Skip to main content

Popularization of Worse Drugs

Press Release: Sarah Palin Offered $25,000 by Marijuana Policy Reform Advocates

MEDIA ADVISORY – For event on Tuesday, April 6, 2010, at 11 a.m. PDT                                                        

APRIL 5, 2010

Sarah Palin Offered $25,000 by Marijuana Policy Reform Advocates

Palin Addresses Alcohol Industry Gathering; MPP-Backed Campaign Offers Her $25,000 to Make Similar Speech to its Supporters

CONTACT: In Nevada: Dave Schwartz, campaign manager, Nevadans for Sensible Marijuana Laws (702-727-1081 or [email protected]). In Washington: Steve Fox, director of state campaigns, Marijuana Policy Project (202-905-2042 or [email protected]).

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA — Tomorrow, at Caesar’s Palace, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin will deliver the keynote address at the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America’s national convention. Immediately following that speech, Dave Schwartz, the campaign manager for Nevadans for Sensible Marijuana Laws (NSML), will offer Palin $25,000 to deliver a similar address to supporters of a regulated marijuana market in this country.

         In exchange for the $25,000, Palin will be asked to speak at one of NSML’s upcoming events, acknowledge the fact that marijuana is just as legitimate a recreational substance as the substance she is talking about at the WSWA convention (in fact, it is objectively much safer), and endorse taxing and regulating marijuana in Nevada and throughout the U.S.

         “There’s no reason why former governor Palin should reject our offer,” Schwartz said. “The health effects of the substance she is talking about at the WSWA convention cause 33,000 deaths in the U.S. annually. The comparable number for marijuana is zero. Alcohol is also associated with violent crime and other destructive acts, while marijuana is not. If Gov. Palin is comfortable endorsing that product, we are certain she will endorse ours. We look forward to negotiating with her team to find a time that works in her schedule.

         “Let me make one thing clear. In making this offer, we are not intending to attack the alcohol industry or alcohol users,” Schwartz continued. “Rather, we’re highlighting the fact that marijuana is objectively less harmful than alcohol. It makes no sense to keep marijuana in the criminal market while a former vice-presidential candidate celebrates the alcohol industry. We want legitimate businesspeople in Nevada to benefit from the sales of marijuana, and we want adults to be free to choose whichever substance they prefer —marijuana or alcohol — when they relax after work.”          

         With more than 124,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit www.mpp.org.

         Nevadans for Sensible Marijuana Laws is a ballot advocacy group formed in Nevada to support a 2012 ballot initiative to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol in the state. It receives significant funding and support from the Marijuana Policy Project.

####

Tell MTV to "Get Real" on Marijuana

Since 1992, MTV has produced and aired programs like "The Real World," which feature young people consuming large quantities of alcohol and then engaging in reckless, violent, destructive, and oftentimes illegal behavior. Yet it has never once shown a cast member consuming marijuana, which the network almost surely prohibits and undoubtedly discourages. Please visit http://tinyurl.com/y8elkmn and take just a few seconds to sign SAFER's on-line petition calling on MTV to stop driving its cast members to drink and "start getting real." In the real world, millions of people use marijuana and every objective study on it has concluded it is far safer than alcohol for them and society. Yet in "The Real World" and other reality shows like "Jersey Shore," MTV makes sure alcohol is always available in abundance -- and that cast members never make the safer choice to use marijuana instead. Recently, things have gotten more out of control than ever. On this week's episode of "The Real World," an extremely drunken cast member shoved another off the tall ledge of the staircase outside their house, resulting in him being taken away on a backboard by paramedics. And just a couple a months ago MTV's new reality show, "Jersey Shore," received worldwide attention when a drunken young man at a bar punched one of the female cast members hard in the face after she accused him of stealing some drinks purchased by a fellow castmate.* You can help us draw much-needed attention to MTV's dangerous "alcohol only" reality programming by visiting http://tinyurl.com/ y8elkmn today and taking just a few seconds to sign: --- A petition in support of SAFER MTV programming --- Future cast members of "The Real World," "Jersey Shore," and other MTV reality shows should be allowed to use marijuana as a safer recreational alternative to alcohol. In the real world, millions of adults enjoy using marijuana responsibly, and every objective study on it has concluded it is far safer than alcohol both for them and society. Yet MTV embraces -- and often encourages -- the use of alcohol by its cast members, and it prohibits them from making the rational choice to use a less harmful substance instead. "The Real World," "Jersey Shore," and MTV's other reality shows should stop driving cast members to drink and "start getting real."

