The 420 Times Profile: Don Duncan, Fighting For Your Right

FROM THE MAGAZINE

Since 1994 Don Duncan has worked tirelessly with legislators and other elected officials, as well as law enforcement and community influencers, on a wide range of issues related to the legal, safe use of medical marijuana.

His nationwide media appearances have helped raise awareness of what he (and a growing constituency in the public and in government) see as a patients’ rights issue: unhampered access to a legitimate medication, free from penalty or intimidation.

You’d probably expect a crusading activist for a highly emotional socio-political movement to have had a liberal upbringing in a “blue” state. You might also logically assume an academic background in law, political science or social work.

But you’d be wrong in the case of Don Duncan, California Director of Americans for Safe Access (ASA), and a major voice in the nationwide fight for patients’ unimpeded right to use prescription cannabis.

Our assumptions and expectations – no matter how reasonable and logical – don’t always match reality! Against all probability, Don hails from a conservative family in Dallas, in the “red state” of Texas. And he earned his degree from the prestigious music school at University of North Texas, where he majored in euphonium (baritone horn).

He never thought much about marijuana until college, when, like many students, he got joyously into recreational grass. It all seemed so innocent and cheerful that it never occurred to him that – technically speaking – he was a criminal in the “eyes of Texas.”

One day he read an article in High Times about someone who had been convicted of possession of a tiny amount of marijuana, and sentenced to several years in prison.

This seemed outrageous to Don, who wondered how he and his friends could possibly be considered social pariahs just for smoking a little weed, never hurting anyone.

It seemed nothing short of insane to the studious, short-haired kid from the wholesome, all-American Texas family. So he contacted NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) to see if there was a Dallas chapter he could join. Don was on the path to activism.

After graduation in 1993, he packed up his horn and moved west to San Francisco. But he was not destined for a career in music in the City By the Bay. There, during the height of the AIDS epidemic, he met Dennis Peron, a pioneering advocate of medical marijuana (and subsequently one of the authors of California’s Proposition 215, also referred to as the Compassionate Use Act Of 1996).

Don realized that the medical use of marijuana was a deeply humanitarian issue. It was all about the relief of suffering. He thought, “There’s really something worthwhile in doing this,” and never looked back.

He heard many stories about the benefits of cannabis treatment… but also tales of suppression by virulently anti-marijuana elected officials and police. What convinced Don to work actively for the medical marijuana cause is when he began to meet patients. These people were often gravely ill. Indeed, some would have been destined to die in pain and despair – except for the marijuana that eased their misery.

Terminal cancer patients nauseated by chemotherapy. AIDS sufferers in need of regaining their appetite for food – and for life. A special education teacher going blind from glaucoma, who needed to smoke grass to see well enough to teach the kids who needed her. It seemed especially shameful that a dedicated teacher should have to live in fear of losing her job… or even of being arrested.

Unfortunately, in 1998, despite the Compassionate Use Act Of 1996, the federal government began raiding and closing down many dispensaries. After one raid in 1999, Duncan and some friends, wondering how to fight back, realized that, although they were powerless to stop DEA raids, they did have the power to continue recruiting helpers and opening new collectives. Their strategy: for every facility that was shut down, open two new ones, and encourage other communities to do the same.

It was grueling, nonstop work. But it bore positive results.

Between 1999 and 2006 Don and his colleagues helped open five facilities, working in both “hands on” and advisory capacities. In 2002 Don helped found Americans for Safe Access (ASA), and has been a director for California ever since. The coalition’s objectives are to disseminate information on medical cannabis; work with government and law enforcement where possible; and also to organize local resistance to all attempts to prevent the legal distribution of marijuana.

(Interestingly, by the time the first collective was up and running in 2000, Don himself had stopped smoking marijuana.)

What is the state of the movement today? Don Duncan points out that at present we’re in a period of transition. The anti-pot pendulum has historically swung back and forth between federal and local opponents. Over the past few years, the main problem has been DEA raids. But now, with the current détente in national cannabis policy, for the foreseeable future trouble is more likely to come from local law enforcement. This is déjà vu from around 1996, when city police were a far bigger threat than the federal government.

Reacting to the recent medical cannabis policy law in Washington, Duncan declares himself basically “very optimistic.” Although the government didn’t go as far as they might have, he considers the Obama Administration’s attitude “…a wonderful step in the right direction.” Duncan notes that, while some people involved in the dispensary business may be in it for the money – or as just another job – most collective workers are motivated by the sincere desire to improve society by helping individuals. There are many easier (and safer) ways to make a buck than dispensing a product that many unenlightened people still consider dangerous enough to be outlawed.

They just don’t get it. This means that part of Don’s job is to teach the realities – and debunk the myths – about cannabis.

So in a real sense, Activist Don Duncan is also Educator Don Duncan. Which, by the way, is consistent with the motto of his Alma Mater, the University of North Texas: “Only the educated are free.”

— Dean Christopher