Lee Fang: Big Money Fights Legal Pot
on Friday, June 10, 2016Lee Fang Money Quote saying political lobbying and campaign donations fighting marijuana legalization. Lee Fang said:
“It’s more than a little odd that CADCA and the other groups leading the fight against relaxing marijuana laws derive a significant portion of their budget from opioid manufacturers and other pharmaceutical companies” — Lee Fang
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In this quote, Lee Fang is pointing out what he sees as a conflict of interest regarding organizations that oppose relaxing laws around marijuana. Specifically, he notes that groups like CADCA that campaign against legalizing marijuana receive a significant part of their funding from opioid manufacturers and other pharmaceutical companies.
Fang implies that these pharmaceutical donors have a financial incentive to see marijuana remain illegal, since it could potentially cut into sales of opioids and other drugs if marijuana was legally and more widely available as an alternative treatment.
So in Fang’s view, the opposition to legalizing marijuana from these organizations may be motivated more by protecting the profits of their donors in the pharmaceutical industry, rather than by the public health arguments they publicly espouse.