Beer wholesalers in California oppose the legalisation of marijuana
The last thing a Californian microbrewery needs is to be associated with the effort against legalising marijuana. As soon as the media got wind of CBBD’s involvement, Sierra Nevada and several other microbreweries were hammered with emails from pro-legalisation people threatening them with a boycott. Even the blogosphere got rolling on the issue, with comments like “brewing industry is paranoid of the competition.”
The Californian public has long suspected the alcohol industry of seeing marijuana as a threat to sales, as consumers may substitute pot for booze. A night spent on the couch smoking pot and watching television is a night not spent at the bar.
And now the public has been proven right.
For Europeans, the whole debate over the legalisation of weed is interesting to watch, especially who is taking sides with whom.
Obviously, law enforcement is against the legalisation of marijuana. Under Californian law, police forces are entitled to keep property seized as part of drug raids and the revenue stream that comes from waging the drug war has become a significant source of support for local law enforcement. Federal and state funding of the drug war is also a significant supplement to local forces’ budgets, it has been reported.
Organised labour, however, is stepping into the breach. The Service Employees International Union, a major presence in California, has endorsed the proposition to legalise marijuana. The Teamsters in September 2010 made its first successful foray into organising pot growers. The United Food and Commercial Workers is backing the initiative and organising cannabis club employees in the Bay Area.
Rhonda Stevenson, a spokesman for the CBBD, was quoted as saying that the lobby does not oppose legalising marijuana in principle, but objects to the specific proposition. She added that Sierra Nevada and Stone do not contribute to their Political Action Committee, so none of their money has been invested in opposition to the initiative.
