Message To Celebrities
This message is directed to celebrities, though everyone is welcome to read this. What kind of celebrities? All kinds. Of course we wish for the super-duper-famous Hollywood Stars and athletes, but we are interested in everyone, from local news faces, politicians, musicians & artists, actors, and pretty much anyone who is known and respected by many people.Dear celebrity,
It is time to use your fame towards a good purpose. We are now at a tipping point with just over half of polled Americans and Canadians (and elsewhere) in favor of legalizing cannabis. The remaining people opposed only hold on to the their "reefer madness" opinions due to ignorance - if they knew the truth they for sure would change their minds as countless others have already. (read "Help Spread")
As a celebrity YOU have the power to grab the attention of the masses of people, and along with it the opportunity to plant the seeds of new thoughts that can sprout and grow into something awesome. Why are you paid fortunes to endorse products? Because marketing companies want to take advantage of your power to influence people for their own financial agendas. We also want to take advantage of your power to influence people, but with an altruistic agenda. You probably already guessed that there isn't a fortune awaiting your endorsement, so don't do it for the money, do it because it is the right thing to do.
As a celebrity you probably consider your actions from the perspective of how it will affect your PR. Will the public love you more or hate you for your actions & stated opinions? We understand that it is important for you to uphold your reputation and to appear favorably to your public.
The good news to you is that now that there is a tremendous sway of opinion regarding cannabis, openly expressing that you are pro legalizing it could have a positive effect for your publicity. This is now a strongly rising trend with the public strongly in favor of marijuana. Just think of how you can take advantage of this for your own benefits.
What are we asking of you? A few things really. First and foremost take a bit of time to educate yourself on this issue. You don't want to appear ignorant before your adoring fans. This is not just a fight to have the right to smoke up for the fun of it. Though there is nothing wrong with that itself, this issue is sooooooooooooo much larger and vastly more important than being simply about indulgence.
Go out on a limb and publicly express that you think that it is now time to legalize weed, and give a couple of reasons to support your opinion. You could focus on the popular justifications, such as for medical purposes (great for serious conditions, but also fabulous for standard aches & pains most people experience), social injustice & insane costs to taxpayers, or in this age of global warming we should be doing more to save our planet (and ourselves), and for that hemp is really a viable contribution to the solution. Of course there are other topics and angles to talk about cannabis, but the medicinal, social, costs to tax payers, and environmental issues are the top issues your public would be interested in listening to.
Actually there is one more that should be emphasized more than it has been, and that is the recreational aspects. The medicinal arguments was the proverbial foot-in-the-door towards legalization and public acceptance. However let's face it, millions and millions of your fans smoke weed because it's so pleasant to do so. It is far far far safer than alcohol, much healthier, non violence inducing (think of all the broken families due to alcohol), and in many ways is superior to alcohol for social settings or as a solitary indulgence to relax after a long hard day. Alcohol is far worse a drug, and way more dangerous, however because it is legal it is the one people use. Remember, marijuana isn't illegal because it is dangerous, but rather it is only dangerous because it is illegal. Paradoxically alcohol is completely the opposite.
But we are asking a bit more from you celebrities. Please read the "Help Spread" page, if you haven't done so already. Seriously, pause reading this page now, go see that page, and once done then come back to resume here.
(((Imagine elevator muzak here)))
Great, so you've read the other page. Let's continue.
By now you are probably beginning to realize that the Cannabis World Summit is an important focal point to direct public attention to at this time. Please use the power of your fame to direct people to this website, NORML, LEAP, and to the many others such as these.
Please consider publicly endorsing and letting yourself be used as a celebrity face for these causes. Remember, even if you don't get paid your standard fortune for your endorsement, you are still getting the publicity benefit by being associated with something millions of people feel quite passionate about. Please contact us if you are interested in being a celebrity face we may use.
Last but certainly not least, if you really feel strongly about this issue then please consider being a speaker at the Summit. We are inviting Montel Williams to appear as a guest, due to his emotionally outspoken support of legalizing marijuana for medicinal use. We need more speakers, others like Montel, but also those who can focus on the other facets of the marijuana issues. We need strong voices that champion the virtues of hemp for a better planet, and economy. Voices for the injustices of imprisoning harmless people for non-violent marijuana possession (perhaps a black celebrity due to the unfortunate fact that this topic does have racial biases). But we also need celebrities who will stand up and say that smoking pot, for fun, is ok too. Of course we'll invite Sarah Silverman and Snoop Dogg, known recreation tokers, to share some words about this (hopefully they'll accept), but we need more celebrities with diverse personas to appeal to greater slices of the public, particularly those whom the public would not normally associate with pot use.
Now for the entertainment aspects... we will be inviting a few comedians to appear at the Marijuana World Summit, and we invite artists to share your talents too. Music artists, write a song about pot. Or even a song about the Summit would be fabulous! (Ok, that might have been a bit of a stretch). Go ahead and record something really cool and then let us play it for the Summit. With the masses of people we expect this ought to be great PR for you, but the reason why you should do it is for that warm fuzzy feelin' in your heart from doing something good in the world for this cause.
We understand that many of you celebrities are doing what most common folks are doing... privately toking away, hoping that someone else will act to change the laws. We understand that anonymity leads to no problems (ie arrests), but this issue is more important, now more so than ever, than our individual comforts. There are countless others who are respectable members of society who are intimidated of revealing their green secrets. We who have cowered for so long must now come out into the light! There are MILLIONS of us!!! The illegal marijuana trade would not be worth billions of dollars otherwise - who do you think buys all that weed? All of us, bankers, janitors, school teachers, public servants, police officers (LOL, amazing how many cops are tokers), business owners, doctors, lawyers, investors, bakers, and even celebrities. It is time for us all to take a stand, and we need you celebrities to inspire the rest of us to follow along.
