Special Collections: UMass Amherst Libraries Acquire Records of NORML, Drug Policy Archive Launched

From WGGB:

The reception also highlighted a recent donation by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), the nation’s oldest and most prominent organization advocating for an end to cannabis prohibition.
NORML donated their collection of records to the library to add to their Special Collections and University Archives.
“We specialize in archives about social change, documenting social change,” said Jay Schafer, Director of Libraries at UMass Amherst, “and we think that this documentation about the marijuana reform laws fits perfectly into that collecting strategy.”

From UMass Amherst:

The NORML collection comes to UMass Amherst at a defining moment in the legalization movement. Voters in Washington and Colorado recently legalized the cultivation, sale and use of cannabis.
Plans call for NORML to continue to work with UMass Amherst to secure kindred collections and expand the depth of materials available to scholars and researchers. The UMass Amherst Libraries already hold the records of Lester Grinspoon, a pioneering Harvard-trained doctor, author of the earliest research on medical marijuana and a member of NORML’s board of directors.

More From UMass Amherst Libraries:

As part of the program, the Libraries will celebrate adding its four millionth item to the physical collections; a rare copy of an Emancipation Proclamation pamphlet. Abraham Lincoln issued the proclamation in 1862, which freed all slaves in the territories controlled by the Confederate States of America. The pamphlets were to be carried by soldiers at the front lines and distributed to liberated slaves as they marched.

See Also: Audio Report An Archive Of Weed Activism Arrives At UMass (via New England Public Radio)

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