Architect of Project SAM – Kevin A. Sabet (photo KevinSabet.com)
The architect of the new rhetoric for marijuana prohibition, dubbed “the kinder, gentler drug war” by legalization advocates, spoke Wednesday at the Ohio Statehouse, claiming advocates for the medical use of marijuana are using it as a ruse for outright marijuana legalization.
Speaking on behalf of Project SAM, or Smart Approaches to Marijuana, Dr. Kevin Sabet explained that advocates for medical marijuana legalization are “putting on white coats and pretending to have compassion for the sick and dying.” Sabet continued to explain that it is wrong to use “smoked marijuana under the pretense of medicine” and that existing FDA-approved drugs that contain one active cannabinoid from marijuana should be used instead.
Sabet claims that only five percent of patients in medical marijuana states are seeking it for “severe medical problems”, but seemed to indicate even those five percent of patients should cease using medical cannabis and wait instead for an FDA-approved version of the plant that is already providing them relief. Sabet’s claim flies in the face of state medical marijuana program statistics from Oregon showing over one-third of patients using medical marijuana for spasticity (like MS), seizures (like epilepsy), HIV/AIDS, and cancer. Records from Colorado indicate over one-fifth of patients are using medical marijuana for those same “severe medical problems”.
