After writing several articles about the cannabis sub-culture (we believe that these articles contain some of the earliest published references to the 420 code in 1969), Richard began organizing fellow students to publicize the absurdity of cannabis myths, and to let people know that children were being beaten by New Castle County cops when the cops found cannabis in a young person's possession.

 

Even today, this remains a major issue in Delaware. In fact, we have discovered that nearly everyone arrested by New Castle County police in Delaware for even the most minor cannabis posession charges are treated violently. Almost no one gets through the process without certain New Castle County cops hitting, beating and even torturing them.

 

The anger and fustration of seeing absurd laws used to harass young people, and the violence with which they were being treated, and the school administration's suppression of these facts in the Chantacleer (the school paper) resulted in the publication of an underground newspaper that was a study of the cannabis sub-culture in North Delaware in 1968, 1969 and 1970.

 

Many students had articles, poems and other intellectual creations that were banned from the school's paper. The original concept was a single issue. However, so much material was submitted that the unnamed paper continued publication until the end of summer in 1970.

 

The administration of Claymont High School attempted to browbeat Richard Schimelfenig in order to get information on students whose articles were published after they had been rejected by the school's newspaper, Several of the articles were articluate in asking important questions about drug policy, and in particular cannabis. The administration also tried to browbeat Richard into stopping publication of the paper.

 

In the Spring of 1969, Richard gained the nom-de-plume "Hempman" when he began making macrame bracelets, necklaces and wall hangings entirely from hemp fiber, and giving them away. School adminstrators tried to stop the practice, which they tried to claim was "disruptive of the learning process." To this day, Hempman bracelets continue to be hand made, but now are only given to people who help in the fight to change cannabis prohibition laws.

 

All was not controvery in high school for Richard. Already an accomplished photographer, Richard was the only photographer in 1969 and 1970. Outside of the contracted portraits typical of every high school yearbook, every photograph in the school paper and yearbook was taken by Richard.

 

The unnamed underground paper had long term effects on Richard. In the summer of 1970, Richard and his friend Rusty Armbruster got together and formed a corporation that remains the only corporation in Delaware ever formed and run by a board of directors all under 18. Brown House, Inc. was formed as a reaction to the many problems being faced by our peers. Richard was elected by his peers to act as the corporate treasurer. He was returned to that position in every election.

 

Among the services that were provided included private, onsite psychological services, A peer monitored Planned Parentlhood reference system, homework tutors, and a drop-in center. Other services included a coffee-house system in which bands and other performers donated thier time, and payment was a pay-what-you-can honor system. In the following four years that Richard was involved in directing Brown House,

 

While attending the Univeristy of Delaware, Richard was elected as the president of the Commuting Students' Association when he recieved over 80% of the vote.  The CSA was responsible for forcing an insurance provider to not drop its student health coverage, the institution of peer counceling and a number of other programs. He left office with the Association having more money in its accountsw thatn when he took office.

 

Over the past three decades since 1968, Richard has gathered significant press in Delaware. The subject, and author, of a number of newspaper articles, Richard was a regular guest on WILM AM Radio (whose signal reaches from New York to Baltimore), on the John Rago Show (Mr. Rago is now the communications officer for the city of Wilmington.) Now, whenever a reporter is seeking information about cannabis law reform, they usually call Richard.

 

An amatuer musician, Richard became interested in sound reinforement systems. He became highly skilled, and has mixed sound for groups as diverse as the Four Tops, the Chiffons, the Four Seasons (and a number of other 50's/60's groups - Richard provided the house audio for Ralph McKinney's Memory Lane), the Delaware Bluerocks (they played for my wife and I at our wedding reception - thier wedding gift to us), Vince Neil,  Teddy Pendergast, The Ouch Band, Rick James, The Philadelphia Civic Center, the American Kennel Club, Khan Jamal, Bayard Lancaster, Branford Marsalis, Max Roach, Bill Lewis, and innumerable other local, regional, national and international bands and performers.

 

To this day, his livingroom is a live-in mixing studio.

 

Richard has always been a direct participant in his community. After recieving training in psychology, Richard became a training councelor/upervisor at the Delaware Opportunity Center, Inc. In his job there, The responsiblies included teaching handicapped persons the skills and values they would need to become employable.

 

Other positions Richard held include; reporter/news videographer for First State News (a CNN affiliate in North Delaware.), museum specialist responsible for designing and implimenting a number of exhibits in the Frankklin Institute Science Museum (most notably an interactive video theater, the Musser Choices Forum.), and he eventually was promoted to chief engineer and day manager of the Fels Planetarium.

 

Other skills include programming and running Lazarium Lazerlight Shows, and a very high level of computer expertise.

 

Most recently, Richard won a grant that paid for improving his education, and he was one of a small handful of students picked to enter Temple University's highly exclusive Film School.

 

The most important thing in Richard's life outside of his own family has grown to be seeking legal access to therapeutic cannabis for anyone who could benefit. The growth has come to include several areas of civil rights on which drug prohibition laws and policies impact negatively.

 

When in high school, Richard's back was damaged in a brutal assault. This left him with a low level of constant pain. Several years later, Richard was told that he had early signs of glaucoma.

 

Rchard was one of the first of a group pf patients to join the Philadelphia Class Action Lawsuit that eventually grew to include hundreds of patients from every state, and he was a featured patient in Joan Bello's book, "The Benefits of Marijuana".

 

In Dealware, part of his work involved purchasing and distributing small tape recorders to minority drivers to help combat the problem colloquially called "driving while brown". The tapes helpd stop some officers from using profile stops that included the color of a person's skin. 

 

In 1998, Richard was assaulted by New Castle Delaware cop Mathew Drake, badge # 2239. In the attack, an already damaged spine was exacerbated. Officer Drake made it quite clear that his brutality was meant to stop Richard's civil rights and cannabis reform activism. Now, barely a moment goes by that richard is not in horrible pain.

 

Years of seeking medical help only left Richard frustrated with the lack of knowledge of appropriate pain control in the medical profession. The experience has also left him with questions about the ethics of some medical professionals, who have failed to provide any relief or to even appropriately investigate the problems presented to them.

 

Richard is responsible for Delaware Cannabis Society joining in the Mayday Marijuana Marches, created by Dana Beal in New York about 30 years ago. Richard has also personally (out of his own pocket, and the kind donations of the bands' time) sponsored and produced a number of music festivals (the Annual Summer Intergalactic Foxtrot and the Fall Freedom Festival.).