D.C.: Silver Tour Lobby Day Will Be First Ever Senior Marijuana Rally In Nation's Cap

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D.C.: Silver Tour Lobby Day Will Be First Ever Senior Marijuana Rally In Nation's Capitol

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News
Imagine, if you will, a hundred angry senior citizens storming Capitol Hill in partnership with college students, demanding safe access to medical marijuana. With your support, that could happen next month -- at a crucial time.
Plans are being made for the first-ever senior marijuana rally and lobbying event in Washington, D.C., on June 17. The event is sponsored by a partnership of The Silver Tour and Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP).
The seniors will be in town to lobby the House of Representatives for passage of a budget amendment to prevent the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from enforcing federal marijuana laws in states with legal cannabis. It is expected to come up for a vote in late June.
"If passed, it opens the door for other states that are holding back on medical or legalization for fear of the feds," said Robert Platshorn, leader of The Silver Tour, who was featured in the hit Showtime movie, Square Grouper. The Silver Tour was recently spotlighted on Jon Stewart's Daily Show, CNN Money and on the front page of The Wall Street Journal.
Platshorn has a demonstrated ability to inspire seniors to action when it comes to the medical marijuana issue. Politically active seniors are the secret weapon for marijuana legalization; once we have that demographic firmly on our side, nationwide cannabis legalization is all but a done deal.
So how did plans for the joint student/senior Lobby Day event come about? Hemp News had a chance to chat with Platshorn.
"Last Thursday at about 6:30 a.m., I was trying to catch up on my email when I opened an SSDP mailing announcing a student Lobby Day on Capitol Hill," Platshorn told us. "I rarely have time to read mass mailings, but I have great admiration for SSDP and glanced at the first paragraph:
"Our movement faces a critically limited window of time between now and this summer, when the U.S. House of Representatives may vote on an amendment that would seek to curtail DEA enforcement activities in states with legal marijuana markets. Join SSDP for a day of lobbying training, then head to Capitol hill to make your voice heard."
"Two things occurred to me," Platshorn told us. "This is clearly a key amendment. If passed, it will not only affect legal states, it would clear the way for all those states that are defying public demand for medical marijuana, by claiming fear of federal action.
"The other thought was," Robert told us, "students lobbying for cannabis are too easily trivialized. 'Just kids wanting legal pot.' More important, the press could simply ignore this Student Lobby Day as a non-event for the same reason.

"Without press support, it would be difficult to pressure Congress to vote for what most Americans have already said they want," Platshorn said. "What could make Congress, the press and the American public take notice?
"How about a hundred or two hundred angry seniors, walking hand in hand with students up Capitol Hill to demand 'safe legal access' to an important medicine, without federal interference?" Platshorn asked. "Now that would be a news story. The kind of story that makes networks salivate for interviews. It could feed the cable news cycle for days.
"I phone Aaron Houston, executive director of SSDP, and asked permission for The Silver Tour to bring seniors," Platshorn told Hemp News. He agreed that seniors could put this event on the political front burner -- and I was off to the races.
"I phone Aaron Houston, executive director of SSDP, and asked permission for The Silver Tour to bring seniors," Platshorn told Hemp News. He agreed that seniors could put this event on the political front burner -- and I was off to the races.
"It only took me an hour to get commitments from several movement leaders in the Northeast," Platshorn said. "They would fill the buses, if The Silver Tour could pay for them. One supporter in Maryland offered to pay for a bus, if we could fill it.
"One more thing was needed," Platshorn said. "It would be a long day on the Hill for seniors. We'd need to give them a good lunch when they arrive. We would invite the media and create the perfect opportunity for interviews.
"It takes money to do all of this, so I set up a Go Fund Me for the event," Platshorn told us. "I thought activists would understand what could be accomplished and support would flow in. I believed that sponsors would jump at the chance for millions of dollars in positive publicity for their companies and the gratitude of millions of patients and activists.
"Well, the flow is a trickle and the sponsors haven't appeared," Platshorn said. "Hard to believe! $5,000 can make it happen and $10,000 would make it a first class major national press event. The Silver Tour is raising the funds, and will pick up the bill for as many SSDP students as possible to be included at the luncheon and press event."
That's where you come in. Contributions of any amount to the Go Fund Me are very helpful.
The Silver Tour also needs a sponsor or sponsors for the luncheon and buses on Lobby Day. "Sponsored by" and the sponsor's logo will appear large on all banners and signage at the lunch and press conference.
"The sponsors will be national heroes to the millions of seniors, students and everyone in the country who supports medical marijuana and cannabis reform," Platshorn said. Sponsors can also be anonymous, if desired.
"This will be the most historic D.C. event to date," Platshorn said. "Irv Rosenfeld, who gets his medical marijuana from the federal government and is also a Silver Tour director, will be on hand with me to meet with press and fans."
http://hemp.org/news/content/dc-sil...t-ever-senior-marijuana-rally-nations-capitol

