Effectively framing marijuana reform to any audience

Effectively Framing Marijuana Reform To

Any AudienceRuss Belville

Executive DirectorPortland NORML

I’ve got a medical need You’ve suffered a debilitating illness or injury

I’ve been busted You’ve been arrested for violating marijuana laws

I’ve lost something You’ve missed a job, a scholarship, an opportunity

Your reasons are intensely personal What could I say to change your mind?

What Makes You Passionate About Marijuana Law Reform?

Framing is about the concepts and contexts we use to shape our viewpoints

Concepts (not what it is, but what it means) What is an elephant? More than just a pachyderm You can’t negate a frame without invoking it

Contexts (why we see same things differently) political, ideological, religious, occupational,

geographical, sexual, cultural, and more Knowing your audience’s frame helps you re-frame

the debate to match their values

Framing 101

Marijuana is not a racist word …but it was used by racists for racist purposes

Cannabis is not always more accurate …I no more smoke cannabis than I eat cow

Marijuana may be a very loaded frame, but cannabis is a very empty frame and it can seem like fig-leafing that will evoke marijuana anyway

Marijuana laws ban the cultivation of cannabis plants for the smoking of sinsemilla and consumption of cannabinoids

Marijuana vs. Cannabis

Medical Marijuana (The Box Canyon) Supports third party arbitrating intent of use Implies non-medical use is abuse or irrelevant

(“We’re Patients, Not Criminals” / “All Use is Medical”) Becomes more restrictive to maintain separation

Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Attaches negatives about booze to marijuana Where’s the marijuana breathalyzer?

Cannabis is Sacramental Immediately turns off mainstream religious types Also supports third party arbitrating intent of use

Our Frames to Date

Prohibition’s the Problem Promising the good that might come from legalization isn’t as

compelling as showing the evil prohibition is creating right now Prohibition’s Personal

We must show this evil is harming the audience directly (your son busted at college is more compelling that 700,000 faceless arrest stats.)

Prohibition’s Ineffective We must show that whatever evils might be imagined for

marijuana, prohibition does nothing to prevent them and in some cases aggravates them.

Re-Framing the Debate

My redneck uncle is a God-fearin’, huntin’, fishin’, NASCAR-watchin’ Republican who hates “hippies, welfare queens, and gub’mint”

So forget “cannabis cures cancer, hemp can save the planet, prohibition is racist” talk

Instead, jiu jitsu his hatred against his frame “Gee, Redneck Uncle, then why do you let the

hippie get away with the tax-free, food stamp, sleep-til-noon, weed-slinging lifestyle?”

Example: Redneck Uncle

People are heroically motivated to either do good or prevent evil

Prohibition presented no evil to Uncle; in fact, it was a good that oppressed hippies

My good frames for legalization won’t outweigh his good frames for prohibition

Shifting focus to how prohibition exacerbates the evil he thinks it solves creates dissonance

Giving Uncle a Problem to Solve

True Believer is on our side – but he opposes legalization because it’s not True Legalization™

Here, prohibition’s not as evil as The Man controlling the marijuana markets

So make legalization a lesser evil… “Yeah, man, I want better legalization, too. But some

legalization makes it easier for us to do what we’ve always been doing by killing the probable cause cops use to arrest and imprison us. Then we become consumers fighting for equal cannabis rights rather than criminals fighting to get high legally. I know the cops don’t want this legalization; that makes me want it!”

Example: True Believer

True Believer sees himself as the hero who’s fighting for the good of True Legalization™

Legalization is a wolf in sheep’s clothing Prohibition is a tolerable evil for now Redirect the hatred for the “baby steps” into

“being a sitting duck for the cops” Show how “their legalization” doesn’t

change his operation, rather, it improves it

Giving True Believer a Bogeyman

The Addict has used pot, maybe other drugs, had an issue, now sobriety’s her identity

Drugs are evil per se and legalization is approving of evil She needs to see a good from legalization

“My dad was an alcoholic, and thank God it wasn’t drugs, because he’d have been in prison and unable to get the rehab that saved his life. How many addicts don’t call for help because their use is a crime? How many can’t get a bed because a drug court put some pot smoker there instead? How much tax money from pot could go to fund drug treatment and prevention?”

Example: The Addict

The Addict is on a crusade to help others avoid the evils she suffered

She thinks prohibition helps to suppress those evils, so we show how it exacerbates them

Leverage her compassion for drug addicts by showing how legalization can help them

Separate and minimize “smoking pot” compared to “doing drugs”

Giving the Addict a Cause

The Parent may or may not have smoked pot, but he really doesn’t want his kids to do it

Prohibition is a good that allows him to dismiss the issue with “it’s illegal, don’t do it”

Prohibition needs to threaten his kids more “Kids deal weed to other kids because there is big profit in

it. You don’t see high school tequila dealers, because liquor stores have that market and the profit margins are low. And if your kid or his friends get caught with a little weed, would you rather ground him in his room, or have a court ground him to a jail cell while you pay off a lawyer?”

Example: The Parent

The Parent is only thinking of his kids, anything that threatens them is evil

The Parent worries that endorsing legalization means encouraging kids to use marijuana

Pit that worry against the frame of “forbidden fruit” encouraging kids to rebel and “be adult”

Paint prohibition as intruding on the parent / child relationship

Giving the Parent a Scare

“Taxing Marijuana Will Fix Our Schools!” “Legalization Will End the Black Market!” “Medical Marijuana Will Be Unaffected!” “Cops Will Have More Time For Real Crime!” When these claims prove untrue, selling the

good of future legalization in the next states becomes more difficult

Stating evils of current prohibition are much more reliable

Don’t Oversell Legalization

“Radical” Russ Belvilleruss@portlandnorml.org

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