Oregon State Police Withdraw From Private Anti-Marijuana Summit
Noelle Crombie at The Oregonian reports that the Oregon State Police will no longer be sending two of its representatives to an upcoming anti-marijuana legalization summit. Lt. Gregg Hastings, an OSP spokesman, said the State Police Superintendent Richard Evans, Jr. cancelled the appearances by two sergeants at the 5th Annual Oregon Summit – Impacts of Marijuana, held April 15th & 16th.
This annual anti-marijuana scare rally is produced by Shirley Morgan, of the Mt. Hood Coalition Against Drug Crime, whose “fiscal agent” is the Florida-based Drug Free America Foundation founded by Mel & Betty Sembler from the ashes of their convicted teen-abusing false-imprisoning drug rehab, Straight Inc. The event is invitation-only; no members of the public or media may attend.
Sgt. Walt Markee had been scheduled to speak on The Impacts of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program. Sgt. Markee works in Josephine County in Southern Oregon and the conference brochure describes him as a career law enforcement official who “has been recognized several times for his success” and as a leader who helped produce a “dramatic increase” in seizures. Sgt. Erik Fisher had been scheduled to speak on The Impacts to Property and is listed as a “Drug Enforcement Program Sgt.”
Oregon State Police had been listed as a sponsor of this summit, but Lt. Hastings said its sponsorship consisted only of sending the two sergeants to speak. There was no promotion by or financial sponsorship from the Oregon State Police, according to Lt. Hastings. Thus it would seem the Oregon State Police are no longer sponsoring the event.
Superintendent Evans cited the invitation-only nature of the event as the reason for the withdrawal. However, Crombie reports that the governor’s office contacted the Oregon State Police to learn more about its participation in the summit. While there are many county and city-level law enforcement participating, Oregon State Police was the only state agency listed as sponsors.
The brochure for the event explains “If you think marijuana is harmless, then you will want to attend this Summit to learn more about why it is not a harmless drug and see for yourself the real impacts marijuana is having in our communities.” Well, if that’s the case, why is only invited law enforcement allowed to attend? Could it be they are the only ones who think marijuana is harmless? Or could it be that they don’t want the embarrassment of public hearing their top speakers utter such inanities as:
“Those who ignore the correlation between cannabis and mental illness are, he says, as reckless as the tobacco barons who denied the link between smoking and lung cancer.” – Peter Hitchens, a writer for The Mail on Sunday who doesn’t understand the difference between correlation and causation and can’t read hospital stats from the past century in the UK that show no appreciable increase in mental illness even as cannabis use skyrocketed.
“There’s no such thing as smokable medicine. To me that’s as ridiculous as saying chew this pile of gravel because there’s iron in it.” – Monte Stiles, retired US Attorney for Idaho, exposing ignorance of any sort of medical or nutritional education.
“No matter what U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says about letting Colorado and Washington legalize marijuana, possession and sale of the drug remains a federal crime.” – Bill Montgomery, Maricopa County (Arizona) Attorney, who is not charged with enforcing any federal laws.
“Pot is directly connected to 12 homicides in Denver.” – Mitch Morrissey, Denver DA, who’s not familiar with Mexican cartel homicide stats and who’s far less cool than the British singer Morrissey.
“Tax money from pot won’t pay a fraction of the costs to society.” – John J. Coleman, President of Drug Watch International, who, mathematically speaking, must believe Colorado suffered more than $2.1 million in costs to society in January 2014, since that’s how much tax money was raised.
“Most parents also do not realize how potent marijuana has become over the years.” – Calvina Fay, Executive Director of Save Our Society From Drugs and the Drug-Free America Foundation, not realizing she’s explaining how unregulated markets produce more concentrated drugs that are never labeled for potency.
Yeah, if I were them, I’d probably want to keep the whole thing private, too. It’s already bad enough for them that 75 percent of the public isn’t buying this tripe anymore.
