Today, a growing class of well-heeled lobbyists intent on commercializing marijuana are doing everything they can to sell legal weed as a panacea for every contemporary challenge we face in America. Over the past several years we've been barraged by claims that legal pot can cure the opioid crisis, cure cancer, eliminate international drug cartels, and even solve climate change.
Read MoreStay in the know with the latest on our fight against the legalization of marijuana
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Economy Needs Workers, but Drug Tests Take a Toll→
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It’s not that local workers lack the skills for these positions, many of which do not even require a high school diploma but pay $15 to $25 an hour and offer full benefits. Rather, the problem is that too many applicants — nearly half, in some cases — fail a drug test.
The fallout is not limited to the workers or their immediate families. Each quarter, Columbiana Boiler, a local company, forgoes roughly $200,000 worth of orders for its galvanized containers and kettles because of the manpower shortage, it says, with foreign rivals picking up the slack.
Read MoreMarijuana, Legalization and the Workplace
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This year American workers tested positive for illicit drugs at the highest rate in 12 years with marijuana positivity increasing 75%. Being in construction and manufacturing business for over 40 years I know well the challenges of finding, training, and maintaining an effective workforce. There is also the demand for creating and maintaining a safe workplace. None of these business demands are assisted by having marijuana legalized.
Read MoreLegalized marijuana turns Colorado resort town into homeless magnet→
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Caleb Preston, a store manager in a gift shop and a former “street entertainer,” said the homeless and panhandling issue in Durango has gotten out of hand since the state legalized marijuana.
“Just this year there has been a major influx of people between 20 to 30 who are just hanging out on the streets,” Preston said. “The problem is while many are pretty mellow, there are many more who are violent.”
Read MoreMarijuana laws hard and expensive to enforce→
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While serving on Gov. John Hickenlooper’s task force to implement Amendment 64, I quickly learned that we were changing more than our laws, we were engaged in a huge paradigm shift which was the creation of what would be a new marijuana culture. To this day, Colorado law enforcement struggles with the litany of conflicts created by “legal marijuana.”
Read MoreNew report by National Families in Action rips the veil off the Medical Marijuana Industry
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The NFIA study, Tracking the Money That’s Legalizing Marijuana and Why It Matters, exposes, for the first time, the money trail behind the marijuana legalization effort during a 13-year period. The report lays bare the strategy to use medical marijuana as a runway to legalized recreational pot, describing how financier George Soros, insurance magnate Peter Lewis, and for-profit education baron John Sperling (and groups they and their families fund) systematically chipped away at resistance to marijuana while denying that full legalization was their goal.
Read MoreDon’t let Big Marijuana prioritize profits over public safety
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Simply put, the current fragmented patchwork of laws governing marijuana in states is unsustainable. Despite the oft-repeated refrain that marijuana enforcement is an issue of “states’ rights,” the consequences of legalization are not confined by geographic borders. Since Colorado legalized, marijuana has streamed into neighboring states and emboldened drug trafficking organizations there. In fact, in Nebraska and Oklahoma, the inflow of marijuana trafficking has been so dramatic that the states sued Colorado. Interstate drug tourism is thriving, with companies in states with legal pot advertising across state lines and online.
Read MoreCountering the Threat of Legalized Marijuana: A Blueprint for Federal, Community, and Private Action
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Recent reporting indicates that the Federal government will be taking a more serious approach to the marijuana threat and the enforcement of our nation’s drug laws. This is a welcome and long-overdue development, as the state-level legalization of marijuana is bringing with it significant and foreseeable costs. Decades of experience have taught us the damage that accompanies drug use; embarking on a legalization course that assuredly leads to higher levels of prevalence will increase the damage greatly as use broadens and intensifies.
Read MoreWhite House: Feds will step up marijuana law enforcement
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CALM is encouraged by the announcement by Sean Spicer that the new administration is going to take a look at the issues related to marijuana use in America. We are also encouraged by their apparent recognition that the blossoming opioid addiction crisis and drug use at large has a connection to the expansion of marijuana use.
