Beer Distributors Donate $10,000 to Keep Cannabis Illegal

[RainDog]

http://www.redding.com/news/2010/sep/15/pick-your-poison-beer-distributors-oppose-prop/

On Sept. 7, the California Beer & Beverage Distributors gave $10,000 to a committee opposing Proposition 19, the measure that would change state law to legalize pot and allow it to be taxed and regulated.

The California Police Chiefs Association has given the most to the Proposition 19 opposition with a contribution of $30,000, according to Cal-Access, a website operated by the secretary of state’s office.

“Unless the beer distributors in California have suddenly developed a philosophical opposition to the use of intoxicating substances, the motivation behind this contribution is clear,” Steve Fox, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project, said in statement. “Plain and simple, the alcohol industry is trying to kill the competition. Their mission is to drive people to drink.”

No one from the Beer Pac was available for comment.

This isn't the first time the Beer lobbyists have worked to continue prohibition (irony duly noted... or rather, hypocrisy, or rather, the truth that prohibition is a financial fight, not only for the petrol and forestry industries, but for the alcoholic beverage industry as well.)

In 2008, "the California Beer and Beverage Distributors contributed $100,000 to the campaign against Proposition 5, the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act (NORA). This initiative proposed to, among other things, reduce the penalty for cannabis possession in California from a misdemeanor to an infraction, similar to a traffic ticket."

"...The original bill authorizing the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign specifically banned the use of campaign funds to address underage drinking. In fact, when lawmakers attempted to amend the bill so that anti-alcohol messages could be included, the NBWA (National Beer Wholesalers Association) strongly opposed the amendment. To this day, the national Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign has remained almost entirely alcohol-free."

Oh, btw, the NBWA gave more than $8 million to federal candidates between 2003 and 2008 "and ranked among the top five most generous PACs each cycle, reaching the no. 2 slot in 2005-6."

(From the book, Marijuana is Safer, pp. 90-91.)

hmmmm.

[librechik]

1. beer goggles in your headline

check the number of zeroes. $$$may appear larger...

[RainDog]

4. LOL

fixed.

Ten thousand dollars.

[PBS Poll-435]

2. I am confused by that number

Are we missing a decimal point, an asterisk, or what?


I can't believe the passion and misspelling that comes with pot articles/posts.



Thanks for the edit. 10K is not exactly a lot of money anymore...

[RainDog]

5. thank you for your assumptions - tho wrong

people make simple posting errors all the time.

your bias, however, allows you to assume that someone who creates a post about Proposition 19 is either unable to spell or under the influence, I assume.

however, you'd be wrong on both counts.

do you make these same accusations when someone creates a post about, oh, I dunno, any other topic?

[PBS Poll-435]

6. Never said you were under the influence of anything

Would never, ever do such a thing.


Marijuana threads are hilarious.

[RainDog]

8. really?

you think it's funny to put people in prison for consuming a substance that is less harmful than alcohol?

you have a pretty sick sense of humor. but, honestly, there are a lot of people in the U.S. who don't give a fuck about how racist cannabis laws are in this nation - or how prohibition of cannabis makes hemp unavailable as cash crop for farmers, etc.

I find your stereotypes fairly stupid. An indication of a small mind.

[PBS Poll-435]

11. Listen. You made a pretty funny posting error on a fucking pot thread

If you can't deal with that...


I don't need to be lectured on "racist" pot laws by you. You know that my comment on your thread was very slight and cynical, not a real commentary on the actual topic.

[RainDog]

12. I can deal with it

what you don't like is that someone called you on your bias.

This is a serious issue, whether you think it is or not.

[PBS Poll-435]

13. You are mistaken, but you know what?

It is all good.

It was a simple joke and I am in a laughing mood.



I apologize if I offended you. I really do.

[RainDog]

20. my apologies as well

sorry if I took your remarks in the wrong way.

[pintobean]

15. Racist laws?

Is there a disclaimer in the laws that state that they do not apply to white people?

[RainDog]

19. the prohibition of cannabis is very racist

here are some statements by Anslinger, during Congressional testimony providing reasons for prohibition:

"...the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races."

"There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others."

"Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men.

Now the application of the law is also racist.

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/marijuana/naacp-pot-legalization/

Alice Huffman, president of the NAACP state conference...argued that legalizing marijuana -- Prop. 19 would allow personal possession of up to one ounce -- is not only an issue of decriminalization but one of race:

There is a strong racial component that must be considered when we investigate how the marijuana laws are applied to people of color. The burden has fallen disproportionately on people of color and on young black men in particular. According to the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, half of California's marijuana possession arrestees were nonwhite in 1990 and 28% were under age 20. Last year, 62% were nonwhite and 42% were under age 20. Marijuana possession arrests of youth of color rose from about 3,100 in 1990 to about 16,300 in 2008 -- an arrest surge 300% greater than the rate of population growth in that group.

From Human Rights Watch:

http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/03/02/decades-disparity-0

Drug Policy Alliance

http://www.drugpolicy.org/communities/race/

Despite the fact that drug use is more or less consistent across racial lines, many punitive drug laws are based on beliefs that certain communities of color commonly abuse certain substances. Due to the racial injustices caused by the drug war, supporting drug policy reform can help end racial inequality. Drug Policy Alliance is drawing attention to these disproportionate impacts of the drug war and working to end the war on people of color.

