cannabisnews.com: Pro-Pot Forces Smoking Opposition





Pro-Pot Forces Smoking Opposition
Posted by CN Staff on October 15, 2002 at 18:54:40 PT
By Jeff German, Columnist
Source: Las Vegas Sun 
John Walters did his best last week to rally the anti-marijuana troops fighting Question 9.The nation's drug czar made a compelling case why voters should defeat the initiative that would legalize the possession of up to three ounces of marijuana and allow the state to distribute the addictive drug.
Walters not only laid out the social costs of legalizing marijuana, which is more potent today than most voters know, but also he talked about the financial costs, the legal liabilities the state would face by selling a drug known to have harmful tobacco-like side effects.He also talked about how silly Nevada would look to the rest of the country if it became the only state to pass such a ballot question next month.Walters was good, but he didn't seem to wake up the community.Despite his pep talk, the anti-marijuana forces, even with the long arm of law enforcement on their side, continued to have a tough time organizing themselves and raising money.And there was no sense of outrage from the public, as some polls showed the initiative dead even among the voters.The pro-marijuana camp, on the other hand, led by smooth-talking Texas strategist Billy Rogers and backed with big bucks from the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C., continued to roll along.Rogers and company so far have spent $1 million on the initiative and plan to unload another $500,000 more by Nov. 5. They've been running a first-rate campaign, promoting their position in television ads and mailers and on their website.The anti-marijuana forces, meanwhile, have raised a mere $4,600, according to Sandy Heverly, executive director of STOP DUI.They have not aired a single television ad or sent out any fliers. They have no website. And they just replaced their chief media spokesman after he made a couple of public gaffes.Plans announced two weeks ago to get former Govs. Richard Bryan and Bob Miller to do television ads pooh-poohing pot are on hold because the anti-marijuana forces can't seem to find any volunteers to film the commercials."What's troubling them is they can't get their message out," Walters said. "They feel like the big megaphone, the big money and the big advertising is all on one side."Walters and his federal agency, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, are in the middle of a $180 million media campaign warning parents and youths across the country about the dangers of marijuana. But only $350,000 worth of ads have been budgeted for Nevada, and most of those are running on youth-oriented networks like UPN and MTV, not the mainstream networks watched by voters.That means the ads are likely to have little impact in the Question 9 fight."We've absolutely been struggling," Heverly acknowledged after the drug czar's whirlwind visit. "It's been very difficult getting people mobilized. The money is coming in slowly."So where's the community on an issue of such importance?The Chamber of Commerce and the Nevada Resort Association, the two groups with the financial wherewithal to help the anti-marijuana forces battle Question 9, are standing silent."They're not immune to the ramifications of what would happen to the community if this initiative passes," Heverly said. "They have an obligation to help us defeat it."The chamber, however, is too busy helping Nevada Power fight Question 14, an initiative that seeks voter approval for a public takeover of the struggling utility. Chamber members believe they'll be forced to pick up millions in lost taxes if the Southern Nevada Water Authority buys Nevada Power.The Nevada Resort Association, which represents the gaming industry, is hard at work promoting Question 10, which calls for tax increases to raise $2.7 billion to improve the roadways so more people can drive to the casinos to spend their money.Question 9 simply hasn't been on the radar screen of these two organizations.The chamber's Governmental Affairs Committee plans to take up the initiative this week, just days before the start of early voting on Saturday. Resort association leaders don't even want to give the issue the time of day.This kind of apathy is not uncommon from the bottom-line business community.Look at what happened in the 18-year fight against Yucca Mountain. The chamber and the resort association didn't get actively involved until this year -- after it appeared President Bush would steamroll a bill through Congress ordering the storage of the nation's deadly nuclear waste outside Las Vegas.How long will business leaders wait this time before recognizing the social and monetary ills of legalizing marijuana?Will they wait until pot users from all over the country descend on Las Vegas and raise our crime and drug addiction rates?Will they wait until the image of this city is so soiled that tourists won't want to bring their families here?If the nation's top drug-fighter can't wake up the community, who can? Jeff German's column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays in the Sun. Source: Las Vegas Sun (NV)Author: Jeff GermanPublished: October 13, 2002Copyright: 2002 Las Vegas Sun, Inc.Contact: letters lasvegassun.comWebsite: http://www.lasvegassun.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:NRLEhttp://www.nrle.org/Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/Nevada's Unfortunate Drug Initiative http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14463.shtmlQuestion 9: Figures Hazy, Ad Sayshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14460.shtmlWe Could Go Up in Smoke Over Thishttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14310.shtml
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Comment #13 posted by Number 7 on October 16, 2002 at 18:08:00 PT
flacid
Seems like the big lies are starting to get limp....Go Nevada!!!
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Comment #12 posted by legalizeit on October 16, 2002 at 14:31:57 PT
Lousy article... Loved the title, though!
