AARP Gets Pot-Baited (maryjane)

[donsu]

http://www.counterpunch.com/gardner02262005.html

AARP The Magazine, a bimonthly that reaches some 25 million Americans, is under attack by prohibitionists and rightwing flacks for having commissioned an article on medical marijuana and the elderly. AARP The Magazine has been "holding" the article -not publishing it- for more than six months. The man who wrote it, L.A. Times reporter Eric Bailey, asked AARP The Magazine for a release this week so he could try for publication elsewhere. AARP editor Steve Slon assured Bailey that his piece is still being considered (i.e., no release). Slon denies that he's been holding the piece in response to political pressure or on orders from AARP's CEO, Bill Novelli.

AARP the organization is under attack by corporate interests out to privatize Social Security. Chris LaCivita and other p r. strategists who orchestrated the vile "Swift Boat" ad campaign against John Kerry, are now working for an outfit called USA Next, which, according to the New York Times 2/21, "plans to spend as much as $10 million on commercials and other tactics assailing AARP...'They are the boulder in the middle of the highway to personal savings accounts,' said Charlie Jarvis, president of USA Next and former deputy under secretary of the interior in the Reagan and first Bush administrations. 'We will be the dynamite that removes them.'"

-snip-

In November Dwyer arranged for AARP The Magazine to commission a survey in which 1,706 adults aged 45+ expressed opinions on medical marijuana. Nationally, 72% agreed that "adults should be allowed to legally use marijuana for medical purposes if a physician recommends it." Dwyer publicized the results, which he said would appear in the March-April issue, along with an article on medical marijuana. The AP picked it up and Jay Leno based a joke on it: "Nearly 75 percent of elderly Americans approve of the legalization of medical marijuana. And you thought grandpa used to forget stuff before!"

-snip-

It would not only be ethically right for AARP The Magazine to run Bailey's piece, it would be tactically smart. As their own poll shows, 72 percent of their readers know generally that marijuana has medicinal effects, and presumably they'd appreciate learning more. Medical marijuana is unlike every other topic about which the government is lying, in that the American people know the reality. Most people don't know for sure whether democracy is being established in Iraq or whether privatizing social security will benefit them or whether the Kyoto accords will slow global warming. But most people do know, first-hand or from someone they trust, that marijuana is safe and effective medicine.Only by publishing Bailey's piece can AARP The Magazine shift public attention away from their editors' swinging youth and onto the health benefits that older Americans might obtain from cannabis.
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thanks for nothing Leno

AARP is getting slammed by the bushgang

come on AARPers fight back!

[Rush1184]

1. It is just another instance of the press being restrained in this country.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Come on AARP! Shit or get off the pot! (no pun intended!)

Either print the damn article or allow it to be printed somewhere else!!

[xxqqqzme]

3. Like Kerry, AARP seems

2 B stuck in the mud when a swift kick in the neo-cons' balls is what is called for. AARP should B callin' them on this shit. WTF have the rethugs EVER done 4 seniors, survivors or the disabled - all of whom receive SocSec. Only 1/3 of SocSec recipients R seniors.

[Al-CIAda]

4. exactly -eom

[annabanana]

5. AARP is under attack from the "noise machine"

Because they are opposing B*sh's Social Security theft attempt. Sadly, many on the left aren't stepping up to defend them fast enough because they were bamboozled into supporting the disastrous "prescription discount card" scam. They have been faithful advocates for the elderly for years and years and do not deserve the thrashing they are getting from Rove's boys.

[madrchsod]

6. that is 25 million people so lets just say----

half are democrats? hmmmm-12 million democrats and then throw in alot of pissed off republicans...good luck taking these people on bush.there is an election starting next spring.