California campaign finance reports disclose that The California Beer & Beverage Distributors Association is one of the primary financial backers of Public Safety First, sponsors of the ‘No on Prop. 19’ campaign.
Booze Lobby Funding the No on 19 Campaign
via The East Bay ExpressThe California Beer & Beverage Distributors disclosed it donated $10,000 to defeat Prop 19 — which would regulate and tax marijuana like alcohol. The alcohol lobbyist’s funds will help spread the lie that employers must tolerate stoned employees, and the talking point that ‘California doesn’t need another legal, mind-altering substance.’ Alcohol causes an estimated $38 billion in costs in California each year from emergency room visits, arrests, etc, according to the Marin Institute. There are roughly 3,500 deaths annually from alcohol-related illness and more than 109,000 alcohol-related injuries in California. Conversely, pot caused 181 emergency room visits in 2008, according to a study by the non-partisan RAND Corporation, despite being used by more than four million Californians monthly.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition spokesperson and retired Orange County, CA. judge James Gray said the booze lobby’s decision was probably financial. The move echoes the tobacco and alcohol industry’s help creating leading drug war group Partnership For a Drug-Free America.
“It was a really wise thing to do from a merchandising standpoint to reaffirm the distinction between a legal and an illegal drug,” he said. “They are protecting their own economic self interest.”
The alcohol lobby’s $10,000 donation to the ‘No on Prop. 19’ campaign is one of the largest monetary donations received by Public Safety First, third only to the $30,000 donated by the California Police Chief’s Association and the $20,500 donated by the California Narcotics Officers Association. (Want to ask PSF campaign manager Tim Rosales why an organization called Public Safety First accepts funding from the pushers of a product that is responsible for immeasurable public safety costs? You can do so by going here.) Last month, the East Bay Express reported total financial contributions to the Prop. 19 campaign were well ahead of those reported for Public Safety First, which at that time had only raised $61,000, with just one citizen donor.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that the The California Beer & Beverage Distributors have targeted their alcohol profits to oppose drug law reform in the Golden State. In 2008, the booze lobby donated a much larger amount — $100,000 in fact — to defeat Prop. 5, The Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act, which among other things would have reduced criminal marijuana possession penalties from a misdemeanor to a non-criminal infraction. (The measure failed 40 percent to 60 percent.) Could it be that the alcohol lobby is fearful of the day when they will have to legally compete with a natural product that is remarkably safe, non-toxic, and won’t leave you with a hangover? Do we even have to ask?
I’ll give the final word to DrugWarRant blogger extraordinaire Pete Guither who says it best, “If you’re opposed to Prop 19, you’re on the side of the narcs, the cartels, the sheriffs, and the booze industry.”
no big surprise that the number one legal killing drug company would want to stop prop 19 from passing what a bunch of hypocrites, lets repeal the legallity of alcohol and test people for its use so they cant have jobs and than throw alcohol users in jail with us pot smokers that would make more sense. we all know that alcohol is way more harmful to society than pot users.how can it be ok to get so drunk u cant walk or talk but or even drive safely from a bar but its not ok to stay home and smoke a joint .this is so crazy
Here we go. Wait on the Pharma, Oil and Timber to get involved…. Been calling this for years…. They are so predictable… it shouldn’t be very hard to win this chess match… Go NORML to!!
Oh that’s nice. Shoot down something that could possibly be very helpful to protect income, love it.
Really? Well maybe the reason that there is so many alcohol related deaths in California is because most of our residents are alcoholics because every business has a drug test. So if it were legal then there most likely wouldn’t be as many drug test, and some of these stupid fucks that get faded all day everyday may not die as often.
The reason why Big Alcohol says ‘No’ on Prop 19 is because they would have competition against Marijuana users, they would lose business due to marijuana’s safe and less harmful use and it will be the end of Big Alcohol’s murderous-toxic drinks!
Of course alcohol lobbyists are against Prop 19. We can’t have any competition now can we?
I think its quite obvious, booze knows it can’t compete with THC and it will cut into booze’s bottom line. Not doing a whole lot to protect that bottom line though it seems from a multi-billion dollar industry. They should realize though that drunks are drunks and will remain drunks regardless of the legalization, they just wont suffer such a bad hangover anymore. 🙂
This is the best excuse to quit drinking for good.
The first time, big alcohol was forgiven for choosing the wrong side. This time they are not.
Thanks for expanding on this story. I posted it to open.salon last night, but I didn’t have the action link — nor did I know about the $100,000 booze-lobby contribution toward the defeat of Prop 5.
This is shameful, and need to get as much press as possible.
Their sales will be hurt so bad if marijuana was legal. Pot is the superior drug. What they should be doing is learning how to grow it.
We need to have an uprising. Tobacco and alcohol are far worse then marijuana. it has so many uses: not just medical or therapeutic uses, but you can get paper, cloth, and certain carbon fiber materials from the byproducts of cannabis. people don’t get arrested for drinking or even smoking tobacco. why should marijuana smokers be treated any different? we should be able to walk down the street with a joint in hand and not have a problem. say yes to prop 19!!!
yeah it figures….. the number one worst drug in the world and it’s legal and they want to stop Prop. 19. I can’t understand what is wrong with this world that this makes sense to our Government? I will continue to fight but I am definatley bummed at this moment!
A family member of mine is a cop. I’ve heard many stories bragging about how much he and his buddies drink when they get together. It’s part of the police culture. The war on pot is a form of denial of the big alcohol problem that they have. It’s a typical addict’s ploy.
Booze and tobacco drug pushers like having the legal market cornered, never mind that eaten cannabis is vastly superior by any comparison. If you don’t like your liver, drink booze. If you don’t like your lungs, smoke tobacco. If cannabis was legal, only a moron would drink booze to get a buzz on. When was the last time you heard of someone high on cannabis getting violent, vomiting on themselves, having a blackout and a hangover? Not to mention booze and tobacco kill almost half a million people every year in this country alone, while cannabis has never killed anyone, anywhere, in recorded human history on this planet. Sometimes I swear I just don’t know; maybe most people really are that stupid.
