The Bakersfield College National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws student club claims they were “censored” by the American Cancer Society when their booth was shut down during the Relay for Life event that took place at Cal State Bakersfield on April 30.
American Cancer Society media spokesperson Erica Jones said in a telephone interview that the club was asked to leave after five hours of negotiations over the material they were distributing.
SGA president Ash West and member of the BC NORML group, said, “It seemed like the American Cancer Society has a law on their books about political propaganda, and I can see how there would be a thin line between that if NORML was recruiting for membership, but as far as I know they weren’t doing anything like that.”
Jones said, “They wanted to distribute political material to the masses.” Initially, when the volunteers of the American Cancer Society asked NORML not to distribute material they agreed and were welcomed to stay.
“There was no negativity at first,” she said. “When Doug McAfee arrived, the head of Bakersfield NORML, things became a bit stirred up. The group held up signs that read ‘censored’ at their booth and put yellow police tape around their area. We, by no means, want to censor any group. We simply want to educate everyone about cancer.”
In a telephone interview with The Rip, McAfee said, “It’s wrong for education groups like ACS to withhold information of the use of medicinal marijuana and other alternative health care,” he said. He also said that ACS knows that marijuana helps the symptoms of radiation treatment.
As far as scientific research goes, Jones said, “ACS is a scientific-based organization and the science is just not there to support the use of marijuana as medication. But that is the secondary issue in regards to asking NORML to leave.”
According to a letter to a Rip staff writer, McAfee wrote, “Many people at the event were angry at the overreaction of the ACS and were dismayed at making the club shut down important information. Many people I talked to supported the club’s rights and thought the actions can only hurt the cause of the educational effort by ACS.”
McAfee said that the event organizers started making unfair demands since the BC NORML group started setting up their booth at 9 a.m. “The gentleman (ACS volunteer) wouldn’t allow them to distribute The Rip (which contained a story about the use of medicinal marijuana) and other materials,” said McAfee.
Jones said the material, which the group was handing out, had not gotten the approval of the ACS. “Any organization can take part in the event as long as they adhere to ACS’s policy regarding political stance,” she said.
“The group was not making a political stance, we were merely providing information for medical marijuana for cancer patients,” said Bethany Johnson a BC NORML member and an SGA senator.
West explained that there was a lot of tension between the two groups.
“It seemed like people on both sides got heated,” he said.
“If they did find anything objectionable with NORML’s agenda they could have maybe let them know beforehand. That way this could have been prevented.”
West clarified that NORML has participated in other Relay for Life events without a problem, and it was the altercation between the ACS volunteers and the NORML group members that caused the controversy.
Jones said on behalf of the cancer society, “They wanted to invite NORML to a meeting to resolve any open issues with the American Cancer Society.”