The 3 Industries Killing Legal Weed

Over 58% of Americans support marijuana legalization, yet candidates still aren’t rushing to Federally legalize. Unfortunately, three major industries just might be to blame. Alcohol, corrections, and pharmaceutical lobbies are paying top dollar to prevent marijuana reform for as long as they can.

Here’s how these industries are scamming the public.

Big Booze

65% of Democrats currently favor marijuana reform. Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is not one of them.

An analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics found that Wasserman Schultz has received over $330,568 in campaign contributions since 2006. During the 2015-2016 fundraising period, Beer, Wine, and Liquor represented her fifth largest campaign backer. The industry has contributed $18,500 thus far.

Back in 2014, she was one of a group of democrats that voted against the state’s right to choose on whether or not they allow medical marijuana programs.

After facing criticism from medical marijuana groups and activists, Wasserman Schultz has recently claimed that she supports medical marijuana. As she explains in an interview with New York Times Magazine:

“I don’t oppose the use of medical marijuana. I just don’t think we should legalize more mind-altering substances if we want to make it less likely that people travel down the path toward using drugs. We have had a resurgence of drug use instead of a decline. There is a huge heroin epidemic.”

NYT Magazine reporter Ana Marie Cox calls her out on that one. Cox states: “Heroin addiction often starts with prescribed painkillers. Pill mills were a problem in Florida, but the state didn’t make prescribing opiates illegal.”

In response, Schultz, again, makes another ambiguous statement conflating marijuana with heroin use. “There is a difference between opiates and marijuana.”

When Cox presses further on what shaped Schultz’s opinions on the marijuana issue, she explains that her opinions on drug use were “formed by my personal experience both as a mom and as someone who grew up really bothered by the drug culture that surrounded my childhood — not mine personally. I grew up in suburbia.”


Umm… So… Congresswoman, what is your concern about marijuana exactly? That any marijuana user will turn into rampant heroin addicts which then surround your quiet suburban home?

Schultz has recently come under fire for her asinine comments about cannabis, but she’s not the only politician accepting cash from the booze industry. Ten years ago, the beer lobby contributed $10,000 to knocking down California’s Proposition 19, which would have legalized recreational marijuana in the state.

Overall, alcohol lobbies have contributed more than $17 million to federal candidates since 2014.

Why any candidate would vote against marijuana reform bills and rake in the dough from a substance known to cause over 80,000 deaths annually is beyond ridiculous. Perhaps candidates that accept large contributions from big alcohol are either in denial about the harmful impacts of the intoxicant or are more interested in attaining personal political aspirations than reducing the extreme social harms of alcohol additions and the war on drugs.

Big Law Enforcement

Private Prison Corporations

Private prison lobbies may be one of the most disgusting things about the United States. What is perhaps even more disgusting is that even amidst all of the public outcry for criminal justice reform, 2016 candidates are still accepting major dollars from the prison industry.

Of them all, Marco Rubio (R) is the worst. In fact, Rubio has accepted more than $40,000 in campaign donations from GEO Group Inc, a multi-billion dollar prison corporation.

Rubio is also weak on marijuana reform. In a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt, Rubio stated; “I think we need to enforce our federal laws.” He also explained that states “have their rights. But they don’t have a right to write federal policy as well.”

Between 2000 and 2012, privatized corrections corporations have spent more than $32 million in federal lobbying and campaign contributions. Companies like the Corrections Corporation of America function through creating contracts with individual states, requiring that the state fill a minimum number of beds each year. If the state does not meet these requirements, the state can be held accountable for breech of contract.

This process incentivizes arrests. Cannabis reform has the potential to cause a huge shake-up in this industry. With some states still slapping out harsh felony sentences for possession of even minor amounts of marijuana, Federal legalization would automatically reduce the number of bodies placed in private prison beds. This hits the prison industry hard where it hurts the most: their pocketbooks.

Police Unions

The ability of lobbying money to outweigh huge swaths of public support cannot be better exemplified than in the case of California’s Proposition 19. Coupled with donations from the beer industry, one police union lobbyist has been largely held responsible for defeating California’s Prop 19 nearly six years ago.

