Marijuana Legalization: Pharmaceuticals, Alcohol Industry Among Biggest Opponents Of Legal Weed

[bobandtorey]

Opponents of marijuana legalization argue that decriminalizing pot increases crime, creates juvenile delinquents and can even lead to more marijuana-related deaths. But there is another reason for the crusade against marijuana that involves some people losing lots of money as the country becomes increasingly pot friendly, according to a recent reportfrom The Nation and a study by the Center for Responsive Politics.

 

 

The biggest players in the anti-marijuana legalization movement are pharmaceutical, alcohol and beer companies, private prison corporations and police unions, all of whom help fund lobby groups that challenge marijuana law reform. In 2010, California Beer and Beverage Distributors funneled $10,000 to Public Safety First, a political action committee, or PAC, that led the opposition to California’s Prop 19. The initiative, if passed, would have legalized recreational marijuana in the state.

Corrections Corporations of America, one of the largest for-profit prison companies in the U.S., has spent nearly $1 million a year on lobbying efforts. The company even stated in a report that “changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances … could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them.”

Among the largest donors to Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, a New York City-based nonprofit that campaigns against teen drug and alcohol abuse, are Purdue Pharma, makers of the painkiller OxyContin, and Abbott Laboratories, which produces the opioid Vicodin. Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, or CADCA, a Virginia-based anti-drug organization, also receives donations from Purdue Pharma, as well as Janssen Pharmaceutical, a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson that manufactures the painkiller Nucynta, according to The Nation.

The reason for opposing marijuana reform is simple: Legal weed hurts these companies’ bottom lines. “There is big money in marijuana prohibition,” the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-profit research group based in Washington, D.C., notes in a recent series on marijuana lobbying efforts, including who funds legislation to keep the drug illegal.

Part of the missions of groups like Partnership for Drug-Free Kids and CADCA is to lobby Congress to maintain marijuana’s classification as a Schedule 1 drug, meaning the U.S. government considers the drug as having a high potential for abuse, has no medical use and poses risks to public safety. Nevermind that more than 22,000 people die every year in the U.S. from overdoses involving pharmaceutical drugs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Three out of every four pharmaceutical overdose deaths involve painkillers -- more than heroin and cocaine combined.

“I think it’s hypocritical to remain silent with regard to the scheduling of hydrocodone products, while investing energy in maintaining marijuana as a Schedule I drug,” Andrew Kolodny, a New York psychiatrist and head of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, told The Nation. “I don’t think it’s inappropriate for them to be advocating on marijuana, [but] when we have a severe epidemic in America -- one the CDC says is the worst drug epidemic in US history -- it makes you wonder whether or not they’ve been influenced by their funding.”

The idea is that drug companies want to sell expensive drugs by downplaying the medical benefits of marijuana, alcohol and beer manufacturers do not want to compete for customers with legal pot, and private prisons need to fill their beds with convicted drug offenders. That means marijuana advocates have some pretty large -- and well-funded -- enemies to contend with. 

 

http://www.ibtimes.com/marijuana-legalization-pharmaceuticals-alcohol-industry-among-biggest-opponents-legal-weed-1651166

[GregS]

This is the sound of butthurtness.

[AmishRnot4ganja]

Well, there it is in black and white.  The same thing that people on this board have been saying for years:

 

It's all about      .  Sick...

 

Greed does nasty things to people's psyches.

Edited August 9, 2014 by amish4ganja

[t-pain]

so the pill companies are against marijuana because they know it works as a painkiller.

 

all that 'you just want to get high' stuff... made up by people who know it works as a painkiller

[painterdan]

I wish the ny times would have had this in one of their articles,we knew it all along but it would have been a revelation to a lot of people.

[Indigro]

Don't forget about other pot growers- if anyone recalls cali's legalization effort...?

 

The only reason we find 20-25g, is that people are rotting in jail. Prohibition sustains the black market prices, which is what the pseudo legal prices are pegged to. In theory, if we let evryone grow themselves (or in limited/size controlled commercial like grows), such prices will not be paid.

 

To legalize & regulate necessarily mandates higher operating costs, but we potentially can elliminate the risk factor & per unit costs, esp if we see semi-commercial operations. Commercial weed is really bad for quality, but so is haphazard, fly by the seat of the pants grows. But either is better than cartel type weed.

 

Cartels & other underground domestic growers want the existing price margins- they don't want legalization. Though how we legalize is another can of worms entirely. Limited rights to grow & large commercial ops still makes it illegal for the everyday person, and still supports jailing people.

 

Just because most of us here support the weed, doesn't mean there aren't greedy, self-serving interests just as w big pharma, tobacco, alcohol, & the entire law & order profession.

[beourbud]

Legalization is a lie.. It is a scam to funnel all.the Meds thru a chosen few.

 

It won't be me and it won't be you.

 

Decriminalization of MJ is the solution without the $$$$$ pollution.

 

It should be an even playing field for EVERYONE...No Special interest ,no relative of a representative, not the folk from Isreal, not the current dealers operating illegally.

 

We legal citizens are operating under the CC/Patient model WE the People voted for.

 

What we have happening here in mecosta county is a prostitution ring running drugs thru strip joints along with all those other nasty hard drugs.

 

The criminals opened a club in stanwwod which the community adamantly opposed. Prostitution and meth and heroin od started to rise. No one knows for sure, we suspect the Amish finally had enough and burned the club down.

