How times have changed. As the new Marijuana Majority site shows, it’s getting easier to find people willing to speak out publicly in favor of ending prohibition in one way or another.
And, at the same time, the prohibitionists are more and more scurrying for cover like cockroaches when the lights come on.
You may remember this bizarre and over-the-top billboard that was put up in Oregon recently:
I’m not sure what this woman’s problem is, but it certainly isn’t marijuana.
Well, after only about two weeks, Clear Channel took down all the billboards due to complaints. Here’s what they found:
“The ads protesting marijuana are being removed because our policy is transparency of advertising campaigns and the advertisers who are sponsoring them. These ads include a misleading website that we believe needed to honestly represent the advertiser so the ads are being removed,” he said in a prepared statement. […]
The boards name protectoursociety.org as a contact, but the website contains no phone number, address or names of members.
The contact phone number listed with Clear Channel for the billboards belongs to St. Petersburg, Fla., group called Save Our Society from Drugs. A spokeswoman there on Friday said they are not affiliated with the advertising and have no information about Protect Our Society.
Interesting. If you look up the registration information for protectoursociety.org (which has the billboard plastered all over its pages), the owner is Calvina Fay and Save Our Society from Drugs.
Another interesting bit…
Umatilla County Sheriff John Trumbo is the spokesman for people opposed to Measure 80 in Oregon, but he told The Oregonian that he doesn’t know anyone with Protect Our Society.
And yet, according to Sam Chapman with the National Cannabis Coalition:
Umatilla County Sheriff John Trumbo lied to The Oregonian last week when he said that he didn’t know anyone affiliated with a group called “Protect Our Societyâ€. Protect Our Society was a Political Action Committee (PAC) that was created for Measure 32, a 2010 initiative which sought to repeal the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act (OMMA).
According to Election records provided by the Oregon Secretary of State, Trumbo was a Chief Petitioner for Protect Our Society which was discontinued on April 10th, 2012.
Curiouser and curiouser.
Now, it could be that the Protectoursociety website is not affiliated with the failed Protect Our Society PAC, but that seems unlikely (especially since Shirley Morgan, the treasurer of the failed PAC, was head of Oregonians Against Legalization of Marijuana, which apparently is connected to Calvina’s group).
Of course, if you follow the trail, somewhere you’ll probably find that it’s our own tax money that’s being used to try to convince us to keep feeding the prohibition beast.
It’s interesting to note that Clear Channel removed several anti-vote-fraud billboards from minority neighborhoods, citing almost exactly the same reasons given in this story.
Yes, the billboards in Ohio and Wisconsin have an identical situation and even “reason” for why they came down. It is worth noting that those billboards were almost certainly paid for by the Family Research Council which also makes an appearance on the Drug Free America Foundation’s website:
http://www.dfaf.org/content/links
This poster and picture would be more appropriate with the tag line “Protect our Children by Regulating the Market for Drugs”
I TOLD you that billboard stunk of Calvina! It is SO clearly her style of Poo-Flinging.
I find it appropriate. They should be hiding.
We should start keeping score of you amazing ability to figure out the prohib behind each ad or campaign. I don’t think you have been wrong yet. This is on no way meant to be sarcastic, I am truly impressed.
darkcycle: “I TOLD you that billboard stunk of Calvina! It is SO clearly her style of Poo-Flinging.
I find it appropriate. They should be hiding.”
When she’s not advocating the war on drugs at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, you may find Calvina Fay hiding out at the nearest biker bar and showing lots of cleavage.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/redapplesonya/8121454049/in/photostream
UGH. DOUBLE UGH.
Pete: “Of course, if you follow the trail, somewhere you’ll probably find that it’s our own tax money that’s being used to try to convince us to keep feeding the prohibition beast.”
Calvina Fay’s Drug-Free Amerika Foundation, which does nothing except promote prohibition, is almost entirely funded by government grants according to GuideStar. Whatever happened to letting the “free market” decide? How come Marijuana Policy Project and Drug Policy Alliance can get billionaires on their side and yet Calvina Fay needs government assistance?
Even by the low standards of U.S. political advertising, that billboard is remarkably both devoid of content and over-the-top in its absurdity. The text says little more than “MARIJUANA BAD!!1!” The ridiculous imagery that accompanies that text has no apparent connection to it. I guess we’re supposed to assume that the girl’s vaguely pathetic and unhealthy appearance is somehow the fault of the demon weed? I gotta figure that even the people inclined to support cannabis prohibition would see that billboard as an insult to their intelligence.
And really, there’s “nothing” good about cannabis? It seems to me that “everything” would probably come closer to the truth for a plant that can provide food, fuel, fiber, medicine, relaxation, creativity, spiritual insights, a heightened appreciation of sensory experiences and the present moment, etc., etc.
Prohibition: Stupid chasing stupid.
The Mossad probably got their motto from the way drug prohibitionists operate: “By deception, thou shalt do war” or some such.
They can’t stop themselves from lying. It’s just so profitable.
Eilitler!
Like they carry out capital punishment on 300 convicts in Persia annually! Where may have I read that?
Did you lift this gem from Glenn Greenwald?
