Congressman Steve Cohen on marijuana policy
Yesterday, Congressman Steven Cohen (D-Tenn.) did a fantastic job of arguing against two common and misinformed prohibitionist arguments during a congressional hearing with FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Watch the video below to see Congressman Cohen refute the arguments that marijuana is particularly harmful and that marijuana is a gateway drug.
Tagged with: Congressman Steve Cohen and Tax and Regulate by the author
69 comments
This video should be on EVERY single website for our cause. PERIOD WOW! Now, June 11 is sentencing for Charlie Lynch, let us not forget this man, contact the DOJ and see that they intervene in the sentencing.
haha that guy got his ass handed to him on a platter.
LOL Congressman Steven Cohen (D-Tenn.) did a great job on disproving the gate way theory we just need a lot of represenitives to support us and help legalize marijuana and tax it . After all Congressman Steven Cohen (D-Tenn.) mad the point that 0 people ever died from marijuana which is just making our point more.
Its about time. I have never heard someone in the congress or senate take this agresive an approach and challenge the lie. Mr. Mueller sounded like a fool and looked embarressed. I don’t think he enjoyed that. The party line so to speak didn’t cut it with Congressman Cohen. Nice Job. No matter where you live send this guy an e-mail of gratitude, even if you have to do it on facebook!
It is refreashing to be a Tennessean all of a sudden after watching this video. I’ve got the warm fuzzies going on knowing that Congress is again listening to their constituents on the issue of marijuana. Another small victory!
Donate to Rep Cohen. Some strategic moneybombs will go a long way. He’d be sure to tell his colleagues.
Mr. Cohen needs to be kept in office for as long as possible. You guys in Tennessee hopefully realize this. The man obviously knows what he is talking about and I strongly agree with the notion that drugs such as meth, cocaigne, and heroine should be prioritized. Theres no sense in going after a plant that has yet to produce a death as a direct result of using (smoking) it.
I guess for the prohibitionists, there would be one way to “prove” that marijuana isn’t a gateway drug: for a significant number of heroin addicts to say they’ve never used marijuana.
Now think about that for a second. Who the hell uses heroin (or coke, or meth, or whatever) as their first experiment with mind-altering substances? It makes complete sense to start off with the substances — namely, alcohol and marijuana — that are less dangerous, less taboo, and easier to acquire. You’d have to be a psycho to go from straight-edge directly to heroin user.
And yet, apparently, this is the type of people the federal government wants to see before they concede that marijuana is not a “gateway” drug. They completely reverse-engineer the information for the sole purpose of making an impression.
I was unable to contact Congressman Cohen so I sent this to Jim Webb: Please pass this on as I am not one of Congressman Cohen’s constituants contacting him is difficult. Dear Sir, I just watched your hearing with Mr. Mueller (FBI Director). I was glad to see someone expose the wrongful connection of marijuana to meth, crack and heroin. He seemed embarrassed and could not defend his position when confronted with the truth. I’d like to hear his explanation for Marijuana being a schedule I drug when the FDA approved marinol, a synthetic THC. There is a three tiered war in our country against cannabis. The tiers are medical use, industrial use and of coarse recreational use. All I have ever heard is propaganda to defend the prohibitionist view of marijuana. Thank you!
O-w-n-e-d.
Bruce…im sorry…i know im your biggest fan and voter for you to be the next president…but since your probably not into politics that way…I now say STEVEN COHEN for PRESIDENT 2012!!!!!! I want to be a person that lives where he is representing…at least he is upholding his promise to represent the people that voted him in…
YES.
this conversation needs to take place on a national scale.
Awesome,,big props to Mr.Cohen finally somebody standing up for the truth!!!
oh…also…the FBI said something about Oxycottin…That is just prescription Heroin…doesnt anyone know that? Isnt Heroin a Rank 1 on the “drug rating”? That would mean that they are making meds out of Schedule 1 drugs…hmm…and trust me, when I got into a bad moment in my life, I smoked some Oxy’s and believe me, the cold sweats, not sleeping, wanting to die-all that is not there when I run out of pot and everyone is dry…so…what the fuck is all of these prohibitionists problem? and yes…I did want to die…also, I have been hooked to Percocet and Cigarettes…happy to say I havent smoked a cig in 3 years…but I have 8 herniated discs in my back..so I guess I get to “come off” the Perks again! asshole people wont prescribe me pot!….
I literally laughed out loud when he said “the parents all say the kids started with marijuana” and then Mr. Cohen says “And kids start with milk and go to beer” That was GREAT!
Rep. Steve Cowen is is a great american……and what an intelligent man!!!!! You go Rep. Cowen….I look forward to a fine career from you.
Since his Congressional page will only allow you to e-mail him if you’re in his constituency, I’ll post an open letter to him here. Hope you folks don’t mind!
Dear Sir,
While I am not a member of your constituency, I wanted to commend you and THANK YOU for pressing FBI Director Robert Mueller for his outrageous claims regarding marijuana. You quite rightly declared it to be a VERY different animal than crack, heroin etc. And when he tried to fling about the ‘Gateway Drug’ theory, once again you corrected him on his perception, whether he gets it or not, I don’t know, I doubt he ever will.
I am a hard-working, tax-paying, home-owning, child-raising American citizen, who simply prefers a different intoxicant to relax with than alcohol. In fact my mother is a recovering alcoholic, and I lost my father to a drunk driver when I was 5. Alcohol is FAR more destructive to American society than is marijuana, yet I don’t feel it should be illegal either. Such illegality would foster a black market, much like Prohibition did last century, and the ‘War on Drugs’ does now. Black markets are even WORSE for our country than the substances that are banned. Violence surrounds them, human abuses surround them, nothing good comes from banning a substance, just ask Portugal how their decriminalization of ALL drugs has gone for the last seven years. Drug use has DROPPED, despite there being almost no penalties for it. I’m still awaiting the ONDCP’s take on that, but I doubt we’ll hear anything soon.
Marijuana is not harmless, anyone who says it is harmless is full of it. But it is far LESS harmful than either alcohol or cigarettes.
THANK YOU for standing up for the oppressed millions, who dare not speak for themselves, for fear of losing their jobs, homes, CHILDREN or even their lives due to the national hysteria surrounding marijuana!
Sincerely,
Clayton Cleverly
Herndon, VA
Think he w0uld slap some of the TX reps for me? They still by into the gateway crap…
Please contact Congressman Cohen and express your gratitude for illuminating these mythologies and engaging in an intellectual debate:
http://cohen.house.gov/index.php?option=com_email_form&Itemid=111
Hell yah, he OWNED that GUY. im glad someone knows that marijuana is not a gateway Drug.
Is there a way to contact him and thank him? I tried that link above and it won’t let me send him a message since he’s not my representative.
yah i wantd to send him a message too but hes not my representative … so it wont let me.
There’s only one problem. The FBI guy is still brainwashed and will never admit he was wrong because only “faries” admit they are wrong. And just like him, so go all the prohibitionists. It’s not macho to admit you are wrong. So they will continue to invent more bullshit to bolster their sick, criminal cause.
Prohibition is the greatst civil rights violation since slavery.
Thank you, Steve Cohen, for standing up for those of us without a voice.
I love how the douchebag FBI director talks about asking “parents who have lost their children” about the drug war. I’d be up for that. “Given that our drug policies completely failed to save your children, don’t you think it’s time to try something different?”
an idea for everyone that would like to thank rep. cohen…Firstly, i agree with you 100%…secondly, if you can’t contact rep. Cohen directly, it may be a good idea to try sending a copy of your thanks to your own representative and ask them to forward it for you. Maybe they might read it and you might get a little extra value from your thoughts
Punch in a fake area code— but let him know that that was the only way you could contact him to tell him thankyou
Way to go Steve Cohen for putting those prohibitionists on the spot. The best part was when he asked him to mention deaths caused by cannabis, and he couldn’t mention any (since it’s impossible to overdose on THC). Once he tried to pull the “gateway theory” card, he just flat out debunked it… and he had nothing else to say. Looks like the War on Drugs (aka War on Americans) is almost over. Thank you, Mr. Cohen, for standing up for us.
COHEN FOR PRES 2012
that was some from here to awesome. To hear a Senator SLAM Anslinger was unheard of in the last 40 years.
new ‘buzzword’ coined by me today..PIGOT:a pot bigot. pot bigots aka ‘PIGOTS’ say that marijuana is = to coke,crack,meth,heroin, pharms.
yet pigots(pot-bigots) hate on medical marijuana patients and want to subject us to drugs that shorten our lives.
I watched this video on Norml and immediately emailed Congressman Cohen and then came here to check out the comments. I’m glad to see I wasn’t the only one who sent a seriously well thought out thank you message to him. We need more honest thinkers in congress like this man.
Jesus, looks like its time for the herb to get legalized. Its a domino effect happening.
stwned!
Love it
If you would like to leave Congressman Cohen a message of Thank You, use zip-code 38101 on his above contact me web-page. I just used my oklahoma address but Town has to read Memphis Tenn……. Please send him a thank you message. We need people like him here in Oklahoma.
he kicked is ass
I’ve wonder why Robert Mueller wasn’t laughing? I thought laughter followed by saying “NO!”, was their answer to marijuana.
It’s about time to question the anti-marijuana drug war policy.
This is one of the most powerful pieces of propaganda (is there a better word with a better connotation here?) I’ve seen for our cause in a while.
Hopefully everybody is buzzing this around the web.
I second clayton cleverly’s letter to Congressman Cohen. Finally, Someone to reveberate the voices of” WE THE PEOPLE’. Its finally coming to pass, an end to this slavery that has been the war on drugs AKA the war on the american people. If we here can change this one messed up law , WE THE PEOPLE can also change many many other things the feds do that we dont agree with nor voted for. Our voices must be VERY loud indeed . Do you all hear that(DING DING DING) ..let freedom ring!Lets save freedom before these sociallist strip it from us. Lets put this drug war money to good use, help the kids and fix our schools!!
An after thought:
Robert Muller: UUHH, and ummm and huh umm,but and umm.
Cat got your tonge? Hello? Nothing else to say? good.
Don’t go faking your zip code to send him a thankyou. The system’s in place for a reason, and having a whole bunch of marijuana smokers going around the system just to say thanks might look bad on all of us.
Who said I was a Marijuana smoker? I’m fighting for rights and freedom of our people. The DEA goes around the system that was put in place by our Fathers to steal your house and home everyday. We have to let people like Mr.Cohen know it’s o.k. to be on our side of the fence and still keep his job.
COHEN FOR PRESIDENT 2012
Cohen makes me proud to be a Tennessean!
WOW! this should be made into a comercial!!! Well maybe TN will get their MMJ bill passed with representation like that. NC’s representation sucks; doesn’t look like our bill is even getting looked at. I sure hope if your from NC, you take note of who needs to get voted out next go round.
There’s no such thing as reasoning with prohibitionist, police just want to keep their jobs as long as they can. I never thought I’d see this day arrive but, “When I can grow my own pot in Tennessee, prohibition has truly ended.”
Now more than ever before, the public has a chance to see for themselves that there ARE two societies, public and Congressional. Politicians who’ve burdened the American people over MJ prohibition will now be seen more and more as war criminals who have made our lives what they are today. And how’s your life going?
YEs send this man a ketter, i had to call him the email on his site wont work.
But man did the lay into him, he lied and that was in, his whole house of cards came tumbling down. See they get smacked with the truth in Congress he had nothing to say, he knew that he was lying and he knew there was nothing he could sayto scare Cohen.
See the scare mothers and fathers and make them think the War on Drugs is keeping their kids safe when in reality its less safe than regulation!
Write to the news stations demand they play this clip, demand they tell the truth!
If you want to send Rep. Cohen a letter, then take the time to actually send him a LETTER and not an email.
Taking the time to write a letter and place it in the mail is more effective anyway. You can then also print out copies and send them to your own Representatives and Senators. Don’t forget your State Delegates and Senators too!
Legalization and regulation will only help this ‘gateway’ conspiracy, anyways…if people see a clear defined separation between how marijuana is treated and how dangerous drugs (meth, cocaine etc) are treated, that will GREATLY reduce any attitudes of “Oh well, I have already tried marijuana, I may as well try so-and-so”, which is the heart of the gateway concept.
I know the differences from research and being careful about my habit, something not everyone does on a regular basis. Should it not be the governments job to make sure people are as safe as they can be? I can’t think of a way marijuana could be safer if it was government controlled – the only dangers associated with it now are the methods of getting a hold of it.
i like senator cohens benjamin franklin haircut
[...] their anti-drug strategies and stop lumping cannabis in with heroin, cocaine, or crack. |MPP| by Bucky Turco on May 22, 2009 at 3:30 [...]
Finally, a Congressman for the people telling the FBI the real deal!!!!
Go give it to them Congressman Steve Cohen!!!!
Excellent Job Steve Cohen! He had that FBI guy sweating…stammering…it was great! He might as well have had a hat that said “I’m paid VERY WELL to spew B.S. He reminded me of Sarah Palin when asked about the economy. If Mr.FBI wasn’t in such a powerful position, it would be hilarious. I believe, by the way he’s grasping at straws, that even HE doesn’t really agree with the position he’s supposed to have publically.
this clip was absolutely awsome, that dude got owned flat out. this is what i would like to see more of.
Thats the way this is gonna happen, support this congressman. Let him and your own states congressman/rep know you support the truth, not the propaganda. Does anyone know if there’s anything on the Hil blog about this? If so please send him a thank you for standing up and, calling. Muller on his BS.
Aloha Mr. Morris, thank you for this post. I guess other news outlets missed it? Maybe you could send it with a short story about all the support your receiving for congressman Cohen to The Hill and Keith Oberman at msnbc news, would love to see Mueller squirm on his WTF moment, um,uuh,umm.Clasic hands down..
someone tell me we are gonna start voting for people like Rep. Cohen…and start voting out people that are against the people’s wishes…like Jo Ann Emerson *R-MO*…VOTE NOW VOTE RIGHT….
COHEN FOR PRESIDENT 2012
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I am from Tennessee. I find myself disappointed by our politicians more than I am satisfied, particularly, on most of the progressive issues. Go Cohen! That was great; so true. I will definitely circulate this.
Loved it, Loved it, Loved it!!!!!
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Prohibitionists react to truth like vampires react to sunlight. The difference is the horrific, counter-productive damage prohibitionists inflict is all too real.
I have sent Mr. Cohen an email thanking him for speeking for the people, Even the people that are not in his state. Prayers go out to men and women like this.
For sure Cohen did a great thing standing up to Mueller and telling Mueller in so many words that the gateway theory is a bunch of faulty logic and misleading lies, but the bigger story, in my opinion is that the FBI Director lied to Congress.
What was his lie? Let me quote him:
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, Mueller, and many other Drug Warriors know of many, many people who have studied legalizing marijuana and said, “Do it now,” “Do it yesterday,” “What’s the hold up?” “It’s unconstitutional for it to be illegal!” “We can strip the black market cartels of much of their income and power,” and many similar findings. And not just “little people” like myself, but people who are famous due to their accomplishments.
This is perjury as best I can tell. Since when are people not supposed to tell the truth to Congress?
<a href=”http://ChristiansAgainstProhibition.org/FBI_Director_Mueller_Perjures_Congress_Claiming_Everybody_Rejects_Legalizing_Marijuana” title=”FBI Director Mueller Perjures Congress, ‘Everybody Rejects It [Legalization of Marijuana]‘”>FBI Director Mueller Perjures Congress, “Everybody Rejects It [Legalization of Marijuana]”
Down with the Drug Warrior Perjurers!
The only just thing to do is to fire him and put someone else in his place who doesn’t go along with all the dumb Drug War lies and propaganda!
For sure Cohen did a great thing standing up to Mueller and telling Mueller in so many words that the gateway theory is a bunch of faulty logic and misleading lies, but the bigger story, in my opinion is that the FBI Director lied to Congress.
What was his lie? Let me quote him:
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, Mueller, and many other Drug Warriors know of many, many people who have studied legalizing marijuana and said, “Do it now,” “Do it yesterday,” “What’s the hold up?” “It’s unconstitutional for it to be illegal!” “We can strip the black market cartels of much of their income and power,” and many similar findings. And not just “little people” like myself, but people who are famous due to their accomplishments.
This is perjury as best I can tell. Since when are people not supposed to tell the truth to Congress?
FBI Director Mueller Perjures Congress, “Everybody Rejects It [Legalization of Marijuana]”
Down with the Drug Warrior Perjurers!
The only just thing to do is to fire him and put someone else in his place who doesn’t go along with all the dumb Drug War lies and propaganda!
Let me belatedly answer JJ (#11): To quote a famous phrase, “If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve.” I would, however, consider accepting the position of Drug Czar in a Cohen administration.
Any one who votes for the health care bill to raise tax on small business and the american people will be voted out for destroying AMERICA !!!!!!!
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