In this funny, informative talk, David Schmader makes the case for thinking more broadly about what a marijuana user is and can be. David Schmader is a multi-talented writer, playwright, newspaper columnist, and performance artist. With wit and intelligence he blends personal experience and biting humor to provide insight on difficult cultural issues. He creates autobiographical solo plays that include, Letter to AXL, (homophobia and the unifying power of anger), Straight (“pray away the gay” conversation therapy), and A Short-Term Solution to a Long-Term Problem (angst, escapism, and forgiveness). His shows have toured the country, with productions at New York City’s Dixon Place, Los Angeles’s Highways Performance Space, Seattle’s Bumbershoot Arts Festival, and the Wexner Center of the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
Drug Smuggler Speaks Out About Incarceration and Marijuana | Richard Stratton | TEDxFultonStreet
Richard Stratton’s education helped him to vacate a coercively harsh sentence, and now he speaks out to help others who are behind bars unjustly. The irony is not lost on Stratton, that recent cannabis legislation has legalized many of the activities for which people are still locked up. He offers a unique glimpse into the mind of an underworld leader, an award-winning writer and filmmaker, and a human rights advocate. Richard Stratton is a former international cannabis smuggler, CEO of a multi-million dollar operation. Arrested in 1982, he was convicted under the “Kingpin Statute” and sentenced to 25 years in federal prison.
Making peace with cannabis | Zachary Walsh | TEDxPenticton
This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Talk explores human beings’ dynamic relationship with the cannabis plant and what recent developments might mean for our health and well-being.