 

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Grannies Caravan to Washington to Tell Feds: Hands Off Medical Marijuana
Our favorite reformed pot smuggler and marijuana legalization activist, Bobby Platshorn, is at it again, with an ingenious scheme to bring the good word on maryjane to the attention of legislators and the general public. And once again he's drawing on support from an unexpected quarter of the population -- America's senior citizens.
See also:
- Pot Activist Robert Platshorn: Feds Tightening Screws

If all goes well --and it's looking "better than fine," Platshorn says -- on Monday, June 17 two busloads of seniors from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, and carloads of sympathizers from as far off as Ohio and Colorado, will descend on the nation's capital to educate U.S. representatives on the medical benefits of weed and the need for drug law reform.
A nice Jewish boy from South Philly, the now 70-year-old Platshorn, a West Palm Beach resident, was a major league smuggler in the late '70s, his Black Tuna gang running weed by the ton into the U.S. from Colombia. He did heavy time for the crime, 28 years in 11 different prisons. Since his release in 2008, he's crusaded to undo the unjust laws that got him locked up.
As of this morning the fundraising for Platshorn's senior's caravan was well along, just $500 short of the $5000 needed to rent two 55-seat buses -- one for New Jersey and Philly, one for Delaware and Maryland -- and provide a buffet lunch for his troops. Working with activists from NORML and Students for Sensible Drug Policy, he's hoping to have as many as 150 older Americans work the corridors.
Through his "Silver Tour," Platshorn argues that seniors have a special interest in medical marijuana, as so many of its benefits are tailor-made for the ills of the aging: alleviating pain, quelling nausea, promoting sleep, easing the side effects of chemotherapy, and reducing inflammation.

The legislative object of the seniors' affection is Rep. Dana Rohrabacher's H.R.1523, the Respect State Marijuana Laws Act of 2013. An amendment to the federal Controlled Substances Act, it's about as simple and straightforward a measure as an be imagined, reading in its entirety:

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the provisions of this subchapter related to marihuana shall not apply to any person acting in compliance with State laws relating to the production, possession, distribution, dispensation, administration, or delivery of marihuana.​

In other words, anyone who lives in a state which has pot laws that differ from the feds' irrational and uncompromising "Just Say No or Go Directly to Jail" approach would be shielded from the federal whip.
(Why H.R. 1523 uses the archaic "h" spelling of the demon weed's name we do not know. Perhaps it's a personal quirk of the bill's sponsor. Rohrabacher -- ACLU rating 8%, John Birch Society rating 80% -- is an arch-reactionary who much prefers the 19th century to the present.)
It makes perfect sense, though, that a state's rights kind of legislator would line up with states' right to stand up to the feds on drug laws. And similar political jiu-jitsu is at work in Platshorn's seniors campaign: Advance from what is typically seen as the right in support of what is typically seen as a lefty issue.
"Dana's so far right that more moderate voices shouldn't fear retribution" for their support
of reform, Platshorn explained. "It gets Obama and [Attorney General] Holder off the hook too."
"Even if [H.R. 1523] doesn't pass," he adds, "the presence of one hundred seniors on Capitol Hill will definitely influence other legislators who might be afraid of a 'senior backlash'."
The "Grandma Lobbies for Medical Marijuana" campaign doesn't include a Florida bus. "It wouldn't be practical or healthy for seniors to do other than a day trip," Platshorn told us. "It has to be a day trip."
Whether Platshorn himself will attend is an open question. His activism has provoked the ire of parole authorities, who have imposed travel restrictions that he's repeatedly challenged as unconstitutional, with mixed success. He's put in a request, though.
"I got a non-refundable round-trip ticket for $268," he said. "If I don't get to go there'll be a life-size cardboard cutout photo of myself instead. And a lot of indignant letters."
To contribute to Grandma Lobbies for Medical Marijuana, and to learn more about medical marijuana and Platshorn's Silver Tour campaign (and to buy his memoir!) go here: http://thesilvertour.org/robert-platshorn


I think Bob Platshorn should be freaking GOVERNOR of that damn Florida.