How the Minneapolis Global Marijuana March Began
Chris Wright started the Global Marijuana March of Minneapolis in conjunction with over 200 cities world-wide. Mr. Wright wisely chose Washburn Fair-Oaks Park as the gathering site because it is the symbolic beginning of the Drug War. The mother and father of narcotics prohibition were married at Fair Oaks. Elizabeth Washburn married Dr. Hamilton Wright who wrote the Opium Exclusion Act of 1909, The Hague Opium Convention of 1912, and the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914. Mrs. Wright was the first-ever woman diplomat given plenipotentiary power to sign treaties by President Calvin Coolidge for her participation in the Opium Advisory Committee to the League of Nations� Geneva Opium Convention 1924. Mrs. Wright was recruited to assist Federal Bureau of Narcotics chief Harry Anslinger to gain passage of the Uniform Narcotics Control Act of 1932, helping Harry whip up reefer madness.
Chris Wright
FOR MN GOVERNOR
"Minnesota's homegrown resistance leader fighting back against the war on you!"
Chris Wright for Governor
The time is right to fight for freedom!
Support the Grassroots Party in the 2010 election campaign!
GET INFORMED, & GET INVOLVED.
Check out
for more information, and if you like what you see, e-mail candidate Chris Wright at:
to find out how you can make a real difference by volunteering your time!
About Chris Wright
Age: 51, Born October 14, 1957, Thomas Christopher Wright, San Diego, California
Moved to Minnesota 1962
Single Father with 9-year-old daughter
Education:
Elementary School � Our Lady of Grace, Edina; Church of the Annunciation, Minneapolis; Kenny Elementary, Minneapolis
Junior High: Susan B. Anthony, Minneapolis
High School: Washburn High School, Minneapolis; Graduated West High School, Minneapolis
College: University of Minnesota � General College � Two years � Degree: None
Member of the General College Student Assembly
Coursework: Political Science, Algebra, Trigonometry, Statistics, Chemistry, Anthropology, Psychology, etc.
NEI � Northwestern Electronics Institute, Minneapolis � Degree: Associate of Electronics
Employment: Wang Laboratories, Datasource-Hagen, and Genesis Computers.
Politics:
1986 � Co-founder MN NORML and the Grassroots Party � active in the campaign of physicist Derrick Grimmer for Attorney General. Writes Martin Olav Sabo to store our nuclear waste within nuclear wastelands, our nuclear bomb test sites. (1) (2) (3)
1987 � Held the first Minnesota Tea Party to protest the Reagan Era inspired War on Drugs.
1988 � Chris Wright runs for 5th District Congress � Opposing Rep. Martin Olav Sabo
1989
1990 �
1991 � Chris Wright applies to grow hemp under an obscure hemp control law (4) passed to enable farmers to grow hemp to make rope for the navy during a hemp shortage caused by the Japanese takeover of the Philippines in WWII. The law required that individuals obtain a license through the MN Department of Agriculture. (5) The Ag Commissioner refused to issue a license until a federal license was obtained.(6) The DEA told Mr. Wright that they don�t even give doctors or pharmacists their licenses until they have all their state licenses.(7) So, Mr. Wright went back to the state and demanded that he be issued a license. Rather than observe the law, the commissioner went to the legislature to have the law repealed, a clear violation of the Constitution banning the passage of an ex-post facto law, and refused to issue Mr. Wright�s license.
1992 � Abortive attempt to run for Congress: Due to state law
enforcement interference to undermine Chris Wright�s campaign fundraiser, called the Grassroots Gathering, Mr. Wright was unable to run for Congress.(8)(9)
The courts in three counties, Kanabec, Cass & Beltrami counties handed down temporary restraining orders, later to become injunctions, to prevent candidate Wright from holding a campaign fundraiser.
Beltrami County police set up a roadblock on the Beltrami County line specifically for candidate Wright and warned him that if he put down anywhere in the county they would arrest him and confiscate all his equipment. Since candidate Wright owned 76-acres in Beltrami County, he was forbidden from inviting guests to his own property in Turtle River.
State police literally chased candidate Wright from Bemidji to the Twin Cities to thwart his campaign fundraiser, despite the fact that candidate Wright had broken no law.
1993 �
1994 -
1995 �
1996 � Following the ex-post-facto denial of Mr. Wright�s application to grow hemp, Mr. Wright discovered that it said in Article 13, Section 7, of the Minnesota Constitution that, �Any person may sell or peddle the products of the farm or garden, occupied and cultivated by him without obtaining a license therefor.�(10) Since the MN Constitution supersedes MN statutes, Mr. Wright realized that the only thing that makes drugs illegal is being in possession without a license. Since it was forbidden to require a license of farm products, marijuana being a farm product in 1906 when Alwin Rowe introduced this amendment, all subsequent laws forbidding marijuana were illegal. Mr. Wright didn�t even need the license required under the previous hemp control law and began growing marijuana. However, Mr. Wright was arrested for growing 41-marijuana plants and appealed his case all the way to the MN Supreme Court.