MPP of Nevada Asks Law Enforcement: How Does Steering Adults Toward Alcohol Make Us Safer?

MEDIA ADVISORY                                                                                                            
NOVEMBER 3, 2009

 

MPP of Nevada Asks Law Enforcement to Explain How Steering Adults Toward Alcohol Over Marijuana is Making Us Safer
Demand comes as major new report shows marijuana arrest rates in Nevada increasing faster than the national average, while binge drinking in Nevada is also growing steadily

CONTACT: Dave Schwartz, MPP-NV Manager……………………………………………702-727-1081

LAS VEGAS — At a news conference on Thursday in front of the new Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters construction site, the Marijuana Policy Project of Nevada will ask law enforcement officials to explain how steering adults toward the use of alcohol instead of marijuana is making our communities safer. Specifically, MPP-NV will display a sign asking members of law enforcement to complete this sentence: “Steering adults away from marijuana use and toward alcohol makes us safer by ___________.”

     This event coincides with the release of the most exhaustive collection of data ever on U.S. marijuana arrests, penalties and related information. Assembled by Professor Jon Gettman at Shenandoah University in Virginia, the new report finds that marijuana arrests in Nevada increased from 4,504 in 2003 to 7,950 in 2007. The arrest rate for possession per 100,000 residents in Nevada increased 57.9% over that time period, compared to just 12.7% in the U.S. While Nevada law enforcement was using its power to punish and intimidate marijuana users, binge drinking rates in the state rose 16% in those four years, but just 1.8% nationally.

     Who: Dave Schwartz, manager, Marijuana Policy Project of Nevada

     What: Press conference to challenge Nevada law enforcement’s marijuana arrest rates

     When: Thursday, November 5, at 11:00 a.m.

     Where: Southeast corner of Alta Blvd and Martin Luther King Blvd, Las Vegas, NV

      MPP of Nevada is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating Nevadans about the true nature of marijuana and about the harms caused by marijuana prohibition in the state. For more information about MPP of Nevada, please visit http://www.mppnv.org. 

####

Tell the Drug Czar...

One week ago today, Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske (aka the Drug Czar) issued a statement declaring the issue of marijuana legalization a "non-starter" not even worthy of discussion in the Obama Administration.

The Drug Czar's statement also highlighted the extraordinary social and health care costs associated with widespread alcohol use, suggesting that similar problems would occur if marijuana were to be regulated and treated like alcohol.  Yet every objective study on marijuana has concluded that it is far less harmful than alcohol both for the user and for society.

In response to the Drug Czar's statement, SAFER has launched an on-line petition, calling on the drug czar to either start basing our nation's drug policies on reason and evidence instead of mythology and ideology, or start explaining why he'd prefer adults use alcohol instead of a far safer substance -- marijuana. 

Please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj32wxb or click on the button to the right to sign the petition today. Then forward word of it to anyone who might be interested in siging on before we present it to the drug czar.

Along with launching the petition, SAFER has issued...

An Open Letter to the Drug Czar About Marijuana Legalization

On the afternoon of Friday, October 23, at a time when government bureaucrats make announcements they hope will not be picked up by the media, you issued a statement boldly declaring:

Marijuana legalization, for any purpose, remains a non-starter in the Obama Administration. It is not something that the President and I discuss; it isn't even on the agenda.

As the individual most directly responsible for marijuana policy in this country, this seems utterly irresponsible.  Worse, your decision does not appear to be based on reason or evidence.

Let's begin with one glaringly obvious omission in your statement. You failed to cite a single societal or health-related harm caused by the use of marijuana. Not one! Instead, you offered up some weak guilt-by-association scare tactics.

