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Village Voice – Chronic Pain: Why The Architect of New York’s Medical Marijuana Law Is Already Trying to Change It

By Madison Margolin, November 3, 2105

Cover

The cover of the November 4, 2015 Village Voice

On a frigid March morning in downtown Albany, where church spires loom tall and traffic lights dangle from wires that stretch across intersections, a flurry of white-haired men in suits strolled down State Street. They were heading for Sixty State Street, the tony event space and banquet hall in the city’s Downtown Historic District, where a team of busboys were hurrying to arrange pastries on silver trays in anticipation of the guests’ arrival. Once they arrived, they mingled in groups, chatting over coffee and orange juice, shaking hands and exchanging business cards.

They were surprisingly awake for 8 a.m., despite the reason for their gathering. This mostly male, mostly white, and mostly middle-aged crowd consisted mainly of the state politicians, lawyers, and entrepreneurs who were all of a sudden driving the state’s conversation on medical marijuana. This was hardly a wake-and-bake kind of crowd, but they were all there to talk about weed.

The event, called “Medical Marijuana: Is New York Doing It Right?” was put on by the news site Capital New York and sponsored by Citiva Medical, a company that, at the time, was vying for one of the state’s five medical marijuana growing licenses. Among the stately baby boomers who would be taking part in the morning’s main event — a journalist-moderated panel discussion — was a Manhattan assemblyman named Richard Gottfried. A bookish policy wonk, he had been the loudest critic of the recently passed Compassionate Care Act, which had legalized medical marijuana — but with a host of draconian restrictions that he believed had rendered the law almost useless. No, he insisted, New York was not doing medical marijuana right. Not after Governor Andrew Cuomo essentially gutted the law that Gottfried had written, perfected, and championed over the course of the past two decades.

Calligraphy: A New Book and a Public Exhibition

In my off hours, I have for many years studied and practiced my hand at Chinese calligraphy.  I am delighted that my work is included both in a magnificent new book, 100 New York Calligraphers, and in the annual Society of Scribes public exhibition at the National Arts Club on Gramercy Park in lower Manhattan.

For many years I have been taking a class in Chinese calligraphy at the China Institute on Saturday mornings.  One of my classmates, Cynthia Maris Dantzic, Professor of Visual Arts at Long Island University in Brooklyn, has produced a book, 100 New York Calligraphers, and asked me to contribute some of my work to the volume.  I chose four of my pieces: “Persistence;” “The future is not a gift, it is an achievement” (a quote from the late U.S. Senator from New York, Robert F. Kennedy); “All under heaven is for the people” (a Chinese proverb); and “Rise together” (a phrase often used by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio).

A small piece of my calligraphy, “The teacher and the student grow together,” will be be included in the annual exhibition of the Society of Scribes of New York City at the National Arts Club at 15 Gramercy Park South in Manhattan.  The exhibition will run from November 3 through November 27, and is free.  The Club is open to the public Mondays through Fridays (excluding holidays) from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  The Club’s building, the historic, architecturally distinctive and beautifully appointed former home of Samuel Tilden (the former New York governor and Democratic nominee for President in 1876), is well worth a visit in and of itself!

100 NY Calligraphers Book

Some of my work is featured in Cynthia Maris Dantzic’s new book, “100 New York Calligraphers.”

 

100 NY Calligraphers RNG pages

My pieces in the book are (clockwise starting at top left): “Persistence;” “The future is not a gift, it is an achievement” (quote from Robert F. Kennedy); “All under heaven is for the people” (Chinese proverb); and “Rise Together” (a phrase used by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio).

Happy Year of the Snake!

YearofSnake-SquareToday, February 10, 2013, is the Chinese New Year. Some may know of Dick’s abilities as a chinese calligrapher. Here is his interpretation of “Happy New Year”.