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Today, Mason Tvert, founder of SAFER (Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation), called for a boycott of Starbucks,
saying the coffee chain supported the Colorado Drug Investigators
Association, a lobbying group that has opposed to medical marijuana.
The CDIA, which listed Starbucks as a sponsor on its website
alongside such vendors as Glock handguns and Point Blank Body Armor, is
a group that is seeking to overturn Colorado's constitutional amendment
allowing cannabis for medical use.
Oddly, Tvert says, the CDIA's website
was curiously taken down an hour before his noon appearance at the 300
East 6th Avenue Starbucks branch. But SAFER outreach director Eva Enns
called it "totally metal." According to her, the site featured
skull-and-crossbones graphics and a grim reaper rappelling from a
helicopter declaring "Death on Drugs."
"Law enforcement is an industry like any other, and the
decriminalization of marijuana threatens part of that industry," Tvert
says, adding that regulation of marijuana poses a conflict of interest
for drug enforcement agencies.
On one hand, marijuana dispensaries keep some of the drug trade out
of the hands of organized traffickers, ultimately reducing crime
(something you might think law enforcement would support). On the
other, that reduction in crime takes jobs away from those enforcement
agencies. "Law enforcement groups are not motivated by maintaining
public safety or developing a workable system of medical marijuana
regulation," Tvert adds. "They are motivated by one thing -- job
security."
Tvert hopes to spread awareness among consumers that don't realize
Starbucks helps fund the CDIA's efforts. He believes that by pressuring
Starbucks (and other national corporations such as Enterprise
Rent-a-Car, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts and Embassy Suites) through
consumer backlash, he can help impede the CDIA's efforts to abolish
dispensaries and wage war on marijuana. |