We need to blow the top off of lobbyist distorting our municipal system, seriously! They are destroying our country in order to get our dollar..
I think just about every marijuana smoker understands the futility of trying to talk sense to a stinking drunk, about the same as trying to deal with the politicians and police.
Yes
Sickening, and shouldn’t this be a very clear message to the Government!!! that alcohol is more dangerous, i know its a different point of view but seriously, they know they will have a chance in losing sales, very very true.
Sadly prop. 19 is going to pass too late for me, I am be very succumbed to alcohol for a recreation activity. I would never do something like heroin or cocaine, like some dumb found prohibitionist, but I do accept most things that are legal and alcohol had a large social acceptability, especially with my life, having a German girlfriend. (country nation is known for beer…) I love it now, almost as much as marijuana, but the reasons I like marijuana more than beer are because it doesn’t ever give me the hangover or inability to work the next day! I have smoked extra-ordinary amounts at periods of time and have always been up to working the next day or even later on in the day (night shifts / classes)
Back to the point….. Alcohol has put me at a feel pf almost irresistible addiction, getting mad at the ones I love, to even sneaking gulps of hard liquor while acting like I am going to get some food or bathroom.. atleast 1 or 2 drinks a day minimum for me to be relax and when I get drunk (5-7 times a week) I can drink 10-13 beers and I am fine. I used to be skinny, I am gaining weight, and very much more often waking up with headaches and depressions..
I am like this because there have been many times in my life where I am out of marijuana when I cannot afford it, or the grow is on turn-over and there is a waiting period and over a couple years after of turning 21 I am turning more and more to alcohol, I still drink almost every night especially when I am out of the good (HEALTHY) herb..
When I was in high school and up until I was 20 I really didn’t enjoy beer or hard liquor, but over the past years since high school I have been drinking always increasingly more, weather days or drinks per session.
I hope for the kids that I wish to provide a stable good life for one day will be able to understand these simple drugs more than our generation could instead of hearing mainstream you are frying your brains with a truly un-researched mind altering substance.
I am fininshing on my 9th beer of the evening here in Germany, they have a somewhat more lenient belief towards marijuana than the US but still not legal by any real means. Maybe the world will even realize how much it helps U.S.A. but until then Prost / Cheers!!! and thanks to the netherlands, always smokin!!!!
420 FOR ALL
-Average American
I think it was a good thing that Prop 5 failed. It had some really nit-witted provisions. Forgiving people who steal in order to pay for a drug addiction being the leading provision that was a poor idea. I think running to the judge and whining about a drug addiction should have an enhanced penalty, not reduced. Specifically for actions with a non-consensual party involved. I think whining about addiction is a very valid mitigating factor if you’re arrested for possession of that substance.
YES on Proposition 19 will send a clear message.
To “all” the entrenched interests
Enough
The Drug War Has Ended.
It does not surprise me in the least bit that beer/alcohol distributing cos. would contribute to the anti-Prop 19 campaign. They have too much too lose. I’m not surprised that they only gave 10K, supposedly, because they gave alot more than that under.
The alcohol pushers….Public Safety First…..how funny
stupid fucks if i can legally grow my own weed that leaves me with more money for beer. stupid fucks.
If Proposition 19 passes, they may be able to make alcoholic drinks brewed with marijuana, and possibly even tinctures.
Besides, there are people who smoke pot and drink at the same time. It’s not exactly an either/or thing.
Anyone know how much Prop 19 has raised? The “money bomb” day went well with over 60 grand raised. They should have another day like that, everyone likes to try and meet the goal. I truly think this issue is going to come down to who has the most money to spend in adds the days before Nov. 2nd.
I knew these folks had to show up in the light of day sometime to protect their profits.
Note that my name isn’t Drinkey Joe. If that’s the way the alcohol industry wants it; then, perhaps it’s time to re-visit whether alcohol should be legal for recreational consumption. Drink up and drive yerselves home, folks! Stupid fucktards.
I knew these folks would need to come out from the darkness to protect their profits. These legal drug dealers have killed more people than any war fought. These same folks have supported and lobby any and all legislation that keeps cannabis unjustly outlawed.
Guess we need to fire a few more legislators in this country both state and fed until we have control of this wayward government of fools.
“War is peace. Slavery is freedom. Ignorance is strength.”
— George Orwell, from “1984”
And cannabis is a “gateway” drug, made that way only by way of its’ illegality. The same street gang pusher that sells a bit of weed also sells meth, crack, and heroin. Guess which products he sells creates the most reliable customer. OTOH, when cannabis becomes legal (legal like beer), it will be the “gateway” drug away from alcohol and tobacco on the legal side, and help dissuade users from more harmful illicit drugs.
It’s no wonder that an unholy alliance has sprung up among the alcohol and tobacco industries, Big Pharma, the LEOs, the drug cartels, and our crooked politicians against the re-legalization of cannabis. Casual recreational cannabis use may well replace those social drinkers’ beverage of choice, as well as the 1 or 2 cocktail home from work relaxation. Not too many would set up a micro-brewery or put up a cask of wine or fire up a mini-distillery, but popping a few seeds in the soil, inside or out, might just satisfy their personal relaxant of choice needs. The PTB must be terrified of their future hold on our money.
Support, and then vote “YES” on Prop 19, and make all Their fears realized.
You can’t buy any boose if your in jail for smoking marijuana.
Back in alcohol prohibition days there were “Pot Parlors”. When alcohol was relegalized the pot parlors went out of business. It seems that people prefer getting drunk, and acting like idiots, so alcohol has very little to fear from cannabis. I prefer cannabis. I used to be one of those idiots, never again. I quit drinking in 1968, and will stay quit untill the day I die. Cannabis is the SAFER Alternative, it needs to be made available to all.
@ David. I don’t think that people will grow thier own when cannabis is legalized, and readily available for purchase, cleaned, tested, and labeled with the quality listed on the label. I have found that my “Thumb” has NO green in it at all. I believe that this is true of many people, and I know, it’s pathetic that someone can’t even get a weed to grow to maturaty.
