2020 Conference

NORML Friends,

I hope this message reaches you all in good health and doing as well as we can in this COVID era. The NORML staff has been spending a lot of time lately adapting to our new reality and thinking how to best execute our reform efforts given the current state of world affairs.

The current plans are to move the NORML Annual Conference to a digital-only event that will take place this fall.

Due to ongoing travel restrictions, health concerns, venue shutdowns, and the current prohibition on individuals entering the buildings of Congress – we came to the realization that it would be both unwise and not terribly productive to hold our annual Conference and Lobby Day in Washington, DC this year. This event has become a bit of a tradition and one I know myself and many others look forward to every year. Sadly, it wouldn’t be in the best interest of the health of our participants and the productivity of the event to attempt to go forward with business as usual. We are also aware many are going through some rather difficult financial times with so many folks facing lay-offs, furlough, or reduced income which would make it hard for a lot of our most hard working activists to fund a ticket to the conference, flight to DC, and hotel arrangements.

This doesn’t mean we cannot still have what I believe will be an incredibly informative and beneficial event. The current plans are to move the NORML Annual Conference to a digital-only event that will take place this fall (final dates are still being decided, but anticipate September or October with more information forthcoming). The current vision is for a full day event that features many of the things we’ve come to enjoy about our conferences: interesting panels debating the reform issues of the day, engaging stand alone speakers, and important content to help you take your activism to a new level. We are also ideally aiming to enlist a number of sponsorships for this event so we can open the content up to the largest audience possible online and keep tickets extremely low cost or free of charge. We hope the ease of access of tuning in from home on your laptop or phone and free or low cost admission will encourage and enable more individuals to join us and learn about our important fight for marijuana law reform at the state, federal, and local level.

NORML will continue to update you as things progress. Thank you for all you do and I look forward to making NORML’s 2020 Digital Conference one to remember regardless of the hurdles we face.

Best,

Erik Altieri

NORML Executive Director

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