Marijuana Expert Talks About Drug Training For Oklahoma Police

Tuesday, July 30th 2019, 8:33 pm

By: News On 6

Officers from across the state are in a Tulsa conference this week to learn more about drugs in Oklahoma, including meth, heroin and opioids.

One of the hottest topics is marijuana as officers get educated about the new law.

A former adviser for the White House Office of National Drug Policy, who served during the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations, spoke at the conference today.

Kevin Sabet is a fellow at Yale, directs the Drug Policy Institute at the University of Florida and runs an organization called SAM, which stands for Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

He's written a book called Reefer Sanity and talks about what he sees are the common myths, surrounding marijuana, for instance, the argument, it's not addictive.

"People need to understand, it's not your daddy's marijuana," Sabet said. "We're talking about a completely different drug, often these concentrates, edibles, are up to 99 percent THC."

He said while marijuana has medicinal properties, it's not a medicine, and doesn't need to be smoked or eaten. He said just like how people don't smoke opium to get the benefits of morphine. He said it's not regulated like medicine.

"A lot of people think the products they're getting are approved by some federal regulator. They haven't been approved at all, no one knows what's in it," said Sabet.

He said voters often think legalizing medical marijuana is about helping those who are dying and suffering, but he said it's all about money.

"These are major companies who stand to make a lot of money and fund advocacy and fund myths. It's a huge problem," Sabet said.

He said the focus needs to be on true reform that includes, education, intervention, and common sense.

Because there is a lot of confusion surrounding Oklahoma’s laws.