Meet SAM

Wow. Talk about a dysfunctional new arrival to the scene.

Patrick Kennedy on Marijuana: Former Rep. Leads Campaign Against Legal Pot

Jan 5 (Reuters) – Retired Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy is taking aim at what he sees as knee-jerk support for marijuana legalization among his fellow liberals, in a project that carries special meaning for the self-confessed former Oxycontin addict.

Kennedy, 45, a Democrat and younger son of the late “Lion of the Senate” Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, is leading a group called Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) that opposes legalization and seeks to rise above America’s culture war over pot with its images of long-haired hippies battling law-and-order conservatives.

Long-haired hippies? You mean like the LEAP folk? Or Walter Cronkite?

“Yes, the drug war has been a failure, but let’s look at the science and let’s look at what works. And let’s not just throw out the baby with the bathwater,” Kennedy, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2011, said in a telephone interview.

Right.

Best response to this came from Matt Welch, who tweeted:

“Yes, the drug war has been a failure, but let’s look at the science and let’s look at what works.” Yes let’s, asshole….

That ANY prohibitionist would cloak himself in the mantle of “science,” at a time when pot is still classified Schedule I, is revolting.

David Frum is apparently going to be part of this SAM group, and Kevin Sabet can hardly contain himself with his “third-way” glee.

Apparently, the idea is to keep marijuana illegal, but make prohibition some kind of “nice” thing that takes a public health approach. But that, of course, is nonsense.

Alison Holcomb caught that immediately.

“I don’t know what a public health approach without legalization looks like, if you’re still arresting people,” she said.

The best way, of course, to take a public health approach to marijuana (and other drugs) is to first legalize and regulate, and get the non-problematic users out of the equation. Then focus on policies that help those who can benefit from a public health approach.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

50 Responses to Meet SAM

  1. John says:

    Like Partnership for a “Drug-Free” America, I bet his organization is also funded by Big Pharma and that’s why he’s focusing his efforts on marijuana instead of Oxycotin.

    http://www.drugfree.org/faq#do-you-receive-support-from-pharmaceutical-companies

    • John says:

      And lets not forget Big Alcohol.

      • John says:

        Hey Pete!

        How come your blog software doesn’t check for duplicate usernames?!

        signed – the other John

        (how many Johns are there on Petes Couch?)

        • Chris says:

          John: This site uses gravatar (https://en.gravatar.com). Notice that the default picture corresponds with a randomly generated picture using your email address and name as input, so you will always get the same picture. I doubt anyone on here recognizes my name/avatar, but I’ve been coming here daily since 2009.

  2. Jeff Trigg says:

    The SAME, ACLU Democrat prohibitionist apologist, Allison Holcomb who believes that a human being who grows even one cannabis plant should be arrested and locked in a cage? The SAME Allison Holcomb who believes someone with more than 1 ounce in their possession should be arrested and locked in a cage? The SAME Allison Holcomb who believes a human being should be arrested and locked in a cage if they consume cannabis 5 days before driving a vehicle?

    Allison Holcomb can kiss my ass. OK, maybe just one cheek, I guess, but still, Allison Holcomb is BARELY one step from the likes of Frum, Sabet, and now another idiot named Kennedy. Allison Holcomb deserves every bit of scorn she gets, IMO, and Allison Holcomb has exactly ZERO credibility when it comes to commenting about arresting and putting human beings in cages because of cannabis. If Allison Holcomb wants to publicly come out and criticize the horrendous parts of I-502 she previously lobbied for now that it has passed, I and millions of other cannabis activists would appreciate it, but until then, Allison Holcomb is a tyrannical cunt.

    That said, lets hope they make this idiot Kennedy their poster boy and further erode their credibility. MICHIGAN 2014!!! (Despite MPP’s plans.)

    SAM? They are more like SAPs if you ask me. Stupid Approaches to Prohibition.

    • War Vet says:

      I believe some of our weakest links when it comes to winning the war on drugs is the focus on human rights and drug users since there is still a huge misconception of the American people who still believe drugs are bad and someone should regulate them like the cops do. This Allison H woman you hate so much –is this the same Allison who has given aid to the Muslim Terrorists after 9/11? Given aid in the form of her not speaking out against the CSA laws, which directly and indirectly gives monetary aid to the Muslim Terrorists (Taliban makes $100 mill a year in the drug trade). I don’t think enough is done to prove cause (drug prohibition’s selling illegal drugs on the black market by terrorists) and effect (9/11 only happened because drugs were illegal and thus was able to fully finance the terrorist attacks –which sent American soldiers to fight drug money terrorists in Afghanistan, which lead us on the road to Iraq bandwagon, where we were fighting drug money insurgents). Because the CSA laws are a direct threat to our National Security and directly gives aid to terrorism (Beirut, U.S.S. Cole, Arabia, Somalia, various airplane hijackings/bombings, German and Chinese World Olympic Games (kidnapping and bombing), 1998 and 2012 U.S. embassy attacks/bombings, 1993 New York City Bombing, 9/11, Christmas day terrorist threat of Detroit, Time Square, Spain, England, Christmas 2008 massive Parisian terrorist threat (I was there) etc etc –the law demands that this woman be put to sleep –while also demanding it’s nullification without a vote (since a treasonous law has no legal right to be voted for or against –just removed –off the books –something the Constitution gives ordinary Citizen John Doe the right to do –not the cops or politician or President). Since we know gangs and cartels and terrorists receive most of their money off of illegal drug sales (directly created out of the CSA) and use the money to murder and terrorize nations and cities, this proves intent based on lack of ignorance: she is a Muslim Terrorist Sympathizer based on the fact she knows drug money kills U.S. troops and did 9/11 etc . . . just like Kennedy has been proven to be a Muslim Terrorist Sympathizer (I’m surprised he hasn’t invaded and sacked his own house numerous times like the Catholics did to Muslim Jerusalem during the Crusades –that’s got to be confusing on Kennedy’s part: half Muslim/half Catholic by default and choice.). Should not thousands or millions of voices push to punish treason during a time of war? Federal law demands life in prison or execution to all domestic terrorists (like Kennedy, Allison H, Kevin, Gil, Michele Leonheart, Eric Holder etc) who directly finance the terrorists with their own money (they get paid to do what they do and they don’t attempt to nullify the CSA –hence they are directly giving money to the terrorists with their own money since WE the People gave them money to lead our nation to prosperity and they use our money (taxes) to live off of (they receive tax money and they give tax money to terrorists via a law). Can it be proven that 9/11 and our long expensive War on Terror didn’t create huge hurdles in our ‘Fiscal Cliff’ and recession? Therefore our forefather’s would beg or demand execution of all CSA approving and obeying entities –who can and have been proven to be Islamic Terrorist Sympathizers . . . though I opt out to forgive them and simply shun them. Further Proof Allison H and her prohib associates are associated with Al Qaeda: Osama Bin Laden would want every American Veteran to be locked up for using or growing pot as a PTSD/Pain medicine, which would hurt our recruiting and moral (I’ll die for you, but will be treated like a criminal for doing something legal like pot?), which would further hurt our security and military –something Allison H and associates are allowing and speaking for and not against.

    • darkcycle says:

      Wow. Just… Wow. Hate much, Jeff?

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
        .

        DC I was shocked to discover in 2010 that Know Nothing potheads like Mr. Trigg and War Vet exist. My bad though, in hindsight their existence as compliments to the Know Nothing prohibitionist is entirely predictable. It really is curious that they think that we have a prayer of getting enough voters to agree to their extremist agenda…they’re not even going to find support among more than a marginal number of their fellow cannabinoidians.

        I admit that they had me bent out of shape between late spring 2010 and Election Day 2012. But our wins last November have totally marginalized their position. Now they’re more of a curiosity considering their reactions to those Election Day wins. Good Lord, can’t they see the very impressive turnaround in public opinion? Can’t they see our momentum? What kind of person prefers more prohibition over less? It really is very sad. But the results of the ballot referenda make the answers to all of those questions irrelevant. Humpty Dumpty has fallen, and all the King’s Sabets and all the King’s Fays aren’t going to be able to resurrect him. Neither can the lunatic fringe on our side of the table screw it up.

        P.S. guys, don’t waste your breath. I’ve been skipping your posts for weeks.

        • War Vet says:

          Proof Duncan is a moron and proof he cannot state any facts (or even a hint of evidence) to show I might be the moron loon he so claims (simply labeling doesn’t do any thing to prove Duncan) –You L.A. Crip Gangbanger –was that an accurate label –did I not prove the proof equivalent to your labeling? Duncan –You must be a Barbie/Ken doll kind of guy: few shapes and few colors and few accessories and storylines to choose from. Your pool of knowledge is so shallow, toddlers can swim in it.