Drink alcohol or become a godamn criminal…
No FREEDOM of choice!!! We need to take this country back people!
Does NORML have an endorsement list for the upcoming Nov. elections. (particularly Florida)
Thanks
I like how cops say they dont make the laws they just follow them, then why are they trying to effect a vote on a law then, they should have to stay out of it. I know of not one other issue cops are our fighting against, they dont put $10,000 into a gay rights fund or to stop cancer or AIDS, they are protecting their paychecks, they know dam well that they will lose federal drug money if they cant bust potheads and its even sadder that they rely on that money to the point they have to fight for it.
the people who toke r going to toke and the people who drink r still going to do what they always have been doing. both the drinkers and tokers are going to do what they r doing. this will tell the people of Cal. is the government is really on the up & up. which any voting person can tell you they r NOT. wait and see, i, hope it passe’s. they i, will probably move out there.
Pete Guither is absolutely correct – but it goes far beyond those who he suggests – it goes to the highest levels of anti-pot [money addiction]. Persoanlly – I’m anti-alcohol, tobacco, and drugs [hard and pharma] – and – most of all corruption at every level. Isn’t there an honest person out there? Greed is one of the seven deadly sins.
While it’s hardly astonishing that the corporate beer lobby would oppose efforts to legalize marijuana, a non-toxic, ostensibly safer alternative to alcohol, it is surprising to see how quickly the law enforcement lobby — to date the largest supporters of PSF — is willing to get into bed with big booze. So far, the Cal Beer and Beverage Distributors $10,000 appropriation is one of the largest monetary donations received by Public Safety First, third only to the $30,000 donated by the California Police Chief’s Association and the $20,500 donated by the California Narcotics Officers Association. (Overall, PSF has had a notoriously difficult time raising money for their effort. Last month, the East Bay Express newspaper reported that total financial contributions to the Prop. 19 campaign were well ahead of those reported for Public Safety First, which at that time had only raised $61,000, with just one citizen donor.)
There’s no doubt that police officers know first hand the social toll caused by alcohol. Federal government estimates indicate that alcohol consumption costs the nation some $200 billion annually in hospitalizations, criminal expenditures, and lost productivity. (Ironically, the nation’s top drug cop, Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske, has specifically highlighted the staggering social costs of alcohol abuse in his rhetoric against Prop. 19.) Government figures further indicate that alcohol is a contributing factor in at least 25 to 30 percent of all violent crime in America, including between 30 to 60 percent of homicides and perhaps as many as half of all sexual assaults. On college campuses alone, an estimated 700,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are assaulted by peers who have been drinking, and close to 100,000 students are reported victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape. Nationally, some 41,000 people per year die as a result of drunk driving or other alcohol-related accidents. Conversely, cannabis use is associated with decreased aggression, reduced risk of injury, and is assumed to play, at best, only a nominal role in traffic accidents. (In fact, the total national number of marijuana-related auto accidents is so small that the federal government doesn’t even compile the statistic.)
Mike Stroup (14) has a good point, that after cannabis legalization fewer persons will turn to aocohol to “turn on”, “get a buzz on” or whatever. This does not mean anyone will or must quit alcohol entirely, indeed appreciation of fine beers and wines may increase along with that of fine cannabis strains.
But “alcohol is the runnintg dog of Big 2WackGo.” The tobacco interest has MOST to lose from cannabis legalization, not because cannabis will replace tobacco but because cannabis legalization brings with it the legitimacy and popularizxation of vaporizers, e-cigarettes (with either nicotine or cannabinoids in the cartridge) and long-stemmed one-hitters. End of their hot burning overdose profit margin!
The ONDCP can run public service ads that have a split screen with some drunk violent asshole on one side and someone stoned on marijuana with the laughies doing something funny or stupid and explain the consequences. Done right, one will give you the munchies and possibly short term memory loss but no hangover or aftereffects of violence. They should encourage responsible use of each. It should be designed to have the effect as a sort of federally funded ad for Proposition 19.
Fuck those big alcohol companies funding the opposition with federal money. They’re just going to have to come up with rarer beverages that cost more as people consume less alcohol. Work for you fuckin’ market share! Come up with an American equivalent of Eiswein (ice wine) or Armagnac, which is a type of French brandy. What the hell is the matter with you? Where’s your American ingenuity? Face it, cannabis will be legal sooner or later, so you’d better get your shit together and get some new fuckin’ products in the pipeline.
Yeah, Alcohol and public safety fit as well together as peanut butter and spaghetti. Everyone who smokes marijuana, and is for FULL legalization should remember this shit the next time they go buy a six pack or a bottle of spirits. These bastards are using their deep pockets to arrest you for smoking a harmless marijuana joint! DON’T BUT ALCOHOL!!!!
@david762, you’re exactly right.
Out of curiosity, I hand-rolled a cigarette the other day at a friends house (with filter) of smaller, fine-quality cannabis leaves (the ones usually trimmed around the bud) and guess what? It was great!
I’ve been off tobacco for 3 and a half months now without a single urge to return, although while having a couple drinks at my friend’s house, several people stepped out to light their cancer sticks and I felt that urge to join the crowd. I feel alcohol is a big contributor to cigarette smoking, for my friends and I, atleast. The urge seems to amplify after we’ve had a couple.
I wondered “Could someone make a cigarette (with cannabis leaves instead of tobacco leaves) and get a similar product?” I had to find out. Some trimmings just so happened to be around, so why not?
Surprisingly, it was smooth, mild, tasty, it burned even… all the aesthetic things you want in a cigarette. No, I didn’t get “high” from it, but I wasn’t trying to. That wasn’t the point. The point was to see if a cannabis leaf cigarette compared at all to a tobacco cigarette (since joints are far more potent, usually, than a tobacco cigarette).
I definitely felt some mild effects, similar to those of a tobacco cigarette, but without the nasty smelling breath and fingers, the sore throat, and the stomach-turning taste.
