Beer Distributors Say NO to Prop 19

SOLUTION

The California Beer and Beverage Distributors have given the “No on Proposition 19” campaign a $10,000 contribution according to The Marijuana Policy Project.

How ironic it is to have alcohol makers teaming up with law enforcement groups to oppose marijuana legalization. This $10,000 goes with $30,000 from the California Police Chiefs Association and $20,500 from the California Narcotics Officers’ Association.

“Unless the beer distributors in California have suddenly developed a philosophical opposition to the use of intoxicating substances, the motivation behind this contribution is clear,” said Steve Fox, Director of Government Relations at MPP. “Plain and simple, the alcohol industry is trying to kill the competition. They know that marijuana is less addictive, less toxic and less likely to be associated with violent behavior than alcohol. So they don’t want adults to have the option of using marijuana legally instead of alcohol. Their mission is to drive people to drink.”

These are the people we are up against. The beer distributors don’t care how many of their consumers die of liver disease or crash their car.

“Members of law enforcement have argued against Proposition 19 by asserting, ‘We have enough problems with alcohol, we don’t need to add another intoxicating substance to the mix,’ implying that marijuana is just as bad as alcohol,” Steve Fox continued. “But the truth is that a legal marijuana market would not add another dangerous intoxicant to the mix; rather it would provide adults with a less harmful legal alternative to alcohol.”

When contacted by us, Allen St. Pierre – Executive Director of NORML – had the following to say:

“NORML is both interested and disturbed by the recent donation of $10,000 to the ‘Say No on Prop 19′ campaign, which seeks to maintain the many decade-old prohibition laws, thereby trying to protect some of their market share and profits that they know they’ll partially lose to a legal and taxed cannabis market.

In some ways what they’re doing is both parochial and logical, but bad for society, public health and consumers on the whole.”

Some cannabis activists are so disgusted with the alcohol lobby that they take their protests a step further.

“I have been so outraged by the role of the alcohol industry in funding Prohibition and opposing legalization, that I took an oath, ten years ago, to not buy or consume alcohol until cannabis is legalized,” Steve Kubby – Director of The American Medical Marijuana Association – told The 420 Times. This may seem like a small protest to some, but hitting the alcohol distributors in the profit margin is where it will hurt them the most. After all, if you make a product like alcohol you are pretty immune to public censure; but without money contributions to anti-cannabis groups becomes much harder.

Retired CA Judge and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition spokesman Jim Gray says the alcohol companies are being smart. “It was a really wise thing to do from a merchandising standpoint to reaffirm the distinction between a legal and an illegal drug,” he said. “They are protecting their own economic self interest.” This is obviously the right of any business. It is up to us to show them that it is not in their economic self interest to alienate cannabis users.

California Proposition 19 has many enemies, some with major political clout, and some with deep pockets. But the days of their propaganda are over. It is a new time, and the truth can no longer be contained. Cannabis is a safer alternative to alcohol, and the alcohol companies know it.
resource:  http://the420times.com/2010/09/beer-distributors-contribute-to-anti-prop-19-campaign/