You may have heard a large explosion around the question of cannabis legalization recently, complete with activists of every stripe making all kinds of accusations and counter-accusations. That’s because an email written by Allen St. Pierre, the longtime executive director of NORML, was leaked to the CelebStoner.com website, which published it in early January. In it, St. Pierre appears to trash medical cannabis and, to some peoples’ thinking, medical cannabis patients while trumpeting legalization efforts. There’s always been tension between medical cannabis advocates and legalization advocates on all kinds of front going back to the early-1990s — disputes over rhetoric, politics, fundraising and pretty much anything else you care to name.

Allen St. Pierre, NORML Head, on Legalization, Controversy

The noise around St. Pierre’s email was especially loud, given that he had called the medical cannabis industry a “political and legal farce” and “largely a sham.” Among other things. The Toke of the Town weblog, authored by medical cannabis patient Steve Elliott, exploded and demanded an apology from St. Pierre and NORML. Elliott also wrote that “Attacking medical marijuana is not a good legalization strategy” and noted that anytime a medical cannabis advocate walked into an unfriendly state legislature, they’d have St. Pierre’s words flung back in their face. The basic tenor of much of the response to St. Pierre was along the lines of “How could NORML say such things?”

“Allen said some damning things and phrased things too harshly and too closely to way the DEA talks about medical marijuana for my comfort,” Elliott said in a recent interview. “Why would you hand red meat to our opposition like this?”

St. Pierre (whom I’ve known for a decade) wasn’t writing on behalf of NORML or expressing a policy view of the organization, he explained to me in a recent interview. His email was one of 5,000-plus that he’s penned on what’s called the NLC list-serv, an email list for NORML’s legal committee, and was a response to something someone else had written on the list, calling out St. Pierre for post an op-ed column that was critical of the medical cannabis industry in California.

But enough of that. What about legalization efforts in the US, especially with two initiatives set for statewide ballots this November in Washington State and Colorado? Many of you in Washington State likely know that there’s been a good bunch of tumult around New Approach Washington’s I-502. Some medical cannabis patients are angry over its DUI provision, which could arguably make things very tough for some patients, and have filed competing initiatives while lambasting the NAW campaign.

“This is almost getting to be a case book example of the loony left here regarding a group of natural allies not working together in a functional way,” says St. Pierre.

Cannabis legalization initiatives have been on ballots in Alaska (2004), Colorado (2006) and California (2010) and each has failed. In California, Prop 19 lost by only 3.8 percent, the closest legalization has ever come to passing in a state. Many observers blame opposition from some in the medical cannabis industry in the Golden State for the defeat (to be fair, Prop 19 was put on the ballot by a medical cannabis entrepreneur who then helped run a grassroots campaign) and remain bitter.

So how are things looking in 2012?

“The polling numbers are a little soft, but we are in this dynamic time,” says St. Pierre. Support for I-502 was as high as 57 percent last summer, but has slipped recently to about 50 percent, depending on the poll. “But it can happen. And if it does happen, it sets up an unbelievable federal-state dynamic.”

St. Pierre says that there is also a strong possibility that an initiative may land on California’s ballot this year. Four initiatives have been filed already and a fifth is expected. Whether any big money gets behind any of these remains to be seen. Meanwhile, St. Pierre says that NORML chapters in Missouri, Montana and Michigan are all behind efforts in those states to get legalization on the ballot this year,

“But if we don’t see these billionaires (Peter Lewis, George Soros, John Sperling and George Zimmer) or a Richard Lee-like character (who was behind Prop 19) step in, it may be difficult to advance,” says St. Pierre. Translation: without millions of dollars to run a credible general election campaign, it’s difficult to win. “But it is forcing the conversation,” says St. Pierre. “Polls are now breaking in favor of reform instead of not.”

A recent national poll showed for the first time ever that a majority of American voters supported legalizing cannabis.

St. Pierre says he expects “only California” may make it to the ballot alongside Washington State and Colorado.

He says he thinks that many of the actors in the medical cannabis industry in California have acted in ways that have made it tougher for advocates to get medical cannabis systems operational in the Eastern US. St. Pierre cites the examples of New Jersey, Delaware and the District of Columbia, all of which have had medical cannabis laws on the books but haven’t been able to get growing and dispensing systems going because of too amny stories of too much craziness in California (think Walmarts of Weed and barkers hustling dispensaries on Venice Beach) have drifted around the country and have made politicians wary of giving final approval to, say, dispensaries in DC, in the same town as where the DEA is headquartered.

“These are not the allies any of us want to be in bed with,” St. Pierre says. “The industry in California is problematic in so many respects. Because it has no regulation or control over it, you have 50 percent of the counties that don’t allow access and 50 percent that do. What’s emerged is that they’re trying to close ranks and eliminate competition and maximize profits in their regions and have taken monopolistic approaches to distributing cannabis.”

Clearly, St. Pierre dislikes the medical cannabis industry in California. His email criticizing the industry there certainly isn’t the first time he or others at NORML have aimed barbs at the medical cannabis industry in California, although how fair the criticism is up to you.

As for the dust-up around his email, which included people calling for St. Pierre to resign from NORML, he says that no one has quit NORML, no one has been fired and that the end result may be someone being tossed off the board of directors of the 40-year-old organization.

RELATED LINK: Controversy background from Toke of The Town

RELATED LINK: Original Celebstoner Article

By: Philip Dawdy, 4E columnist

Philip Dawdy is an award-winning journalist and member of the Washington Cannabis Association, he is the primary 4E columnist and you can look forward to more of his expert opinions on 4evergreengroup.com each and every week.

Check out his blog here.