While those of us with any background in drug policy know full well the game that S.A.M. and Kevin Sabet are playing, they’ve still been getting way too much of a free pass in most of the media.
They are, after all, offering up an alternative policy and working to convince people to follow this policy, without ever actually defining it.
All they do is repeat that they wish to avoid the “extremes of incarceration and legalization” without ever defining how you avoid incarcerating without it being legal. And then they say the word “treatment,” as if that explains it all. Which, of course, it doesn’t, since only a small portion of illicit drug users need treatment.
I will personally send $100 to the first mainstream reporter who nails Kevin down with the question: “What would you do with the vast majority of illicit drug users who don’t need treatment?”
So I’m always looking for those little moments when they let their guard down and reveal just a touch more…
Like this one.
Rob Chapman (@robchappy)
12/10/13, 2:34 PM
@julianbuchanan @MikeRiggs @KevinSabet forbes.com/sites/jacobsul… US #Druglawreform : ‘..public health issue not JUST a criminal justice issue’
Kevin Sabet (@KevinSabet)
12/10/13, 3:39 PM
@robchappy @julianbuchanan @MikeRiggs @jacobsullum Yes, drug use can be a health AND justice issue-When 1 commits a non-drug crime bc of use
Jacob Sullum (@jacobsullum)
12/10/13, 3:49 PM
@KevinSabet @robchappy @julianbuchanan @MikeRiggs Also when the drug “crime” involves producing or selling prohibited substances, right?
Kevin Sabet (@KevinSabet)
12/10/13, 4:00 PM
@jacobsullum @robchappy @julianbuchanan @MikeRiggs Yes drug production should remain a crime – but proportional to circumstances.
In other words, incarceration. For growing a plant. Ah, but it should be “proportional to circumstances,” whatever the hell that means. I think that’s code for “kinder, gentler prohibition.”
Then Jacob tries for the gold…
Jacob Sullum (@jacobsullum)
12/10/13, 3:50 PM
@KevinSabet @robchappy @julianbuchanan @MikeRiggs Or when a drug user declines “treatment.”…
…
<crickets>
OT: Don’t read this or pass it on. I am not going to be responsible for Sabet’s total mental conniption fit. The Pope is to address this revelation soon. As soon as they dispel the myth of a spherical earth. At least the drug worriers today don’t treat users by hanging them on a cross. Although I don’t want to give them any ideas either…
VICE â€@VICE
Did Jesus Perform His Miracles with Cannabis Oil?
Ancient Temple Hashish Incense! Did Jesus Inhale?
Charges Against Rick Simpson Withdrawn
It’s too late for Kevin Sabet to recant.
He will live and die a prohibidiot.
.
.
It’s a good thing too because if Kev-Kev recanted we’d be a lot more concerned about the Earth’s imminent implosion! Seriously, Kev-Kev doesn’t have the mental capacity to be anything other than a prohibitionist parasite. Like the scorpion said to the frog just before they both drowned, “I couldn’t help myself…it’s in my nature.”
Final Print Edition of ‘The Onion’ Gets the Last Laugh
TransformDrugPolicy â€@TransformDrugs
Uruguay Legalizes Marijuana
The Onion’s take on this weeks historic reform
This Guy Is Charting London’s Drug Use with a Discarded Baggie Map
VICE â€@VICE
It will be a while before Britain follows Uruguay’s approach to drugs
TransformDrugPolicy â€@TransformDrugs
Kevin Sabet will end up gibbering to himself in a corner of dark room and I hope he get a spidermite infestation on his nut sack.
I see where MI is considering hiring out marijuana production for it’s medical marijuana program,,possibly from CAN,,that should really make the medicine affordable. They will end all growing in MI.
I don’t see why they they don’t move growing into their prison systems,,it isn’t like they don’t have experienced growers and confiscated equipment to start it up.
Help quell violence in the prisons and the taxes on the marijuana is the price paid. Except for the natural born greed of a politician they could run illegal growers for profit out of the business.
.
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It really looks like the California parasites have finally figured out how to defeat the Compassionate Use Act. The fact that it took them more than 17 years proves they’re idiots but it’s pretty darn possible that in a couple of years the CUA will only be real in Oakland and San Francisco, and San Francisco is kind of iffy. Next time don’t just remove the potential criminal penalties. Growers need to have a protected right to grow.
sabet needs to be hauled before congress and be forced to answer this question. his inability to give the true answer (yes they go to jail) needs to be exposed. would love to see reps pollis and cohen give him the leonhart treatment.
Let me be clear: Jacob Sullum is the most underrated opinion columnist in America.
definitely not under-rated here on the couch!
This needs an answer just as badly as the other Question that they never answer or get asked…
So, tell us – just where in the hell are all these adults possessing “under an ounce of marijuana” -(or under whatever amount is a ‘civil offense’/’infraction’) – supposed to obtain it from???
Seriously, I would stop the whole damn conversation/interview/Intelligence Squared debate/news segment/etc.
Until they’ve answered this question… Or, rather these two questions (I might settle for an answer to just one of them), IF it doesn’t equal – “Do as we say… Because Authority”
Example: (In a snark-laden, totally disingenuous tone = very natural to prohibs)
“Well, your not supposed to have ANY, but for -under an ounce- or a “small amount” – as determined by local law. See, that’s just the somewhat arbitrary line at which point we’re willing to arrest and quite possibly spend $30K+ a year jailing you for…”
First thing I did after reading your post, Pete, was to go to Twitter to “favorite” and then to retweet Sullum’s final tweet in your post.