To test the idea of legalizing and taxing marijuana, we only need to look at already legal drugs -- alcohol and tobacco. We know that the taxes collected on these substances pale in comparison to the social and health care costs related to their widespread use.

Apparently, you believe that marijuana users should be punished and perhaps even jailed because alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceutical drugs are so harmful to users and society.

Sorry, Mr. Kerlikowske, but that just doesn't cut it. If you are going to remain closed-minded in your approach to marijuana, you are going to need to step it up. Unfortunately, you know as well as we do that you don't have a whole lot going for you, which explains your flaccid, evidence-free statement.

Sadly, we have come to expect this kind of nonsensical garbage from our nation's drug czars. (After all, you have Kevin Sabet, a Bush Administration holdover and former speechwriter for his drug czar,

John Walters, feeding you the same old lines.) But what makes your position on marijuana legalization even more shameful is your background as a law enforcement officer on the streets.

You know -- and maybe at some point during your tenure you will have the guts to admit -- that alcohol is really the drug in our society that causes the greatest amount of harm. This isn't an attempt to demonize alcohol, mind you; it's simply based on alcohol's close association with serious health problems and violent crime, as documented by scientific research and government statistics. The use of marijuana, on the other hand, does not have serious health consequences and is not associated with violent behavior.

Again, you know this from your time on the streets. If you've forgotten, just recall the alcohol-fueled Seattle Mardi Gras riot that occurred on your watch. Or ask you're predecessor, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who called alcohol "the most dangerous drug in America today," during a 1999 ONDCP press conference.

So just why is it that you want to punish people who use marijuana, when you know the likely result is that many of these people will simply turn to using alcohol instead? Ya know, because it's "legal."

We don't want to hear that alcohol does not fall under the mission of ONDCP. You, sir, raised the subject by asserting -- contrary to everything known about the two substances -- that we should look at our experience with alcohol if we want to get a sense of the potential social and health care costs associated with more widespread marijuana use. Moreover, given that the two substances are so popular in our society, you simply cannot discuss the prohibition of marijuana without considering its impact on alcohol usage rates.

You hold a great deal of power in your hands. You can help determine whether we continue to steer adults toward using alcohol -- which you know produces serious societal harms -- or whether we instead allow them to make the rational choice to use a safer substance: marijuana.

Come on. Show us that it is possible to be the drug czar and be thoughtful, open-minded, and accepting of scientific evidence at the same time. Or, at the very least, why don't you find some actual statistics to back up your bluster?


MPP of Nevada to Offer $10,000 Challenge: Marijuana is Safer Than Alcohol

MEDIA ADVISORY   
SEPTEMBER 21, 2009

 

MPP of Nevada to Offer $10,000 Challenge:
Marijuana is Safer Than Alcohol -- Prove Us Wrong and We'll Pay $10,000

Press Conference Sept. 23 to Reveal Details


PHOTO-OP: Large Mock Check For $10,000


CONTACT: Dave Schwartz,  MPP-NV Manager...................................................702-727-1081


LAS VEGAS -- At a Las Vegas news conference Sept. 23, the Marijuana Policy Project of Nevada will announce details of a $10,000 challenge to the people of Nevada. MPP-NV will pay $10,000 to anyone who can disprove three statements of fact that demonstrate that marijuana is objectively and unquestionably safer than alcohol.


     MPP-NV manager Dave Schwartz will unveil a large mock check for $10,000 as he announces specifics of the challenge, which kicks off a long-term public education campaign regarding the relative harms of marijuana and alcohol, and the harm caused by marijuana prohibition.


     WHAT: News conference to announce the Marijuana Policy Project of Nevada's $10,000 challenge


     WHO: MPP-NV manager Dave Schwartz


     WHEN: Wednesday, Sept. 23, 11:00 a.m.


     WHERE:  Near the emergency room entrance of University Medical Center Hospital (behind the hospital), corner of Goldring Avenue and Rose Street, Las Vegas.

     MPP of Nevada is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating Nevadans about the true nature of marijuana and about the harms caused by marijuana prohibition in the state. For more information about MPP of Nevada, please visit http://www.mppnv.org.

####

Subscribe to Popularization of Worse Drugs