That man is John Lovell. A 2012 investigation by Republic Report reviled that Lovell’s firm was paid over $386,350 by the California Police Chief’s Association among several others. Lovell also helped police departments apply for drug war grants from the Federal government.

According to the same report, California police departments in Northern California were awarded $550,000 in grants to help pay for overtime and new officer training for a NorCal Marijuana Eradication Team. Lovell helped them achieve this.

Keep in mind that this is in a state where prisons were so overcrowded the Supreme Court needed to intervene to address the issue. In 2011, the state was ordered to reduce it’s total inmate population by 137.5%. California’s inmate population did not dip below the maximum number January of last year.

Police departments around the country still apply for Federal grants to support drug enforcement and marijuana eradication teams each year. In the case of California, the money paid by police associations to lobbyists enabled them to kill a bill that once had brought more voters to the polls than the gubernatorial race. Further, the special interests of police unions continues to allow for criminal prosecution of non-violent marijuana offenders.

Part 2 -


Big Pharma

Photo credit
When you talk about money in politics, the pharmaceutical industry is one of the primary players. Nearly every 2016 candidate has received some form of cash from this giant industry. Hilary Clinton has taken the most money thus far, receiving a whopping $112,251 in campaign contributions.

But, direct campaign contributions isn’t the primary mechanism behind big pharma’s effort to squander the marijuana movement. In a 2014 piece published in The Nation, journalist Brian Fang reveals that pharmaceutical companies are behind some of the largest anti-weed campaigns out there.

Patrick Kennedy’s Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana), the Community Anti-Drug Coalition of America (CADCA), and Partnership for Drug Free Kids all take money from large pharmaceutical corporations.

In fact, CADCA’s annual convention in 2014 was sponsored by Perdue Pharma, the manufacturer of opioid pain reliever OxyContin. There are 16,000 overdose deaths from prescription opioids each year.


The Nation also found that the largest donors to Partnership for Drug-Free Kids (formerly Partnership for a Drug-Free America) comes from Perdue Parma and Abbot Laboratories. Abbot Laboratories is the manufacturer of another famous opioid, Vicodin.

As for Project SAM, Fang points out that several board members of the organization have underlying economic interests in keeping marijuana illegal. Dr. Stuart Gitlow, for example, is the medical director at Orexo. Orexo is a pharmaceutical company that has recently created a drug that serves to replace opioid pain relievers.

So, why are all of these major painkiller producers backing these anti-marijuana organizations? It’s because they stand a lot to lose. As most marijuana users already know, weed can take away a headache or ease pain all with a few simple puffs. Marijuana also has considerably less harmful side-effects and less addictive capacity than prescription opioids.


Cannabis prohibition has been a source of economic prosperity to a small few at the risk of the many. Millions of dollars have been spent, thousands of people have been locked up, and countless innocent patients have died due all due to the criminalization of one simple plant.

To drop some wisdom from Lester Freamon of HBOs The Wire:

“You follow drugs, you get drug addicts and drug dealers. But you start to follow the money, and you don’t know where the f*ck it’s gonna take you.”

Do you feel like these industries are infringing on your rights? Help fight the man by sharing this article. Have you or someone you know been impacted by the War on Drugs? Share your story with us on social media or write to us in the comments section below. We’d love to hear about your experience!

Lol the biggest industry striving to keep cannabis illegal is...wait for it...the illegal cannabis industry. It's been that way since the early '70s.

Yes there is the underground movement that butters every politicians palms. Just to make money.. dont belive me?? They run ur basic companies, from Orange juice, to burger franchises. To launder the moneys. They own this country.

Bump

I live in Northern California in the north bay at the bottom of the Emerald Triangle. Last summer we were growing for a bay area collective with over 10,000 verified medical cannabis patients recommendations under our belt (and posted at the grow site). we got raided by the local sheriff's department and they took everything even though we were in compliance with California and county laws with their reason being "it looks like your trying to make a profit, were taking everything". over 75% of the plants we were growing contained very little if any THC but were very high in CBD, (ACDC strain) we are still fighting in court. The day we got raided was one of the worst days I've ever had. all that work, all that medicine gone in a 10 hour shift as the 40 some sheriffs' cut them all down laughing and joking the whole time. they even drank all my beer.

