Tag: moral panics

Former Biden Cabinet Member Is ‘Concerned’ About Marijuana Legalization

A former U.S. labor secretary who previously served as mayor of Boston as Massachusetts’s marijuana legalization law came into effect, spoke out against what he described as a “slippery slope” of cannabis reform during a C-SPAN interview this week.

Marty Walsh, who also discussed his own substance use disorder and recovery in the interview, said he’s “worried” about legalization efforts and gets “concerned about where we’re headed there.”

Asked how he felt about his state’s move to legalize, the former Biden cabinet member replied: “I didn’t love it. When I was mayor of Boston, I fought it. I get concerned. I think it’s a slippery slope.”

Walsh, who opposed the 2016 ballot initiative to legalize marijuana in his state and later voted against a proposed Democratic National Committee party plank to endorse cannabis legalization in 2020, noted that advocates at first seemed to want to decriminalize marijuana, then later pushed legalize it for medical uses.

“And now you have marijuana” legal for adults, he added. “And I’m just worried, you know. You have have some places in the country trying to legalize it and opioids. I get concerned about that. I just get concerned about where we’re headed there.”

Later in the interview, he claimed that “alcohol deaths are higher than, actually, opioid deaths at this point in our country,” and argued that manufacturers of dangerous or impairing substances should be liable for costs of therapy and recovery.

Keep reading

GOP Senator Says Marijuana Is A ‘Gateway Drug,’ And Legalization Is A ‘Pro-Criminal, Anti-American’ Policy

A Republican senator says marijuana is a “gateway drug,” and Democrats’ moves to legalize it reflect “pro-criminal, anti-American policies” that will “stimulate more crime on American streets.” He also argued that cannabis banking legislation “facilitates an entire infrastructure and an ecosystem for more drug usage in America.”

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) said during an interview on Thursday that he’s opposed to both comprehensive legalization legislation such as the bill Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and 17 other Democrats reintroduced this week, as well as modest reform like the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act.

“What the Joe Biden administration—what Leader Schumer—is trying to do is basically stimulate more crime on American streets,” Hagerty said. “Here we have Chuck Schumer basically lowering the barriers for gateway drugs like marijuana, and it’s going to damage society, and this is exactly what Democrats have been pushing. This is not good for America.”

He added that the push for cannabis legalization is an attempt to “incentivize more drug usage in America.”

Asked for his thoughts on the SAFER Banking Act to simply protect financial institutions that work with state-licensed marijuana businesses, the senator said it “facilitates an entire infrastructure, an ecosystem, for more drug usage in America.”

“We need to be constraining drug usage, not encouraging it,” he said.

Hagerty said that Democrats’ marijuana reform efforts are “completely political,” designed to shore up support from a “small fragment” of voters who care about cannabis policy ahead of the November election.

“What they’re trying to do is cobble together a very disparate group of people to vote for Joe Biden,” he said. “Nobody likes his overall policies. If you look at American sentiment, everyone says that America is moving in the wrong direction. But what they’re trying to do is pick off minor issues like this—encouraging drug abuse, frankly. It’s obscene that this would be happening.”

Keep reading

These States Want You To Show ID To Watch Porn Online

The latest trend in anti-sex action is carding people to watch porn online. After years of passing resolutions to declare porn a “public health crisis,” state lawmakers are coalescing on age-verification measures as a way to address this alleged scourge.

At issue is minors’ ability to access online pornography. Even when porn platforms technically require visitors to be age 18 or older, all minors usually have to do is check a box saying they’re adults and they’re in. Some parents and politicians want more stringent age-verification measures.

Enter laws requiring porn platforms to verify visitor ages. Such laws have already taken effect in at least eight states (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia), and bills to do the same were introduced in at least 11 other states in 2023. So far in 2024, legislators in at least seven states (Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, and Oklahoma) have introduced such porn age-verification bills. While the particulars vary, most would result in all visitors to web-based adult-content platforms having to submit a government-issued ID proving their age, either directly to the platform or through a third-party verification service.

Supporters of such measures say it’s no different than carding people in stores who try to buy age-restricted merchandise. But there’s a big difference between momentarily flashing your ID in front of a store clerk and submitting it to a website or app. The latter creates a record, permanently attaching real identities to online activity that many people would prefer stay private.

From a privacy perspective, there are better and worse ways to verify ages on websites. (And not just porn sites: Some legislators now want to require them for social media.) But even the best verification methods would leave people vulnerable to hackers and snoops—and we can’t count on authorities (or tech platforms, for that matter) to enact online age-verification measures in the best ways. These measures are shaping up to be a giant privacy nightmare.

Keep reading

DeSantis Again Rips Into Marijuana Legalization, Warning November Ballot Measure Would Be ‘Not Good For Families’

With a legalization ballot measure set to appear on Florida’s ballot in November, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) again attacked the proposal on Wednesday, warning that the changes would be “not good for families” and “not good for [the] elderly.”

