Allen St. Pierre of NORML

In January 2014 in the high plains of Denver, Allen St. Pierre walked into a store and legally bought recreational cannabis.

Thousands of others did likewise in Colorado, as cannabis enthusiasts celebrated the first such legal sales in the U.S. in modern history. But St. Pierre had more reasons than many to be euphoric: His more than two decades working with National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

When he came on the job as Communications Director, the first Bush was President and St. Pierre’s was a lonely voice on a fringe issue most politicians wouldn’t touch. But at that moment in 2014, two states (Washington voters had also approved legalization) had told the rest of the country it was time to legalize, tax and regulate cannabis.

“That was an incredibly historic moment to hold in my hands the fruition of my life’s work and the work of thousands,” recalled St. Pierre, NORML’s Executive Director, 18 months later.

“I was happy to be alive. If you’d asked me in 1995 if I would live long enough to see marijuana legalized, I’m not sure I could have given an answer that would be anything other than pessimistic.”

These are indeed heady times for one of cannabis reform’s top advocates. Voters in Oregon, Alaska and Washington D.C. have since approved legalization, and St. Pierre sees the 2016 election as potentially the movement’s biggest success yet.

But if the wrong candidate wins the Presidency, it could all be swept away with the stroke of a pen.

St. Pierre talked with CULTURE from his Washington D.C. office about how the legalization movement got this far, where it goes from here and why he never travels with cannabis.

From Nixon to Reagan

NORML was founded in 1970 by R. Keith Stroup. The establishment was fighting back against the drug excesses of the ‘60s and President Nixon would soon declare drug use “public enemy number one.” Appeals by NORML to treat cannabis differently than cocaine and other drugs fell on deaf ears.

Then came President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, with some revolutionary ideas about cannabis. He urged Congress to legalize possession of up to an ounce. But scandal occurred–Carter’s drug czar resigned after being outed for allegedly doing coke at a party–and Carter’s flagging popularity killed any momentum.

Then came Ronald Reagan, who urged a generation of kids to “just say no.”

St. Pierre got involved with NORML as a volunteer and concerned cannabis advocate.

“In the 1970s and ‘80s, there was virtually no other voice that was arguing to the contrary regarding all these things, civil forfeiture, the DARE program, Partnership for a Drug-Free America, mandatory minimum sentencing. In all those things NORML was at the vanguard,” he said.

Hope and disappointment

As 1993 dawned and the first Baby Boomer president, Bill Clinton, who was the first to admit to having tried cannabis, was sworn in, St. Pierre felt hope for a softer stance on cannabis.

Democrats in Congress, hammered by Republicans as soft on crime and drugs, refused to touch the issue, as did Clinton. Clinton also broke a campaign promise and refused to reinstate the Compassionate IND program, which provided a handful of sick people government joints.

St. Pierre felt betrayed, by the president and the “overly repentant liberals and baby boomers” who “chose to largely remain in their smoky closets.” He hasn’t quite gotten over it.

“They were just lying, hypocritical and pandering politicians, which doesn’t make them much different from other politicians,” he said of Clinton and Gore. “If you look at a picture of me and ask why my hair is so grey, it’s because of people like Clinton.”

His was a lonely job, pandering an idea mainstream politicians wouldn’t touch, one of only a few people in Washington lobbying Congress for cannabis reform. When George W. Bush became president in 2001, St. Pierre saw it was time to hunker down.

“After that election was decided by the (Supreme) Court and it wound up in Mr. Bush’s hands, we surely saw that as a four to eight-year slog, knowing that whoever was the President, it was hard to imagine George Bush was ever going to flip on the issue of marijuana. And he didn’t,” he said.

But, he said, “In America there are a number of different ways you can affect political change.”

Taking it to the states

With little hope of federal reform, NORML began focusing on states. St. Pierre estimates he gave some 1,400 media interviews in 1996 in support of California’s medical cannabis ballot proposition, which passed.

Clearly, sick people seeking alternative medication was something voters would support. In the days before the Internet and social media, NORML, with its nationwide network of local chapters, victims of prohibition and sympathetic attorneys, was the ideal conduit for funding and coordination. NORML and its volunteers were the grass-roots base of the movement and St. Pierre was its public face.

Then came Barack Obama. Elected President in 2008, he slowly began de-escalating the war on cannabis, and eventually his administration announced it wouldn’t interfere with state-approved cannabis dispensaries. It could be argued voters in Colorado might not have approved full legalization in 2012 were there not already medical cannabis dispensaries in many towns and neighborhoods.

St. Pierre likes to hope Obama will issue executive order changing cannabis’ federal Schedule 1 status, which would remove many barriers to cannabis research. But he still believes the 2016 election will be the most pivotal yet for the reform movement, with legalization likely on the ballot in California, Nevada, Arizona, Massachusetts and Maine, if not others.

Perhaps more importantly, the new President will be elected. Some Republican candidates have vowed to reverse legalization, while Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has expressed lukewarm support. It would take little more than a stroke of a pen by the likes of Republican Presidential candidate Chris Christie to sweep back legalization.

Said St. Pierre, “The next presidential election is going to be the most important in determining whether or not Obama’s legacy of taking the foot off the gas of prohibition on the federal level is going to continue.”

A dual mission

If St. Pierre’s optimism is tempered by concern, it’s because he has seen his hopes dashed so many times.

At 50 years old, St. Pierre is no longer the main public face of cannabis reform. Newer organizations with staffs that dwarf NORML’s seven full-time employees have emerged. Where once St. Pierre was a lone voice on Capitol Hill, he estimates there are at any given time two dozen lobbyists working on some aspect of cannabis.

Still, NORML will continue its other mission of helping connect people who have been arrested with its networks of chapters and lawyers. It also provides assistance to cannabis businesses facing legal problems.

Because for St. Pierre, avoiding arrest is the motivation behind his decades of cannabis activism. He publicly states his love of cannabis, which has led to him being detained and searched. Police even came to his D.C. house after he told a radio host he only partakes in cannabis in the privacy of his own home.

“It’s that stakeholdership. It’s that fear of being arrested that is my motivating factor. I don’t want to be arrested. I want to change the laws,” he said.

Not that it would deter him.

Said St. Pierre, “If they actually had arrested me over this past couple of years, all I would have done would be a louder asshole.”