I definitely see this as a potential product that could spell the end for tobacco. If people smoke tobacco to take the edge off and a cannabis leaf cigarette does the same thing with far fewer health issues, who wouldn’t make the switch? It could be a great tool to ween those addicted to cigarettes by allowing them to keep the habit, but change the substance. I wonder if similar experiments have been done…
Dont be idiots. unless you have a ton of money you will not be able to grow or even plesantly procure marijuana if you vote yes on 19.
PLEASE DONT BE AN IDIOT VOTE NO
be proactive in preventing the monopolization of this beautiful industry.
[Editor’s note: So what is your excuse for this anti Prop 19 agitate propaganda, you’re a narc or have been lobotomized?! You’re lying when you assert that an adult under Prop 19 needs ‘tons of money’ to cultivate cannabis when in fact the savings for consumers and small cultivators is going to be stark AFTER prohibition ends.
If Prop 19 does not pass 70,000 Californians will be arrested annually on cannabis charges–90% for simple possession and despite over 1,500 cannabis wellness centers in the state, the cost of the cannabis is still being sold at prohibition levels.
Only legalization can bring the cost of cannabis in line with its true production costs, which is pennies on the pound when cultivated outdoors.]
I love how drunk people fight and are obnixous while i am high laughing at them-then i tell my buddies to hit the blunt and they pass out and chill. NO WONDER!
A little research found that the Police association & the Narcotic association recieved substantial amount of contributions . Go here –
http://www.followthemoney.org/database/uniquecandidate.phtml?uc=31&gclid=CLaE0pPCzqMCFQInbAod9Frhtg
I would of checked out our Drug Czar but don’t know how to spell his name . They are all being bribed and paid to lie about the truth behind Cannabis . .
maybe big tobacco should back prop 19 they have lots of spare money.
Hello, this is pot, is kettle there? Ya your black!
FLORIDA POLICE BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION
Public Sector Unions Contributions
2004-2010
Contributions $1,897,552 $0 $0 $1,897,552
Noteworthy IconFLORIDA STATE CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS
Public Sector Unions
2008-2010 contributions
$90,300 $0 $0 $90,300
Noteworthy IconFORT WORTH POLICE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION
Public Sector Unions
2008 $45,300 $0 $0 $45,300
Noteworthy IconLONG BEACH POLICE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION
Public Sector Unions
2003-2010 $105,247 $0 $0 $105,247
Noteworthy IconMIDDLESEX COUNTY CORRECTION OFFICERS LOCAL 152
Public Sector Unions
2005-2007 $1,200 $0 $0 $1,200
Noteworthy IconMINNESOTA POLICE & PEACE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION
Public Sector Unions
2004-2008 $53,150 $0 $550 $53,700
Noteworthy IconNASSAU COUNTY CORRECTIONS OFFICERS ASSOCIATION
Public Sector Unions
2004-2010 $119,981 $0 $0 $119,981
Noteworthy IconNASSAU COUNTY SUPERIOR OFFICERS ASSOCIATION
Public Sector Unions
2004-2010 $182,745 $0 $0 $182,745
Noteworthy IconNEW JERSEY STATE PAROLE OFFICERS LOCAL 326
Public Sector Unions
2003-2005 $8,450 $0 $0 $8,450
Noteworthy IconNEW YORK STATE CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS
Public Sector Unions
2004-2010 $2,085,654 $0 $0 $2,085,654
Noteworthy IconNEW YORK STATE CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS & POLICE BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION
Public Sector Unions
2008 $43,520 $0 $0 $43,520
Noteworthy IconOREGON STATE POLICE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION
Public Sector Unions
2008 $15,934 $0 $0 $15,934
Noteworthy IconPOLICE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION OF MICHIGAN
Public Sector Unions
2008 $21,675 $0 $0 $21,675
Noteworthy IconSAN FRANCISCO POLICE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION
Public Sector Unions
2003-2010 $64,883 $0 $0 $64,883
Noteworthy IconSAN JOSE POLICE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION
Public Sector Unions
2008 $2,500 $0 $0 $2,500
Noteworthy IconSTATE POLICE COMMAND OFFICERS ASSOCIATION
Public Sector Unions
2004-2010 $93,060 $0
$0 $93,060
….and you wonder why Marijuana is illegal ?
The California Beer & Beverage Distributors should be interested in equal protection under the law for there will come a day when this wayward government of moral police will come for them. Just ask those who smoke tobacco, I bet they now wished they had stepped up years ago. Today they are well on their way to being unlawed and labled criminals.
Personally, I am going to boycott Beer & Beverage and remove my money from their pockets. I do not want to support a company that wants to support the unlawful imprisonment of 900,000 American Citizens at a cost of $30,000 per inmate per year of unjust imprisonment. I guess these Beer Company don’t really know what it is to be American.
“Prohibition cannot be enforced,for the simple reason the majority of Americans do not want it enforced and are resisting its enforcement,That being so, the orderly thing to do ,under our form of government, is to abolish a law that can not be enforced, a law in which the people of the country do not want enforced.” Fiorello LA Guardia before the abolish of liquor, circa 1937. PEOPLE if we dont learn from the past were destined to repeat it. we need to learn from la guardia we need to tell everybody that we need to abolish the prohibition of marijuanna.
According to the DEA chart, alcohol is worse than marijuana! :
Here is what I found: http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/abuse/chart.htm
Compare the “Alcohol” (below) and the “Marijuana” rows.