Although African Americans comprise only 12.2 percent of the population and 13 percent of drug users, they make up 38 percent of those arrested for drug offenses and 59 percent of those convicted of drug offenses causing critics to call the war on drugs the "New Jim Crow." The higher arrest rates for African Americans and Latinos do not reflect a higher abuse rate in these communities but rather a law enforcement emphasis on inner city areas where drug use and sales are more likely to take place in open-air drug markets where treatment resources are scarce.

Once arrested, people of color are treated more harshly by the criminal justice system than whites...

[boppers]

22. Passion and misspelling go hand in hand.

I think it's because people place more emphasis on the message than the media when they feel strongly about a topic.

[asdjrocky]

3. Reality show idea-

Get two houses right next door to each other and fill the houses with people. One house gets all the beer they want, the other house gets all the weed they want. See which is the more peaceful and productive house.

[RainDog]

7. the stereotypes run thick

here and elsewhere.

I would assume that there are people who can consume either product without problems. Get a bunch of people in two houses for a reality show and you'd see two groups making asses of themselves... that would be my bet.

[jmowreader]

9. California beer distributors seem to have tunnel vision

You are NOT going to tell me beer distributors are so fucking stupid they won't notice:
1) convenience stores, who are ALREADY in the business of selling beer and cigarettes, will enter the Marijuana business the second it's legal to do so
2) beer distributors already have accounts set up with these convenience stores
3) if marijuana won't fit on a beer truck, Mitsubishi Fuso and Hino sell these neat little 16-foot box vans that would be PERFECT for delivering weed to convenience stores.

In other words, QUIT TRYING TO DEFEAT THE PROPOSITION AND MAKE PLANS NOW TO GET RICH BEYOND YOUR WILDEST DREAMS!

[RainDog]

10. They don't want the competition

that's all.

Just like other industries in relation to hemp.

[jmowreader]

17. What they need to do is to BE the competition

I wonder if there's some clause in the distributors' contracts with the breweries that prohibits a beer distributor from also becoming a marijuana distributor. Right now, most beer distributors don't JUST distribute beer: they also distribute some combination of soft drinks, tobacco, wine, snacks and hard liquors. Arguably soda and potato chips are complimentary rather than competitive product lines, but if someone has a $20 and spends it on chips or colas, they can't spend it on beer.

Therefore...instead of fighting the eventual sale of pot, why not sell it themselves? SOMEONE is going to deliver weed to the convenience store; there should be no reason in the world why the guy who's already going there with a truckload of beer can't do it.

[arbusto_baboso]

29. Exactly right. And as some of smoker friends have told me more than once...

Nothing enhances a nice India Pale Ale like some ganja. In fact, hops are even part of the same botanical family as MJ, so they are natural complements.

[USArmyParatrooper]

14. When you set legalities aside: This is simply a drug dealer protecting his terf

[Octafish]

16. Tip of the iceberg.

Booze hounds have long-financed the Partnership for a Drug Free America.

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/pdfa1.htm

[RainDog]

23. excellent link (as usual from you)

Pharmaceutical Firms

J. Seward Johnson, Sr. Charitable Trusts --- $1.1 million
Du Pont --- 125,000
Proctor and Gamble Fund --- 120,000
Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation --- 115,000
Johnson & Johnson --- 100,000
Merck Foundation --- 85,000
Hoffman-LaRoche --- 75,000

Tobacco and Liquor Firms

Phillip Morris --- 125,000
Anheuser-Busch --- 100,000
RJ Reynolds --- 100,000
American Brands --- 100,000

no surprise to see that Du Pont is, as usual, working to make America safe for nylon.

[lonestarnot]

26. Yeppers war on druggers alright.

[applegrove]

18. Finally.... a story about a corporation that actually attacks their competition instead of their

workers, their customers, the government. Been a while since I read a story about Ceo treating their actual competition like competition.

[RainDog]

21. But they all seem to want to buy politicians to have their way

frankly, I don't see why the two cannot co-exist.

I don't see how it is competition to try to perpetuate laws that harm people - I think those are the actions of assholes.

It would be interesting if people decided to boycott beer to make a point. I bet that 10k can't make up for all the bad publicity. iow, stupid biz decision.

[Tsiyu]

24. It's always amusing when beer guzzlers get all moral about cannabis

"But...but...it's illegal!"


"Yeah, so was that crap you're swilling, Bubba, once upon a time."


They'll drown themselves in crappy BudLight or Miller Light, or whatever pissy cheap beer they're drinking, before they'll ever get it.

[Flying Squirrel]

25. I must admit

When I first quit drinking (initially not something I wanted to do) one of the first thoughts that came to mind was smoking pot. There is even a name for it in AA: The "marijuana maintenance program". So it's clear to me that marijuana is in fact a drug which could very well compete more strongly with alcohol, if it became legal. For me personally, however, initially I was worried that it would just eventually lead me back to the alcohol; and now I'm into recovery enough that I would not want to use it even if I could be sure it wouldn't.

But it certainly is very interesting and hard to hide the motives when beer companies are donating to help keep marijuana illegal.

[glowing]

27. Wow that's surprising.. I've been known to mix mine years ago.

[Kievan Rus]

28. The alcohol industry views anti-Prop 19 donations as a capital investment