Prohibitionists Misidentify Goliath in Post-Marijuana Legalization Spin
Marijuana legalizers are still celebrating the solid win in Alaska, decisive win in Oregon, and landslide win in Washington DC for marijuana legalization. On the heels of decisive wins in Colorado and Washington last election, the wave of momentum for legalization nationwide seems to be unstoppable.
A large part of why we won marijuana legalization isn’t just the influx of money we had to work with, though that was absolutely vital, as Oregon’s 2012 loss proved. We also won because we had truth, facts, reason, science, logic, compassion, and history on our side.
That’s not what the prohibitionists want you to take away from this election, however. In an effort to shore up their campaign coffers for the prohibition knock-out election coming in 2016, the prohibitionists are desperately trying to spin 2014’s election results to raise money from the Sheldon Adelsen conservative billionaire types they hope will fund anti-legalization efforts in California and elsewhere.
“This has been a David and Goliath battle,” remarked drunk driver and Oxycontin addict former Rep. Patrick Kennedy, a board member of the prohibitionist Project SAM. “We were outspent by more than 20-1, but our resolve has gotten stronger.”
Echoing Kennedy (indeed, their lack of creativity often leads to an echo chamber), Oregon prohibitionist and DUID prosecutor of sober pot smokers Josh Marquis said, “This was a true David vs. Goliath effort, “ referring to the $5 million put up by supporters and only $200,000 raised by opponents. “Money talks.”
If you’re wondering where Marquis came up with the David vs. Goliath frame, look no further than Kevin Sabet. Sabet, who cleared at least $21,000 in speaking fees to try to defeat Measure 91 in Oregon, posted an infographic on the Project SAM site reading: “Why did marijuana succeed in Alaska, Oregon, and DC last night? Follow the money. Money talks.”
On Sabet’s infographic, he notes the $9,000,000 spent on campaigns to legalize in Oregon, Alaska, and DC, compared to the $400,000 spent by opponents in those three jurisdictions. Yes, that would be a true David-with-his-meager-slingshot vs. hulking-giant-Goliath battle, if Sabet wasn’t purposefully ignoring David’s Death Star orbiting the issue known as The War on Drugs.
The budget for the 2013 War on Drugs totaled $25.6 billion. Large sums of money from that budget are distributed to local drug prevention specialists in the form of “educational” grants that end up funding anti-pot campaigns that might as well be official no-on-legalization propaganda. So while legalizers may have banked $9 million of private money in 2014 to promote legalization, the opponents of legalization have had the home-court-defending-champ-up-3-0-in-a-best-of-seven advantage, consisting of over forty years of government-sanctioned anti-legalization propaganda and a public money budget that’s topped one trillion dollars over that span.
Now, assuredly, much of that money is spent on cops and interdiction and prisons. It’s not all anti-legalization campaign propaganda funding. However, in the late 1980’s anti-pot ad buys from groups like the Partnership for a Drug-Free America were topping one million dollars per day. There’s also a whole government agency, the ONDCP, which spent $100 million on anti-drug ads as late as 2007. Even greatly diminished of late, the Partnership (now “at DrugFree.org”) still bankrolled $100 million in media placements per year.
With that perspective, legalizers’ $9 million in one year looks more like David’s meager slingshot, doesn’t it?
