Marijuana Blog

Kevin Sabet is an assistant professor at The University of Florida – I know, I’ll let a moment pass for the magnitude of the power and prestige that title carries to sink in – recently wrote a condescending and short-sighted op-ed in The Huffington Post about what a “sad joke” medical marijuana is in CA.

“The typical scene of a ‘dispensary’ involves 300-pound bouncers guarding tinted doors,” he writes, “inside of which are 21-year-old kids giving medical advice and medicine called ‘Purple Haze’ to anyone with a pulse. Homicides, increased youth drug use, property and neighborhood crime and advertising to kids have all become a part of doing business. Today's dispensaries -- really pot shops selling the drug under the guise of medicine -- bear little resemblance to voters' intent.”

By the way, he offers no links baking up these claims, although he does reference a single study that says the average medical marijuana patient is 32 and white and is not dying.

Image he wasn’t talking this way about medical marijuana users. What if he was offering sweeping generalizations about black people? Or Hispanics? Or the elderly? You get the point. This type of public, blatant bigotry is reserved for few groups.

With thousands of dispensaries in CA alone, what are the odds that most of them even vaguely resemble what Mr. assistant professor portrays? In fact, what are the odds that a assistant professor in FLORDIA knows anything about dispensaries in L.A.?

“The City Council should be commended for taking a courageous stance against these store fronts, and catching up with popular opinion,” he says of his fellow bigots who comprise the L.A. City Council. Popular opinion? Has this man seen just how popular medical marijuana is nationwide in every poll?

You are on the wrong side of history, Mr. Sabet.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com