessary if we are to evolve and craft the best laws and regulations, the best form of legalization. All of us in this movement are allies, we’re friends, we share the same goals of truth and freedom and legal marijuana. We have worked too hard for too many years to let our opponents divide us, or worse, divide ourselves.”