Reminds me of the old story "The Smoke-Off" by Shel Silverstein, played often in the late seventies on the Dr. Demento Show."And she reaches 'cross the table and grabs his bony sleeves 
And crumbles his body between her hands like dried and brittle leaves, 
A-flicking out his teeth and bones like useless stems and seeds. "Then she rolls him in a Zig-Zag and lights him like a roach, 
And the fastest man with the fastest hands goes up in a puff of smoke."
http://irant.tripod.com/smoke-off.html
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Comment #11 posted by unknown pleasures on October 16, 2002 at 11:01:33 PT
'apathy'!!???? ...how about just plain insanity?
"We've absolutely been struggling...""It's been very difficult getting people mobilized."'Resort association leaders don't even want to give the issue the time of day.
This kind of apathy is not uncommon from the bottom-line business community.'Ok then. So the lazy, unmotivated, apathetic dope heads have all the money, initiative and momentum?
Don't they just sit in their basement all day smoking dope, nelecting their kids, and watching tv?
Isn't grass sopposed to lead to apathy and lethargy????
That has been a staple of the anti-grass arguement for ages.Now they say, grass smokers are more mobilized, are more vocal, and more passionate than their opponents. 
So the government, with all it's money (only $4,600 my ass, how much did taxpayers pay for the multiple trips by Walters to Nevada? ...or the superbowl ads???) and power, can't seem to get the public worked up in the face of a bunch of strung-out stoners?Huh???? Shouldn't the well-reasoned and clear-cut arguement of Mr. Walters be enouch to cut through the hazy, muddled position of the pot-heads? Shouldn't a debate with them be a piece of cake? The legalization position is clearly based on lies, and anyways they've all got brain damage.
So what's the problem?Revolution. Now. 
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Comment #10 posted by Morgan on October 16, 2002 at 07:21:36 PT
Bizarro World
Those poor prohibitionists! Under-manned and out-gunned by those wealthy and powerful potheads.I guess all the money and support prohibitionists get from the U.S. Government, the Pharmaceutical industry, the Oil industry, the Alcohol industry, the Timber industry, the Tobacco industry, etc., just isn't enough to counter a few rich potheads and their evil plan to take over Las Vegas and turn it into a cesspool of sin and vice.Wait a minute.... what planet is this on?
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Comment #9 posted by druid on October 16, 2002 at 06:29:19 PT:
NRLE website
Anyone have any idea what is wrong with it and for how long it is going to be down? It has been about 24 hours now. Not good.
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Comment #8 posted by malleus on October 16, 2002 at 05:50:10 PT
Crocodile tears and sob stories
From people who've had the lion's share of the taxpayer's hard earned dollars to misuse for public propagandizing for decades.That guy Kap said it before: the 'antis' don't know how to win a fair fight. They don't know how to make a cogent argument. They certainly don't have the facts to back up what they are saying. And they are saying what they are saying in a way that insults anybody above a room temperature IQ.I've mentioned before the fact that Walters has been there three times shows how worried they are. THREE TIMES. That's a lot of expensive jet fuel and man-hours being used at public expense to try to defeat something that the Nevada voters seem very quietly but strongly in favor of.Johnny Pee, go home. You've wasted enough of our money already.
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Comment #7 posted by BGreen on October 15, 2002 at 21:53:12 PT
How In the HECK
did WE become the people with all of the MONEY, POWER AND CONTROL?And, WHEN in the world did this happen?And, WHY aren't we FREE if we have all of this MONEY, POWER AND CONTROL?
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Comment #6 posted by p4me on October 15, 2002 at 20:54:02 PT
Your article stinks No need to waste words on crap
"Pro-Pot Forces Smoking Opposition" by Jeff German was pathetic. Before the Internet a brainwashed America might look up to a newspaper with reverence. Now an informed America looks down on articles like this with disgust.This article appeared at CannabisNews.com this Tuesday and you may want to see how an informed community regards crap like Jeff German wrote. I realize Jeff German is writing to the remaining brainwashed Americans on behalf of the prohibitionist cause and he could care less about the definition of freedom in America today, much less raise the issues of corruption or the role of the CIA in the drug trade. German's article has five comments at the present time at Cnews and can be seen by clicking here: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread14464.shtml1
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Comment #5 posted by MikeEEEEE on October 15, 2002 at 20:41:40 PT
VOTE
VOTE YES ON QUESTION 9Enough said.
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Comment #4 posted by afterburner on October 15, 2002 at 20:01:10 PT:
Addictive, Again, Lie #?
Is anyone keeping a list. We could refer to them by number. It would save time. The disgusting thing is that the author/journalist is telling the lie himself instead of quoting John Walters. Cannabis is Not addictive: read the Nolin Senate report."If the nation's top drug-fighter can't wake up the community, who can?" Maybe the pro-legalization team is successful in waking up the community that putting people in cages for smoking a plant less harmful than tobacco or alcohol is an irrational response. Re-legalize and be wise.
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Comment #3 posted by karkulus on October 15, 2002 at 19:33:45 PT
Why are they obsessing on Las Vegas??
 An entire new community(s) could spring up 100 miles away from Las Vegas with Concert Facilities, water parks,Amsterdam-ian coffee-shops,of course, and whatever else appropriate.I personally loathe Las Vegas and everything about it.(as I'm pretty sure most culturally mellow cannabis users do)And the New Mexico Gov's debate is on ..Looks like no one's going to take up Gov. Johnson's "mantle".
