Dozens "Talk Hemp & Cannabis" at Berlin WI Expo Feb 6

Jacki Rickert and Mieko Hester Perez

Berlin Wisc.: Dozens and dozens of  people attended the T.H.C. "Talking Hemp & Cannabis" Expo at the Berlin Public Library on the afternoon of Saturday Feb 6. A wide group of people showed up, local doctors and senior citizens, other local activists, some waiting in line to enter. The room the expo was held in was packed with listeners as speakers including Jacki Rickert and Gary Storck of Is My Medicine Legal YET? (IMMLY) discussed the cannabis plant.

IMMLY's Storck began by explaining the basic details of AB554/SB368, the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act, which is sponsored by Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) and Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Waunakee). He noted the bill is based on Michigan's medical marijuana law combined with Rhode Island's model dispensary language, and talked about medical conditions included in the bill.

Storck then introduced IMMLY Founder Jacki Rickert to great applause. Here is a video with part of what she had to say:

 Jacki Rickert: "I wouldn't mind living next door to someone growing cannabis for medicine, but I wouldn't want to live next to Eli Lilly."

Mieko Hester Perez, a California mother of an autistic child spoke of how she turned to medical cannabis to save her 10-year old son'e life after his weighed dipped to 48 pounds. 8 months later, he weighs 40 pounds more, is doing much better overall, and taking only 3 of 13 prescription medications he had been taking before. Earlier, at her table, she showed clips of her son before and after cannabis therapy that demonstrated the dramatic recovery that cannabis set in motion. Her message of hope for parents of autistic children shows how important it is to learn as much as possible about the cannabis plant and how it can benefit.

Ben Masel, a longtime Wisconsin hemp activist talked about the hemp cultivation and processing history of the region, once home to a number of mills, the last of which closed in 1958. Masel also read a passage from the 1911 Annual report of the Agricultural Research Station of Wisconsin, which talked about hemp cultivation and production in Wisconsin at the time.

The final speaker was James Gierach of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of former police officers, prosecutors, judges, probation officers and others who fought the war on drugs and have come to realize that cannabis prohibition is a counterproductive fraud. Gierach explained how cannabis prohibition, which keeps medicine from sick people, is only part of a larger failed prohibition. Drug war expenditures like prison costs, costs of prosecution, investigation, etc. all are a slice of government budgets. Thus, he noted, the costs of the drug war take away from every other program that benefits citizens. Schools are underfunded because prisons atre overfunded.

Gary Storck then opened up the floor to questions and discussion, resulting in a lively discussion that involved all five speakers and the audience discussing medical cannabis and personal stories of how it helped. No one spoke against medical cannabis and all who attended were genuinely interested as well as grateful to have such a forum in such an unexpected location. And that a public library is an unexpected location to learn about cannabis is just another sad testimony to the failure of the so-called war on drugs to do anything more than enrich drug dealers and those who try to catch them.

Talking one on one about the truth about Hemp and Cannabis appears to be the best way to undo the seven decades of misinformation, hysteria and outright lies that keep this plant from people who really need it.