For those wondering from whence this is coming, I invite the curious to research the Web propagandizing operations being performed by many countries around the globe, including this one, in order to counter what they believe to be damaging criticism of national policies.
In many cases, they proffer a (in some cases, a rather hyperventilating) formulaic response to that perceived criticism, regardless of the degree of severity; rather like trying to swat a gnat with a sledgehammer. Which generally only makes things worse for everything and everyone around them. It can even create enemies where none existed before, due to a lack of subtlety, nuance and depth on the part of those engaged in it.
And I repeat, ALL major powers engage in it, including out own. This was most prevalent during the Bush Too (not a typo) years, when former (and serving!) military personnel schooled in military intelligence and psychological warfare were ‘hired’ by major news outlets to beat the war drums for the Iraq invasion.
We all know (even after quite a few American citizens warned their compatriots about it, before hostilities were begun by the US) what resulted from such propagandizing. And we are still paying the price in our dearest blood.
The latest offerings hail from Israel’s ‘hasbara’ operations, in which paid volunteers, all heavily connected to Israel’s military, engage in attempts to silence ANY perceived criticism of Israel and Israel’s national policies via that same formulaic attack method. Even when no such criticism took place.
This has only caused even greater acrimony and, in some cases, open hostility amongst the citizens of the various nations on the receiving end, thus further alienating them against Israel…who cannot afford to lose any friends, whatsoever, lest those former friends begin to lobby for reductions in foreign aid for her.
And, given these tight times, a rise in anger amongst the voting populace (who desperately need that money, themselves) against such treatment by a nation whose existence would become highly questionable without that aid, such a program can only lead to calls for that reduction in aid. It’s not terribly bright to shake a vial full of nitroglycerin.
In short, this process, fueled in no small part by (certainly not invalid) existential fear, is almost entirely reflexive in nature, now; the sledgehammer is being swung against the great and the miniscule equally, denoting a certain degree of desperation and as such, can best be handled by first recognizing it for what it is, and then suitably ignoring any further such attacks…expecting, of course, that the moral of the lesson be self-evident.
In conclusion, drug Law reformers have become quite adept in identifying such attempts, as we have had to; propaganda is what has largely propped up drug prohibition’s faux moral facade. We smell propaganda before we see it, and we see it coming a mile off. The practitioners of propaganda should seek a less aware venue to peddle their product.
Why pray tell should we throw Colorado to Raw money herr Kaleut?
I think they all took a leaf out of Joseph Goebbels’ book:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.â€
When the actual truth be told, the poster of the sorry-looking girl should read:
“Prohibition. What’s good about it? Nothing.”
See, because the ultimate irony about all those nut jobs screaming “Save the Children” is that THEY are the ones harming the children. We know it, they know it, even most of the children know it – and it never ends because simply stopping all the harm to children would be “defeat”. And you know who can’t stand “defeat”?
Protect & Serve (Themselves!)
Like most liars, these prohibitionists are sniveling cowards as well. Living on the government teat, prohibition welfare bums. Scum.
Thanks for exposing these parasites to the light, Pete. It’s a treat to see them scurry for cover like the cockroaches they are.
.
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The prohibitionists are working double overtime in Massachusetts in their campaign against the proposed medicinal cannabis patient protection law in the Bay State. They’ve even had an honest to god political rally. I don’t recall ever seeing the prohibitionist parasites have a rally. What’s next? Will they organize a march to the White House and drink cheap beer to excess in the park across the street?
Did that billboard crack anyone else up? It’s just so absurd I can’t even look at it without laughing.
At first it did…until I recalled what it portrayed…or was supposed to portray.
I have no idea if the picture is genuine or made-up, but it shows the effects of physical abuse. How that abuse occurred is unknown…but the very real physical abuse of often innocent citizens at the hands of sadistic DrugWarriors is very well documented, particularly in two places: hospital emergency rooms…and morgues. And those who are the recipients of such treatment often look like that poor woman, or worse.
Where’s the concern on the part of these (virulently unprintable epithets) for the individuals and their families who’ve suffered and in far too many instances died at the hands of their LE compatriots?
Where’s Calvina and Company’s tears for people like Alberto Sepulveda? He’d be in his late twenties, now, maybe married, had kids, the usual…if the 12 year old little boy had not been shotgunned in the back, face down on the floor, at point blank range by a (sneering) ‘braaaaaave’ DrugWarrior intent upon ‘saving’ him him from drugs. Kafka or Pound couldn’t have written anything as insane as the reality was…and is.
These people remind me continually of the ‘banality of evil’. And that attempt of theirs shows just how much of a bubble they exist in, if they honestly thought they would not be caught out…but then, some of the most evil people who walked the Earth have also been some of the stupidest. And they are only validating that observation.
Thank you so much. You say it so well.
AHH!! WTF! That chick aint no weed smoker!! What the hell?! Thats the chick i saw at a squat a few nights ago…!! That chick aint no weed smoker, OBVIOUSLY, i mean, she’s WAY too skinny for that and besides, doesnt the skinniness and multitudes of skin problems make that clear? I mean WHO they HELL are they trying to KID with this?