Read MoreCitizens Push Back Against Big Marijuana
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Calaveras County will see California’s first ever citizen-initiated ordinance banning commercial marijuana activities decided soon by its Board of Supervisors or in a spring special election.
Read MoreProposition 64: New law should be cause for broad alarm
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It is clear that California is no longer the Golden State. California does poorly in education and in measures of children’s well-being. With only 12 percent of the nation’s population, California has 33 percent of those on the nation’s welfare rolls. Homelessness and drug use are skyrocketing and the two are connected. None of these issues will be improved with more pot commercialization and use. Other problems of the state will be made worse as well.
Read MoreExperts Link Homeless Surge To Pot
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Homeless people in the streets are a staple of the landscape in downtown areas of Colorado Springs, Denver and most other Colorado communities. Visitors from other states are struck by the dilemma, even when visiting from large cities on the coasts. Experts on homelessness point to marijuana.
Read MoreNew Surgeon General's Report Highlights Dangers of Marijuana Use
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The new data confirms mounting body of scientific evidence highlighting problems with rising marijuana use
Read MoreProp 64 Wins - Public Health, Safety and California Kids Lose
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“This is the worst possible message we could send to our citizens, children and other states,” warns Scott Chipman, Southern California Chair of CALM. “For at least a generation California like Colorado will be burdening their communities and children with the scourge that is marijuana. The negative impacts of legalization and commercialization will be regular headlines in the news and in the lives of Californians.”
Read More5 Former DEA Administrators urge Governor Brown to Oppose Prop 64
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As former heads of the Drug Enforcement Administration, we write to ask you, the State’s highest level and most visible political leader, to take a position on Proposition 64 before the election next Tuesday. For the reasons set out below, we urge you to oppose Prop 64. Your voice, Governor, is critical.
Read MoreCalifornians Call on Governor Brown To take An Oppose Position on Prop 64
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It is curious that Governor Brown said while being interviewed by “Meet the Press,” March 2, 2014, “The problem with anything, a certain amount is OK. But there is a tendency to go to extremes, and all of a sudden, if there is advertising and legitimacy, how many people can get stoned and still have a great State.” Carla Lowe, Founder, Co-chair, Citizens Against Legalizing Marijuana (CALM)said, “He then turned his back on Californians 4 days later and accepted over $108,000 from Sean Parker and his wife, both financial backers of Prop 64. We believe he further put California in jeopardy, maybe forever, by allowing it to become the world’s largest producer of marijuana by not demanding enforcement of federal law.
Read MoreWhy Legalizing Marijuana Would Be a Big Mistake
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The marijuana of today comes in numerous forms; smoked, vaporized, butters, waxes, oils, and edibles. What they all have in common is their THC potency (THC is the psychoactive, intoxicating and addictive cannabinoid in marijuana) which is 10-40x greater than the marijuana of the 1960’s. Today’s marijuana has been genetically engineered to maximize THC and minimize CBD (the non-psychoactive, non-intoxicating, non-addictive; cannabinoid with potentially therapeutic value).
Read MoreThe American Automobile Association Opposes Prop 64
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We have a genuine traffic-safety concern related to the legalization of recreation marijuana use, including marijuana candies, foods, and concentrates. It has taken generations to educate the driving public about drinking and driving and to strengthen laws to reduce drunk driving. Proposition 64 would create new traffic- safety issues and increase the problem of impaired driving.
Read MoreThe pro-pot crowd claims that legalization will eliminate the black market. This is a lie.
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The legalization of marijuana allows the pot industry to aggressively advertise and market a crude street drug as well as hundreds of additional products containing extremely high levels of THC. The marketing of these products along with easy access to unlimited supplies expands the customer base for marijuana and normalizes its use. As a result, the pot industry is free to openly advertise, manufacture, process, transport, and distribute massive quantities of drugs. This gives other "unlicensed" drug dealers the ability to blend in - to literally "hide in plain sight."
Read More5 Reasons Marijuana Should Remain Illegal→
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It's bad enough that we already lose so many Americans to cigarettes, alcoholism, and drunken driving. Do we really want to endorse the loss of millions more potentially productive Americans via Marijuana?
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