          For one, Duncan believes that I sincerely believe such prohibs and politicians pray on a rug facing Mecca when I call them Muslim Terrorist Sympathizers –he is so lost inside his drug addled mind, he sincerely pictures me picturing them to fit the Hollywood definition of terrorist . . . he thinks I think that such prohibs actually meet with Al Qaeda etc to plot the downfall of the nation and troops. Duncan could never read a good book because he would sincerely believe the writer meant exactly what he said –which robs Duncan of a richer contextual meaning: Vonnegut Jr., Douglas Adams, Celine, Camus . . . he’s the kind of high school drop out who thinks Mark Twain worshiped or believed in the Devil based on his “Letters from the Earth.” What a dummy.

          2) Duncan doesn’t know what cause and effect is: CSA (cause): drug money financed 9/11 (effect) . . . which is proof that the CSA law is treason. Duncan doesn’t think the law is treason and is finding ways to win the war on drugs only so his spoon can provide comfort to his needle and cotton. Not something Heroic or Noble like saving a human life or creating more jobs and stability around the world. No –Duncan cares about Duncan and he cares more about his dope, than his own fellow earthlings. Drug legalization has really nothing to do with people using drugs –when compared to devastating bomb blasts from a drug money bought IED on people at the market –Duncan sees it as a way to legally smoke his ICE or PCP without fear of arrest.

          3) Duncan is not bright enough to place the label of saboteur or Nazi/Jap sympathizer on any human in history who was attempting to hinder and stop the American war factories during WWII . . . when I call the DEA or others as Muslim Terrorist Sympathizers I’m being honest: their law directly funds radical Islam and they know illegal drugs finances radical Islam, only through the law, which shows a lack of ignorance on their part based on past attacks happening by drug money funded terrorists in the 90’s etc, since they can no longer say: we didn’t know the law would create funding for America’s enemies during a time of war. The DEA won’t let the American military utilize American grown hemp during war –which is proof Duncan has never heard of ‘Hemp for Victory’ –which is currently not illegal to grow hemp because of the Ag Department during WWII (precedents Duncan –something you know nothing about –which you’ll verify no doubt in your own silly little comments, which strays off the topic as much as an adulterous husband or spouse strays from their mate).

          4) Duncan (and he can verify this to all on the couch) has never done anything to earn his voice in ending the war on drugs. He never served his country and he never saw our drug laws create consequences, which any old school girl or boy could label as Unconstitutional and treason. He lacks any ammo when writing to newspapers and politicians about the War on Drugs –because the only reason Duncan wants to end the war on drugs (according to what the politician or cop might believe upon hearing him) is so he can continue to burn his brain on ACID and eat cow shit shrooms . . . so he can be justified when he goes and smokes all his money away on crack, while taking my tax money from unemployment because he’s too high to work etc. You see, all Duncan can see is an empty crack pipe where his rock will be cheaper in a ‘legalized world’ . . . I see the absence of 9/11 or another 9/11 . . . no U.S. troops in a war zone because of a drug money financed 9/11. Duncan is a bona-fide drug addict in the bowls of his approach –while I’m just a patriotic American calling bullshit on the cops and illegal CSA law, which directly creates the drug black market, which directly funds gangs and terrorism. Duncan sees his meth bag as being half empty because of the war on drugs rising the price of his meth . . . I see the end of the war on drugs as half a body count in the middle east (and not just for the American, but the local).

          Duncan –you poor Acid freak –you sick little man who needs another fix to feel better: don’t bring Mother Goose and fairy tales to a forum of facts and evidence fight. You are a cockroach to the end of drug prohibition –you have no concerns for the direction your nation is going –all you want is just one more hit . . . you don’t give a damn about facts or history or logic . . . you’ve never seen a drug money bought bomb explode now have. You’ve never read a single document from official or unofficial sources proving drug money creates more war. Nothing bad has ever happened to you to make you want to see the end of the war on drugs as much as I want it ended . . . all you can see is cheaper coke and getting your fix scot-free from the law. You’ve never even traveled outside your own nation to places designated as 3rd world. People like you belong in High Times forums so you can talk about boobs and buds and dick cops all you want . . . you already do nothing to the cause . . . I think mother would rather know drugs need to be legalized so little Billy won’t get his arms blown off –not so he can buy them legally . . . mother would rather hear of her son being safe in a world where drug money didn’t in fact create 9/11 –than to hear of cheaper drugs and no more jail etc (even if it was rich Sauds or an inside job –why not use it as ammo to end the fight –even the DEA makes the case that illegal drugs finances terrorism –and if the CIA can do it –why not Hamas?) . . . we do know for a fact that insurgents are armed to the teeth in drug money. What happens when America cannot pay troops to volunteer? Draft: I see war on drugs as drafting my kids to fight in Africa or Asia as evident in 9/11 happened. You don’t care about the kids or the economy they will inherit . . . I see the war on drugs as costing $6-8 trillion of our $17 trillion debt: from no hemp jobs decades at a time, war(s), to jailing drug users.

