Webinar: NORML 2020 Conference Day 1: Celebrating 50 Years of Activism by Green Flower Media

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About This Webinar

NORML is pleased to announce that our annual conference will be presented in digital format on October 22 & 23 from 12-5PM EDT. This event is an annual tradition that NORML activists from around the country look forward to every year.

This digital version of the NORML Conference will be incredibly informative, featuring many of the things we’ve come to enjoy about our conferences: powerful panels debating the reform issues of the day, engaging expert speakers to educate and empower attendees, and crucial content that will help you take your activism to a new level.

We are excited to partner with Green Flower Media to bring you this virtual pay-what-you-can event. We hope the ease of access of tuning in from wherever you are on your laptop or phone will encourage and enable you to join us and learn about our important fight for marijuana law reform at the state, federal, and local levels.

Erik Altieri

Executive Director, NORML

Erik Altieri is the executive director of the NORML. Previously, he was NORML’s Communications Director and ran the federal and state lobbying efforts and legislative outreach, administered NORML’s social media networks and served as a spokesman to the press from 2007-2015. During this time period he also was the manager of the NORML PAC, and worked to elect marijuana reform-friendly candidates at all levels of government. In 2015, he left NORML to explore other political issue activism including campaign finance reform and tax policy. He returned to NORML as executive director in 2016. He is the ninth executive director since NORML’s founding, and the youngest person named executive director in the organization’s history, an accomplishment recognized by Forbes Magazine when he was named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for Law and Policy in 2017. Mr. Altieri is currently based in Washington, DC at NORML’s national headquarters.

Paul Armentano

Deputy Director, NORML

Paul Armentano has over two decades experience working professionally in cannabis policy. He is the Deputy Director of NORML. He also serves on the faculty of Oaksterdam University in Oakland, where he is the Chair of Science.

His writing on cannabis and cannabis policy has appeared in over 1,000 publications, scholarly and/or peer-reviewed journals, as well as in more than two dozen textbooks and anthologies. He is a regular contributor to TheHill.com as well as to numerous other print and online publications. Mr. Armentano is the co-author of the book Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? (2009, Chelsea Green), which has been licensed and translated internationally. He is also the author of the book The Citizen’s Guide to State-By-State Marijuana Laws (2015), available from Whitman Publishing. He is the author and editor of the NORML-produced publication Emerging Clinical Applications for Cannabis and Cannabinoids, which summarizes over 400 peer-reviewed studies specific to the safety and efficacy of cannabis among different patient populations.

Mr. Armentano was the principal investigator for defense counsel in the federal case US v Schweder et al., one of the first legal cases in decades to challenge the constitutionality of cannabis as a schedule I controlled substance. He was also an expert in the successful Canadian constitutional challenge, Allard v Canada, which preserved qualified patients right to grow cannabis at home.

He is the 2013 Freedom Law School Health Freedom Champion of the Year and the 2013 Alfred R. Lindesmith award recipient in the achievement in the field of scholarship. He is the 2019 Al Horn Memorial Award recipient in appreciation of advancing the cause of justice.

Mr. Armentano works closely with numerous state and federal politicians with regard to drafting and enacting marijuana policy reforms, and he is a frequently sought speaker on the topic at legal and academic seminars.

Jenn Michelle, NORML

Development Director, NORML

Jenn Michelle Pedini is the development director of NORML, and serves as the executive director of the state affiliate, Virginia NORML. Jenn Michelle’s work in Virginia has resulted in the implementation of a legal and regulated medical cannabis program, the decriminalization of personal possession, and the establishment of the Virginia Legislative Cannabis Caucus. At NORML, they ensure availability of resources and tools necessary to leverage NORML’s powerful grassroots support and elevate the work of the worldwide affiliate chapter network.

Prior to drug policy reform, they enjoyed a successful entertainment and media career with The Walt Disney Company. Born and raised in Orlando, FL, Jenn Michelle has flown from the heights of Cinderella’s Castle and danced their way through the Walt Disney World Resort. Jenn Michelle resides in Richmond, and brings a sparkle of pixie dust to public policy.

Keith Stroup

Founder & Legal Counsel, NORML

Keith Stroup is a Washington, DC public-interest attorney who founded NORML in 1970. Stroup obtained his undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Illinois in 1965, and in 1968 he graduated from Georgetown Law School in Washington, DC. Following two years as staff counsel for the National Commission on Product Safety, Mr. Stroup founded NORML and ran the organization through 1979, during which 11 states decriminalized minor marijuana offenses.

Stroup has also practiced criminal law, lobbied on Capitol Hill for family farmers and artists, and for several years served as executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL). In 1994 Stroup resumed his work with NORML, rejoining the board of directors and serving again as Executive Director through 2004. He is currently serving as Legal Counsel with NORML.

In 1992 Stroup was the recipient of the Richard J. Dennis Drugpeace Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Drug Policy Reform presented by the Drug Policy Foundation, Washington, DC. In 2010 he received the Al Horn Award for Advancing the Cause of Justice from the NORML Legal Committee. And in 2012 Stroup received the High Times Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 2013 Stroup published the history of NORML entitled It’s NORML To Smoke Pot: the 40 Year Fight for Marijuana Smokers’ Rights.

Max SImon

CEO & Co-Founder, Green Flower

With a vision of building an education company that would change the world’s understanding of cannabis, Max Simon co-founded Green Flower in 2014. Green Flower has since become the industry leader in cannabis education and training, producing thousands of hours of online courses and high-quality video content covering every facet of cannabis today; bolstering a network of over 700 top cannabis experts; powering the cannabis curriculum of multiple Universities across the US; and successfully training cannabis workforces around the world.

Max’s mission to educate the world about cannabis and discredit misinformation reflects his work in bringing meditation and mind-body wellness out of the shadows in the early 2000’s, when he served as Director of Consumer Products for the Chopra Center. For almost 8 years, Max built and ran world-renowned self-help guru Deepak Chopra’s products business; there, he rebranded the company; developed and launched 49 signature products; created their digital marketing strategy; and impacted hundreds of millions of people on- and offline.

Green Flower is also a personal mission for Max, who has successfully used cannabis for over two decades as an integral part of his wellness regime and to aid in the treatment of his ADD.