Paul Armentano

National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)

Paul Armentano has three decades of experience working professionally in cannabis policy. He is the Deputy Director of NORML – The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws – the nation’s oldest and only consumer-oriented cannabis reform advocacy organization.

His writing on cannabis and cannabis policy has appeared in over 2,000 publications, scholarly and/or peer-reviewed journals, as well as in more than two dozen textbooks and anthologies. Mr. Armentano is the co-author of the book Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? (2009, 2013: Chelsea Green), which has been licensed and translated internationally. He is also the author of the book Clinical Applications for Cannabis and Cannabinoids (2021: National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) which summarizes over 450 peer-reviewed studies specific to the safety and efficacy of cannabis among different patient populations. This publication has also been translated and published in various foreign editions.

Mr. Armentano works closely with lawmakers and state regulators to draft and enact cannabis policy reforms. In November 2022, he spoke to members of the United States Congress, House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at a hearing entitled, “Developments in State Cannabis Laws and Bipartisan Cannabis Reforms at the Federal Level.”

Mr. Armentano is a frequent media guest, having appeared on C-SPAN, CNN, Vox, and dozens of other networks. He has lectured before audiences at the United Nations, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical School, the California Association of Toxicologists, the National Association of School Psychologists, the John Muir Medical Center, as well as at symposiums sponsored by the state bar associations of California, Colorado, Michigan, New Mexico, and Oregon.

In addition to his work with NORML, Mr. Armentano also spent nearly two decades as a faculty member at Oaksterdam University, where he was the Chair of Science, and provided hundreds of lectures on cannabis-related topics to thousands of student attendees. He also has appeared in court as an expert witness in dozens of cannabis-related cases. Mr. Armentano was the principal investigator for defense counsel in the federal case U.S. v Schweder et al., one of the first legal cases in decades to challenge the constitutionality of cannabis as a Schedule I controlled substance.

He is the 2013 Alfred R. Lindesmith award recipient in the achievement in the field of scholarship, and he is the 2019 Al Horn Memorial Award recipient in appreciation of advancing the cause of justice.