          You are far more radical than me –how: you just stand there offering no help whatsoever to your bruised and fragile country, while blathering out how unfair it all is and how someone should do something about it . . . ignorance is seeing the war on drugs as only a thing that affects the ghettoes and drug users and their families . . . some people may think that re-thinking the war on drugs is the best approach, while it does nothing to stop illegal drug money. You Duncan, the hard core drug addict crates prohibs who see tweaking the war on drugs as better than legalization –how the argument can be steered towards rehab and what not. I bet you didn’t know that NYC had 8 million people: all affected by the war on drugs on 9/11 (and recession made larger because of a long expensive war). So quit trying to play like some cute playmate who knows only of cocktail conversations at the couch. An old fool like you is the reason why people still get busted for drugs: you didn’t even get close to making your point to the American people . . . but I believe I can when I can prove cause and effect and recession and terrorism and millions of hemp jobs etc. Learn how to do some reading Dunc. Maybe you should attend college courses . . . take a logic and history course why don’t you.

          School me brother –I dare you. But you cannot and you won’t and if you try –you’ll only use opinions and not facts . . . it’ll be short enough to be considered opinion and not detailed like they would teach grad students.

        • Pete says:

          Hey! Keep it civil down there or I’m locking up the refrigerator..

  3. Klay says:

    Stuff like this makes me think that liberal big gov is not the way to go. Too many times they think gov should not interfere with me but do not trust their neighbor to govern themselves.

  4. Trigg – just curious how many successful state-level marijuana legalization campaigns you’ve directed? Oh, zero? Oh. I thought that since you were criticizing Holcomb, you had some experience in what it actually takes to win a campaign or something. Silly me.

    • Jeff Trigg says:

      Winning is everything, huh? Proponents of slavery and those against the women’s right to vote WON campaigns for decades and decades in this country. People who oppose gay marriage are WINNING campaigns right now too. We shouldn’t criticize someone because they ran a successful campaign? Idiot logic you are using there, Bratzer. Jim Crow and “separate but equal” is better than slavery, I get it, but still… Just because Jim Crow was better than slavery didn’t make Jim Crow right.

      Is Alison Holcomb right to think that people who grow even one cannabis plant should be arrested and locked in a cage? Nope, she is terribly wrong about that.

      George W Bush and Karl Rove won a campaign, so they shouldn’t be criticized for being WRONG about which human beings to lock in cage, according to your logic, right Bratzer? Do I dare mention that a certain German also won a campaign? So what’s your point Bratzer, Alison is right that “those people”/human beings should still be locked in cages?

      • David Hart says:

        Winning is everything? I think you are missing the point: legalizing the possession of small amounts of cannabis is a step in the right direction, and it is unfortunate for you that part of the price that had to be paid in order to get enough voters in favour of it is a stricter-than necessary DUI law and a limit on quantity. However, here’s the important point: All that needs to be done to improve Washington’s cannabis laws now is to … well, improve Washington’s cannabis laws. It is no longer necessary to start from square one.

        If you had to choose between Jim Crow and slavery, would you really say ‘Jim Crow isn’t ideal, therefore I don’t really care either way?’ Of course not. You’d say ‘Jim Crow, terrible as it is, is still better than humans being legally owned by other humans and worked to death as if they were mere agricultural machines – I’ll take Jim Crow for the time being, and then work on trying to improve the situation further’. Same with Washington’s cannabis laws. However obviously unjust cannabis prohibition is to you and me, there are still a hell of a lot of people who support it, and winning over the people who are on the fence, one step at a time, is a far better bet than shouting down every small improvement that isn’t exactly what you ultimately want to achieve.

        Tl;dr: No, winning isn’t everything, but gradual improvement is better than never winning at all.

        • Duncan20903 says:

          .
          .

          I think that the 2012 referenda are strong supporting evidence that we don’t need to include per se levels for impaired driving or exclude personal cultivation. I couldn’t have come to that conclusion without the Colorado and Washington referenda being written as they were written. The margin of victory was practically identical in both States. When we consider that there was significantly more support for right wing candidates in Colorado than in Washington and adjust for that fact A-64 did significantly better than I-502. I see no reason for regret because there was very significant arguments in favor of including those parts of the laws as needed compromise to make progress toward our goals absent the evidence which we got on Election Day 2012.

    • Jeff Trigg says:

      And BTW, even if I had beat Barack Obama in 2004 as Jerry Kohn’s campaign manager, I am SURE there is something that someone could legitimately criticize me for in winning that campaign. Same thing in 2002 if I had beaten Dick Durbin as Steven Burgauer’s campaign manager. What was Alison Holcomb doing ten years ago in 2002 that helped set the stage for the 2012 “victories”? Lobbying to have cannabis users locked up if they used flavored rolling papers? With her views on locking people in cages for growing even one plant, I wouldn’t doubt it a bit.

    • allan says:

      I still fail to understand Mr Trigg’s boiling level comments… obviously a full legalization/regulation advocate but he insists on flinging poop in a room full of folks who don’t disagree with him. David Bratzer is one of LEAP’s speakers. LEAP is the strongest, most visible org out there fighting against Prohibition. I fail to see how such repetitious rude eruptions can further anyone’s case. OK, Jeff, you don’t like Allison Holcomb, we get it. Chill out.

      Up in BC, LEAPster Bill VanderGraaf is an excellent example of the LEAP folks knowing where we’re come from, Former cop makes case for legalizing marijuana

      During his early years on the job, VanderGraaf saw the world in black and white. That changed in December 1985 when he helped arrest a 28-year-old, on-duty city police officer in a drug raid, catching him in possession of seven grams of marijuana. The officer quickly resigned from the force and pleaded guilty in provincial court, receiving a $100 fine.

      “I actually realized that the war on marijuana was crazy when I had to arrest a uniform cop for using pot,” VanderGraaf says. “He lost his job, but the alcoholics on the job driving impaired or worse were given breaks and allowed to keep their jobs. Silly, I thought.”

      VanderGraaf retired in 2001. Six years later, he was arrested for growing marijuana in the basement of his house. Police seized 21 plants. He later got a conditional discharge, successfully arguing in court he was growing the plant for his own use and to help his ailing father, who in his final year suffered from ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. His son gave him marijuana cookies to ease his pain.

      The following year, VanderGraaf joined Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), and since then has been a vocal proponent of legalizing marijuana.

  5. Jeff Trigg says:

    While I’m at it, and you seem to be implying I’m less than a human being who isn’t good enough to criticize someone else, let me ask this. Has Alison Holcomb WON a federal level campaign to have a state’s election laws ruled unconstitutional by proving those election laws violated the 1st and 14th Amendments to our Constitution? I have. Lee v. Keith in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, one step below SCOTUS because the STATE didn’t dare try to appeal it to them. Illinois held unconstitutional, and illegal, elections for 25 years. Not even one independent candidate was able to get on the ballot during that quarter century. I won that federal level campaign in 2005, what was Alison Holcomb doing then? Did she get Washington state laws overturned as being unconstitutional? Nope. Federal laws still trump I-502, while I got the Feds to trump Illinois’ election laws. Good enough win for me, if not for you Bratzer.

    Does that make me enough of a human being to criticize Alison Holcomb for believing a human being should be arrested and locked in a cage if they grow one plant, or possess more than one ounce or drive a car 5 days after inhaling?

    • darkcycle says:

      Fuck you, prohibitionist, you lost. Get over it. Marijuana is legal in Washington and you weren’t able to prevent it, Jeff. Boo-fucking hoo. Go troll somewhere else, you are worse than these “third way” assholes. You pretend to favor legalization, but when the chance comes along, you try to sabotage it. Maybe you oughta join Kennedy, since you worked SO hard to derail legalization for the rest of us (because it just wasn’t GOOD enough for you) here.

    • darkcycle says:

      …and the most irrational, hate filled straw man tirade I can remember seeing here at an ordinarily very civil, intelligent forum.

  6. Windy says:

    Jeff, the fed laws that you claim “trump I-502” are just as unconstitutional as Illinois’ election laws apparently were. For the most part I do agree with most of the rest of what you wrote in the above comments. I-502 is truly bad law, especially when it is unconstitutional for ANY ingestible substance to be prohibited by any level of government, since it is a clear violation of the natural (and therefore unalienable) rights to self-ownership, self-determination, life and liberty.

    • War Vet says:

      Are not all 2nd term elections in the U.S. illegal (with exceptions) . . . the CSA is a direct threat to National Security, thus it’s illegal to not fight the law or change the law, which means any politician not fighting an illegal law that aids terrorism directly (by not proposing hemp or truth in sentencing or legalization efforts etc that would end subtly or not the war on drugs), is committing treason and has no legal right to run a second term, since certain Felons don’t have the right to vote or hold office: like treason during war –would bar someone for the rest of their life?

  7. claygooding says:

    So,,we have an opiate addict great grandson of one of the richest most successful bootleggers from alcohol prohibition campaigning against ending prohibition of hemp,,,can you say ironic?

  8. chas holman says:

    Kennedy is a known narcotics abuser and a drunk. He had to go through rehab for oxycontin and once got so hammered up on booze and pills he smashed through a security gate in DC. He is an absolutely icky man and has done some really gross and stupid things with his own life that this 60 yr old grass eater couldn’t be paid to do for any amount of money.

    He has no moral high ground. Zero.

    You know, his own family made their fortune in the early day taking advantage of alcohol prohibiton laws, and running illegal hooch.

    He really should be ashamed of himself trying to take some kind of high road over silly silly marijuana. If he wants to tackle something of importance, it should be prescription abuse and alcohol. It was never marijuana that got this man in trouble. But it certainly was his money and privledge that kept him out of jail.

    He’s another evil man.

    • Liam says:

      Therein lies their rationale. Guilt by association. The gentle plant will be tarnished by its coupling to a pus-nut.

  9. CJ says:

    look at what happens when you have an opiate loving person feel unjustly guilty for loving opiates and all the other bogus mechanisms of prohibition, 12-step etc. You make an otherwise great friend of opiates turn into a psychotic, delusional, and hallucinating (seeing images of long haired, authority battling ‘hippies’.) madman.

    I can assure you all that if Mr. Kennedy (Kennedy) were able to keep injecting, snorting, chewing, smoking, or just good ole fashioned U.S.A red white and blue cowardly taking the pills with water (or red blooded American swallowing the pills dry throat) this would not be happening right now.

    In a sense I can completely understand the underlying bitterness swelling up in Mr. Kennedy – being apart of one of the most unjustly glorified families of the planet Earth and it’s history, not just that but a family notoriously concerned with outward appearance, pretentious, materialistic matters, Mr. Kennedy (Kennedy) no doubt felt loathsome at the thought that he was outted as an opiate loving person in such a politically correct family.

    But as most opiate lovers do, well, the smart ones, you realize how bogus and full of it all concepts of materialism and public appearances truly are. Perhaps Mr. Kennedy got to that point himself as well.

    So perhaps it’s all just bitterness then. Bitterness that he was exposed and embarassed and now publicly expected to be this clean, poster-child of that *gasp* recovery con.

    So this dude, like most all those so called recovery people, sit in this deep black hole of misery and bitterness, full of the most shameful secret desires to drink again (if you drink) sniff again (if you sniff) shoot again (if you shoot) or whatever. Happens all the time. Dude has “12 years” dozens of sponsees, tons of material things he couldn’t have dreamt of before (new clothes, a car or two, a house even) and he looks like a pillar of sobriety yet nobody knows deep inside he’d give it all away for a taste, one, little, sweet taste because at the end of the day, the taste of the food is all that matters, not the portion or the price.

    Well this abstract example here disappears off the face of the earth one day and after 2 weeks of not answering calls, not being at meetings etc. the concerned (but never concerned ENOUGH) AA/NA colleagues gather around the coffee pot one night with a copy of the local paper and see that “Johnny 12 years clean with cars, clothes and a house, was found butt naked in a totalled caddilac off the entry to the highway with cocaine, heroin, bottles of alcohol all over the passenger and backseats. Whats more, there is reason to suspect there was even child pornography on his person.”

    And they drink their coffee and they laugh and they judge. They always knew it! They always knew he wasn’t for real, even though they kissed his butt as the beacon of sobriety that he was.

    I can see Pat Kennedy wandering the halls of Camelot, portraits of Dead Kennedy’s (heheheh, get it) starring him down condemning him as he walks the various corridors. It’s a sunny new day in the new year but it doesn’t matter for Pat because ever since they found out, ever since they embarrassed him nothing mattered anymore. It didn’t matter too much about the embarrassment because his family has long embarrassed themselves from his grandfathers public support of the Nazi’s to his dad’s famous drunken car accident. Pat got off pretty easy – I mean, his public embarrassment wasn’t all that unusual a circumstance. It’s just drugs and famous rich young-ish people are expected to do drugs, and c’mon, we’re the Kennedy’s, its our duty to do as expected by the public.

    But as uncle John, uncle Rob, cousin Jr. and the others stare down at Pat walking down that corridor on that boring sunny afternoon, a day like any other, a day without meaning, a day of the same bull, a sudden realization may have come over Patrick-me-boy. He may’ve realized, you know something, I don’t give a damn. Camelot fell way before I rolled a dollar bill up slipped it up my nostril and blew some Oxy dust away. Its up to a parent’s offspring to learn from the mistakes of their forebearers. I cannot repeat the same misguided, bogus, attention hounding, glory hogging, useless behavior of my ancestors. No, I realize that the average American is an idiot. They’re consumed with national television, youtube, facebook and are otherwise nothing but an inconvenience on the way to a man’s destiny to become President of the United States. Where my family went wrong is giving a damn about a population that doesn’t give a damn about itself. DO NOT WHAT YOUR COUNTRY WANTS YOU TO, DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO, REGARDLESS OF COUNTRY.

    So Pat turns around and looks at the murals and loudly screams YOU CAN’T CONTROL ME. YOU’RE GHOSTS. YOU’RE ALL DEAD. I’M THE ONE WHO DID THE DRUGS AND YET YOU’RE ALL DEAD. MUAHAHAHA. and storms off into the next room like a mad Hamlet. We find Patty at a desk, perhaps peering upon a polished glass world globe, Patty could even be dressed in a black cloak with a pet raven on his shoulder. Peering at the globe he mutters “they take away the only thing that ever mattered to me… they tried to humiliate me for it..no, they DID humiliate me for it! BRANDED ME FOR IT! THEY STOLE MY PRIDE, THEY STOLE MY DIGNITY! THEY ROBBED ME OF MY DESTINY TO TAKE THAT OVAL OFFICE, TO SNIFF COCAINE OFF THE DESKS MY UNCLE AND FATHER ENJOYED SNIFFING COCAINE OFF OF!! THE AUDACITY!!” so Pat broods and grows more and more morbid by the minute. He decides to ruin the fun for everyone. They take away his pleasure and now he’s gonna take away everybody elses. Quoth the Patrick nevermore.

  10. Freeman says:

    Another zinger in comments at the linked article:

    A Kennedy is telling us not do do an illegal substance? That’s like a Kardashian telling you not to have sex.

    • Freeman says:

      (I’m referring to the link in Matt Welch’s tweet, above).

      Pete: The link in your post is pointing at http://www.drugwarrant.com/wordpress/wp-admin/post-new.php.

      • Pete says:

        Thanks, Freeman. I deleted the link – wasn’t necessary anyway as it merely pointed to the main story. Interesting, though, how copying the tweet with an embedded shortened link ended up doing that.

        • Freeman says:

          Oops, sorry, Pete, but I wasn’t clear about which link was broken. The shortened URL link from the tweet worked. It’s your link at the top of the article that goes to the wrong place. The one with the following text between anchor tags:

          Patrick Kennedy on Marijuana: Former Rep. Leads Campaign Against Legal Pot

        • Pete says:

          Oops. That was the important link. Thanks! Should be fixed now.

  11. Peter says:

    The Denver post has a sub heading “Medical use OK” before going on to say:
    “Kennedy wants cancer patients and others with serious illnesses to be able to obtain drugs with cannabinoids but in a more regulated way that could involve a larger role for the Food and Drug Administration.”
    I see more Big Pharma fingerprints here… cancer patients etc. will be allowed to obtain “drugs with cannabinoids,” not cannabis. How much is this stooge getting paid by Sativex and Marinol?
    http://tinyurl.com/attm38e

  12. Peter says:

    Patrick Kennedy lazily uses a worn out cliche, “don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater…” to make his claim for keeping part, at least, of the status quo intact.
    Presumably the “bathwater” refers to the war on drugs, which he admits has failed, so what exactly is this precious “baby” which he wants to save from the wreckage of 80 years of failed prohibition experiment? I’d love to know.

    • War Vet says:

      Maybe he thinks the baby grew gills and can survive the bathwater. Of course that’s further proof he is mentally ill for believing wet babies grow gills. The War on Drugs: the end results are often the intended consequences of the prohibs based on lack of ignorance. The war on drugs was intended to kill over 6,000 U.S. soldiers in the middle east because we knew about drug money 9/11 and drug money Beirut and drug money Taliban etc etc.

  13. claygooding says:

    SAM,,simpletons and morons?

  14. Servetus says:

    Patrick Kennedy? He’s no Jack Kennedy, for sure. But Patrick thinks being an oxycontin addict makes him an expert on marijuana. Or maybe because his cousin David OD’d on a combo cocktail of cocaine, Demerol, and Mellaril, of all things. Then there was Robert, Jr., and his ill-fated campaign to link autism with thimerosal used in vaccines. Talk about lack of drug expertise; it never ends.

