Booze vs Pot

I absolutely will not be drinking three beers in short order, followed by smoking a blunt for this report. The contest I'm speaking of is the alcohol lobby versus the pot legalizers in California.

The California Beer & Beverage Distributors disclosed it donated $10,000 to defeat Prop 19 — which would regulate and tax marijuana like alcohol. The alcohol lobbyist's funds will help spread the lie that employers must tolerate stoned employees, and the talking point that 'California doesn't need another legal, mind-altering substance.' Alcohol causes an estimated $38 billion in costs in California each year from emergency room visits, arrests, etc, according to the Marin Institute. There are roughly 3,500 deaths annually from alcohol-related illness and more than 109,000 alcohol-related injuries in California. Conversely, pot caused 181 emergency room visits in 2008, according to a study by the non-partisan RAND Corporation, despite being used by more than four million Californians monthly.

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition spokesperson and retired Orange County, CA. judge James Gray said the booze lobby's decision was probably financial. The move echoes the tobacco and alcohol industry's help creating leading drug war group Partnership For a Drug-Free America.

“It was a really wise thing to do from a merchandising standpoint to reaffirm the distinction between a legal and an illegal drug,” he said. “They are protecting their own economic self interest.”

So it has come down to that. Just a money deal. Market share. Given all that, I'm sure the alcohol lobby would prefer you didn't read this book:

Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?

Bad for business doncha know?

It is funny that the beneficiaries of the repeal of alcohol prohibition are pumping for the continuation of pot prohibition. "It's just business." Yes it is. And better 'twere it legal.

Cross Posted at Classical Values