SAFER's Blog
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Written by SAFER
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Monday, 26 October 2009 |
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This past weekend, the Firedoglake Book Salon featured SAFER cofounder and Marijuana Is Safer coauthor Steve Fox for an on-line discussion about the book. The introduction to the event is below, and you can find the entire discussion by clicking HERE. FDL Book Salon Welcomes Steve Fox, Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? Marijuana has become mainstream. Breathless stories about it in
TIME, Newsweek, and all major media outlets proclaim that it is either
a potential savior of the economy, the scourge of teen development, or
just a plant that happens to have a bad rap. Regardless of the angle, weed has grown into the light of day and
the public has become more conscious of it than ever, often finding
that the current drug war set against it is cruel and unfair. A recent Gallup poll
found that 44% of the US population wants marijuana to be legalized,
the highest ever. Combine that with the explosion of the medical
marijuana marketplace harming Mexican drug cartels,
as well as the Obama administration offering a directive to stop
prosecuting legally recognized marijuana dispensaries, and there is the
potential for a dramatic sea change in the way the United States,
indeed the world, deals with the green stuff. Part and parcel of this new paradigm is getting people information. Enter Marijuana is Safer
by Steve Fox, Paul Armentano, and Mason Tvert; each one an integral
member of a drug policy reform organization, and their creds show. Part
social examination, history lesson, and reform presentation, Marijuana is Safer
makes the case for how different a world could be without the $60
billion a year drug war, most of which goes to eradicating marijuana
from our society. Serving as introduction, education, and illumination, the book is
easy for anyone to jump into, whether you are a newcomer to drug policy
or a long-standing veteran. Particularly telling is the first section
contrasting the world’s favorite mind-altering substance -alcohol- and
marijuana, examining it from every prismic angle. While familiar to
those who have been engaged in the drug war fight for some time, it
still manages to illustrate new things, often in a way that had been
previously unexamined. Tonight we welcome Steve Fox, co-author and the Director of State
Campaigns for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). I hope we’ll get a
lively discussion going and shine a light for the readers.
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Written by SAFER
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Wednesday, 21 October 2009 |
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A great letter-to-the-editor from the Marijuana Policy Project's Aaron Smith appeared in the Vallejo Times-Herald today. It's a perfect example of the type of letter you can send to your local newspaper the next time you see a piece about marijuana (or, as was the case here, a ridiculous column about marijuana). And if it gets published, let us know, and we'll hype it here on our blog, just like this one! [SAFER's emphases in bold]
No Laughing MatterMalcolm
Donahoo's sophomoric column poking fun at marijuana consumers has no
place in a respectable newspaper like the Times-Herald. About 15
million Americans use marijuana at least monthly. Is Donahoo
insinuating that all these individuals are useless couch potatoes or
"Cheech and Chong" wannabes?
Marijuana consumers are
everywhere. They come from all walks of life. The local grocer,
attorney, mechanic, hairdresser, or even your local newspaper columnist
might be a marijuana consumer. It's offensive that Donahoo would deride
this major group of people who simply choose to unwind with a substance
that is, by all objective measures, far safer than alcohol.
Do
some people abuse marijuana? Sure. But it's even more inappropriate to
make a joke out of problem drug users. Donahoo didn't pen a column
mocking alcoholics. Perhaps that's because it's harder to find humor in
the harms associated with alcohol -- liver cancer, highway fatalities,
domestic violence, etc. -- than it is to laugh at a person who seems to
be enjoying his Cheetos with just a little too much enthusiasm.
What
is really not a laughing matter is that we waste billions of tax
dollars arresting some 850,000 Americans every year for using a
substance that's far safer than alcohol or tobacco.
F. Aaron Smith
Marijuana Policy Project
Santa Rosa
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Written by SAFER
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Monday, 19 October 2009 |
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The following interview with SAFER cofounder and Marijuana Is Safer coauthor Steve Fox is featured by the independent music magazine, the L.A. Record: Steve Fox is the Director of State Campaigns for Marijuana
Policy Project—also known as the MPP, the nation’s largest marijuana
reform organization—and is co-author of a new book called Marijuana is Safer, which argues that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol. He speaks now via phone to L.A. RECORD’s Scott Schultz.
Of the politicians in Washington D.C. who are opposed to
marijuana legalization, what do you feel is the breakdown between those
who are benefiting from the anti-drug campaigns, those who are
privately in favor but politically opposed, and those who are just
legitimately opposed? Steve Fox: Fear is probably the biggest reason of all. When
you think of the American public and how they’ve been convinced that
marijuana is a dangerous drug, elected officials are at a whole other
level. Many of them have been convinced that marijuana is a dangerous
subject for them. They just know from their little playbook that’s
given to them when they’re running for office: ‘Here’s what we’re going
to say when anything about illegal drugs comes up.’ I think it’s really
going to take public pressure for many of them to change, and that is
what our book is all about. The book is about giving people the
confidence to be more outspoken. There are so many people out there
that are supportive of changing marijuana laws or maybe even using
marijuana themselves. In the past—though they believed that marijuana
was safer than alcohol—they weren’t prepared to talk about it at
length. Instead they would get caught up in talking about, ‘Well, this
is a waste of government resources!’ We want to make the simple point
that all you need to talk about is, ‘I should just be able to choose.’
Marijuana is less harmful than alcohol. I should not be punished if I
want to use the less harmful substance. We should be asking our elected
officials why they want to force people to drink instead of using the
less-harmful option, and make it about alcohol and not about marijuana. |
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Read more...
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Written by SAFER
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Monday, 12 October 2009 |
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A great op-ed by Redding, California resident Baran Galocy appeared this weekend in the city's local newspaper, the The Record Searchlight. It's a perfect example of the type of piece we hope you will write and submit to your local newspaper. And if it gets published, let us know, and we'll hype it here on our blog, just like this one!
A few choice excerpts:
May we please discuss marijuana, medical or otherwise, and alcohol in the same sentence? If I were to try to poison myself to death by consuming alcohol, I could easily do so. That was proved in our community last year. Were alcohol illegal and marijuana legal, perhaps we wouldn't have lost a minor to alcohol poisoning last year. No regular user has ever "poisoned" themselves with marijuana and no one has ever died as a direct result of having smoked it...
Domestic violence is fueled by the consumption of alcohol. Someone who just got high is inhabiting an entirely different mental construct than one who just drank. I have never met a violent "stoner," although I have met more than my fair share of obnoxious, violent drunks. Logic dictates that any drinker who is against legalizing marijuana is a world-class hypocrite...
The bottom line is that, like it or not, this is the end of an era... We are watching very bad law under deconstruction. |
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