Letters to the Editor

Dear Will/all Rib staff,

I just went to the site and saw you've put up both The Man Through The Floor and my War On Drugs articles. These are two pieces I have been unable to find a spot for anywhere else. The local newspaper is a conservative rag that shits its pants in sheer terror at the thought of aggravating its granny demographic. To see both these articles on your fine website has really made my day, if not my year. What's more, you did not go through them and rape them to make them more "gramatically correct" or "more marketable"; instead they are there for the world to see with all their flaws and imperfections intact, the way I intended them to be read.

Thank you so much for giving a no-name hobo like me a chance to be heard. If I never do anything profitable or notable in the writing business, I will always look back on my Rib publications with pride.
Without your support I no doubt would have given this bullshit up a long time ago.

Much love and gratitude

Connor Moloney

TO: Will Jordan

FROM: Brent Andrews

SUBJECT: Letter from San Francisco, Heart of the Movement

Hello old friend. I'm looking forward to the next issue of Rib. Speak the truth, and they will listen. This is what I'm hoping, anyway. I'm trying to speak the truth. You know I am, my hometown friend. I'm a long way from Franklin, Tennessee in San Francisco this week. I have come to the heart of the movement, for the 2005 conference of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. You'd know the faces here, maybe better than I do. Keith Stroup is here, a retiree and consultant to NORML now after founding it and carrying the mantle for so long. There's a lot of excitement here about Keith and what he's done and where he leaves us -- which is, right about at the finish line. Keith had a long write-up in The Washington Post not long ago. I share this makeshift hotel office tonight with Nick T., NORML P.R. man out of Washington, D.C., who helped set that interview up. The Post made Keith look good, which is only fair because he is good. But you can't take the truth for granted, nowadays. There is so much misinformation that has been spread for so long in the war on drugs. We're proud to see a story about the real Keith Stroup that some of us consider a hero. He certainly seems heroic to me, coming from Tennessee, where there is so much pressure to be silent. You know my story, Will. You know a few powerful individuals would silence me and have me stop talking about the war on drugs and the lies that are being told and the people who are being locked up who shouldn't be. High Times is here. They've been telling the truth for a long time in High Times. Students for Sensible Drug Policy is here, working the table right next to mine. Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance is here. He's speaking in the morning, in fact. I came to San Francisco with a brand new book to sell, as you know. I tell all my secrets, and show exactly how they tried to silence me. The Pot Plan is getting a warm reception here, where there's a lot of competition -- where there are well-researched books by bigger names than me -- but where there are also a lot of people who believe. I don't know the number right now. The 2002 NORML conference in San Francisco attracted something like 400 people. The crowd seems a little lighter this time, to me. But it's only the first night and I'm getting good feedback on my book already and selling books and T-shirts, too, and you know I need to do that. I must sell to keep telling my story, to keep writing about these things for the people. I am getting a great infusion of energy from these people I meet here who have been fighting for so long. The environment here shows they are winning, have won already. The San Francisco Chronicle this morning had a story about the medical marijuana dispensaries in the city, which number 26 (by NORML's estimation) and 30-something (by the city's estimation). No one seems to be sure how many "co-ops" there are with people dispensing -- yes, selling -- marijuana to their friends and fellow citizens who have the proper health I.D.'s created in the wake of Proposition 215, passed in 1996. The reason these co-ops are so hard to keep up with appears at a glance to be that they don't attract the police. That is, they are peaceful operations where the war on drugs with its violence and guns has been stomped out by people working together to reduce harm and provide medicine to sick people. There are potheads and growers and cops and attorneys and moms and dads all working together to make this happen. There are so many sick people to serve, don't I know it. I was sick. You know it. You saw me out drunk, at my worst, those years ago. You know how far I've come. I'm happy here. I'm with friends. It's good to know I have friends back in Franklin, too, because I'm coming home and I'm going to need you.
Best of luck with this issue. I hope Rib readers get some sense of what's going on out here at this NORML conference from my letter. I ramble, but I think it's easy to see the world is changing. It's easy to see there's hope here. We earned the right to be hopeful, in the land of the free!
I'm headed out to the pool now. We're at the Cathedral Hill Hotel, on Van Ness at Geary, and there's a big circle heated pool and a large plush patio with lots of greenery. It's all very beautiful and green, this time of year in San Francisco.

Hang in there, and keep the faith,

BRENT