Contact: Justin Luke Riley
New Group Formed,
Marijuana Accountability Coalition, To Push Back on Recreational Marijuana Industry
In the wake of 5th year anniversary of legalization MAC says “we’re not better off” with a massive new pot industry
(November 6, 2017 – Denver, CO) – A new group, the
Marijuana Accountability Coalition (MAC), formed today to push back against the marijuana industry in Colorado. MAC, which will be based in Denver but have satellites across the state, came together from discussions of recovery advocates, parents, doctors, and other concerned citizens who do not think Colorado is better off after five years of legalization, despite industry claims.
“While the marijuana moguls are celebrating their financial success at the posh Ritz-Carlton Hotel, we’re here standing with our friends and neighbors who have been hurt, whose families have been hurt by commercialized, legal pot,” said Justin Luke Riley, MAC’s founder. “Colorado continues the pay the price for marijuana’s rapid spread into our communities, our schools and our families.”
“For too long, pot lobbyists in Colorado have gotten away with too much,” said Kevin A. Sabet, a former White House drug policy advisor and President of SAM Action. “We applaud the Marijuana Accountability Coalition for dedicating themselves to keeping the industry on their toes.”
Passed in 2012, Amendment 64 allows for the recreational sale and grow of marijuana in Colorado. But marijuana has been rapidly commercialized and normalized in the state. Since 2012, an entire industry has been created with recreational stores in cities and towns across the state selling and promoting items that range from bud to edibles to highly pure (sometimes 99.9%) concentrates. Few sideboards have been placed on this industry, particularly related to the fast growing edibles market that is pushing frighteningly common products laced with THC.
“It’s one thing to decriminalize marijuana, it’s an entirely different thing to legalize an industry that has commercialized a drug that is devastating our kids and devastating whole communities,” observed Riley. “Coloradans need to know, other states need to know, that Colorado is suffering from massive normalization and commercialization of this drug which has resulted in Colorado being the #1 state for youth drug use in the country. Kids are being expelled at higher rates, and more road deaths tied to pot have resulted since legalization.”
Now, five years into this dangerous “experiment,” the commercialized marijuana industry is holding a gala in their own honor at the Ritz Carlton in Denver. MAC’s mission is to expose these marijuana millionaires and to hold them accountable for the horribly negative effects their products are causing across Colorado.
“Turning a blind eye to those who are hurt is typical of a big business like this. The millionaires make their money and real people get hurt,” said Riley. “Even today, the industry refuses to fess up to the astronomical societal costs of this experiment.”
The mission of the Marijuana Accountability Coalition is to fearlessly investigate, expose, challenge, and hold the marijuana industry accountable.