WHATS MORE – how dare…HOW DARE… they compare US good (at stealing), honest (at being dishonest), dope purveyors…with those… ewwwll *shudder* i mean… gross… pot smokers!! wtf man, way to go prohibition America!! Hate on pot smokers with a picture of a junkie!! but everybody KNOWS that junkies do heroin not pot, we wouldn’t go THAT far… i mean, we may be homeless, borderline suicidal (thanks to prohibition) and we may willingly expose ourselves to HIV and Hep C and other wonderful STD’s…but….smoking reefer? US?! cmon i mean, slinging mud is one thing, but that’s below the belt.. smoking weed? WE’D NEVER do *THAT* drug!! they should never legalize THAT drug!! what the hell is society coming to guys?!
anybody have any money i can borrow and never pay back?
i just dont feel like panhandling or stealing today but i dont want withdrawals either and its way to early to decide wether or not today will be an epic fail and thus ill need to take one of the subs out of my almost 2 year old sub prescription
;o)
actually all kidding aside i think that chick is a methhead or crack head but definitely an upper girl (if not, just a horribly abused chick from some third world country) and all kidding aside this is a good article Pete and i do love how you stick it to these cowardly bastards i bet the chick on the phone is the CEO, CFO, founder, president and number 1 fan of the save our society crap.
all kidding aside again, if prohibition didnt force opiate users who were not filthy rich to need to dedicate most their money to daily opiate purchasing, i would definitely love to start a saveoursocietyfromprotectoursociety website and slam this chick and her boyfriend kevin sabeet. i would really love to know, for some strange reason, what this ladies deal is. what the hell is wrong with her brain, what kind of fear mongering ignorance prevails in her mind and why and wether she is honey boo boos mom or what her deal is. i want to see a pic of her and i wanna know why shes like this. did a junkie break her heart? did she maybe have a crush on Jay and he ran off on her and now she wants revenge because Silent Bob wont do?
hmmm..questions….life…questions and life…sometimes they are one in the same thing, iye?
Its been tracked down to a 2003 Florida Billboard pic(concerned with Crack), financed by an org run by a “Rehab” outfit getting Fed and State money to “rehab”, that company went extinct on lawsuits for misabuse of ‘patients’ and reopended under another name owned by the same person. That person has been an Ambassador 3 times for the Govt and is currently a major fundraiser for Romney.
Such is how the ‘Drug Policy’ is conducted.(I will fight tooth and nail-Romney) The ‘policy is set by who gets money, not who is best served(the Public).
“So what’s the story behind “Meth Girlâ€?
After some investigation and phone calls, Oregonians for Law Reform discovered that the “Meth Girl†ads were indeed staged, according to Kim Kapp, the Public Information Coordinator and Website Administrator for the City of Vancouver Police. “Meth-Girl†was a model that was mocked up to appear to be a meth addict for a meth awareness campaign in 2003. Kapp was “positive†that this was a model and not a real meth user because Washington law prohibits the use of face-shots of “victims of crimeâ€, which includes drug addicts. Further, because it was funded with federal grant money, there was very close oversight for the project, ensuring everything was done by the book.”
http://www.theweedblog.com/oregon-marijuana-activists-expose-political-billboard-scandal/
Ha! Nice. I KNEW I’d seen that girl before. Now I know where….that billboard made news when it was put up here, many years ago!
while still dysfunctional in many ways, Oregon’s DPRers have been delivering some pretty solid blows against the Prohibs. The slap-down of Dwight Holton in the Dem AG primary was a surprise to many. Part of (imho) our rekindled battle spirit here in OR comes from an influx of youthful energy out of the SSDP ranks, Sam Chapman and Bradley Steinman and others have done yeoman’s work for young sprouts. Where just a few years ago we had no SSDP chapters we now have 12.
And as all good jam bands know, when you’re rollin’ keep on playin’
There seems to be a building tempo and harmonizing within the chorus and while not yet a crescendo it most certainly has appreciative ears picking up across a broader audience than ever before.
I had suspicions, but … well, just wow. They never cease with the lying and baffling BS.
We have a massive amount of ignorance to overcome, and it is not just among the Republicans. I don’t know what Romney’s personal position is and I don’t think we should assume it coincides with that of an ignorant supporter, but politicians on both sides will be reluctant to take a realistic position on scheduled drugs unless and until they see a politically viable alternative to prohibition. Okay, Duh! But there are some ideas out there.
Interesting. This is purported to be GW Pharma’s patents as pertain to the manufacture and extraction processes for Sativex. A wealth of information including: Their grow methods, their extraction methods, Decarboxylation techniques and temperatures and times. And the ingestion techniques…yes…they are trying to patent the vaporization of cannabis. Read all about it. Francis, help me out here…how the fuck can they patent a process who’s knowledge is public domain, and that I’ve been using for at least ten years? WTF…
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7344736.html
Hell, I’m violating this patent in a jar in a paper bag on my windowsill right now.
jeeezuz. It’s just like if some herbal remedy manufacturer patented the process of drying herbs and steeping them in hot water. All of a sudden you’re a criminal when you make tea….
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wow… I couldn’t have said it….