Paul Armentano

Paul Armentano is the deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)[1] and the NORML Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Armentano has written on the subject of marijuana and marijuana policy. His work has appeared in over 200 publications,[2] including more than a dozen textbooks and anthologies, and he is a frequent contributor to AlterNet, High Times, The Huffington Post, and the Washington, D.C. newspaper The Hill. Armentano is a 2008 recipient of the 'Project Censored Real News Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism' and was selected as one of America's 'Top 20 Young Visionaries' by Who Cares Magazine, a national quarterly journal devoted to community service and social activism. He has co-written a book about cannabis and social policies, Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?,[1] which was published in 2009 through Chelsea Green Publishing. He is also the author of the book The Citizen’s Guide to State-By-State Marijuana Laws (2015), available from Whitman Publishing. He is the author and editor of the NORML-produced publication Emerging Clinical Applications for Cannabis and Cannabinoids, which summarizes over 400 peer-reviewed studies specific to the safety and efficacy of cannabis among different patient populations.[3]

Mr. Armentano was the principal investigator for defense counsel in the federal case US v Schweder et al., one of the first legal cases in decades to challenge the constitutionality of cannabis as a schedule I controlled substance.[4] He was also an expert in the successful Canadian constitutional challenge, Allard v Canada, which preserved qualified patients right to grow cannabis at home.[5]

He is the 2013 Freedom Law School Health Freedom Champion of the Year and the 2013 Alfred R. Lindesmith award recipient in the achievement in the field of scholarship. He is the 2019 Al Horn Memorial Award recipient in appreciation of advancing the cause of justice.

Mr. Armentano works closely with numerous state and federal politicians with regard to drafting and enacting marijuana policy reforms, and he is a frequently sought speaker on the topic at legal and academic seminars.