Thanks to Twitter, had a very interesting Email exchange with a major player in the movement to Legalize Medical Marijuana. Got some really great technical advice on tracking my posts, measuring the success of my message which I am looking forward to implementing as I learn these new found tricks of the trade. (Will start my homework later this evening.) Also received were suggestions on Medical Marijuana Society and the presentation of the site. The advice suggests I need too get rid of some of the Joe Toker, social marijuana smoker feel and information on my site, and instead zoom in on and specifically address ONLY MEDICAL MARIJUANA if I expect the major players (such as NORML and ASA) to take me seriously. (420 Hemp Energy Drink)Not discounting the advice, though will admit to being a bit saddened by it. It would be my hope that the casual smokers, the Cannabis DUDES and DUDETTES, 420 hempsters if you will and the more serious folks who are concerned only about, or primarily with Legalization of Medical Marijuana all realize working for one goal helps accomplish the other, and to reach our long range hopes and targets, we must work together, two halves of a whole? Am I wrong in that assumption?
Part of the reason for my own little Medical Marijuana Society, for the Budding Blogger Network was to create a means to A) activate the grassroots, and make them feel more hands on actively involved in the movement for legalization, and B) create a active, vibrant ground force of Cannabis Activists capable of not just pushing news stories out onto the world wide web, but by joining them into a group being capable of making the news, shaping local, state and federal politics with our ability to be on top of a story, having the capabilities to push a story or Cannabis Political news into being mainstream news on the nightly Network and Cable channels.
Obama laughed off the feat that our Cannabis Community accomplished when we laid siege to the White House web site, and pushed the Legalization of Marijuana question to the top of the boards. Publicly, he and FOX News might have laughed that feat off, attempted to label us as Internet Trolls, but secretly behind closed doors they are both impressed, and more than a little scared that the Cannabis Community is finding its collective voice...or at least I like to think we are finding our collective voice. This event in some ways drove my decision to launch a group of Cannabis Blogs all linked together, thus the Budding Bloggers Network.
With today's advice, find myself hesitating, trying to gather my thoughts before moving forward...it is as if I have come to a fork in the road much sooner than I had imagined was possible. Can I blend together some of the fun that is the Social Smokers reality, incorporate some of their approaches to Legalization with the much more conservative Medical Marijuana agenda and its very conservative approach and create a Medical Marijuana Society that sees Legalization of Medical Marijuana as one of the train stops along the way, but not the ultimate destination, and in doing so marry together the two camps? Is it possible to find 500 or even 1000 Budding Bloggers to join up and Blog for Legalization as part of a TEAM? Would love to see a discussion on this, as I could really use some direction this evening.
One voice crying in the wilderness will not be heard, but if all those singular voices join together in song, we can move moountains.
