Smart Approaches to Marijuana

And you know who agrees with me on that? Kevin Sabet.

Kevin Sabet runs the Smart Approaches to Marijuana, the biggest anti-legalization operation in the country.

He went on public radio in Boston on August twentieth to argue for repealing legalization in Massachusetts.

And in the middle of it, he says, "You wouldn't call a light beer and a bottle of grain alcohol the same drink." Kevin, you're right.

No currently accepted medical use.

That's the phrase.

That's what a former attorney general of the United States and the head of smart approaches to marijuana were defending in The Washington Post in July when they argued against reclassifying it.

By the way, that op-ed carries a disclosure line noting that Barr's firm represented Sabat's organization in the rescheduling hearing.

The DOJ argued that the groups challenging rescheduling have financial interests in keeping marijuana under Schedule 1 and question whether they are even the appropriate parties to challenge the reform altogether.

under the control substances act that's pretty obvious so while today's decision does not end the litigation it removes one of the biggest immediate threats hanging over the rescheduling process there are currently three separate legal challenges that have been consolidated before the dc circuit so one lawsuit was brought by as we know smart approaches to marijuana aka sam along with the ndasa Another involves a collection of anti-marijuana activists, substance use professionals, doctors, and of course, MMJ International.

And a third challenge was filed by the attorneys general of Indiana, Nebraska, and Louisiana, although Louisiana later withdrew from the case.

So moving forward, Marijuana Moment reports that the court is now moving litigation forward and it has ordered the parties to submit proposed briefing formats within 30 days.

Oh, sure.

So in order to attempt to discredit one of the witnesses, Dr. Corey Birchman, who testified at the rescheduling hearing, he's a pain management specialist in New Hampshire, Smart Approaches to Marijuana, who was one of the main opposition groups towards rescheduling, used our interview as a way to try and discredit this witness and say he was an industry plant, etc., etc., Look, if that's what...

the opposition is stooping to.

They're, in my view, grasping at straws completely.

And at the same time, you know, I'm happy that Cultivated, regardless of how it's there, is inserted into the federal record.

So, you know, thank you for reading us.

Smart approaches to marijuana.

I will say one thing before we get yelled at on Twitter, that we got the document and just posted a document that Tom Angel at Marijuana Moment, that was the one I just posted.

If that question passes, Massachusetts will become the first state to repeal marijuana legalization.

Kevin Sabet is president of the Virginia-based group Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

The group, through its action committee, has already put more than $1.5 million to the Massachusetts committee behind the ballot question.

He joins us now to talk about how the supporters are looking at the initiative.

So I'm not concerned this is going to hurt the economy.

I actually think it's going to help the economy overall.

That's Kevin Sabet, president of the Virginia-based group Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

Kevin, thank you for joining us.

Oh, sure.

So in order to attempt to discredit one of the witnesses, Dr. Corey Birchman, who testified at the rescheduling hearing, he's a pain management specialist in New Hampshire, Smart Approaches to Marijuana, who was one of the main opposition groups towards rescheduling, used our interview as a way to try and discredit this witness and say he was an industry plant, et cetera, et cetera.

Look, if that's what...

the opposition is stooping to.

And so, you know, I thought that was pretty astonishing, right? Seeing those two pieces in the same document and, is quite startling.

And at the same time, you know, I'm happy that Cultivated, regardless of how it's there, is inserted into the federal record.

So, you know, thank you for reading us, Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

I will say one thing before we get yelled at on Twitter, that we got the document and just posted a document that Tom Angel at Marijuana Moment, that was the one I just posted.

And 64%, according to a new Gallup poll from November of last year, I mean, it's a November Gallup poll, I shouldn't say new, but anyway, 64% of U.S. adults think that cannabis should be legal.

According to Gallup, Kevin Sabet, with the CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, who I think was one of the folks that testified as a witness during the administrative law judge's hearings on reclassification, he believes that cannabis reform will be a low-priority issue come November, quote, is traditionally let down the politicians who thought they were going to be scoring some cheap votes, most recently the president.

Well, I could say this is that As a voter in the state of Florida, we've seen a regular run of say Spartan, say Florida, or regulate Florida among the others.

We know we've talked to Michael minority in past episodes that helped in the forefront of trying to legalize cannabis for adult use in the state of Florida.

The cannabis industry cannot believe it qualified, but at the same time is mobilizing very strongly to get this to fail.

The Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance filings show that a coalition behind an initiative received the entirety of its $1.5 million in smart approaches.

So SAM, Smart Approaches to Marijuana, is trying to go ahead and block and trying to go ahead and get the reversal of the Massachusetts Adult Use Ballot Initiative.

Look at that.

And so I think the industry, the voters, nobody really thought that it was going to happen.

Uh, and then once we started seeing that, oh, there's a lot of money that is pouring into this, and they got about $2 million from, you know, our friends [laughs] over on the national level, uh, Smart Approaches to Marijuana, SAM, uh, to bankroll getting onto the ballot, then we had to really start taking it seriously.

Uh, 'cause, you know, that doesn't just come out of nowhere if they don't think they actually have a chance to get onto the ballot.

And so with them hiring these out-of-state signature gatherers and going out into communities, and obviously we've seen all the reports and, like, the videos of folks who, uh, were actually getting lied to about what this cannabis ballot question actually does, then we started seeing it as a real threat if folks were getting duped into signing it, and how real-