This chart is in “Drugs of abuse” publication from Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Department of Justice : (PDF, see page 81) http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/abuse/doa-p.pdf
Cannabis is less physically addictive than caffeine, while the so-called “gateway drug” theory is a complete fantasy, and it was just recently called “half-baked” as a result of a scientific study. CNN reported that Cocaine use has dropped sharply, by 30% since 2002. I worked in addiction medicine for years, and this is what I can advice on the matter: Any suppression of Cannabis use will be immediately followed by an increase in alcohol/hard drug/prescription drug abuse! You don’t believe me, Mr. Kerlikowske? Then maybe you will believe the Big Alcohol lobby that is financing the Cannabis Legalization opponents for exactly this reason. Right now Cannabis is just simply perceived as a much safer alternative to alcohol/hard drugs, which is precisely how it should be perceived. To have a society in which there is NO psychoactive substance use is an illusion, and it will be good for our government to realize this. So then, it becomes a matter of “safer choices”, just like with the sex education. And Cannabis is, without a shadow of a doubt, a much safer choice than alcohol or hard drugs! Just very recently a research study in addiction medicine has determined that Cannabis may actually serve as an “exit” substance for recovering alcoholics/hard drug addicts. People have written to me many times, relating how Cannabis helps them to stay away from alcohol, cocaine, “meth” and benzodiazepines. For some reason, these four drugs are especially prominent when it comes to an “exit substance” function of Cannabis. Then, of course, there is a potential of Cannabis in chronic pain, where other drugs may be ineffective (or physically addictive), with very important potential consequences for our wounded veterans, many of whom have chronic pain. Mr. Kerlikowske, be very happy that the cocaine abuse rate is dropping. Do not interfere with these dynamics, and then we can possibly achieve what has already been achieved in the Netherlands where the drug overdose rate is 85%(!!) lower than in the US, and that is with much more liberal Cannabis possession laws than in this country! Please check these numbers for yourselves, by all means. Mr. Kerlikowske, it is time to give up “dogma” and to start listening to the experts, if we really want to lower the alcohol/hard drug use in this country, and the accompanying dependencies and overdoses!?
Saying that alcohol is okay but that Cannabis is not okay is one thing. If you are a parent talking to your child.
But when you have a police/military that “enforces” this false notion that one is okay and the other is not, then what must be a personal decision is imposed on, forced upon, free individuals.
When arbitrary drug laws maintained by elected officials at the bidding of corporations that are competition-averse, that is called corporate fascism. Corporate fascism. Destroys competition by removing Cannabis/Hemp/Marijuana from free-market competition.
And our system becomes less democratic and more paternalistic.
Alcohol peddlers are free to sell their products of decay and people should be free to buy them. Tobacco are free to sell their subscriptions to cancer and tobacco-related death and people should be free to buy them.
Cannabis should be allowed on the free market because it is medicine, a peerless and sustainable source of fiber and biomass, and it is nearly complete nutrition. And free, responsible people should be free to buy it.
HEY KIDS! guess what happens when you mix yeast and fruit juice together. I’ve been playing triva around town and thought it was hilarious how many people, even those sitting down at the bar drinking that shit had not a clue about how it’s made. Joe Ironman, i do not have a natural green thumb, but what i do have are hard won skills. Get some literature and educate yourself, your lighting photo-period may have been set-up wrong, try High Times magazine for grow information. Knowage once gained can not be taken away from you, and a seed like an idea once planted will grow, let that idea be freedom.
As an avid drug and alcohol user, I really find any thought of legality or taxation of any of my bad habits laughable and absurd. I’m going to imbibe what I choose to regardless, and in doing so, I willfully accept the consequences of my actions.
So many things have ill effects healthwise, financially, and personally. The freedom to do whatever you feel like doing is much more important than worrying about what may happen if it doesn’t turn out right.
I get bored so easily, and I find the challenge of avoiding law enforcement and beguiling sober folk by being completely trashed on whatever and still maintaining control extremely entertaining. It just fulfills me somehow to do what I want to and get away with it.
Personal choice, personal freedom, and the responsibility of being yourself. A law unto itself
Hey Skip #46 did your mom drop you on your head when you were a baby?
@45, Dr.Dunkleosteus: I have found the same to be true of the leaf. I have grown plants outdoors for many years, and have found various levels of effects, mainly from the upper leaves. I have even had strains with very good leaf from anywhere on the plant.
I think this could be taken advantage of much more than it has. Plants could be developed that provide a milder but enjoyable experience throughout the growing cycle with the buds as the reward at the end of the season. Marijuana does not have to be all about super buds and getting wasted. The milder high has it’s place, too.
Big alcohal aposing this is the only thing that makes sense out of this mess.They would finally have some compitiion on a level playing field.No CEO wants to deal with that.The law enforcement agencies and the judicial system in this country are so short sighted that they can’t see the forest for the weeds.These institutions survive on numbers, statistics. That’s all they care about, and the income that they generate. Let’s face it, the trouble this country’s in right now, our taxes aren’t getting the job done.That’s what they are thinking.So they figure that this is just an alternate form of income for our government from the local to the national.These moron’s don’t realize how much it would save to knock this shit off.Our government could take alot of cash out of the drug cartels of other countries and stick it in our own pockets, or use it to clamp down on some of the nastier drugs out there.And as far as big tobacco goes.Well, past history shows us how idiotic these people are.Sooner or later tobacco will be outlawed, and hey, guess what, there goes the unemployment rate.Give these farmers something else to grow.Something that we would have much more products from ,other than a slow suicide solution.And I don’t know about the rest of you stoners out there, but I smoke cigs like a chimney when I’m stoned.So what the hell’s thier problem.
Ya’ll in CA better get together on this and vote it in. We in the rest of the country are counting on you to pass prop. 19. FREE THE WEED
@ #51 – Your figures just reassure me that I was correct in my reasoning about why pot is illegal! Our tax dollars are being used against us! And, the prohibitionists are the ones that are profiting from it’s illegality! It’s totally immoral, but it’s the world we live in. That’s why it’s so important that each of us do all we can to try and stop them!
So these fucking legal poison sellers are trying to stop MEDICINE from getting to sick and dying people. Hmm this just backs proof that alcohol destroys your mind. Hell my dad is an alcoholic and the other day he showed up drunker than high hell! He sat in his car for 30 minutes (to sober up I guess) then he got out walked half way to the house, went back and got his work bag. Then he sits on the steps of the house and points at our nice neighbor going by and calls him a “dumbass” about 5 times. My neighbor then backs up and my dad tries to say he was wonder if his car was a “google” (whatever the fuck that means) then he talked to him for like 5 mins. This is fucking ridiculous I could have smoked like 15 blunts and still be able to make the decision not to be that dumb. Legalize weed now people we need this medicine to help people live longer, more prosperous, and fun lives.
