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.”

“So what do they do?” Niforatos said, referring to the cannabis industry. “They go to their big brother tobacco, who—by the way is their biggest investor—and they start pumping out fake, bogus research. I’m telling you right now: One of the people that funded the millions of dollars for UCLA’s research on marijuana—that company was called ‘Nugs.’ It’s not run by Sir. Isaac Newton, right?”

Independent Research

Niforatos was referring to an investigative piece by the Los Angeles Times exploring the funding behind cannabis research. Specifically, UCLA researchers were confronted with claims about their lab research being truly independent.

Niforatos went on to describe how the people behind cannabis companies should not be taken seriously.

“These are the canna-bros running these companies, and they’re not trying to advance scientific research, they’re paying for publicity and misinformation, which is exactly what Big Tobacco did, they killed millions of Americans to make a buck, and that’s exactly what marijuana wants to do along with their Big Tobacco investors,” he said.

SAM was founded in reaction to legalization efforts in Colorado and Washington by former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, who supported medical but not recreational cannabis, as well as former White House drug policy adviser Kevin Sabet, David Frum, and others.

However, SAM has been criticized for cherry-picking negative stats from studies about pot.

But Who’s Behind SAM?

In 2016, Vice explored in detail who exactly is bankrolling SAM’s agenda to fight cannabis legalization. Among the list of donors, they found a casino owner, a former U.S. ambassador, cops, prison guards, alcohol merchants, and a pharma company that sells fentanyl.

A $500,000 donation from Insys Therapeutics matched a donation from Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy for the top donors. Insys is a pharmaceutical company known for selling the painkiller fentanyl in the form of a sublingual spray. 

A Washington Post article explored how Insys Therapeutics spent half a million trying to keep pot illegal and “just got DEA approval for synthetic marijuana.” Ironically, a federal jury in 2019 found Insys Therapeutics Founder John Kapoor guilty of running a widespread scheme to bribe doctors nationwide to speak about the company’s fentanyl spray, Subsys.

In 2019, the New York chapter of Smart Approaches to Marijuana was forced to disclose its donors, just ahead of legalization rolling out in the state. The state Joint Commission on Public Ethics denied a request from the organization to keep its donors private. 

Dismissing medical studies about cannabis, with the help from SAM, is a slippery slope.

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Fearmongering about cannabis reached new levels on cable news this past week.

Last Tuesday, in a segment on “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News, political commentator Laura Ingraham blamed “pot psychosis” due to widespread legalization for the rise in mass shooting incidents. The Fox News pundit doubled down on her pot psychosis theory the very next evening.

While most people disagree whether gun violence is a gun control issue or a mental health issue—Ingraham blames pot instead.

Ingraham welcomed Russell Kamer, M.D., medical director of Partners in Safety, a drug testing organization, to question why people aren’t “talking more about the pot psychosis-violent behavior connection.” You can watch a clip of the entire segment here.

“What we find in studies [is that] it’s very clear that the use of the high potency marijuana is strongly associated with the development of psychosis,” Dr. Kamer said.

“My colleagues in Colorado,” Kamer continued, “are sounding the alarm because that was one of the first states to legalize. It’s practically a daily occurrence that kids come into the emergency rooms in florid, cannabis-induced psychosis.”

Ingraham dug deeper into her theory.

“This is something that the medical community is well aware of. Yet, you get the sense that the billions of dollars on the line are more important than our kids,” Ingraham said. “And what’s happening especially to young men in the United States, who are frequent users of this high-potency THC that’s now in marijuana products sold legally in dispensaries across the United States. I mean, this at the very least needs a serious national conversation.”

The Daily Beast reports that Ingraham claimed that it was initially reported that the 18-year-old shooter who killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Texas “was a user” but that The New York Times “mysteriously” removed that tidbit from their reporting.

“Reefer Madness” began trending on Twitter the very same night following the episode. “The 1930s called; they want their reefer madness propaganda back,” one person tweeted. “I didn’t think anyone would honestly circle around to that bulls**** ever again….” another person tweeted. “But it is funny to watch someone try.”

Ingraham’s angle is based on the idea that cannabis increases violent behavior.

But The New York Times reports that cannabis use has been demonstrated to make people less, not more, violent. Some of these ideas can be traced to a single source. Fellow Fox News host Tucker Carlson ran a segment inspired by a New York Post op-ed that reported about an anti-pot lobby group’s list of mass shooters it claimed were avid cannabis consumers. But the claim about the connection to violence was dismissed by Politifact. Carlson frequently hosts known anti-pot author Alex Berenson to demystify the “dangers” of weed, as well as vaccines and other topics.

The gun-weed “connection” has been made before. Sue Klebold, mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the two Columbine shooters, mentioned how when cops found a tiny bit of weed in the shooter’s brother’s room, it became a spectacle. Byron Klebold, who wasn’t involved in any shootings, just the brother of a shooter, was forced to undergo counseling for his weed “addiction.” Marilyn Manson and others were also frequently blamed for Columbine.

The very next night Ingraham returned to question whether weed is to blame for the “horrific carnage” playing out in schools and public spaces across America.

“Considering the horrific carnage here from other tragedies we already know about where high potency cannabis may have played a role, it’s important that Americans have more answers. We deserve to know the truth about this multi-billion-dollar and growing industry, how it’s affecting our young people, our working age population, and even our military readiness.”

Instead of watching highly biased shows on cable news, try reading peer-reviewed studies about the actual danger and non-danger of cannabis.

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