Don't forget lumber and farming industry.

Donnybrook said:

Part 2 -


Big Pharma
<snip>...Partnership for Drug Free Kids all take money from large pharmaceutical corporations.

So, why are all of these major painkiller producers backing these anti-marijuana organizations? It’s because they stand a lot to lose. As most marijuana users already know, weed can take away a headache or ease pain all with a few simple puffs. Marijuana also has considerably less harmful side-effects and less addictive capacity than prescription opioids.

Cannabis prohibition has been a source of economic prosperity to a small few at the risk of the many. Millions of dollars have been spent, thousands of people have been locked up, and countless innocent patients have died due all due to the criminalization of one simple plant.

To drop some wisdom from Lester Freamon of HBOs The Wire:

“You follow drugs, you get drug addicts and drug dealers. But you start to follow the money, and you don’t know where the f*ck it’s gonna take you.”

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I think this is incorrect. Big pharma isn't afraid of mm in the least. It's just not effective enough. If it was, they'd be in the market.

Vicodin and Percocet are off patent and generics rule the roost, with the market spread across Indian, Israeli, and Chinese manufacturers. About 150 million prescriptions for generic Vicodin were written last year. Sales are skyrocketing and if there is any mm effect on the market (...if) it's on the order of a couple hundred thousand scripts per year. Peanuts.

Abbvie makes a pittance on Percocet. They pay out to anti-drug orgs because 1) they legitimately think it's the moral and right thing to do, and 2) It makes them look like responsible manufacturers.

Follow the money. I'll wager that more campaign $$$ comes from cartels and black market rec producers than anyone else.

Who has the most to lose if cannabis is legalized?

Not true.. MM cut their profits in a big way, its a better alternative to being a pill junkie.

I'm actually kind of shocked at how small those numbers are. Who is the cheaper fuck? The bitch selling out for less than $20k a year or the multi billion dollar industry offering her those peanuts? If it was really this simple, every stoner in america could just donate $2 a year and it would be way more money.

I think it goes beyond just money, that is the cover. The real reason iscontrol and power. Warrentless searches from probable cause, unfair trials from Rico, you don't even have to be guilty of anything, they just call it conspiracy. Sprinklesome crack on him amd take him in.

You can't patent cannabis genetics without altering them in a way that most cannabis users wouldn't find acceptable. Monsanto has patented the genetics that they created synthetically through the use of E.coli bacteria (I may be a little off, my wife is a biochemist and she explained it to me) to get traits that wouldn't otherwise be naturally possible. Unless you can prove that the traits you have gotten from your plants were not naturally possible to get you can't patent the genetics. Because of that you can't corner the market on the latest cannabis breakthrough like they do with synthetic drugs. Of course it all comes down to money, money is power and people leading large corporations are probably either greedy or power hungry, I guess maybe both as they go hand in hand. People that don't have that greed or power hunger they are unlikely to deal with the stresses of running something that large. Of course, I absolutely hate managing people so maybe I'm just more pessimistic on that front.

SnailPowered said:

You can't patent cannabis genetics without altering them in a way that most cannabis users wouldn't find acceptable.

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Dude, nobody in big pharma gives a toss about cannabis. Seriously. It has some potential in seizures (CBD) but only if it's manufactured. Other than that the effects are mostly comparable to placebo. Not that I'm pooh-poohing placebo, it's a very effective regimen. If you convince yourself something works, it works.

Someone will throw an ethyl group onto CBD, increase the half-life, and develop it. Or not. I wager every possible modification is patented already.

WeeblesWobbles said:

Dude, nobody in big pharma gives a toss about cannabis. Seriously. It has some potential in seizures (CBD) but only if it's manufactured. Other than that the effects are mostly comparable to placebo. Not that I'm pooh-poohing placebo, it's a very effective regimen. If you convince yourself something works, it works.

Someone will throw an ethyl group onto CBD, increase the half-life, and develop it. Or not. I wager every possible modification is patented already.

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I just read an article describing how people who consume medical cannabis cut their prescription use on average by 80%.

But yeah, no, no interest at all.

OGEvilgenius said:

I just read an article describing how people who consume medical cannabis cut their prescription use on average by 80%.

But yeah, no, no interest at all.

