Pubdate: Sun, 14 Sep 2014
Source: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
Copyright: 2014 The Oregonian
Contact:  http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/324
Author: Noelle Crombie

Andrew Sullivan, Conservative Writer, on Marijuana

PROHIBITION 'BASED ON LIES'

Andrew Sullivan, the prominent writer and blogger, compared the 
effort to legalize marijuana to the fight for marriage equality in 
the United States in a talk that highlighted the key factors 
propelling what he called an "extraordinary leap forward" in cannabis policy.

Sullivan was the keynote speaker at the International Cannabis 
Business Conference held Saturday at the Oregon Convention Center. 
The two-day conference, attended by an estimated 700 people, is aimed 
at what organizer Alex Rogers, an Ashland businessman, called the 
"high echelon of cannabis entrepreneurs."

Sullivan, who received a standing ovation after his morning talk, 
analyzed the rapid social and cultural change that's moved marijuana 
from the fringes to a drug that polls show most Americans think 
should be legal.

"Why has something that only 10 years ago, let alone 20 years ago, 
seemed crazy and outrageous to so many people, why does it now have 
majority support in the United States of America?" he asked. "Why is 
the next generation overwhelmingly in favor of this?"

He cited a variety of reasons, including the disproportionate 
percentage of marijuana-related arrests of blacks compared with 
whites, the poignant pleas of parents who've sought cannabis to treat 
their children's seizure disorders, and the federal government's 
insistence on grouping marijuana and heroin in the same class of 
controlled substances.

"One of the key reasons (Americans have) changed their minds is quite 
simple," he said. "Prohibition and the prohibition regime have been 
based on lies. These lies are quite easily dispelled by science.

"At some point that lie will collapse. All lies in the end will collapse."

Andrew Sullivan Speaks At Cannabis Business Conference In Portland 
Journalist Andrew Sullivan, keynote speaker at the International 
Cannabis Business Conference, talks here about how the sea change of 
public opinion with regard to marijuana came from bottom up, much 
like, he said, the marriage equality movement. He called the 
disparity in arrests between white and black Americans for marijuana 
possession "appalling."

"There comes a point at which that discrepancy becomes an affront and 
should be an affront to anybody of any race who wants to call 
themselves an American," he said. "That argument has reached a 
critical mass too and certainly has begun to shift opinion, probably 
more on the liberal side more than the conservative."

Sullivan also echoed the view of marijuana legalization advocates in 
Oregon that legalizing the drug means it will be less likely to end 
up in the hands of teens.

"In a regulated legal market, you can have much better controls and 
much better regulations to keep this in the hands of responsible, 
consenting adults," he said.

He said many people have seen, heard about or experienced the drug's 
medicinal benefits, another factor softening Americans' stance toward 
marijuana.

"I think of medical marijuana in a way as the civil union stage of 
this movement," he said. "In other words, you are finding language to 
make people comfortable with an underlying reality that they need to 
get more used to."

Legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington, he said, has 
prompted people to talk about their experiences with pot.

"The cannabis closet hid so many individuals - responsible, caring 
adults; teachers; parents - who were responsibly using this in a way 
to enhance their lives, chill them out, keep them going in a world 
where everyone is working harder than ever, where our brains are 
frazzled by the Internet," he said. "I don't think it's an accident 
that this is something people use to cope. This is something that 
made their lives better, gives them more balance, helps them see 
things in a better perspective."

Throughout his talk, Sullivan spoke about his personal affection for 
marijuana, saying it "can even make baseball interesting after a while."

He said he's looking forward to the transformation of marijuana under 
American capitalism.

"I want to let go of the reins of this and let it find what the 
market wants," he said. "When I am an old man, I want to have a 
relationship to (cannabis) the way that very old experienced wine 
critics have with various varieties of wine."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom