Subject: Re: < ANTIPROHIBITIONISTS OF THE ENTIRE WORLD...#19>
Hello !
Thank you for showing interest in the Legalize! Initiative.
Below you will find some information about the movement, and about ways to join us and participate in the effort to put an end to the prohibition of drugs.
If, after reading this information, you have any questions, please contact jimmymac@legalize.org
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CONTENTS:
1. The Legalize! Initiative - an introduction
1.1. About the Legalize! Initiative
1.2. The Action Plan - what *you* can do
2. About the legalize-update mailing list and the discussion lists.
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1. The Legalize! Initiative - an introduction
1.1. About the Legalize! Initiative
The Legalize! Initiative is an international forum of people concerned about the effects of current drug policy. It is a public action forum, aiming to support and coordinate activities that will help bring about political reform. Its international scope and its range of activities depend on the input and initiatives of the people supporting it. The Legalize! Initiative has its basis on the Internet.
What does the Legalize! Initiative want ?
The Legalize! Initiative wants to help bring about a major reform of drug policy. Prohibition, i.e. the total ban on use, purchase, and sale of drugs does not achieve any of its intended effects and causes a great amount of harm to society. The Legalize! Initiative considers the replacement of the prohibition of drugs by new regulations to be the only real solution. It aims at the standardisation of legislation for all substances with a potential health risk, such as tobacco, alcohol, and prescription and non-prescription drugs. New legislation should be based on rationally determined health risks. This does not mean that everything should be freely available.
How does the Legalize! Initiative plan to achieve that ?
Currently, a battle for public opinion is fought between proponents of the "War on Drugs" and proponents of drug law reform. Many people have already publicly stated that prohibition is a failure, and have advocated replacing it by new regulations. Most persons who have done so, however, have spoken without much support from the general public. For many politicians, even for proponents of reform, the 'drug problem' is a no-go area, because of the attitude of the media and of the public at large.
The Legalize! Initiative considers the lack of visible public support to be an essential obstacle to putting an end to prohibition.
Recognising that strong support for drug law reform is present in a limited group of motivated people, the first aim of the Legalize! Initiative is to help set up and foster a community of active anti-prohibitionists. The Legalize! Initiative will bring together existing support for reform, and will help making that support visible and expanding it.
Secondly, the Legalize! Initiative intends to help bring about a wider change in public opinion by showing that public opposition to the current prohibition is a feasible option, and by stimulating and supporting various activities such as public meetings, demonstrations, press campaigns, street parties and concerts, initiated by supporters of the movement. To achieve wide attention in the media, we will strive for simultaneous events in many places. One focus of attention will be the organisation of Global Anti-Prohibition Days.
Recognising that misinformed public opinion is a major obstacle to legal reform, distribution of factual information about the public health situation concerning tobacco, alcohol and drugs, and the general effects of current drug policy, is considered a high priority. Inconsistency of current legislation with other public concerns such as crime rates, national deficits, and social and personal well-being should be pointed out to the public at large. Distribution of the Legalize! Manifesto and other printed information will be helpful in this.
But what is the difference with existing movements ?
The goals are the same: putting an end to prohibition. The means are different: the Legalize! Initiative aims at making opposition to prohibition visible to the public at large, by supporting and coordinating manifestations. Since various types of movements for drug reform already exist, one of our priorities will be to bring together and cooperate with existing groups and movements, and to coordinate events.
Since many pro-prohibition groups exist as well, the Legalize! Initiative aims to point out to these groups that there is a common ground, in that certain motives are shared, notably the damage currently done to society.
1.2. The Action Plan - what *you* can do
This Action Plan tries to bring closer the goals stated in the Mission Statement of the Legalize! Initiative. Grounded in the Mission Statement, the Action Plan has two phases, getting together city-based groups and organisations, and engaging them in coordinated activities visible to the wider public, such as simultaneous demonstrations. We are currently planning the second Global Anti-Prohibition Day for the summer of 1998.
The two phases
Phase 1: Formation of city groups
For every country, local city-based groups of activists are established. Individuals as well as existing anti-prohibitionist groups and organisations can sign up to initiate or join the Legalize! unit for a city. Every such 'city group' will be represented by an e-mail address and/or phone number on national or state pages of the Legalize!-Global web site. It is not necessary to have access to the Internet to set up a city group. In such cases the national co-ordinator can provide the necessary information.
The city groups are the essential part of the Legalize! Initiative, it is they who will initiate and engage in activities. City groups call upon the Legalize! Initiative for interaction with and support from other city groups.
By becoming a city group, existing anti-prohibitionist groups and organisations can team up with the other Legalize! groups to coordinate their actions.
Many national pages have been developed recently, and most of the existing national pages have several city groups. New national pages and new city groups can be set up, depending on initiatives by individual anti-prohibitionists and members of existing groups and organisations.
The main national goals will be to get as many groups on the national pages as possible. This will be stimulated by the national or state coordinators who will make calls for 'city group coordinators', on lists on the Internet. The national coordinators report the establishment of new city groups to the discussion lists.
For large cities more than one city group can be established. If the number of cities on the national or state page becomes too large, the national or state coordinator may choose to reorganise the page into regional subpages. A global 'city count' on the global page will keep everyone informed about the pace of growth !
Starting a city group
To start a city group, send an email to the national coordinator via the 'other city' link on your national page on the web site, and inform him or her of your intention to start a city group. The national coordinator will then put the city group on the web site.
At least one of the members of the city group becomes a coordinator for the group. His or her email address and/or phone number will be present on the national page. He or she maintains a list of members and keeps the Legalize! discussion lists informed about what activities the group is engaging in.
Handing out copies of the Mission Statement, the Action Plan and the Manifesto should help convincing people to form a city group with you.
Of course if you are already in a local anti-prohibition group or organisation, you can make that group join the Initiative as a city group! The website has special facilities for signing up groups and organisations.
The most important thing to do in the beginning is to get together. Organising meetings, however small, will greatly help getting the group off the ground. Meetings will stimulate exchange of ideas, involvement of members, and growth of the group. The main initial goals of a city group will be to grow, and to engage in action aimed at 'getting the hang of it', initiated by the group itself, or by suggestions discussed in this Action Plan or on the lists. It is important that this all happens at a slow pace that does not put pressure on anyone. As will be explained below, later activity will aim at making opposition to prohibition visible to the public at large, e.g. by demonstrations in all cities at the same time.
The visibility of city group development on the web pages is very important for everyone's motivation and for a feeling of where we stand. City groups are added to the national pages when they are created, with their websites if present.
Joining a city group
Anyone can join a city group by clicking the city, visible on the national web page, and sending an email.
More importantly, persons from outside the Internet can become involved with city groups via informal contacts, via organised meetings, by signing forms present in bars, shops, at parties, concerts, etc. This should be arranged by the groups themselves. One of the most important options for engaging people from outside the net is to put telephone numbers on the materials which are distributed such as the Manifesto.
Another thing to do is to contact existing groups and organisations and ask if they are interested in cooperation. This can get your city group off the ground quickly !
City group coordinators should organise communication between members of the city group. Members without access to the Internet should receive printed copies of the Manifesto, Mission Statement and this Action Plan.
People from smaller communities should preferably become members of city groups in nearby cities. If you want to start a city group but do not have e-mail, we can put your telephone number on the web site instead, and put up an e-mail address later.
Of course existing groups and organisations teaming up with the Legalize! Initiative will already have their own arrangements in effect.
Warming up: engaging in action !
As a first activity, the city group can e.g. print and distribute the Manifesto, which is available on the global and national pages. The group engages in other activities depending on early actions planned, locally or centrally. Reading the Manifesto at concerts and parties, or local petitions or small demonstrations against prohibition, are examples. One obvious idea would be to send (or fax) the Manifesto to institutes or media that apparently manipulate public opinion in favor of prohibition.
You can of course call on other city groups for help in getting your group up and running. The main page represents all nations involved and all city groups can be found and contacted on the national pages.
Phase 2: Coordinated and visible activities
Once we have a minimal number of city groups we can initiate coordinated activities, like demonstrations. At the city level this will be nothing very ambitious in the beginning, just the core city groups and all their friends. A simple way to start will be to just read the Manifesto aloud, in front of the city hall, and fix it to the door. Existing groups and organisations that have experience in this might take the lead here.
If that is done in 100 cities all over the world at the same time, it is sure to get lots of attention from the press !
Of course, we could repeat this at fixed times, so everyone knew about it in advance.
Special events
Many other types of events are thinkable, but this will be left to the initiative of the city groups and will be discussed on the list. Obvious special occasions are the Euro Summit days and national election days ! Key point is that things are done in a coordinated way.
The First Global Anti-Prohibition Day, which was held on June 15th 1997, was the first example of a coordinated event planned by several city groups. Please read the reports on the web site.
Depending on the success of the local groups, these actions will become bigger. Special events of interest to everyone will be visible on the global page and national pages. This will be arranged by the coordinators.
With many actions in different places, at some point somewhere, things may evolve into something really big ...
Going out of phase
Obviously the two phases of this action plan are not meant to be restrictions on development. Due to differences in growth speed, developments need not run 'in phase' between nations or cities. While e.g. in Amsterdam and San Francisco, the June 15th 1997 manifestation was a large event, in the other participating cities, Tallinn, Estland and Norwich, Britain, it was smaller.
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2. About the legalize-update mailing list and the discussion lists.
The legalize-update mailing list is the most general mailing list for supporters of the Legalize! Initiative. It will send you information about developments concerning the Legalize! Initiative and about upcoming events, on a regular basis. It will also send out calls for assistance, when your help is needed.
You will not be flooded with lots of mail from legalize-update, since subscribers cannot send mail to this list.
For discussion of various subjects relevant to the aims of the Legalize! Initiative, we have special discussion lists. If you want to talk to other legalizers, to help plan activities that aim at promoting legalization, or to help developing the Initiative, please subscribe to any or all of the following lists:
global@legalize.org the general international list for all issues; subscribe here to get acquainted with Legalize!
events@legalize.org the list for planning of events
coord@legalize.org discussion about organisational issues
pr@legalize.org promotion and public relations
research@legalize.org getting at the facts of the 'drug problem'
drugtalk@legalize.org discussion about substances
mape@legalize.org the Media Awareness Project Europe,
writing letters to the media.
Next to these thematic international lists, we have national lists. To see which lists there are, send a message to majordomo@legalize.org, with lists in the body of the message. To see which commands you can send to majordomo, send an empty message to majordomo@legalize.org.
For example, to subscribe to global@legalize.org and events@legalize.org,
send a message to majordomo@legalize.org with
subscribe global
subscribe events
in the body of the message
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Welcome to the Legalize! Initiative !
