It’s not just the New York Times and your typical bottom-feeder prohibitionists anymore—damn near everybody is coming for cannabis
We’ve been covering the anti-marijuana media since day one at Talking Joints Memo. From newspapers of record to five o’clock news fabulists, we have impugned them all.
But with Massachusetts voters facing a ballot initiative that could end adult-use cannabis in the commonwealth and shutter recreational dispensaries, the prohibitionist hits are more glaring.
We’ll wait for a more formal analysis to declare a definite uptick in reefer mad media, but in the meantime we will keep calling it out when we see it.
There is a lot on the line with this referendum, and we know from witnessing their operatives up close that the repeal campaign is deeply untrustworthy. They’re also seeding most of this nonsense, so when you spot it, be sure to grab it by the roots.
The red herring
Have you ever had to sit through an entire meeting with an insufferable geek who keeps saying the same inane line over and over again? That’s Howard Husock, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, with his song and dance about how “If states are going to legalize weed, the least they can do is order warning labels.” We quote: “Less cannabis use, not more, should be the sensible goal — and a standard, federally suggested warning should be the first step.”
The disappointment
It may not be typical prohibitionism, but it’s certainly not helpful for High Times, the publication that countless people who don’t know any better still associate with liberating the plant, to be running soulless AI roundups like “Massachusetts Could Become The First State To Repeal Legal Weed. The Community Is Fighting Back.” If you think the headline is uninspired, wait until you read the bulletpoints.
The denier
If you’ve ever had somebody punch you in the face and then blame you for bloodying their knuckles, then you understand what it is like to watch a fool concurrently claim that cannabis has no potential benefits and that we shouldn’t study it to learn more. Yet that’s the argument made by one doc in Psychology Today, a publication considered about as prestigious a place to publish by practitioners as Highlights for Children. “Marijuana Rescheduling Is Now Real,” he argues, but “The change was made despite lack of evidence of medicinal benefits.”
The legendary liar
With the threat of repeal on our necks, we are sure to hear lots from Kevin Sabet, the founder and head hard-on for the group SAM Action which is bankrolling the Massachusetts campaign. His latest crackpot manifesto appeared in a publication called Compact that ought to know better. Word salad sprinkled with carefully picked cherries and some dingleberries, it’s classic Sabet, claiming that he’s seen the wreckage firsthand, dead bodies, the works.
The press release-turned-column
Here’s a strange if not interesting one. Attacks are coming from all angles, and this press release making the rounds—titled “Big Cannabis Sold You a Lie. Now the Federal Government Is Giving It to Your Grandparents“—appears to originate from MMJ International Holdings, Inc., “a biopharmaceutical company developing cannabinoid therapies for Huntington’s disease and multiple sclerosis [that] holds two active FDA Investigational New Drug applications.” The scariest part? It already appeared in the Eagle-Tribune, one of the most-read outlets in the Merrimack Valley.
