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Cliff Kincaid- Contributor
Cliff Kincaid, serves as editor of the Accuracy
in Media (AIM)
Report. A veteran journalist and media critic, Cliff has
appeared on the Fox News programs Hannity & Colmes and
The O'Reilly Factor, where he debated O'Reilly on global
warming, the death penalty,
and the homosexual agenda. He was a guest co-host on CNN's Crossfire
(filling in for Pat Buchanan) in the 1980s, where he confronted
the then-Libyan Ambassador to the U.N. with evidence of Libyan
involvement in international terrorism. Through his America's
Survival, Inc., organization (www.usasurvival.org), he has been
an advocate on behalf of the families of victims of terrorism
and has published reports and held conferences critical of the
United Nations. His articles have appeared in the Washington
Post, Washington Times, Chronicles, Human Events, Insight, and
other publications. He served on the staff of Human Events for
several years and was an editorial writer and newsletter editor
for former National Security Council staffer Oliver North at
his Freedom Alliance educational foundation. He has written or
co-authored nine books on media and cultural affairs and foreign
policy issues. Cliff is married and has three sons.[go to
Kincaid index]
 The
Medical Marijuana Hoax
A video exposes the truth…
[Cliff Kincaid] 7/6/05
Rhode Island
Governor Donald L. Carcieri has vetoed a “medical
marijuana” bill, saying it would encourage marijuana use
and criminal activity. His veto comes as an anti-drug group has
released dramatic video footage of a marijuana activist declaring
that he uses dope for a health problem that he doesn’t
really have. The bottom line for this activist, Ed Rosenthal,
is that “I like to get high. Marijuana is fun.” The
video has the potential of dealing a major blow to the “medical
marijuana” movement, largely funded by billionaire George
Soros.
The video
footage, posted at the website www.sorosmonitor.com, gives
the lie to the claim that we often see in the media that
smoking marijuana is a legitimate medical treatment for people
with diseases. Rosenthal, who was associated with High Times
magazine for many years, is shown speaking to dozens of marijuana
activists. “With all the talk about medical marijuana,
I have to tell you that I also use marijuana medically (laughter),” he
says. “I have a latent glaucoma, which has never been diagnosed
(more laughter). And the reason why it has never been diagnosed
is because I've been treating it (laughter)…But there is
a reason why I do use it. And that is because I like to get high.
(cheers, applause). Marijuana is fun.”
The video
proves that “medical marijuana” is a joke
to those on the inside of the pro-pot movement who realize that
getting the public and the media to accept the notion that smoking
marijuana alleviates health problems is a major step down the
road to complete legalization of dope. In fact, another video
excerpt shows Richard Cowan, former director of NORML (National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), saying that “The
key to it [legalization] is medical access because once you have
hundreds of thousands of people using marijuana medically under
medical supervision the whole scam is going to be blown…Once
there’s medical access and if we continue to do what we
have to do_and we will_then we’ll get full legalization.”
Cowan says
that his reference to “scam” is a comment
on the anti-marijuana “prohibition” movement. He
stands by his remarks that the widespread use of marijuana on
medical grounds “would hasten the full legalization of
cannabis for non-medical use.” He is quick to say, however,
that he is not associated with the “medical marijuana” movement
funded by billionaire George Soros. “I have never met Soros,
I get no money from him, and have never sought any personally,” he
says. Cowan currently operates a pro-marijuana website.
Steven Steiner,
who runs the anti-Soros website, www.sorosmonitor.com, and
the DAMMAD (Dads and Mad Moms Against
Drug Dealers) organization,
was in the National Press Club audience last October 28 when
Soros was preparing to deliver a Bush-bashing speech just a few
days before the election. Steiner walked to the podium and attempted
to say a few words about his son, who had died of a drug overdose.
He was quickly surrounded and led away, where he was thrown into
a door, injured and hospitalized. His hospital bill was $670.
