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Cannabis Conversations
Ethan Nadelmann: Highlights of Opening Remarks at DPA Reform Conference in Albuquerque, NM.
Aaron Houston, MPP Federal Lobbyist, on Mexican drug cartel influence in small town America
Lorenzo Jones, A Better Way Foundation, on the progress of reform in Connecticut
Whitney Taylor, former campaign director, on new civil fines for “public consumption” following passage of her Massachusetts’ Question 2 decrim measure
Karen O’Keefe, MPP State Programs Director, on new medical marijuana bills that take away right to home grow or restrict qualifying conditions
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 7:13 pm | By: Missippi Hippy
Yes, the wall is crumbling. We are winning, but it’s not over yet. It ain’t over ’til the fat lady (can walk into a store in any state, county or municipality, show ID proving they are of legal age, purchase marijuana for recreational use, go home, roll a joint (fill a pipe, bong, vaporizer) fire it up, relax and then) sings.
Thursday, July 9th, 2009 at 7:00 pm | By: Radical Russ
I do believe at the end of this interview I hear ardent prohibitionist Dr. Andrea Barthwell, former deputy drug czar, making the case for legalizing marijuana, taxing it, and offering up public health campaigns about it.
Good job, Aaron, and I know how the time constraints are on live national TV, but will somebody, please, anybody, when the prohibitionist says that the taxes on tobacco and alcohol don’t begin to cover the social costs, instead of going with the “marijuana is safer than alcohol and tobacco route”, which is undeniably true, swing it back to the economic argument and say:
“22 million Americans are smoking pot already and we’re taking in zero revenue to cover any social costs, which, since marijuana is safer than alcohol and tobacco, will be much lower. And since the greatest costs from marijuana are from policing people for it and dealing with the crime and violence of a black market, we’ll do much better than break-even on the deal.”
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 at 7:23 pm | By: MrSpof
Aaron Houston, Director of Government Relations for the Marijuana Policy Project, says the laughter on laws that are killing citizens should stop … and so should the prohibition of marijuana:
President Obama responded last week to the most popular question submitted by online voters – whether marijuana should be made legal in order to bring this huge underground industry into the legal economy – by treating it pretty much as a joke.
But the time for jokes has passed. Our marijuana laws are killing people.
The solution is obvious. After all, there’s a reason these gangs aren’t smuggling wine grapes. Prohibition simply doesn’t work – not in the 1930s and not now.
Current U.S. policies are based on the fantasy that Americans can somehow make this massive industry go away. But prohibition hasn’t stopped marijuana use. Although marijuana use hits peaks and troughs over time, overall consumption of the drug in the United States has risen roughly 4,000 percent rise since the first national ban took effect in 1937. In other words, for 72 years, the U.S. government has in effect granted criminals, including those brutal Mexican gangs, a monopoly on production, distribution, and profits.
The solution is already apparent: Make marijuana a legal, regulated product like alcohol and tobacco are. After all, there’s a reason these gangs aren’t smuggling wine grapes. When you have a legal, regulated market for a product, the underground market disappears. Indeed, the United States already has an illustrative example from its own history. During the 13 dark years of alcohol prohibition, drinking didn’t stop, but gangsters such as Al Capone got rich. When Prohibition ended, the bootleggers — and the orgy of violence that accompanied them — went away. By taking marijuana out of the criminal underground and regulating it, Americans can cut the lifeline that gives Mexican drug gangs their power.
There are benefits for the United States, too. For the first time, regulators would have a level of control over marijuana production and distribution, both of which are impossible under today’s system. Over time, the domestic marijuana industry would start to look like California’s wine business: a responsible industry that adds to the state’s prestige, tourism, and tax coffers, rather than a source of violence and instability.
Critics have already started to object, claiming that such a move would set off a surge of marijuana use. But in the Netherlands — where adults have been permitted to possess and purchase small amounts of marijuana from regulated businesses since the mid-1970s — the rate of marijuana use is less than half that of the United States, according to a recent World Health Organization study. More importantly, the percentage of teens trying marijuana by age 15 in the Netherlands is roughly one third the U.S. rate. Indeed, a 2001 National Research Council report commissioned by the White House found “little apparent relationship” between criminal penalties for drug use and the prevalence or frequency of use.
Aaron Houston is interviewed by Russia Today regarding the legalization efforts. The effort to legalize cannabis is going global. Russ mentioned inquiries he’s been receiving from Australia, and the three former presidents of Mexico, Brazil and Columbia coming out for reform all signal a change in global opinions about cannabis. Today America, tomorrow the World!
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Another documentary on tonight (for my West Coast peeps) at 10pm – Rachel Hoffman on NBC’s “Dateline:NBC” show. Don’t miss it!
I’ve also got the audio from the Aaron Houston / Asa Hutchinson debate, with my analysis, and a replay of the Kris Hermes interview, so the people who only surf by on the weekends will hear the story of the first DEA raid of the Obama Administration.
[UPDATE: What the hell is wrong with me? I have a two-part interview with Liza Patty, Rachel Hoffman's friend, that I should be replaying on today's Stash! Give me a moment to get them uploaded and I'll post them here. -- "R"R]
Good job by Aaron Houston, pointing out the $14 billion in revenue, more 10th graders smoke pot than tobacco, and that DEA’s way hasn’t worked. I think it would be better if those points were shorter and tied together with something a talk radio pro taught me called the “Why do I give a shit?” angle. Simply put, to get your point across to the audience, you have to hook them with something that affects them personally.
