Tag Archives: Kevin Sabet

Oregon Cities, Counties Ban Marijuana

Official returns from the state of Oregon show that approximately two-thirds of localities rejected the marijuana industry at the ballot box, even if they voted for statewide legalization two years ago.

Randy Philbrick of Portland for Positive Impact said:  “The final tally I have is 35 cities and 3 counties in Oregon voted to ban marijuana businesses. Since all of these votes were in counties that passed Measure 91 by 55% or more it looks like public acceptance is changing back towards opposition.”

Ignorance is bliss.  Once people legalize marijuana and see what it’s like, do they change their mind?

Kevin Sabet, President of Smart Approaches to Marijuana  “As in Colorado and other places, Oregon voters may have cast their ballot for statewide legalization, but they don’t want much to do with it on the local level,” said Kevin Sabet, President of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM). “This vote should send a strong message to state legislators and even members of Congress that people are not comfortable with pot shops in their neighborhoods or marijuana cultivation sites near their homes.”
Relatively populous Marion County, for example, rejected non-medical marijuana businesses 53 to 47 percent. Residents there even rejected medical marijuana stores. Lake Oswego banned non-medical sales by twenty points. West Linn also rejected marijuana stores. Both areas are primarily Democratic voters.

Despite studies, marijuana is still correlated with harmful teen problems

On May 29th, Kevin Sabet, Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), published a new article which debunked recent studies that seem to say that marijuana usage is not harmful to teens. From the SAM blog:

Earlier this week, the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry(JAACAP), released a study that claims a 24 percent decline in marijuana-related problems among teenagers, such as becoming dependent on the drug or having trouble in school and in relationships. The researchers also claim there is an association between drops in problems related to cannabis and reductions in behavioral issues, such as fighting, property crimes and selling drugs.

Pro-marijuana bloggers have picked this up as “proof” that legalization is not harmful to kids, but an editorial in the very same journal says that “no such inference is warranted.”

At first blush this study seems encouraging, however, there are several facts that are not consistent with media headlines and interpretations:

  • The study examines data from 2002 to 2013, and thus does not examine any time period with retail marijuana legalization even though researchers state that they did look at legalization policies. Legalization was not in place until late 2012 in two states only, and retail sales started in 2014. Also, data show that marijuana use declined from 2002 to 2009, but increased after.
  • The findings of this study contradict data from the US Department of Health and Human Services, National Survey on Drug Use and Health, and the US Monitoring the Future Study which all show an increase in kids using marijuana and needing treatment.
  • The article lumps together all states and does not differentiate between those with less restrictive “medical” marijuana policies and those with stricter controls.
  • Finally, as Hopfer discusses in his editorial, it is possible “a decrease in conduct problems accounted for the decrease in the development of marijuana use disorders. Although this is not proof of a causal effect, one potential inference is that as marijuana use becomes more acceptable, more individuals without conduct or adult antisocial problems will use marijuana and that the risk of developing a use disorder is lower in individuals without comorbid conduct or adult antisocial problems.”

The legalization lobby will try and tout this research as proving that legalization works. In reality, legalization is ushering in the advent of marijuana candies and other kid-friendly items by big business. Colorado is the top state in the nation for youth marijuana use.

Problems related to marijuana in Colorado and Washington are  mounting, as evidenced here, with an out-of-control marijuana industry focused on hooking kids and retaining lifelong customers. The World Health Organization report on marijuana found several negative effects for teens, including “several components of cognitive function, with the most robust effects on short term episodic and working memory, planning and decision-making, response speed, accuracy and latency.” The report also detailed studies that found “heavy cannabis use over several decades produced substantial declines in cognitive performance that may not be wholly reversible… (and) an association between poorer verbal memory and sustained daily use of cannabis throughout adult life.”

 

Speech of Kevin Sabet, Smart Approaches to Marijuana

Kevin Sabet spoke at the 59th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), taking place 14th to 22nd March 2016 in Vienna, Austria. The CND meets each year to discuss the global state of drug control and adopt resolutions to guide the way forward. Here is part of his speech.  (See our summary from Sven-Olov Carlsson’s address.)

Today I am speaking on behalf of multiple civil society organizations in the Drug Policy Futures network, including SAM, Smart Approaches to Marijuana, in opposition to some member states’ legalization of psychoactive drugs. These actions violate the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, and threaten international cooperation concerning drug abuse and trafficking.   We ask all member States to refer to the newly published World Health Organization (WHO) report on cannabis. This document is the result of dozens of experts from around the world, and clearly outlines the dangers of cannabis use.

