General

When discussing drug policies and their enforcement, the war analogy is not a particularly useful one.

In 1989, just a few months after his inauguration, America’s new president, George H.W. Bush, called up his friend Tom Landry, who had just stepped down as the beloved coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

A radical program in the Pineapple State is shattering myths about how to deal with drug offenders who violate probation. If only the rest of the country would catch on.  Hawaii is revolutionizing probation.

California Assembly Bill 2254—often referred to as the Ammiano bill—and the Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis (RCTC) proposition would legalize marijuana use for those 21 and over in California. The Ammiano bill would allow the state to regulate production and distri- bution and initially apply an excise tax of $50 per ounce. The RCTC proposition […]

Marijuana is the most frequently used illicit substance in the United States. Little is known of the role that macro-level factors, including community norms and laws related to substance use, play in determining marijuana use, abuse and dependence. We tested the relationship between state-level legalization of medical marijuana and marijuana use, abuse, and dependence. Methods: […]

On Jan. 9, 2013, the Boston Globe reported: “Kennedy’s group, called Smart Approaches to Marijuana — which is also led by a top pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Boston and a Cambridge-based drug policy expert — is warning of a public health crisis unless a science-based approach is taken to minimizing the harmful consequences of marijuana […]

Project SAM directors Patrick Kennedy and Kevin Sabet wrote this column, published Jan. 12, 2013 in The Denver Post.

As Reuters noted Dec. 25, 2012. “Marijuana (cannabis) use may be linked to the development of psychotic symptoms in teens – but the reverse could also be true: psychosis in adolescents may be linked to later pot use, according to a new Dutch study.

Project SAM Director Kevin Sabet recently discussed marijuana in a roundtable discussion you don’t want to miss.

Project SAM Chairman Patrick Kennedy told MSNBC that the United States needs to halt efforts to legalize marijuana:

This column by Project SAM director Kevin Sabet appeared in The Huffington Post Jan. 24.

Two members of SAM’s board of directors, Kevin Sabet and David Frum, have been named “legalization’s biggest enemies” by Rolling Stone.

As The Daily Caller reported Jan. 11, 2013: “Kennedy also discussed his family’s struggles with alcoholism and his own addiction to Oxycontin, using the story to illustrate the danger he sees in lessening marijuana’s historical stigma as a very dangerous drug.

As the Washington Times reported Jan. 11, 2013: “What I want is to slow this train down and kind of begin a discussion before other states rush to judgment, which is what I think happened here,” Patrick Kennedy said (during the formal launch of Project SAM at The Denver Press Club).

Ed Gogek, a self-described “lifelong partisan Democrat” and physician who serves on the board of Keep AZ Drug Free, published an op-ed in the New York Times arguing that his party should not embrace legalization. Democrats have long pilloried Republicans for ignoring science, he wrote, but they’ve done just that when it comes to marijuana: […]

As the IrishCentral.com reported Jan. 11, 2013: “Former Rhode Island Congressman and recovering addict Patrick Kennedy is spearheading the fight against the legalization of marijuana in the United States through his new nonprofit organization, ‘Smart Approaches to Marijuana.’”

Today, the Associated Press reported on the launch of Project SAM, and here are a few passages and quotes that help tell our story:

Project SAM Chairman Patrick Kennedy recently spoke with The Washington Post. As the news organization noted Jan. 8:

Last week, I joined the board of a new organization to oppose marijuana legalization: Smart Approaches to Marijuana. The group is headed by former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy and includes Kevin Sabet, a veteran of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under President Obama. The new group rejects the “war on drugs” model. It […]

As Alex Dobuzinskis of Reuters reports today in the first news story about Project SAM:

We’re not doing well providing work for our young people. When they do find work, they’ll probably earn less than their parents, probably form less stable intimate relationships, and age into more uncertain retirements. But, hey, don’t say we do nothing for our kids. Instead of work, marriage, and security, we can offer pot, porn, […]

Recent reports show fewer adolescents believe regular cannabis use is harmful to health. Concomitantly, adolescents are initiating cannabis use at younger ages, and more adolescents are using cannabis on a daily basis.

On Election Day, marijuana enthusiasts rejoiced as Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana. (Ballot initiatives in Oregon and a medical initiative in Arkansas did not fare so well.) From the federal government’s perspective, however, marijuana remains illegal. It is anyone’s guess what the Obama administration’s next move will be, but it is important to understand that […]

In 2010, Denver psychiatrist Christian Thurstone explained to National Public Radio’s Neal Conan that the state’s relaxed laws made the drug widely available — and irresistible — to too many adolescents.