Here in Michigan our fight is really getting ugly. Police are raiding legal card holding patients and CG’s using FED law and other BS excuses to rob the sick and innocent.
We lost one of the victims in the latest gestapo raids on a dispensary. Sal Agro was 67 years old and the judge told him he COULD NOT use MM while out on bail. Sal died about week after the judge took his medication away.
The goon squad rob the dispensary owner of $11000.00 that was being saved for a car and patients private medical records were being viewed by cops on video during the robbery, violating HPPA laws.
More and more Michigan cities and towns are passing ordinances contrary to state law and denying even the cultivation of cannabis let alone its use or possession for medical purposes.
The MMMA and MOCC are two of the largest and most organized groups helping with the legal battles and now a court of appeals has ruled that the Dr certifications from MM clinics may not valid. Saying the Dr patient relationship was not long enough.
We are strong and will not be swayed from carrying the fight to Lansing this November and again in 2012.
Three million Michigan residents voted yes for medical marijuana now a small bunch of over zealous office seeking scumbags and dirty cops are trying to stop us.
GOOD LUCK!!
It seems that the ones who stand to lose if prop 19 wins are the law enforcement and prison industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and the alcohol industry. Heaven forbid if we could find relief from our physical maladies without emptying our wallets or throw the bottle away because cannabis is a better relaxant without the terrible side effects of violence, health problems, and property destruction. Maybe the police and the legal industry(yes, it is a business too) will find more constructive things to do such as dealing with violent offenders instead of chasing vapor trails. Vote yes and end this nonsense forever!
Since Big Alcohol supports the “NO” side of Prop 19, why dosnt california NORML or MPP or Richard Lee or how about everybody that cares about CANNABIS Reform plan a certain day {or week} before the NOV2 vote, that no one purchase anything Alcohol, and or related? Wouldnt that dent some wallets on the Big Alcohol “NO” side?
we need to get the oil companies on our side. they started alchohol prohibition to put an end to henry ford’s ethanol power vehicle. its all about money, not health or well being. pray that they don’t make a hemp powered car, or a car that runs on moral fiber.
Check out Simpson oil and cancer. You will discover the real reason that many are fighting marijuana. THC oil has been used to cure cancer. Imagine what a dent that would make in the current flourishing business of death.
MK
[Editor’s note: 1) Compelling and interesting as the current scientific research seems to indicate about cannabinoids positively affecting some forms of cancer cells (and often that medical research is first broadcast via NORML to mass audiences), medical patients should seek physicians’ consultations, not an Internet video from a guy who makes hash oil in his garage and claims it “cures cancer”.
2) There is no grand conspiracy by pharmaceutical interests to keep cannabis illegal, the reason why cannabis is still illegal after 73 years is because, primarily, cannabis consumers have been too paranoid and/or unorganized to change the laws.]
I have a question– what is the “wrong message” they keep saying that legalizing marijuana would send to the youth? I mean– EXACTLY what message are they claiming it sends?
Because– if the message is that “if you smoke pot, you’re not a criminal.” That is EXACTLY the message that SHOULD be sent to kids.
I was standing behind a guy, in line at a super-market, who paid $78.00 for a carton of cigarettes. “That’s hooked!”[hook, line, and sinker]. I would have worse withdralws from paying for them, than I would have from smokin’ them. That’s hard addiction – and – the pot-phobic prohib hypocrites have a problem with cannabis. All I need to know is – if the guy went home and got drunk! Wouldn’t that be icing on the cake. Double D Addiction. Cannabis is non-addictive, non-toxic, and there has never been a recorded death from its use. Right! No death profile! No cancer, and no pickled liver either! WTF!
If it’s the tobacco and alcohol companies that are opposing cannabis – maybe we should oppose buying their addictive products. BOYCOTT THEM and see how fast they will yell – “Repeal cannabis laws – or – let us in the market.”
surprised big tobacco didnt give them a blank check . people are so ignorant “its dangerous for your health that marijuana”,a lady in my hometown was going near 100 miles an hour driving drunk hit a man in a car and killed him she walked away and bonded out of jail 12 hours later!go figure america
In Arizona, we are voting to pass Prop 203 (compassionate use) this November. Az voters twice have passed compassionate use – back in the 1990s!
Az Legislatures past and present are completely insane and back then they denied the voters’ will.
We will prevail!
A.R.
It seems like there is no hope for some of us if cannabis is never decriminalized… I mean how can a chemo patient drink beer and anticipate getting an appetite or smoke cigarettes and be able to eat? The truth of the matter is if hippies and other counterculture societies were endorsing booze in the 60s and 70s instead of smoking grass would it still be a considered a schedule 1 narcotic by the FDA? How many people commit violent crimes while alcoholically inebriated as to the number of people smoking grass huh? Go prop 19!!!
I wish one of the proponents would defend proof/lack of impairment with the standard drunk driving testing done by every police officer.
If the driver can pass the standing on one foot,head back,eyes closed,touch your nose test,how could they be impaired?
We call it the Texas one step.
“Freedom does not extend to destroying the freedom of thers.” That’s these pot-phobic prohib hypocrites at work, hard work, workin’ over-time. It simply amazes me that they can’t see the tree for the forrest. “If you eliminate the crime – you eliminate the criminal.” Duh! If it’s all about money – maybe they don’t want to eliminate the crime – crime is too profitable. Now! Who is shakin’ down who? And we “allow” them to lead us around with a ring in our nose. Well! Those who give up freedom for order – will receive neither.
FREEDOM FOR CANNABIS OR REVOLUTION
78 Mike
Many have the thought of revolution in our heads. It’s a natural thing to want to kick a tyrrants ass. You’re not alone there. But – we are law abiding people, and we must keep our fists in our pockets. If we want to do some serious ass kicking, we should do it at the voting booth, and kick their asses out of office. We out number them, and we don’t give a shit what they think or say anymore. Fuck’em if they can’t take a joke.
im glad that at least Sierra Nevada and Stone Brewery came out and opposed this nonsense
@editor “medical patients should seek physicians’ consultations, not an Internet video from a guy who makes hash oil in his garage and claims it “cures cancer”.