Legalization is about one thing: making a small number of business people rich. If it were about ending the War on Drugs, recent policy changes would be limited to decriminalization. But instead, a host of business interests are getting involved with the legal marijuana trade in Colorado and elsewhere. They have set up private equity firms and fundraising organizations to attract investors and promote items such as marijuana candies and sodas, oils, and other products. And in Colorado, the effects have been negative. Emergency room admissions are up, as well as expulsions from schools and driving while intoxicated violations. In fact, Colorado is now for the first time number one in the nation for youth marijuana use.

We also know these industries target the poor and disenfranchised – and we can expect the marijuana industry to do the same in order to increase profits. A 2016 investigation by the Denver Post revealed that a “disproportionate share” of marijuana businesses are now located in lower-income and minority communities in Denver, communities that often suffer disparate impacts of drug use. One of Denver’s lower-income neighborhoods has one marijuana business for every 47 residents. This is similar to a Johns Hopkins University study that showed that predominantly black, low-income neighborhoods in Baltimore were eight times more likely to have carry-out liquor stores than white or racially integrated neighborhoods.

This doesn’t mean we want to saddle people with criminal records for using cannabis. We are not calling for mass imprisonment. We want to emphasize prevention, early intervention, treatment, and recovery. But to deny the addictive potential of cannabis or negative mental health effects is to deny the overwhelming scientific evidence available today. And our experience tells us that we should not welcome with open arms a new industry – like Big Tobacco – which will focus on commercializing and increasing the use of a drug far more potent today than it has ever been.

Moreover, we stress that an international legal cannabis industry is likely to leverage bilateral and multilateral investment treaties to challenge public health regulations across the globe, as the tobacco industry has done. The legal actions tobacco companies have pursued have had an out-sized impact on developing countries, and are often resolved through secretive international arbitration rather than in domestic courts.

We therefore request that member states follow the three international drug conventions and reiterate their commitment to the conventions, in connection with the debate around the legal status of cannabis. The use of cannabis for non-medical purposes is not a solution to existing challenges with drug control. Nor is legalization the only way to promote alternatives to incarceration of drug users.

We also remind member states to implement the obligations from the three Drug Conventions and the Action Plan on Drugs, in order to implement effective prevention, treatment and rehabilitation measures. Legalization is clearly not allowed under the Conventions. Countries should not be able to legalize without consequences if our Conventions are to have meaning and credibility.

Big Marijuana, Big Loss in Maine

Not Enough Signatures for Fall Ballot

An initiative to legalize marijuana in Maine failed to make the 2016 ballot today, after over 40,000 signatures legalization proponents submitted in favor of the proposal were invalidated due to irregularities.  This left legalizers well short of the 61,123 signatures needed to put the initiative to a vote this fall.

Almost half of the signatures submitted (47,686 of 99,229) were declared invalid.  More specifically, Maine election officials found that, among other irregularities:
  • Over 31,000 signatures were invalid because the signatures of petition circulators swearing that they witnessed signature collection did not match their signatures on file. (Indeed, one circulator was listed as the public notary on an incredible 5,099 petitions containing 26,779 signatures.)
  • Another 13,525 signatures were invalidated because they did not belong to a registered voter in the municipality where they were submitted.
Portland-Head-Lighthouse
Portland Head Lighthouse, Maine
“This is a huge sigh of relief for Mainers and our public health community, especially in a period where we are facing a serious and growing opiate crisis,” stated SAM Maine Director, Scott M. Gagnon.  “The last thing we needed amidst an addiction crisis is increased access and availability to drugs.  We are pleased that the Big Marijuana agenda will not be allowed to disrupt our efforts to protect and improve the health of Mainers and Maine communities.”  Gagnon has written about how the marijuana industry is trying to cash in on the heroin epidemic.
Dr. Kevin Sabet, President of SAM added, “This represents a victory for public health over industry profits.  Despite pouring money into Maine, it appears that the pot industry was unable to get enough real people to sign their petition.  The fact that almost a full 50% of the signatures were invalidated casts a cloud over the entire legalization movement in the state.”

Marijuana lobbyists and industry groups have also tried to legalize marijuana by going through the state legislature multiple times. These efforts failed, also.