(WASHINGTON, DC) – The largest drug prevention group in the country, Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), honored drug policy expert Dr. Kevin Sabet and the national public health policy organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) with the Raiko Mendoza Pagliarello Champion for Drug Free Kids during its 26th annual “Drug-Free Kids Campaign Awards Dinner.”
SAM, which was co-founded in 2013 by former Congressman Patrick Kennedy and former three-time White House drug policy advisor Dr. Kevin Sabet, has become the leading national nonpartisan, non-profit alliance of physicians, policy makers, prevention workers, treatment and recovery professionals, scientists, and concerned citizens raising awareness about the harms of today’s highly potent marijuana. As youth use of high-potency marijuana products and addiction rates continue to rise across the country, SAM’s work has sounded the alarm over the harms of legalization. The organization’s presence in the media and its science-based approach to discussing the impacts of drug use and coalition-building efforts are helping to change perceptions in public polling about the safety of legalization.
Dr. Sabet’s involvement with CADCA dates back more than three decades, when he first attended their annual conference in the mid-1990s, speaking with other youth and adults about his work and activism in California. He later interned at CADCA in 1999, which preceded his first stint at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy under the Clinton Administration in 2000.
“I was honored to be part of a coalition before they were called coalitions. I was introduced to CADCA in the mid-1990s, and it’s been a great relationship ever since. People in the White House used to call me ‘Kevin CADCA’ in meetings because of my prevention focus. I took it as a badge of honor,” said Dr. Sabet.
“Raiko Mendozo was an incredible fundraiser and an amazing person. I was honored to know her for a short time, and we feel very special to be the inaugural winners of the award named after her. It’s an honor to share this award with our spectacular team at SAM. For more than a decade, we have been calling for public policy that prevents the next Big Tobacco, and that message is even more important than ever before. With Big Marijuana getting its hooks into more and more states, we’re seeing greater instances of addiction, psychosis, and other mental and physical health ailments, especially among children,” Dr. Sabet stated.
“We’re grateful to CADCA for this recognition, and their shared message about the importance of keeping today’s high-potency marijuana and THC drug products out of the hands of kids. We remain steadfast in our mission to educate lawmakers, parents, and others about the harms of marijuana legalization—a policy that has consistently placed corporate profits and addiction ahead of public health,” Sabet added.
With affiliates in nearly every state, SAM has become a well-respected and highlight sought-after voice on the topic of health and scientific guided marijuana policies. Along with its educational mission, SAM, through its sister organization SAM Action, leads efforts to educate voters about the dangers of marijuana legalization and has spent millions of dollars organizing campaigns that work to stop Big Marijuana through state ballot initiatives and legislatures.
SAM has also become a sought-after resource for international leaders on the topics of marijuana regulation and other drug policy. The organization has worked with public health officials and political leaders across Europe, Asia, Australia and beyond. In 2016, by special invitation from Pope Francis, Sabet, also a Fellow at Yale University, addressed a conference organized by the Pontifical Academies of Sciences entitled “Workshop on Narcotics: Problems and Solutions of this Global Issue.” Since 2019, SAM has served held special consultative status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), allowing the organization to submit written and oral statements to the Council. Sabet has written two best-selling books, one of which is being adapted into a documentary by a major Hollywood studio. His third book, “One Nation Under The Influence,” will be published by Polity in 2025.