While instructing patients to seek a physician’s consultation is very PC, I am a bit surprised at the “tone” of this comment. Frankly, the best intentioned physician can be extremely biased in healing methodology due to the extraordinary emphasis placed on the use rather harsh pharmaceuticals for general treatment in Western medicine. Additionally, extraordinarily little focused instruction on nutrition (the rock-bottom basis for true health) is available to physicians in medical school (and it goes without saying that medical cannabis gets really short shrift).
I have not personally met Rick Simpson, but I do know that this is someone who has put everything on the line to help others; and ended up a fugitive, homeless and unable to travel back home to Canada or to the US. Furthermore, I have personally seen two photographically documented cases where topically applied hash oil cured outbreaks of basal cell carcinoma (following Simpson’s guidelines). Granted it’s anecdotal, but let’s not forget that medicine is not the sole purview of the government, nor totally subject to its codified methodology.
Ultimately, what the actual truth is, who can say, and you are certainly entitled to your opinion; however, given what he has done, and continues to do, I suggest that Simpson deserves a slightly friendlier epithet than “some guy who makes hash oil in his garage, and claims it cures cancer.”
[Editor’s note: Suffice of to say that medical patients should not seek medical advice from uneducated, non-physicians who make dramatic, unsubstantiated scientific claims about ‘curing cancer’ on the Internet regardless of what the source of the supposed cure all is.
PC or not, anecdotal ‘evidence’ while interesting, is not science. Medical knowledge is most often advanced by concerted/peer-reviewed science, not observations of the anecdotal by the bias.]
Everyone should boycott alcohol.. We all NEED to make a STAND! Come on people this is America!!! I didn’t join the Marine Corps, get shipped off to foreign soil and put my life on the line for a bunch of corrupt greedy individuals. I am tired of being pushed around because I love a miracle plant. These people aren’t real American Citizens.. They claim that they are but true Americans follow the likes of our rebellious forward thinking founding fathers (the Constitution) and not the State!
Drunk driving illegal, driving high illegal.
You decied prop 19
So tell me why when my dad’s drunk as high heaven, he calls people dumbasses and doesn’t remember, he thinks he is invincible (pulled out his tooth when drunk as shit) he then when on to make a complete ass of himself. But yet when I smoke marijuana all I get is a good nights sleep, slight munchies, a good sense of humor, and a creativity that could rival musicians and artists themselves.
I wonder how they would tax it if everyone started growing it themselves? Imagine a farmer’s market, where a pound of outdoor OG Kush is 5.99 (it is possible to produce this cheap)and is sitting next to the potatoes.Then you go to the store, and a six pack of beer is seven dollars. What would you rather have? I think this is what they are trying to prevent.
85 Tokerstien
Try $78.00 for a carton of cancer {cigs}. Talk about paying big time for your addiction,
@ nameless editor:
The point being, your comment re Rick Simpson was bitchy. Own up to it.
[Editor’s note: If ‘bitchy’ equates to being politically realistic and grounded in scientific reality…
Again, seriously ill medical patients should not take medical advice from the Internet from shameless, uneducated self-promoters of medicines promoting a ‘cure all’, regardless of the source of the ‘cure all’, praying off the desperate wishes of the sick and dying, and damning those who question them as heretics and the easily duped.]
Green Alert Peace Alert a song I wrote about it all. It’s a big joke the Goverment lets you smoke cigs and drink alcohol, Both Cigs and Alcohol are killing more people and costing more money in medicals bills, Weed is the cure for lung cnacer!!! go figure they wont let you have it. Weed should be legal period and ban alcohol and cigs and pescription drug companys are also the reason weed is illegal.Weed would put the alcohol and cigs and prescrip drug companys out of bidness.
People who diminish the importance of anecdotal evidence, behave as if medicine didn’t know anything until the double-blind study, and didn’t know about drugs until that happened.
~Dr. Lester Grinspoon
[Editor’s note: Great. Since you appear to hold Dr. Grinspoon in such high regard, maybe you’ll stop this circular string after reading his 100% on point comments about the prospects of cannabis oil ‘cure alls’:
“Dec 03, 2009
Dr. Grinspoon’s Response to High Times article on Rick Simpson
By Lester Grinspoon, M.D.
Dr. Lester Grinspoon is associate professor emeritus of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the author of Marihuana Reconsidered (Harvard University Press, 1971) and Marijuana: The Forbidden Medicine (with Dr. James B. Bakalar, Yale University Press, 1993).
This op-ed is a response to an article that appeared in the January 2010 issue of HIGH TIMES, “Rick Simpson’s Hemp-Oil Medicine,” written by Steve Hager, HIGH TIMES creative director.
Like everyone else who has been working over decades to ensure that marijuana, with all that it has to offer, is allowed to take its proper place in our lives, I have been heartened by the rapidly growing pace at which it is gaining understanding as a safe and versatile medicine. In addition to the relief it offers to so many patients with a large array of symptoms and syndromes (almost invariably at less cost, both in toxicity and money, than the conventional drugs it replaces), it is providing those patients, their caregivers, and the people who are close to them an opportunity to see for themselves how useful and unthreatening its use is. It has been a long and difficult sell, but I think it is now generally believed (except by the United States government) that herbal marijuana as a medicine is here to stay.
The evidence which underpins this status as a medicine is, unlike that of almost all other modern medicines, anecdotal. Ever since the mid-1960s, new medicines have been officially approved through large, carefully controlled double-blind studies, the same path that marijuana might have followed had it not been placed in Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, which has made it impossible to do the kind of studies demanded for approval by the Food and Drug Administration. Anecdotal evidence commands much less attention than it once did, yet it is the source of much of our knowledge of synthetic medicines as well as plant derivatives. Controlled experiments were not needed to recognize the therapeutic potential of chloral hydrate, barbiturates, aspirin, curare, insulin or penicillin. And there are many more recent examples of the value of anecdotal evidence. It was in this way that the use of propranolol for angina and hypertension, of diazepam for status epilepticus (a state of continuous seizure activity), and of imipramine for childhood enuresis (bed-wetting) was discovered, although these drugs were originally approved by regulators for other purposes.