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Cite the article. There are a few pharmas--very few--who make significant profit from treating chronic pain, which is the biggest legitimate use for cannabis. If they lobby against cannabis I'd be surprised, and I'd bet their $$$ are significantly less than the black-market lobby that is desperate to keep cannabis illegal in order to keep the gravy train rolling.

You seriously think that cannabis manufacturing isn't a corporate venture?

WeeblesWobbles said:

Cite the article. There are a few pharmas--very few--who make significant profit from treating chronic pain, which is the biggest legitimate use for cannabis. If they lobby against cannabis I'd be surprised, and I'd bet their $$$ are significantly less than the black-market lobby that is desperate to keep cannabis illegal in order to keep the gravy train rolling.

You seriously think that cannabis manufacturing isn't a corporate venture?

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I seriously think that making money is ancillary to maintaining control. I think we will see legal weed in a really harsh and corporatist system (that will ensure all uses of this plant are not effectively or efficiently explored and developed - it is indeed much larger than just pharmaceutical companies...). It will never be free though.

Most of the drugs they produce cost pennies to manufacture (and nowhere near as much to develop as they lead you to believe - they spend more on advertising than anything else by far, not to mention executive salaries and corporate jets and all sorts of bullshit) but with patents they can charge insane prices. They have had among the highest profit margins in the world for sometime now. As a bonus most of the stuff they manufacture makes you sicker down the line. Bonus.

Patent law is horrible. Regulations are horrible. Let the do no harm principle and the market regulate itself through lawsuits, trade groups, simple reviewers, independent labs... all of that jazz. Because there is clearly demand for it. Trusting a bought and paid for government do this has clearly failed everyone. We are surrounded in carcinogens... bathed in them daily. Thanks government regulations protecting us. Governments can toss fraudsters in jail like they're supposed to (they bail them out with trillions in tax payer dollars these days though).

Sorry got on a little rant.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dar.12323/abstract

Sorry, ^^^ don't agree. You've never developed a drug. It's hugely expensive. And it's too bad that cannabis won't face some of the regulatory action drugs face. It needs it.

The marijuana biz is as unsavory, rapacious, and uncaring as any I've seen. Try to get unadulterated medical pot. Growers are cynically using insecticides, fungicides, miticides and then claiming "organic". I've had the testing done myself. The mj biz is totally twisted.

And I'm sorry but your big pharma bogeyman trying to "maintain control" is just a fallacy. I've been working with big pharma for 30 years. They seriously don't give a thought to weed, except to drug test their staffs. Which is another idiocy.

Again, when you want to look to a group trying to maintain control, look to the black-market cannabis industry. Follow the money. Who has the most to lose if cannabis was legalized?

I saw NORML and the hippies make a run for legalization in the early-mid '70s. I had a friend then who controlled much of the distribution of weed in the Midwest. He was anonymously dropping off grocery sacks of cash on anti-legalization orgs doorsteps.

He's long retired. Flash houses everywhere, political connections, tons of legitimate businesses. This is how it works. Money talks, bullshit walks.

WeeblesWobbles said:

Sorry, ^^^ don't agree. You've never developed a drug. It's hugely expensive. And it's too bad that cannabis won't face some of the regulatory action drugs face. It needs it.

The marijuana biz is as unsavory, rapacious, and uncaring as any I've seen. Try to get unadulterated medical pot. Growers are cynically using insecticides, fungicides, miticides and then claiming "organic". I've had the testing done myself. The mj biz is totally twisted.

And I'm sorry but your big pharma bogeyman trying to "maintain control" is just a fallacy. I've been working with big pharma for 30 years. They seriously don't give a thought to weed, except to drug test their staffs. Which is another idiocy.

Again, when you want to look to a group trying to maintain control, look to the black-market cannabis industry. Follow the money. Who has the most to lose if cannabis was legalized?

I saw NORML and the hippies make a run for legalization in the early-mid '70s. I had a friend then who controlled much of the distribution of weed in the Midwest. He was anonymously dropping off grocery sacks of cash on anti-legalization orgs doorsteps.

He's long retired. Flash houses everywhere, political connections, tons of legitimate businesses. This is how it works. Money talks, bullshit walks.