 

The ring is now bitter because they are not going to reopen in another location in the county.

 

So what has happened is these strippers and sluts just start a rave, charge admission and parking...$5 parking and $75 to get into the inner circlee for sex and hard drugs. No permit for the size of the venue, no emergency services to help with any incidents, no regard for Law or the community.

 

Just take the money and run.

 

Leaving the mess and cost for the community and sending a few patsies to jail.

 

This is what the dispensary folk are doing, they don't care about what We the People wanted and voted for, all they care about is the $$$. They are operating illegally and they don't give a Phuk. They will do anything to work around the law.

 

You see the Law is not for them it is for us. They want to legalize to make ownerous regulations on the home grow and ma

 

 

 

We the People Do not want the corruption legalization brings,

 

Decriminalize MJ completely......problem solved.

[bobandtorey]

I agree Decriminalizing cannabis completely with a plant count and also a cap on out of State people with big $$$ we don't need

[imiubu]

What happened to the push to have cannabis removed

from the federal controlled substances list completely?

 

That makes the most sense to me.

 

It is an ancient healing herb not to be ranked among pharmaceuticals, imho.

 

 

Definition of Controlled Substance Schedules

 

Drugs and other substances that are considered controlled substances under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) are divided into five schedules.  An updated and complete list of the schedules is published annually in Title 21 Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) §§ 1308.11 through 1308.15.  Substances are placed in their respective schedules based on whether they have a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, their relative abuse potential, and likelihood of causing dependence when abused.  Some examples of the drugs in each schedule are listed below.

 

Schedule I Controlled Substances

Substances in this schedule have no currently accepted medical use in the United States, a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision, and a high potential for abuse.

Some examples of substances listed in Schedule I are: heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), marijuana (cannabis), peyote, methaqualone, and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine ("Ecstasy").

 

Schedule II/IIN Controlled Substances (2/2N)

Substances in this schedule have a high potential for abuse which may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence.

Examples of Schedule II narcotics include: hydromorphone (Dilaudid®), methadone (Dolophine®), meperidine (Demerol®), oxycodone (OxyContin®, Percocet®), and fentanyl (Sublimaze®, Duragesic®).  Other Schedule II narcotics include: morphine, opium, and codeine.

Examples of Schedule IIN stimulants include: amphetamine (Dexedrine®, Adderall®), methamphetamine (Desoxyn®), and methylphenidate (Ritalin®).

Other Schedule II substances include: amobarbital, glutethimide, and pentobarbital.Schedule III/IIIN Controlled Substances (3/3N)

 

Schedule III/IIIN Controlled Substances (3/3N)

Substances in this schedule have a potential for abuse less than substances in Schedules I or II and abuse may lead to moderate or low physical dependence or high psychological dependence.

Examples of Schedule III narcotics include: combination products containing less than 15 milligrams of hydrocodone per dosage unit (Vicodin®), products containing not more than 90 milligrams of codeine per dosage unit (Tylenol with Codeine®), and buprenorphine (Suboxone®).

Examples of Schedule IIIN non-narcotics include: benzphetamine (Didrex®), phendimetrazine, ketamine, and anabolic steroids such as Depo®-Testosterone.

 

Schedule IV Controlled Substances

Substances in this schedule have a low potential for abuse relative to substances in Schedule III.

Examples of Schedule IV substances include: alprazolam (Xanax®), carisoprodol (Soma®), clonazepam (Klonopin®), clorazepate (Tranxene®), diazepam (Valium®), lorazepam (Ativan®), midazolam (Versed®), temazepam (Restoril®), and triazolam (Halcion®).

 

Schedule V Controlled Substances

Substances in this schedule have a low potential for abuse relative to substances listed in Schedule IV and consist primarily of preparations containing limited quantities of certain narcotics.

Examples of Schedule V substances include: cough preparations containing not more than 200 milligrams of codeine per 100 milliliters or per 100 grams (Robitussin AC®, Phenergan with Codeine®), and ezogabine.

Edited August 10, 2014 by imiubu

[trichcycler]

I bet all the protesting pot leaves and tie dye's didn't help the cause much. I've never seen a competition to see which manufacturer makes the

best hydrocodone either. I myself enjoy the would be nonsensical celebrations of the ancient cannabis rituals, giving thanks to Shiva, and feeling well.

Dressing in costumes has long been a practice of many celebrations and protests, and I see no harm in it. But those that oppose have different opinions I think.

while they sit and watch the follies that some registrants bring on themselves, societal costs of police eradication, etc, its easy to see their minds forming.

 

We all experience failures of big pharma, and so will they. I hope they discover the errors in their ways before its too late.

[bobandtorey]

I bet all the protesting pot leaves and tie dye's didn't help the cause much. I've never seen a competition to see which manufacturer makes the

best hydrocodone either. I myself enjoy the would be nonsensical celebrations of the ancient cannabis rituals, giving thanks to Shiva, and feeling well.

Dressing in costumes has long been a practice of many celebrations and protests, and I see no harm in it. But those that oppose have different opinions I think.

while they sit and watch the follies that some registrants bring on themselves, societal costs of police eradication, etc, its easy to see their minds forming.

 

We all experience failures of big pharma, and so will they. I hope they discover the errors in their ways before its too late.