Steve Bloom reported on Celebstoner.com that Allen St. Pierre, the longest-serving Executive Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), had been fired following the conclusion of the organization’s 41st annual conference. According to updates to The Russ Belville Show from members of the Board and the latest updates and comments on Celebstoner.com, St. Pierre remains the head of the organization.
NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre
Paul Armentano, NORML’s Deputy Director, was first to respond in the comments. “There have been no changes made regarding the NORML leadership,” wrote Armentano. “Only a vote by the Board could institute such changes and no such vote has taken place.” There were ten of NORML’s sixteen board members present at the National Conference, but no official meeting was held.
California NORML head Dale Gieringer, a board member as well, told the NORML Affiliates by email:
The NORML board will consider a motion to establish a search committee for a new executive director at its upcoming meeting on Nov. 28th.
Until that time, Allen St Pierre will remain executive director unless he chooses to resign.
The motion for a new executive director is sponsored by the board’s five-member executive committee, in response to an accumulated litany of complaints about the director’s performance from other NORML members, the board, and the public.
However, in an email to The Russ Belville Show, NORML Founder and board member Keith Stroup emphasizes that the board has not yet even considered any motion to replace the executive director, who has no intentions on resigning, and referred to the speculation as “an attempted coup by some dissidents.”