Here’s how it might work:
“…Milton Friedman and 500 Harvard economists said that legal marijuana could bring in $14 billion. Mr. Hutchinson, that’s enough money to bail out Detroit and save some American jobs! That’s enough money to fix the levees in New Orleans or provide health care to every kid in America! Can we really afford to keep arresting people for smoking pot?”
“…more 10th graders smoke pot than tobacco, because we figured out that checking ID’s, curbing advertising, and educating kids with honest facts about cigarettes made them naturally want to quit. I don’t want teens using pot any more than you do, Mr. Hutchinson, so why don’t we take what worked with a really dangerous addictive drug like cigarettes and apply that to a weed that is as addictive as coffee?
“…Mr. Hutchinson, we’ve tried it your way and it hasn’t worked, but what it has done is locked up more people in the Land of the Free than any other nation, even Communist China and Putin’s Russia. A legal marijuana and hemp industry would not only create jobs other than prison guard, but save family farms, struggling timber towns, and bring in tax revenue to local communities. Mr. Hutchinson, if the government can regulate, control, and profit from cigarettes and 151-proof rum, why not marijuana?
Now for two low hanging softballs that must be crushed out of the park every time they are uttered. The only impediment to getting the average reasonable on-the-fence non-toking citizen to our side is the “What about the children?” angle. This is the corollary to the “Why do I give a shit?” angle, because the #1 thing people give a shit about is their kids. The primary fear to address is ”if I support the potheads, my kids will turn into potheads!”:
“Marijuana a stepping stone / gateway to other harder drugs.”
“Shame on you, Mr. Hutchinson, for trying to muddy this discussion of marijuana by scaring people about cocaine and heroin! The myth of the ‘gateway theory’ has been debunked by the government’s own Institute of Medicine in 1999. The only thing marijuana has in common with cocaine and heroin is that they are all illegal. You know why nobody calls alcohol a ‘gateway drug’? Because it’s not sold on a shelf next to cocaine and heroin.”
“When you legalize a substance, the use of that substance always goes up.”
“That’s flat-out wrong. The Netherlands, with its tolerance of cannabis coffee shops, has not only half the rate of teen and adult use of cannabis compared to America, they also have lower rates of use and addiction to hard drugs. And here in America, thirteen states have legalized the medical use of marijuana and teen use of marijuana has declined in those states. It’s funny, Mr. Hutchinson, that you would claim the decrease in teen marijuana use this decade has something to do with arresting people, and not because since 1996 some states have legalized pot.”
Somewhere along the line I think I would’ve thrown in “Mr. Hutchinson, when marijuana is made legal, will you smoke it? If ”
Of course, it is easy for me to think of all of this and type it up while not in a suit and tie under the hot lights in front of a camera by myself listening to an earpiece monitor of four other people I can’t see while I’m live on national television debating a former executive branch media-savvy administrator. I mean only to be constructive and to practice these analyses for that future day when I’m a talking head in a box on a cable news show…
RevRayGreen: I'll post a pic of me and my son....gimme a minute
Missippi Hippy: Guess what... I'm gonna be a new... ummmmm well, my pet piggie Ganja is in labor and they ain't mine in the same sense. See what your wife [...]
RevRayGreen: days they didn't talk back..or act disrespectful..
RevRayGreen: feel so lucky my son is 18 going 19 and my daughter 16 going on 17..relish the days that can't talk back
Urb Age: Congrats Spof thats awesome. My little Clara is about to hit 20 months. Im not the activist I used to be, but its made me a better man.
Urb Age: Heck I was gonna go up there, but just not feeling well this weekend..Dang it, I hate it when that happens..
RevRayGreen: wishing I was hanging at NORML cafe...
JohnH: Just a quick comment about tokin' and sperm motility....been tokin since age 14 and have 8 kids ranging in age from 30 to 9...(what can I say, I found 2 [...]
slash5city: really ..oprah 35 yr or more in the closet toker ...outed ....o my god !!
SneakerPimp: that would be huge news just imagen the headline
RevRayGreen: maybe Oprah smokes and keeps it on the DL...
Marijuana-Related Health Costs Minimal Compared To Those Of Alcohol, Tobacco; California Medical Association Says Pot Prohibition Is A "Failed Public Health Policy"; Oregon: State NORML Affiliate Opens First 'Cannabis Café'. […]
American Medical Association Calls For Scientific Review Of Marijuana's Prohibitive Status; Dutch Marijuana Use Lower Than European Average, Study Says […]
"Truth In Trials Act" Reintroduced In Congress; Maine: Voters Approve Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Measure; Colorado: Breckenridge Voters Overwhelmingly Decide To End Pot Penalties. […]
Some of the nation’s top athletes discuss why today's pros are turning to cannabis — and away from alcohol and painkillers — off the field, and question why pro sports leagues are continuing to sanction those who do. Moderator: Steve Bloom, Author, Pot Culture; editor, celebstoner.com * Toby Grear, MMA fighter * Sean Neumann, Documentary Filmm […]
Cannabis Law Reform's Missing Link: Law Enforcement Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper; LEAP and NORML Advisory Board; Author of Breaking Rank Putting the Mexican Cartels Out of Business Mexican drug cartels now employ over 100,000 soldiers and are responsible for nearly ten thousand deaths per year. Their largest source of income is marijuana. […]
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