Anti-Pot Group Throws Mud

It’s the oldest trick in the book. When you’re in a political fight and you seem to be losing momentum, you turn ad-hominem and launch personal attacks on the other side, accusing them of being irrational, of endangering children (the old favorite), of pedophilia, of plain old evil.

Whether it be a politician attacking an opponent or the NRA trying to throw attention to the mentally ill, it’s a time-honored tradition. And an anti-pot group meeting in Southern California seems to have learned the message well.

The group of hardcore drug war activists plans to hold a conference in SoCal Sept. 23. Now they say they’re afraid of the unstable, violent, child-molesting potheads who plan to crash.

Marijuana reformers plan a protest at the 2013 National Marijuana Policy and Strategy Conference. Such demonstrations are standard operating procedure for the legalization movement in America and are no stranger to drug warriors, either. But apparently the organizers of the conference didn’t get the message.

Marijuana Activists Are Criminals?

“The drug legalization crowd is well known for being hostile and at times, outright dangerous,” organizers claimed. “The many videos found on YouTube by pot groups, including the shooting at a Denver pot event earlier this year is yet more proof of the radicalization of these anti-social individuals who lack common sense, patience and restraint. We have recorded and retained threatening messages and emails. . . . It has also been brought to our attention that one of the key protest organizers has been investigated for child pornography. He is a concern to us all. . . . As we know from research, marijuana causes significant mental problems – and we clearly do not want to be near a crowd of people with mental problems, who exhibit a failure in judgment and propensity for violence.”

Among other things, the group’s claims about marijuana use simply aren’t true. There is no established causal link between weed and violence: Studies conflict, and even where there appears to be a link, it’s not clear the pot causes the aggression.

Marijuana Isn’t The Cause

Research has found that people who smoke cannabis are more likely to develop certain mental illnesses, but the findings apply almost exclusively to teens whose heredity predisposes them to psychotic disorders. There is no proven link showing that marijuana causes permanent mental or emotional problems in people who start smoking as adults or in those with no genetic vulnerability.

There is absolutely no link whatsoever between weed and pedophilia or child abuse. This is the old reliable fall-back of desperate crusaders everywhere: If you can’t think of anything else, accuse them of having sex with kids. The group didn’t name the alleged subject of the kiddie porn investigation, or whether he was cleared.

Preparing for the supposed threat from these bloodthirsty bud nuts, organizers moved the conference to an undisclosed location where children, supposedly, will be safe.