When he entered the job, Donald Trump had just been elected president. Republicans controlled Congress. Prohibitionist Jeff Sessions was soon confirmed as attorney general and moved to rescind Obama-era guidance that offered legal cannabis states some level of protection<\/a>.<\/p>\n While marijuana remains federally illegal today, there has been enormous progress on the cannabis front since Strekal took the job. In a historic vote, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill to end prohibition in 2020<\/a>\u2014though the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act later stalled in the Senate. More modest marijuana banking reform legislation has cleared the House five times in some form<\/a>. Even some Republicans are championing legalization<\/a> as the state-level movement affects more and more of their constituents who have made clear their desire for a change.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really a testament to the fact that this issue\u2014which does not have well-organized money behind it, which does not have traditional institutional organizational power in Washington, D.C.\u2014how far a scrappy bunch of activists can really push the issue,\u201d Strekal, wearing his signature horn-rimmed glasses, said.<\/p>\n Morgan Fox will be replacing Strekal at NORML. He has years of experience running communications at other leading cannabis groups like the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) and, most recently, the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA).<\/p>\n Fox told Marijuana Moment that his predecessor left him a \u201cgreat foundation,\u201d and he intends to \u201cbuild upon his work primarily in making sure that NORML is a leader in the space and has a strong seat at the table when it comes to cannabis policy reform, both comprehensive and incremental.\u201d<\/p>\n That will also mean continuing to pressure the Biden administration to make good on campaign promises for things like cannabis clemency<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fox has a wide range of experiences to draw from in the marijuana space. And while he\u2019s transitioning from an organization that is principally focused on industry-related issues, he says his long background working on marijuana from different perspectives means he will hopefully \u201cbe able to build bridges and make sure that whatever legislation ends up getting passed is the one that is beneficial to the greatest amount of people, especially cannabis consumers, communities that have been disproportionately impacted by prohibition and small businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very, very excited to jump into this next legislative session and start tackling appropriations and bringing the the MORE Act for a full vote in the House in the coming months,\u201d Fox said.<\/p>\n Strekal, for his part, isn\u2019t leaving the cannabis movement. He\u2019ll soon be starting a new political action committee focused on advancing the legalization fight through elections. And he said that a guiding principle that he\u2019s absorbed from NORML founder Keith Stroup\u2014\u201dthat the area of marijuana is only incidentally about marijuana, it\u2019s really about freedom\u201d\u2014will continue to inform his work.<\/p>\n \u201cI plan to continue that ethos into the work that I do, whatever that\u2019s going to be in the future,\u201d he said, \u201cthrough my continued lobbying for other organizations, whatever consulting work I do and the forthcoming political action committee that will be rolled out in the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, I think one of the things that makes NORML so unique compared to the other drug policy reform groups and really separates them from the industry groups is the tenacity to focus on the individual,\u201d Strekal said. He listed a number of adjacent issues he\u2019s worked to advance, from reforming employment drug testing policies to cannabis protections for Indian tribes to helping universities seeking to research marijuana under the umbrella of federal prohibition.<\/p>\n Strekal is optimistic that broad reforms will continue to advance in the new year.<\/p>\n \u201cI still believe it is possible to again advance the MORE Act to end prohibition through the House of Representatives as a bulwark to continue to build the pressure upon the 50\/50 Senate to consider the yet-to-be-put-forward [legalization] legislation by Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY)<\/a>\u201d and Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Ron Wyden (D-OR).<\/p>\n \u201cI do still see a pathway for the enactment of SAFE banking,\u201d he added, but he caveated that \u201cthere needs to be a real reckoning, in my view, with the the tactics used to push\u201d the reform.<\/p>\n Strekal\u2019s departure is the latest changeup for NORML as things move forward in 2022. Jax Finkel James, former director of Texas NORML, has replaced Carly Wolf as the organization\u2019s state policy director, NORML announced<\/a> in early December.<\/p>\n
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