Pubdate: Thu, 09 Jun 2016
Source: Sacramento News & Review (CA)
Column: The 420
Copyright: 2016 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://newsreview.com/sacto/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/540
Author: Ngaio Bealum

KUSHY ENDORSEMENTS

I was wondering: Since you have your face on a brand of weed, do you 
think celebrity endorsements influence youths' perception of weed? 
Since you're a comic for adults maybe it doesn't apply in your case, 
but I was still curious.

- -E.

I'm sure it does. I mean, that's kind of the point of a celebrity 
endorsement, right? Influencing people is the goal. Paris Hilton 
wants you to buy her perfume. Steph Curry wants you to drink 
Brita-filtered water. Tommy Chong wants you to smoke his weed. Nas 
wants you to drink Hennessy. This is America. We sell things. 
Commercials are abundant. Parents should be teaching their kids about 
the persuasiveness and perniciousness of advertising by the time 
their children are old enough to eat a Happy MealTM.

Do I think children will be led down a never-ending path of drug use 
and destruction because Kurupt has his face on a box of Moonrocks? 
Nope. The beauty of the new legalization is that it's hard for kids 
to get pot from a dispensary. The dope man doesn't check ID. The 
dispensary does.

The thing is, youth pot usage goes down in states that have medical 
or adult-use cannabis laws. Plus, marijuana has been proven time and 
time again to be safer than any other recreational drug on God's 
green Earth. To be quite honest, I would rather my kids smoke weed 
(after they have graduated high school and assuming they are handling 
their responsibilities) than get drunk every Friday night at the 
local party house.

Stop thinking of weed as some sort of evil demon plant and instead 
think of it as just one more thing young people need to know about in 
order to function as a responsible adult in polite society.

I have heard that there are a bunch of people lining up to fight 
against the Adult Use of Marijuana Act. What have you heard?

- -Dab Tastic

I've heard the same. According to published reports, anti-AUMA 
organizers have raised around $60,000 to defeat AUMA. Most of the 
money has come from prison guards' unions and other law enforcement 
organizations.

Of course, the cops and the prison guards are against legalization. 
I'm sure there are jobs that will be lost and prisons that will go 
unfilled if the cops can't throw someone in jail for enjoying a 
plant. It is a damn shame that the police want to deprive law-abiding 
citizens of their freedom just to hold on to a paycheck or a federal 
war on drugs grant. Are human lives more important than money? Do the 
needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few?
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom