You do not have to go to either criminalizing and throwing people in prison. I don't think you should do that for people who are using any drugs. I think they absolutely need treatment.
Kevin SabetMake no mistake about it: Legalization is not about, you know, Cheech & Chong smoking marijuana or, you know, a Grateful Dead concert; it's about creating the next Marlboro of our time, the next Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds, the Big Tobacco all over again.
Kevin SabetThere's a very complex connection between crime and addiction, because a lot of people are committing crime to either fuel their drug habit, which they're going to do anyway, whether it's legal or not, or under the influence of drugs, which they're going to do more, if it's legal.
Kevin SabetThe issue is, you do not have to go to either criminalizing and throwing people in prison. I don't think you should do that for people who are using any drugs. I think they absolutely need treatment. But we don't want to increase the availability, promotion and commercialization that would absolutely come with this idea of legalization.
Kevin SabetI don't think young black men, or anybody, should get a criminal record for low-level use. You know, I don't think that we should spend our law enforcement time jailing or imprisoning marijuana users. But to solve that problem, you don't need to go to the other extreme of creating Big Tobacco 2.0. Make no mistake about it: Legalization is not about, you know, Cheech & Chong smoking marijuana or, you know, a Grateful Dead concert; it's about creating the next Marlboro of our time, the next Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds, the Big Tobacco all over again.
Kevin Sabet