Steiner created his website to provide current news on the most
prominent drug legalizer in the world. He believes that “medical
marijuana” is a fraud designed to usher in full drug legalization,
and that the video he has posted on www.sorosmonitor.com proves
the case.
But will
the major media report on the explosive and shocking comments
on the tape? Most of the media, several
states_and 161
members of the House_have bought into the notion that smoking
marijuana somehow has medical benefits. That was the number of
House members who voted on June 15 to prohibit the Department
of Justice from spending any money arresting or prosecuting users
of “medical marijuana.” But the Steiner video is
just the latest evidence that “medical marijuana” is
just a front for the illegal drug movement and that it exploits
sick people.
Six days
after that House vote, federal authorities announced the results
of an investigation which determined
that “medical
marijuana” clubs and dispensaries in California had been
used as a cover for international drug dealing and money laundering.
The problem emerged after California voters passed a 1996 proposition
allowing the use of marijuana for so-called medical purposes.
One suspect, Enrique Chan, told an undercover agent that if the
drug traffickers got arrested and prosecuted for dealing dope
they could beat the rap by bringing in “really sick patients
with cancer” who were using marijuana and “have them
sit on the stand for you.” He said that “no jury
is gonna try, is gonna convict you.” While sick people
were being cynically exploited by the dopers, Chan estimated
that only about half the people buying the marijuana actually
claimed to be sick. The rest, like Ed Rosenthal, just wanted
to get high.
The video also sheds some light on a Soros-funded organization
called the Drug Policy Alliance. It shows Marsha Rosenbaum, director
of the Drug Policy Alliance in San Francisco, providing a rather
shocking view of how to educate children about drugs.
Rosenbaum
says, “I think first drugs are inherently neither
hard nor soft, good nor bad…Another assumption has to be
that total abstinence from drug use, even if that’s what
we want, is unrealistic…Controlled drug use is possible…The
first thing I would assign is Andrew Weil’s book Chocolate
to Morphine, which is a classic. It simply outlines pretty much
every drug kids come across. And talks about not good drugs not
bad drugs, relationships with drugs. He describes them. And I
think that’s how we need to start…Finally, and probably
most radical, I think a goal of harm-reduction education would
be to utilize positive role models. I think it would be very
useful in a drug education program for people with non-problematic
drug experience to talk to them. All the time my friend Craig
Reinarman is always saying, you know, why is it that they always
bring in addicts to talk to kids about drugs. It’s like
bringing someone in who failed at it to tell them how to do it
or how not to do it. That just doesn’t make any sense.
What if we had people who had used drugs for a long time in a
controlled rational way_didn’t get into trouble with drugs_to
impart some of this information to kids_how they could do that.”
At first,
when I asked Rosenbaum for a comment on these remarks, she
said that I did not have permission to
use or quote them.
When I replied that I wasn’t seeking permission but only
wanted her further comment or clarification, she called back
to say that “If these are my words, I must have said them
a long time ago. I’d like to think I’m more articulate
now. I can’t remember the context.” On the matter
of using “controlled” drug users as role models for
kids, she asked, “Are you sure I said those words?” In
any case, she said that her perspective has “evolved” and
she has “learned a lot.” She added, “That particular
quote is not what I would want to say at this particular moment.”
Rosenbaum
said her position is that young people “need
to be given comprehensive science-based information” about
drugs because they “make their own decisions, despite our
best efforts.”
On her website,
devoted to a “reality-based” approach
to drug education, she features a letter to her own son Johnny
about illegal drugs. Rosenbaum urges him to abstain. But if he
doesn’t abstain and chooses to “experiment,” she
recommends that he learn as much as he can “and use common
sense.” She adds, “And please, Johnny, use moderation.”
Rosenbaum
spoke to AIM after delivering a “Teens and Drugs” presentation
at the national conference of the PTA. tRO
copyright
2005 Accuracy in Media
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