Students for Medical and Recreational Marijuana: Joel Perez, Adrian Beltran, Ashley Elrod,

Tamara Diaz, Jordan Scritchfield.

An interview with Shaun McAlister
On April 2nd 2015 we conducted an interview with a well-known marijuana advocate, Mr.
Shaun McAlister. Shaun is the Executive Director of DFW NORML, a North Texas branch of the
nations largest marijuana interest group, NORML. Although he is from the DFW area, we were
only able to get in contact with him through a phone call. However, he was more than willing to
do the interview. We chose Shaun because of his history and knowledge of marijuana and his
relationship with members of congress and local representatives. We asked Shaun if he was
familiar with bill SB 339, and how influential the bill would be if it was passed. He answered
with confident and clear answers defending his, as well NORMLs stance on where marijuana
fits in todays society. We felt these questions and the rest that we asked were important, for he is
the leader of the large chapter. This leadership allows him to see the views of the masses as well
as have a strong influence on those in DFW NORML.
Shaun was insightful when it came to questions regarding the legalization of marijuana.
When asked what the difference between alcohol and marijuana use was, he stated Texas has
one of the largest percentages of death due to alcohol intoxication. There has yet to be a single
confirmed death due to the use of marijuana according to drugfacts.org, a great credible source.
If we can cut down that percentage alone, we are already creating a better society. That was
something new my team and I, for we could not believe a single death has been caused by a
person ingesting cannabis. Our bill, SB 339 was created to legalize low TCH oil to be used for
patients who suffer from constant seizures. Shaun described the benefits and also gave us a
personal story of a cousin who suffered these seizures. He said, I saw her move away from her

family here in Texas just to be able to survive, and since she has been on the THC oil, she has
been seizure free for the last year. More people need access to at least this treatment. After all
the research of the bill we are all familiar with the benefits of low THC oil, and are in agreement
with Shaun. Overall, I can say that he was somewhat knowledgeable about the bill, and he was
introduced to new parts of the bill from our research. Still, he was able to answer questions in
straight forward responses, and would at times give a source.
We will definitely be able to use the interview for our research. There are ideas we can
use that will make our advocacy that much stronger. One thing that did hinder our interview
however, was that Shaun would tend to answer questions with more personal stories and
responses than factual information. While he did give us his sources, he tended to lean toward his
personal experiences with marijuana. He managed to cover all the topics, but due to time
constraints, he was not able state whether he felt Texas was ready for any type of marijuana
legalization.
Although the interview went well, whether or not it is useful in our arguments is still
questionable. While the interview was not long, he invited us to the annual DFW marijuana
march on May 7th to learn more. This felt like his way of ending the interview, and it led to the
conclusion that more information would be covered during the march. If it was not for his
personal bias toward the topic, we could say that his statements help our argument. This
interview gave us less information then we thought we would receive, but is still useful for our
cause.