A panel of self-styled "marijuana experts" threw a real scare into addiction counselors Wednesday, as they described the alleged "dangers of medical marijuana" using their time honored tactics of distortion, misinformation, propaganda, thinly veiled hysteria, fear tactics, and outright lies.
The 9th Annual Conference on Addictive Disorders at the Harborside Event Center in Fort Myers, Florida, brought together substance abuse counselors in workshops on mental health treatment, gambling compulsion, domestic violence and the use of prescription drugs, reports McKenzie Cassidy at the Cape Coral Daily Breeze.
And long-time, rabid anti-drug zealot Calvina Fay, executive director of the Drug Free America Foundation (formerly the notoriously abusive Straight Inc.) and the St. Petersburg-based Save Our Society From Drugs lobbying group (along with 100+ other subsidiary groups, thus giving the illusion of "consensus"), was in fine form, sharing her irrational pot phobia with the sympathetic, well-heeled crowd.
Remember, "drug rehab" is quite lucrative these days, what with the court system forcing hapless busted potheads to attend countless dreary, pointless group encounter sessions.
"Straight" To Hell
You may wonder, incidentally, why the Drug Free America Foundation is no longer called "Straight Inc."
After all, with "treatment camps" all over America from 1976 to 1993, it was the biggest "juvenile rehabilitation" program in the world, with endorsements from morons like Nancy and Ronald Reagan and George Bush (the elder).
That would be because they so sullied their own name, through systematic abuse and even torture at "teen help" facilities to get the little darlings off drugs through "behavior modification," that even THEY didn't want to be called "Straight Inc." anymore.
The type of institutional child abuse legitimized by outfits like Straight Inc. has even inspired a website and a
?Facebook group for survivors of the horrible program, of which the ACLU's Marge Roberson has said, "They [Straight, Inc.] run very close to really performing psychic murder."
The idea (as perfected by totalitarian regimes like the Communist Chinese) is to strip a kid of all self esteem and then build him or her back up in the "straight" image. Life "starts anew" at Straight; all the time before Straight is one's "druggie past."
Straight targeted the children of affluent white families -- after all, they had lots of money to spend on bullshit "addiction treatment."
Unfortunately, records, media reports and eyewitnesses revealed that many kids being treated for "drug addiction" at Straight weren't even drug addicts.
If you can stomach documented stories of kids being tortured in the name of "drug rehab," be my guest, here, here, here, here, and here.
Guess they think that's way better than smoking the occasional joint, though. Right?
Meanwhile, Back In Florida...
Calvina Fay: "You can clearly see we have a scam going on here in the country." Yeah, we can.
? Fay claimed that the movement to legalize marijuana for medical purposes is being carried out by the same groups "who've tried legalizing the drug for decades."
According to Calvina, Drug Warrior Princess, a proposal to legalize medical marijuana will probably be on the Florida ballot by 2012.
"The groups who have funded these initiatives across the country are groups with a long history of drug legalization," Fay claimed.
Fay, on the other hand, is a long-time sucker on the federal teat; unfortunately she actually gets federal (ONDCP) grants to peddle this nonsense. Yep, that's right, pothead -- your tax money goes to this nut bag.
According to Fay, "statistics" from "states where the drug is legal" show that many of those using marijuana report they use it for "undefined pain," which makes Calvina suspicious of why these ne'er-do-wells were allowed to use pot in the first place.
"You can clearly see we have a scam going on here in the country," Fay said. Yeah, we can.
You're right, Calvina! You mean the one where folks are forced, under threat of jail, to attend expensive and useless "marijuana rehab," right?
Or do you mean the one where self-appointed "marijuana experts" get paid big bucks to present as fact, pseudoscience and 20th century superstitions to gullible and greedy addiction counselors?
Cop Says He Can't Control Prescription Drugs, So You Can't Have Medical Marijuana
Lee County Sheriff's Office, claimed he is "concerned" about regulating medical marijuana if it is legalized.
Reeves claimed that officers "already have a difficult time reigning in abuses" with legal, prescription drugs.
"We can't get a grip or stronghold on our prescription monitoring plan," Reeves claimed. "How can we get a grip on marijuana legalized in our community if we can't get our prescription drugs that are legal drugs?"
Rather than attempt to dissect or analyze Lt. Reeves's tortured (non)logic, all I can do is just let his words stand as majestic testimony to the appalling state of his thought processes.
Hey, if Lt. Reeves is any example of how "clearly" drug-free folks can express themselves, all I have to say is pass the dope.
Reeves claimed another "concern" for officers is how to detect people who are driving while under the influence of marijuana.
According to the lieutenant, finding out if a person is under the influence of pot is more difficult that holding a field sobriety test to detect if a driver has been drinking alcohol.
Say, Chris, if potheads can keep it together well enough so that you can't tell they're high, then maybe being high isn't such a problem, eh? Maybe you should just shut the hell up, leave well enough alone, and try to chase some real criminals, you think?
Oh, wait, what am I thinking? Giving bullshit speeches to captive audiences in cushy, air-conditioned venues is a lot easier than fighting real crime.
They Want To Be 'Educated' About The 'Real Effects Of Marijuana'
? The panelists each stressed the importance of people in the community being "educated" about the "real effects" of marijuana.
Of course, since they're all chicken-shit to actually smoke a damn joint, and they damn sure aren't going to Oaksterdam, that's not going to happen.
What we'll continue to get, instead, is ignorant morons reinforcing each other's prejudices and stoking each other's fears, feverishly trying to prop up a world view that already crashed down around their heads years ago.
"We have very little time to get ready for this," warned Pat Barton, a member of something called Drug Watch International and appointee to the Florida Substance Abuse and Mental Health Corporation.
"We think there are some things that can be done in advance in order to fend this off -- teach the community and families that marijuana is not medicine and to educate and inform our state legislators," Barton said.
After all, who knows more about whether marijuana is medicine -- the doctors and patients who see it work every day, or a bunch of self-righteous, fear-filled, ignoramuses on a moral crusade?