1997 �
1998 � Chris Wright runs for Governor: While running for governor Mr. Wright�s marijuana case came before the MN Court of Appeals.(11) Never before had Article 13, Section 7, been tested in the Minnesota courts. Mr. Wright was prosecuted by two candidates for governor, Atty. General Skip Humphrey and Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman. Mr. Wright provided the court with the decision by Chief Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young (12) of the DEA in his ruling on the rescheduling of marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II, acknowledging that there has never been a cannabis induced fatality in 5000 years of recorded medical history and that marijuana was safer than some foods because raw potatoes can cause a toxic effect, but you can�t eat enough marijuana to kill yourself. Despite Wright�s evidence to the contrary, the court ruled that Mr. Wright cannot sell un-safe products and that it was a privilege not a fundamental right. (13)(14) Mr. Wright disagreed maintaining that marijuana produces almost as much food as soybeans, which would mean that its only a privilege to grow food to feed yourself. Wright said, �What power doesn�t the legislature have if they can deny you food, clothing and shelter; all provided from hemp? What could be more fundamental to life itself?� Of course, there�s no way the court was going to let Mr. Wright legalize pot throughout the state, despite the supremacy of the constitution over statute. The court would have defied the laws of nature and God almighty to stop Mr. Wright because, to them, prohibition was the highest law in the land. There was no way they were going to hold themselves accountable to law observance. They weren�t going to allow Mr. Wright to take away their police powers. It could have said, �Any person may sell or peddle marijuana� but the constitution went beyond that by saying, �the products of the farm or garden� meaning all cultivated plants. As expected the MN Supreme Court under Kathleen Blatz refused to hear Mr. Wright�s certiori, basically affirming the precedence setting decision of the Court of Appeals.
1999 � Chris Wright starts the Global Marijuana March Minneapolis in conjunction with over 200 cities world-wide. Mr. Wright chooses Washburn Fair-Oaks Park because it is the symbolic beginning of the Drug War. The mother and father of narcotics prohibition were married at Fair Oaks. Elizabeth Washburn married Dr. Hamilton Wright who wrote the Opium Exclusion Act of 1909, The Hague Opium Convention of 1912, and the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914. Mrs. Wright was the first-ever woman diplomat given plenipotentiary power to sign treaties by President Calvin Coolidge for her participation in the Opium Advisory Committee to the League of Nations� Geneva Opium Convention 1924. Mrs. Wright was recruited to assist Federal Bureau of Narcotics chief Harry Anslinger to gain passage of the Uniform Narcotics Control Act of 1932, helping Harry whip up reefer madness.
2000 �
2001 �
2002 � Chris Wright marches 400 Global Marijuana Marchers from Loring Park to the Minneapolis Convention Center where the Democratic State Convention was endorsing Roger Moe and Julie Sabo for the race for governor. In the post-911 atmosphere of the day, the convention security personnel were visibly disturbed, despite the peacefulness of the marchers.
2003 �
2004 �
2005 �
2006 �
2007 �
2008 � Chris Wright holds the 22nd MN Tea Party & Hempfest at the capitol and marches protesters to the Republican National Convention.
(1) 1986_08_XX Wright to Rep. Martin Sabo RE NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE AT NUCLEAR TEST SITES
(2) 1986_09_13 Rep. Martin Sabo to Wright RE NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE AT NUCLEAR TEST SITES
(3) 1986_10_06 Roger W. Gale,DOE, to Rep. Sabo RE PLACEMENT OF NUCLEAR WASTE
(4) 1991 MN STATUTE 18.321 GROWING HEMP (CANNABIS SATIVA L.) FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES; LICENSES
(5) 1991_04_29 Wright to Charles Dale (Ag Comm) - Application to Grow Hemp MN Stat. 18.321
(6) 1991_08_13 William L. Oemichen, Ag Dept Counsel, to Wright - RE Must 1st have DEA permit
(7) 1991 Application for Registration under Controlled Substances Act of 1970 - Item 7 - State Licenses Required for Federal Registration
(8) 1992_05_16 Star Tribune - Judge blocks large Grassroots fest near Olgilvie
(9) 1992_05_17 Pioneer Press - Judge nixes music festival near Olgilvie
(10)1974_11_05 Constitution of the State of Minnesota
(11)1998_12_22 State of Minnesota v. Thomas Christopher Wright C4-98-179
(12) 1988_09_06 Docket No. 86-22 Judge Francis L. Young
(13) 1998_12_23 Star Tribune - Associated Press - Right to peddle produce doesn't include pot, court rules
(14) 1998_12_23 St Paul Pioneer Press - Court upholds state's marijuana laws