Click to expand...

Hitting the nail on the head with this one. I have very little trust in every aspect of Marijuana.I don't trust seed companies , I don't trust that those rock hard buds aren't pgr'd. I don't trust that someone running a crop for money isn't gonna use what ever product it takes to harvest and sell that shit. You can't trust the fertilizer companies. I'm sure plenty of people actually believe what they run is clean. The industry is unregulated any goes. Not that I want a regulated industry though. I've always held the belief it's on the consumer to find out what they are actually using but it sure isn't easy. I remember working for a doctor and he loved my weed but when I told him the strain he always said how do you know that it's what it is. Being a young man at the time I said because that's what I bought. Now looking back at it I understand what he was getting at. The hydro store scam is amazing to me. they take fertilizer that costs a dollar dilute it in water and then charge 15-40 dollars a bottle. It's the same damn shit as regular fertilizer from a feed store unless the added pgrs and we'll never find out. I've done it to myself lmao spent over 400 dollars on ferts for a crop and got the same high quality taste and yeilds as I have running jacks, fish emulsion and epsom which cost about 20 bucks all together and the jacks and epsom lasts years for that price. joke was on me and I did it to myself out of naivete. lmao when I started I threw the soil out after every crop like some dumbass who just had to do whatever it took to be caught with cultivation materials. I've reused the same soil for around 5 years now and the results are as good as when it was fresh except I have to fertilize a little bit sooner.

Caveat emptor is fine unless you need an HPLC rig to test your pot.

I just roll my eyes at the folks on here who go on and on ad nausem about the 'Man' and crooked corporations and then I see them discussing using pesticides "but not in the last two weeks of flowering." Gee, thanks.

WeeblesWobbles said:

Sorry, ^^^ don't agree. You've never developed a drug. It's hugely expensive. And it's too bad that cannabis won't face some of the regulatory action drugs face. It needs it.

The marijuana biz is as unsavory, rapacious, and uncaring as any I've seen. Try to get unadulterated medical pot. Growers are cynically using insecticides, fungicides, miticides and then claiming "organic". I've had the testing done myself. The mj biz is totally twisted.

And I'm sorry but your big pharma bogeyman trying to "maintain control" is just a fallacy. I've been working with big pharma for 30 years. They seriously don't give a thought to weed, except to drug test their staffs. Which is another idiocy.

Again, when you want to look to a group trying to maintain control, look to the black-market cannabis industry. Follow the money. Who has the most to lose if cannabis was legalized?

I saw NORML and the hippies make a run for legalization in the early-mid '70s. I had a friend then who controlled much of the distribution of weed in the Midwest. He was anonymously dropping off grocery sacks of cash on anti-legalization orgs doorsteps.

He's long retired. Flash houses everywhere, political connections, tons of legitimate businesses. This is how it works. Money talks, bullshit walks.

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They spend more than twice as much on advertising as they do on R&D. And most of it is directed towards health care professionals. But yeah, surely that's a great expense. I mean god forbid doctors simply deduce what's best from independent research and their own patients responses...

There are drug dealers who want to keep it illegal, no doubt. That's not relevant to the point at all though, is it?

You cannot easily patent a plant and that's the bottom line. This plant is illegal to keep people repressed. It goes way beyond big pharma. It could replace oil completely. You could grow materials to build your own freaking cars if you wanted to. That's a big problem. Easier to control oil from the ground and other more difficult to harvest materials (like metals and large trees which are mighty difficult to bring down and fully process if you're just some average joe).

WeeblesWobbles said:

Caveat emptor is fine unless you need an HPLC rig to test your pot.

I just roll my eyes at the folks on here who go on and on ad nausem about the 'Man' and crooked corporations and then I see them discussing using pesticides "but not in the last two weeks of flowering." Gee, thanks.

Click to expand...

Do you use actual arguments or just deflect? Many of us do not use pesticides at all. You get presented info you don't like so you deflect... if you want I can start about the history of drug companies and all the illegal shit they've done and people they've knowingly killed next... AIDs in vaccines? Oh well, ship it to the homosexuals.

But no surely such moral corporate entities would ever try to protect their interests immorally through lobbying, blackmail and whatever else they can possibly use...