He also accused the initiative’s cannabis industry backers as being profit-driven. “People aren’t putting tens of millions of dollars behind that out of the goodness of their heart,” the governor said. “They are going to be making a lot of money if that amendment passes, so you’d be making some companies very, very rich.”

DeSantis has previously predicted voters will reject the marijuana initiative in November and argued that passage would “reduce the quality of life” in the state.

Speaking at an event on Wednesday, DeSantis urged voters to reject ballot initiatives that might seem vague or confusing—including the cannabis measure.

“The marijuana one is written so broadly, you are not going to be able to restrict where people use it,” DeSantis said, repeating a claim that the legalization campaign has said is untrue. “Understand: Your life will be impacted by this. It will change the quality of life and our communities. You will smell it when you’re walking down a lot of these streets, particularly in our urban areas.”

Keep reading

ATF Report Undermines Left’s Hysteria Over So-Called ‘Gun Show Loophole’

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives’ (ATF) National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment (NFCTA), Vol. III, undermines the left’s long-standing hysteria over a so-called “gun show loophole.”

The NFCTA examines gun trafficking and gun trafficking channels, both domestic and international.

The ATF uploaded the NFCTA in various parts or segments, and part four looks at “source-to-market” trafficking.

From the NFCTA:

The term source-to-market type captures the geographic scope of firearm trafficking cases, which include intrastate, interstate, and international trafficking. Within the U.S., intrastate trafficking involves the movement of firearms in markets within states, while interstate trafficking occurs between states. International trafficking involves the movement of firearms in markets between the U.S. and a foreign country. For interstate and international trafficking, the term ‘source’ is used to identify the state or country that is the supplier of illicit firearms, while the term ‘market’ is used to identify the state or country that is the recipient of illicit firearms. In the case of international trafficking, the U.S. may serve as the source country while a foreign country serves as the market country, referred to as U.S. to foreign trafficking. Conversely, a foreign country may serve as the source country while the U.S. serves as the market country, referred to as foreign to U.S. trafficking.

Following decades of hysteria from the left resulting in gun control push after gun control push based on the so-called “gun show loophole,” one would think such shows to play a dominant role in intrastate and interstate trafficking. However, the NFCTA numbers show only 3.2 percent of ATF intrastate trafficking cases involve “trafficking in firearms at gun shows, flea markets, or auctions.”

Moreover, only 4.3 percent of ATF interstate trafficking cases involve “trafficking in firearms at gun shows, flea markets, or auctions.”

The percentage of international ATF trafficking cases from the United States to a foreign country involving “trafficking in firearms at gun shows, flea markets, or auctions” is 4.5 percent.

Keep reading

Teen Marijuana Use Has Declined In Washington Since Legalization, New State Research Shows

Newly released data from a Washington State survey of adolescent and teenage students show declines in both lifetime and past-30-day marijuana use in recent years, with striking drops that held steady through 2023. The results also indicate that perceived ease of access to cannabis among underage students has generally fallen since the state enacted legalization for adults in 2012—contrary to fears repeatedly expressed by opponents of the policy change.

About 8.4 percent of Washington 10th graders said in 2023 that they had used marijuana within the past 30 days, according to the new data, up slightly from 7.2 percent in 2021. But both of those numbers were sharply lower than pre-legalization numbers. In 2010, for example, 20.0 percent of 10th graders in the state said they’d used cannabis in the past month.

In King County, by far the state’s most populous, just 5.5 percent of 10th grade respondents reported cannabis use within the past month in 2023. That’s down from 7.3 percent in 2021 and 18.1 percent in 2010.

Similar drops were seen in lifetime marijuana use, as well as among other surveyed grade levels, including 6th, 8th and 12th grades.

The data come from the Healthy Youth Survey, which asks students statewide about a variety of topics around health behaviors, mental health and other areas of well-being.

Keep reading

Smart Approaches to Marijuana Exec Attacks ‘Fake’ Cannabis Research on Fox

Anti-cannabis political organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) was represented on Fox News primetime to expose what they believe to be fake research promoted in greed by the cannabis industry. SAM is a political organization opposed to cannabis legalization and commercialization, specifically pushing for penalties for cannabis use.

Executive Vice President of SAM Luke Niforatos joined Laura Ingraham on The Ingraham Angle to discuss how “Big Cannabis” is funding UCLA, Harvard, and MIT studies on the efficacy of cannabis for medical purposes.

“The mainstreaming of pot has come at the same time the drug has increased exponentially in its potency, its THC levels,” warned Ingraham, linking it to “violent behavior.” Ingraham frequently explores the dangers of pot and blamed “pot psychosis” due to widespread legalization for the rise in mass shooting incidents. 

