To Caring Community Member,
Earlier this month, we learned of the biggest development in the story about Big Marijuana in years: the uncovering of The Weed Papers. This bombshell story exposed a secret industry presentation detailing how organizations like the United States Cannabis Council and Marijuana Policy Project plan to create a marijuana monopoly.
The industry’s plan is clear: create a multi-billion dollar corporate marijuana empire. The source for the exposé, an insider with Marijuana Policy Project, put it best by saying, “They [the industry] don’t want to compete.”
The presentation explicitly lists the tobacco and alcohol industries as models for legal pot. As we predicted, this predatory industry really is the new Big Tobacco
Every day, SAM works to combat these corporate forces trying to install a regime of drug commercialization; and we have won many recent battles. On Election Day, numerous localities across five states rejected retail marijuana sales. Several pro-marijuana incumbent candidates in Virginia and New Jersey also lost.
Friend, the simple fact is this: Big Tobacco and Big Alcohol are working with pot companies around the clock to build Big Marijuana, the next addiction-for-profit oligopoly.
The marijuana industry is already made of addiction profiteers that disproportionately target and harm vulnerable communities. The last thing we need is a more expansive pot industry. The Weed Papers show us where we will go if the industry gets what it wants.
We know that some 70% of profit for the alcohol industry is derived from fewer than 20% of users. And we are seeing similar trends already from the marijuana industry. The legalization and normalization of drug use will not help the issues our country is facing. As it stands, we are already in the midst of a five-alarm fire in terms of drug use.
2020 was the worst year on record for drug overdose deaths. A corporatized marijuana industry will only exacerbate our problems. We can’t afford to lose this fight, our families’ lives literally depend on it.
Dr. Kevin Sabet,
President & Co-Founder – Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM)
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