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Comment #2 posted by DdC on October 15, 2002 at 19:33:20 PT
Wally and Asa as the Beav..the Family of D.E.A.th 
D.E.A.th Czar's wouldn't abuse power, profit on WoD perpetuation or Cannabis prohibition. D.E.A.ths $20 billion a year plus forfeitures, confiscations, fines and Chemical Partnerships with D.A.R.E.aren't megaphones trying to get their lies out, and failing miserably. Enron maybe crooks, but not D.E.A.th . Unaccounted expenses. No personal profits for the WoD parefernalia manufacturers either. It's just the C.I.A. and F.B.I., local copshops and F.D.A., O.S.H.A., A.M.A and E.P.A., but not the D.E.A.th Czar and his minions of Undercover Ralph Reed chrishuns. Oh No. If it walk's like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck and acts like a duck, its probably a Fascist D.E.A.th Monger! Sing along, just follow the bouncing ball....If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked. (Prov. 29:12) Peace, Love and Liberty in Solidarity or The Murdering Goofy D.E.A.th!...DdCD.E.A.th Deceptions
http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ddc/DEAth.htmlU.S.Al Qaeda!
http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/politics/media/39/39670.gifThugczar Wally
http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/politics/media/35/35838.gifexcerpted from A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn The Coming Revolt of the Guards... the mountain of history books under which we all stand leans ... so tremblingly respectful [in the direction] of states and statesmen and so disrespectful, by inattention, to people's movements-that we need some counterforce to avoid being crushed into submission.All those histories of this country centered on the Founding Fathers and the Presidents weigh oppressively on the capacity of the ordinary citizen to act. They suggest that in times of crisis we must look to someone to save us: in the Revolutionary crisis, the Founding Fathers; in the slavery crisis, Lincoln; in the Depression, Roosevelt; in the Vietnam-Water gate crisis, Carter. And that between occasional crises everything is all right, and it is sufficient for us to be restored to that normal state. They teach us that the supreme act of citizenship is to choose among saviors, by going into a voting booth every four years to choose between two white and well-off Anglo-Saxon males of inoffensive personality and orthodox opinions.The idea of saviors has been built into the entire culture, beyond politics. We have learned to look to stars, leaders, experts in every field, thus surrendering our own strength, demeaning our own ability, obliterating our own selves. But from time to time, Americans reject that idea and rebel. These rebellions, so far, have been contained. The American system is the most ingenious system of control in world history. With a country so rich in natural resources, talent, and labor power the system can afford to distribute just enough wealth to just enough people to limit discontent to a troublesome minority. It is a country so powerful, so big, so pleasing to so many of its citizens that it can afford to give freedom of dissent to the small number who are not pleased.There is no system of control with more openings, apertures, lee ways, flexibilities, rewards for the chosen, winning tickets in lotteries. There is none that disperses its controls more complexly through the voting system, the work situation, the church, the family, the school, the mass media-none more successful in mollifying opposition with reforms, isolating people from one another, creating patriotic loyalty.One percent of the nation owns a third of the wealth. The rest of the wealth is distributed in such a way as to turn those in the 99 percent against one another: small property owners against the propertyless, black against white, native-born against foreign-born, intellectuals and professionals against the uneducated and unskilled. These groups have resented one another and warred against one another with such vehemence and violence as to obscure their common position as sharers of leftovers in a very wealthy country...Continued http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/RevoltGuards_PeoplesHx.htmlThe Seventies: Under Control?                       It was also learned from the investigation that the CIA-with the collusion of a secret Committee of Forty headed by Henry Kissinger-had worked to "destabilize" the Chilean government headed by Salvadore Allende, a Marxist who had been elected president in one of the rare free elections in Latin America. ITT, with large interests in Cuba, played a part in this operation. When in 1974 the American ambassador to Chile, David Popper, suggested to the Chilean junta (which, with U.S. aid, had overthrown Allende) that they were violating human rights, he was rebuked by Kissinger, who sent word: "Tell Pop per to cut out the political science lectures."The investigation of the FBI disclosed many years of illegal actions to disrupt and destroy radical groups and left-wing groups of all kinds. The FBI had sent forged letters, engaged in burglaries (it admitted to ninety-two between 1960 and 1966), opened mail illegally, and, in the case of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, seems to have conspired in murder.Valuable information came out of the investigations, but it was just enough, and in just the right way-moderate press coverage, little television coverage, thick books of reports with limited readership- to give the impression of an honest society correcting itself. Continued...http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/Seventies_PeoplesHx.html
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Comment #1 posted by pokesmotter on October 15, 2002 at 19:19:43 PT:
this is comedy
"What's troubling them is they can't get their message out," Walters said. "They feel like the big megaphone, the big money and the big advertising is all on one side." Hmm? This sounds like what has been happening to pot-proponents for a long time, except the prohibitionists are on the other side. i think this has a good chance of passing! if i lived in nevada i would tell everyone to vote yes on question 9! but i dont, so everyone in nevada, vote yes on question 9!
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