Niforatos then delivered a new mixed bag of reefer madness and hysteria: “Big marijuana is terrified right now, because there are now volumes of research telling us that this new super-charged marijuana that the industry is pumping out is causing psychosis, schizophrenia,” Niforatos said. “We’re seeing addiction rates go up. They’re targeting our kids. All kinds of car crashes on the roads! So all of this is coming out of the research.”

Keep reading

Measles, Oh My!

History is repeating itself. We’re back in 2014, folks.

Remember the absolutely horrifying and sure-to-be-lethal “outbreak” of the measles at Disneyland? The one that killed caused a rash in so many children?

That same measles scare prompted mainstream media to call for parents who did not vaccinate to be put in jail (this brilliant idea came to us courtesy of Useless USA Today).

It was also used to justify the idea that vaccine choice needed to be abolished to keep us all safe. (Thank you, Washington Post)

So here we are again, hearing about measles outbreaks

In the last two days there has been a new onslaught from the media—from television news to internet sites—seeking to terrify parents about a small number of recent cases of … yeppers … measles.

The Atlantic is reporting a “Return of Measles” (because of three cases in Chicago).

STAT is regaling readers with tales about “What it’s like to watch children die of measles.” (Spoiler: it’s devastating to watch a child die of any cause. The chief of medical research who wrote this absolute must-read article lives in one of the poorest provinces in one of the poorest countries in the world where half the people are under 18 and almost no one has access to paved roads, clean drinking water, or enough to eat.)

And Live Science wants us all to know that 300 people have “possibly” been exposed to measles at the UC Davis Medical Center where a child was treated for measles on March 5th.

To say nothing of the Big Bad Measles that have devastated hurt no children in Broward County, Florida.

Oh my god. I am so so scared.

I will rush out and get as many MMR vaccines as I can. For myself. And for my children. Shoot ‘em up. In the back arm.

Because if one measles vaccine works, like the CDC says, more will work even better!

And you can’t have too many of such a good, effective, and wonderful thing!

Besides, the ONLY way to not get the measles or not die from the measles is by supporting Big Pharma’s Big Profits.

Big Fear: 1 million
Commonsense: 0

But who’s keeping score?

Keep reading

The U.S. Wants to Ban TikTok for the Sins of Every Social Media Company

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives will likely vote to force ByteDance to divest from TikTok, which sets the stage for a possible full ban of the platform in the United States (Update: it did). The move will come after a slow but steady drumbeat from politicians on both sides of the aisle to ban the platform for some combination of potential and real societal harms algorithmically inflicted upon American teens by a Chinese-owned company. 

The situation is an untenable mess. A TikTok ban will have the effect of further entrenching and empowering gigantic, monopolistic American social media companies that have nearly all of the same problems that TikTok does. A ban would highlight, again, that people who use mainstream social media platforms run by corporations do not actually own their followers or their audiences, and that any businesses/jobs/livelihoods created on these platforms can be stripped away at any moment by the platforms or, in this case, by the United States government. 

Bytedance and TikTok itself have been put into an essentially impossible situation that is perhaps most exemplified in a 60 Minutes clip from 2022 that went viral this weekend, in which Tristan Harris, a big tech whistleblower who has turned the attention he got from the documentary The Social Dilemma into a self-serving career as a guy who talks about how social media is bad, explains that China is exporting the “opium” version of TikTok to American children. 

Keep reading

“Measles Mayhem”: Where is this going?

The headlines are full of measles at the moment, in the way that always reeks of coordination.

The measles outbreak in the US has been simmering away for weeks, but was brought back to the front burner in the last few days. The Daily Mail headlining:

America on verge of measles MAYHEM: Hundreds feared to be infected in California and Arizona outbreaks as US suffers year’s worth of cases in two months

It’s not just Arizona and California either. Chicago, Florida and Philadelphia all have “outbreaks” of their own.

An article in the Atlantic headlined “The Return of Measles”, claims there have been measles outbreaks in 19 separate states.

Meanwhile, on our side of the pond, a measles outbreak that started in Birmingham in January has apparently spread north and south. The UK’s total cases are apparently up to ~733.

In Ireland, the scary story is that one person on a flight from Abu Dhabi to Dublin tested positive for measles a couple of days ago. That number has since risen to three! The authorities are desperately hunting down anyone who was on that plane.

That’s three measles scare-stories in three different countries at the same time, with maybe more on the way

To quote Ian Fleming, “once is happenstance, twice is a coincidence and three times is enemy action”.

So what is this “enemy action”? Where is this story going?

First, let’s get this out of the way: This is not a public health scare. Not a real one. Measles is not especially dangerous, with a reported case fatality ratio of about 0.02% in Western countries, meaning for every 5000 people who get measles 4999 will survive.

So what’s with the scary headlines? What’s the endgame here?

To answer that we need to ask “who are the media are blaming?”, and as with most issues these days there are two answers to that.

Yes, it’s another binary.

Keep reading