Former Rep. Patrick Kennedy leads campaign against legal pot
Source: Reuters
By Alex Dobuzinskis
Sat Jan 5, 2013 3:08pm EST
(Reuters) - Retired Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy is taking aim at what he sees as knee-jerk support for marijuana legalization among his fellow liberals, in a project that carries special meaning for the self-confessed former Oxycontin addict.
Kennedy, 45, a Democrat and younger son of the late "Lion of the Senate" Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, is leading a group called Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) that opposes legalization and seeks to rise above America's culture war over pot with its images of long-haired hippies battling law-and-order conservatives.
Project proposals include increased funding for mental health courts and treatment of drug dependency, so those caught using marijuana might avoid incarceration, get help and potentially have their criminal records cleared.
Kennedy wants cancer patients and others with serious illnesses to be able to obtain drugs with cannabinoids, but in a more regulated way that could involve the U.S. Food and Drug Administration playing a larger role.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/05/us-usa-kennedy-marijuana-idUSBRE9040AF20130105
= new reply since forum marked as read
really burn my ass w/ their fucked up self righteousness, 
same idea here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022141596
Mencken!!
Know what? Screw you, Patrick. Just because you had a problem with an entirely different substance, is no reason to continue a failed prohibitionary approach for pot.
I can't drink alcohol. In fact, genetically, most of my family does well to stay way the fuck away from it (like some other families... um... cough) however, like with pot, alcohol PROHIBITION DOESN'T WORK.
Everyone who drinks a glass of wine or two occasionally, is not an alcoholic. Same goes for pot, although even in cases of heavy, chronic use the health and social impacts from pot are positively dwarfed by alcohol, which is a far more dangerous -and physically addictive- substance.
The last line makes me wonder if he's working with Big Pharma, too. Yes, "allow" (again, how reasonable! 
) sick people to use cannabinoids, but only in a patentable form which can be sold to them from Pfizer or Merck at 80 bucks a pill- NOT something they can grow in their own backyard ooo nooo!
Lastly, dude, you're on the wrong side of history. May not know it living in your insular East Coast bubble, but we here out west for sure know times are changing. Prohibition will end.
the below is from the end of this one:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2141505
http://www.cannabisculture.com/node/19879
“Patented Pot vs. the Herbal Gold Standard by David Malmo-Levine”
“How patented marijuana strains and medicines may threaten the re-legalization movement, curb information sharing, set up a monopoly for certain breeders and medicine producers and limit users to a more expensive and inferior product. Their economic value to the pharmaceutical houses which produce them will be directly proportional to the severity of the prohibition against the use of cannabis.”
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“GW Pharmaceutical was granted a license to grow cannabis for medical research in 1998 and it’s partner Bayer was granted a patent for Sativex in 2006. Sativex comes in a 5.5 ml spray bottle for $102 U.S. Dollars, which supplies about 51 sprays – enough for an average ten day supply. It is now available in Canada for MS and cancer pain, and has most recently become available in Britain and parts of Spain for use in the treatment of some other symptoms and syndromes.”
“GW Pharmaceutical has even patented a strain of cannabis called “Grace” in Canada. It was patented in 2005 under the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act. Under this 1994 Act, all plant species (except algae, bacteria, and fungi) are eligible for “protection” (exclusive rights to sell) for 18 years. Medicine patents last between ten to twenty years depending on the country.”
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“The modern version of this monopoly began in 1910 with the Flexner Report – a report that succeeded in closing down all the naturopathic and herbal medicine schools by the 1930?s. This report was partially engineered by the Rockefeller Foundation. The removal of these schools would assist the Rockefeller family in protecting their investments in pharmaceuticals from botanical competition. The Rockefeller Institute and Rockefeller Foundation were also key players in the development of the sciences of genetics and molecular biology – the fields in which the concepts of patenting of life-forms originated. Standard Oil – now Exxon/Mobil and a host of other oil companies – was the Rockefeller Foundation’s source of income. Interestingly, in 1927 Standard Oil became business partners with Bayer – the marketer and distributor of Sativex in Canada.” 
