Freedom Fighter of the Month
May 2010 – Clifford Deuvall
NORML of Waco, Texas
By Russ Belville, NORML Outreach Coordinator
This summer I received an email from Clifford Deuvall from NORML of Waco, Inc. in Waco, Texas. “I’m a former Texas educator and Vietnam Vet put on 100% disability by the VA,” he told me. “I had to do Methadone treatments for four years due to military injuries. After getting off of the Methadone, I told my doctor I wanted a better quality of life and I wanted to take cannabis instead.”
Of course the VA told him he’d need to move to a medical marijuana state for that relief, but Mr. Deuvall wasn’t going anywhere. “I was born in Texas and my family helped build this great state. I told my doctor I wasn’t moving; I was going to change the antiquated laws of this state, Texas.”
I called him later in the summer to help him get the NORML chapter started in Waco. To my surprise, he had already done most of the legwork himself, securing a grant of incorporation funds from Dallas/Ft. Worth NORML and help with the paperwork from Texas NORML in Austin. It became clear to me this veteran was bound and determined to legalize his medicine in the Lone Star State.
Since incorporating in July 2009, Clif has been holding regular meetings and found a key ally in Alan Caruthers, a self-described Christian Republican family man who is stricken with myelofibrosis and uses cannabis for the pain. Together they were receiving favorable coverage in the local Waco media after just one month of existence as a chapter.
Clif has since increased his network of allies by attending the 2009 NORML National Conference in San Francisco (pictured at left with Founder Keith Stroup). It’s great to see our chapters in Texas working together to reform marijuana laws in a state where that is politically difficult.