Today, advice on the use of marijuana to treat a particular sign or symptom, whether provided or not by a physician, is based almost entirely on anecdotal evidence. For example, let’s consider the case of a patient who has an established diagnosis of Crohn’s disease but gets little or no relief from conventional medicines (or even occasional surgery) and suffers from severe cramps, diarrhea and loss of weight. His cannabis-savvy physician – one who is aware of compelling anecdotal literature suggesting that it is quite useful in this syndrome – would not hesitate to recommend to this patient that he try using marijuana. He might say, “Look, I can’t be certain that this will help you, but there is now considerable experience that marijuana has been very useful in treating the symptoms of this disorder, and if you use it properly, it will not hurt you one bit; so I would suggest you give it a try, and if it works, great – and if it does not, it will not have harmed you.”
If this advice is followed and it works for this patient, he will report back that, indeed, his use of the drug has eliminated the symptoms and he is now regaining his weight; or that it doesn’t work for him but he is no better or worse off than he was before he had a trial of marijuana. Particularly in states which have accommodated the use of marijuana as a medicine, this kind of exchange is not uncommon. Because the use of cannabis as a medicine is so benign, relative to most of the conventional medicines it competes with, knowledgeable physicians are less hesitant to recommend a trial.
One of the problems of accepting a medicine – particularly one whose toxicity profile is lower than most over-the-counter medicines – on the basis of anecdotal evidence alone is that it runs the risk of being oversold. For example, it is presently being recommended for many types of pain, some of which are not responsive to its analgesic properties. Nonetheless, in this instance, a failed trial of marijuana is not a serious problem; and at the very least, both patient and physician learn that the least toxic analgesic available doesn’t work for this patient with this type of pain. Unfortunately, this kind of trial is not always benign.
In the January 2010 issue of HIGH TIMES, Steve Hager published an article, “Rick Simpson’s Hemp-Oil Medicine,” in which he extols the cancer-curing virtues of a concentrated form of marijuana which a Canadian man developed as “hemp oil.” Unfortunately, the anecdotal evidence on which the cancer-curing capacity is based is unconvincing; and because it is unconvincing, it raises a serious moral issue.
Simpson, who does not have a medical or scientific education (he dropped out of school in ninth grade), apparently does not require that a candidate for his treatment have an established diagnosis of a specific type of cancer, usually achieved through biopsy, gross and histopathological examinations, radiologic and clinical laboratory evidence. He apparently accepts the word of his “patients.” Furthermore, after he has given the course of “hemp oil,” there is apparently no clinical or laboratory follow-up; he apparently accepts the “patient’s” belief that he has been cured. According to Hager, he claims a cure rate of 70 percent. But 70 percent of what? Do all the people he “treats” with hemp-oil medicine have medically established, well-documented cancer, or is he treating the symptoms or a constellation of symptoms that he or the patient have concluded signify the existence of cancer? And what is the nature and duration of the follow-up which would allow him to conclude that he has cured 70 percent? Furthermore, does this population of “patients with cancer” include those who have already had therapeutic regimes (such as surgery, radiation or chemotherapy) which are known to be successful in curing some cancers or holding at bay, sometimes for long periods of time, many others?
There are patients who have a medically sound diagnosis of pre-symptomatic cancer (such as early prostate cancer) but who, for one reason or another, eschew allopathic treatment and desperately seek out other approaches. Such patients are all too eager to believe that a new treatment, such as hemp-oil medicine, has cured their cancer. Unfortunately, this cancer, which was asymptomatic at the time of its discovery, will eventually become symptomatic, and at that time the possibility of a cure is significantly diminished, if not inconceivable.
This lesson was brought home to me when I was asked by the American Cancer Society, during a period early in my medical career when I was doing cancer research, to participate in an investigation of a man in Texas who claimed that a particular herb that his grandfather discovered would cure cancer. I was able to locate two women who had well-documented diagnoses of early (asymptomatic) cervical cancer who had decided not to have surgery but instead went to Texas and took the “medicine.” When I first met them some months after each had taken the “cure,” they were certain that they were now cancer-free. With much effort, I was able to persuade them to have our surgical unit perform new biopsies, both of which revealed advancement in the pathological process over their initial biopsies. Both were then persuaded to have the surgery they had previously feared, and there is no doubt that this resulted in saving their lives.
There is little doubt that cannabis now may play some non-curative roles in the treatment of this disease (or diseases) because it is often useful to cancer patients who suffer from nausea, anorexia, depression, anxiety, pain and insomnia. However, while there is growing evidence from animal studies that it may shrink tumor cells and cause other promising salutary effects in some cancers, there is no present evidence that it cures any of the many different types of cancer. I think the day will come when it or some cannabinoid derivatives will be demonstrated to have cancer-curative powers, but in the meantime, we must be very cautious about what we promise these patients.”
Let’s give the good doctor the last word on this subject matter since both NORML and you look to respected medical researchers like Dr. Grinspoon for credible and verifiable information about cannabis.]
Dont you think they would spend more than $10,000 to defeat this if they really wanted to? They want you to vote yes on prop 19 because prop 19 is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
http://votetaxcannabis2010.blogspot.com/
this prop 19 would not only change cali but the whole world with time. i pray for the day the uk decriminalizes weed like our dutch neighbours. just be sensible once its here and dont go to work or drive stoned so it dont get taken back again and we can say the tide was turned in cali 🙂
My experience with a patient receiving chemotherapy
for kidney cancer without experiencing chemo-induced nausea/vomiting (he premedicated), showed how effective cannabis was in preventing this unwanted side effect of cancer treatment (in his case).
I know it’s not for everybody, for whatever reason, but it must become available for people who do choose it. This plant of the earth, this weed, is good medicine.
Victory for Prop 203 in Arizona on Nov. 2nd!
Ann Rose, RN
Thay want more drunks on the road i say if thay cant lighlize it then outlaw alchoal