    Marijuana’s popularity and the worldwide anger at its prohibition would normally give pause to any intelligent politician before said politician joined the losing side. Patrick is like those who would join the Confederate States Army six months prior to the end of the Civil War. A champion of lost causes.

    Intelligence really is the issue here, and the Kennedy clan has shown little of it since Bobby died. The prohibitionists wave the banner of science with Sabet and Frum and their ilk, but I’d be surprised if any one of them could muddle their way through a basic high school chemistry course. It’s a shame that Patrick Kennedy demeans his family’s remaining honor this way. Oh, well.

    • Peter says:

      poor old pat. he was at the back of the line for both the kennedy brains and the looks. he even comes up with a watc rationalisation for continuing to arrest cannabis users: his 8 month old son may have inherited the gene for addiction so he wants to cage those who cant use family connections to escape jail

  15. Peter says:

    Video clip of Pat showing us just how dumb he really is:
    http://tinyurl.com/b5qzyf7

    • Peter says:

      check out the video at around 50 seconds where he asks “who are we going to make the target of bigotry next?”

      I have an answer for you Pat: the target you have chosen next for your bigotry are the consumers of cannabis

  16. John says:

    If I grew up in a boiler room like the “keeping up appearances” Kennedy household, I probably would need lots of the Oxycotin and booze that Patrick used. His “genetic trigger” is in each us and we all have our breaking points but a stressful environment will pull that trigger at some point. If he had used marijuana instead of opiates and booze, he would not have been so reckless as to drive into a barricade on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Oh wait, Big Pharma and Alcohol-Oriented Casinos supported his Congressional career.

    Pharmaceuticals/Health Products $147,150
    Casinos/Gambling $596,870

    http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=Career&type=I&cid=N00000360&newMem=N&recs=20

    • claygooding says:

      And according to Wikipedia,,there is no hard evidence that the older Kennedy was ever involved in distribution of illegal hooch. He just happened to have a warehouse full of the three brands of liquor he had sole license to distribute when prohibition ended and made millions because he was set up for it while others were just getting started,,inside trading I am sure. He was a very good friend of Roosevelt and probably knew exactly when to start stocking up.

      • darkcycle says:

        Clay, if there were hard evidence, he likely would have been charged. They couldn’t get Al Capone for bootlegging, either. They got old scarface on tax evasion.

  17. The hard fact is that many many people are supported by the war on drugs. I think if you were to be able to gather all the statistics on a dollar amount it would be quite outrageous. The bucks are spread out all over several different branches of the Government. Local authorities share in this wealth routinely. In my local community $165,000 was just obtained for public safety(from Homeland Security). Pretty good take from a broke Federal Government. Lets multiply that $165,000 times how many cities in America?

    If the issue hasn’t been thought about or discussed yet it should. If we are all to agree that there should be no war on drugs, how will we (meaning the USA)find work for all the displaced jobs?

    My first reaction is fire em all.

    My second thought is, there are too many to think like that. Its a very real issue that no resolve has been brought to or even looked at in any realistic fashion. Its a game change. The prohibitionists need a new job.

    The corner has been turned on this issue, but the war has not been won. We should pat ourselves on the back, but it would be a big big mistake to think its all over. Don’t think that the guys that will have no jobs left are going to take all this lying down.

    Some people like Kennedy are still clueless and uneducated on the subject, or they have hidden motives.

    That’s my view.

  18. primus says:

    It’s not just the people officially hired to wage the WoSD. What about all the people who make their living selling, producing, shipping etc? In both camps there are many who have no other marketable skills. Retraining on a massive scale will be needed; therein lies opportunity.

    • John says:

      Frankly, I really don’t care if all the prohibitionists get jobs working as Wal-mart greeters after the Drug War ends. Our focus should be on correcting injustice, not the retirement plans of people who danced with the devil and came out on the losing end of the bargain. The more people who see that line of work as a dead end, the better the world will be.

  19. Dante says:

    We outnumber the prohibitionists.

    When can we start arresting them? When can we start raiding their houses at night? When can we start shooting their dogs for no good reason?

    The tide is turning, and we outnumber them.

    Are you listening, Kevin?

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      Can’t we teach our dogs to shoot them for no reason instead? It’s not their poor dogs fault that the prohibasites use them for evil. It really is pretty easy to scam a dog.

  20. The Goat says:

    Patrick Kennedy was just on CNN after Alex Jones. Trying to tie drugs into gun control?

Comments are closed.