Smart Approaches to Marijuana spent $10K on anti-pot billboards targeting key lawmakers

Opioid-related deaths nationally increased by 101% from 2012 to 2017, Colorado officials said.

New York’s recreational marijuana battle sits on the front line of a generational war over American cannabis laws. As debate heats up, USA TODAY Network New York is compiling answers to key questions about legalized cannabis.

Anti-marijuana billboards are targeting key lawmakers to solidify what looked like a tenuous two-vote margin standing in the way of legalized recreational pot in New York.

The four billboards, which focused on pot edibles poisoning children, opioid deaths, drugged driving and social justice, are connected to Smart Approaches to Marijuana, the Virginia-based nonprofit that has championed marijuana opposition in New York.

The group spent $10,000 on the billboards according to its spokesman, Bob Driscoll. That added to the $14,500 it was spending per month this year on lobbying against efforts to legalize marijuana use for adults in New York, state records show.

Each billboard included the phone numbers and names of state senators embroiled in the marijuana debate in Albany, where Democrats in control of the Senate are struggling to corral the 32 votes needed to pass recreational pot legislation without Republican support.

A handful of state senators appear to be on the fence as the June 19 deadline for passing the marijuana bill looms, USA TODAY Network reported.

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The pro-legalization effort faces its most significant roadblock in the suburban areas surrounding New York City, including in Hudson Valley communities targeted by billboards. One of the signs also took aim at a Central New York state senator.

What follows is a USA TODAY Network analysis of the statements made by the anti-pot billboards as part of its ongoing investigation of marijuana legalization.

Opioids and marijuana

One billboard targeted Sen. James Skoufis, D-Woodbury, who was leaning toward voting to pass the marijuana legalization bill.

“Since marijuana legalization, opioid-related deaths have risen 49% in CO.,” the billboard states, citing the Colorado Health Institute as its source.

In response to questions about the billboard, Colorado Health Institute officials described it as technically accurate but misleading.

The number of opioid deaths in Colorado has indeed increased 49% from 2012 to 2017. But while recreational marijuana was legalized in 2012, the first legal sales didn’t happen until 2014, the institute noted.

Further, opioid-related deaths nationally increased by 101% from 2012 to 2017, institute officials said, calling it a trend across the country.

Colorado also had a smaller increase in opioid deaths than neighboring Arizona, which doesn’t have legal pot and had a 65% opioid-related death spike.

Institute officials characterized the billboard as an attempt to connect opioid deaths to marijuana legalization without sufficient evidence.

“It’s tempting to read into parallel trends, which is why the golden rule of statistics is that correlation does not imply causation,” said Emily Johnson, a director of the institute.

Meanwhile, pro-marijuana legalization groups have touted studies linking medical marijuana laws to reduced opioid prescribing, despite similar criticism from some scientists and experts about the connection.

The Colorado Health Institute officials, for instance, said they have not seen convincing evidence one way or another on the effect of marijuana substitution for opioids.

“The mechanism makes sense, but we have not seen a randomized control trial or a similarly rigorous study to establish the evidence,” they said.

Drugged driving

Another billboard targeted Sen. Peter Harckham, D-South Salem, who was already leaning toward voting against the marijuana bill.

“Since legalization, marijuana-impaired driving deaths are up 151% in CO.,” the billboard stated, citing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Colorado Department of Transportation.

The statistic appears to reference the fact that fatalities in Colorado where a driver tested positive for any cannabinoid (marijuana use) increased to 139 from 55 between 2013 and 2017, including crashes that involved marijuana alone or its use with other drugs or alcohol.

Experts noted, however, that marijuana toxicology testing in Colorado and other states is inconclusive because THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis, stays in the body longer than it impairs driving.

Yet insurance industry data show motor vehicle crashes are up by as much as 6% in Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, compared with neighboring states that haven't legalized marijuana for recreational use, USA TODAY Network reported.

Still, many experts note drunk driving poses a much greater threat. Drunk-driving deaths have fallen by a third in the last three decades, but they still claim more than 10,000 lives per year.

Cannabis edibles and kids

One billboard targeted Sen. Rachel May, D-Syracuse, who appeared to be a solid “yes” vote for legalization.

“After legalizing pot kids aged 0-9 ingesting marijuana rose 1,000% in CO.,” the billboard stated, citing the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

The biggest jumps in Colorado’s post-legalization marijuana-related poison control cases included 8 years old and younger, a group which increased from 16 cases in 2012 to 89 in 2018, according to the state’s authorities tasked with monitoring the issue.

That’s a roughly 450% increase since Colorado legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, USA TODAY Network found.

In response to questions about the billboard, Smart Approaches to Marijuana cited data that show a roughly 1,000% increase between 2000 and 2017, rising from an average of five cases per year through 2009 to 64 in 2017.

A majority of poison control cases involved kids getting their hands on cannabis-laced edibles like cookies and candies, a risk that prompted some states to debate banning or more tightly restricting the products, USA TODAY Network has reported.

Authorities in Colorado have been revising safety policies amid reports of edibles sickening children and sending reams of adults to hospitals.

The reforms included requiring child-resistant packaging and marking cannabis edibles with symbols that can be identified as a drug even outside the package.

They also prohibited making and selling edibles in the shape of a human, animal or fruit, as well as limited the drug's potency.

Marijuana and social justice

Another billboard targeted Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, who is also in favor and has said passing the bill is important to address the disproportionate impact marijuana arrests have on people of color in urban areas.

“Big Tobacco plus Wall Street plus Big Marijuana does NOT equal Social Justice,” the billboard states, displaying photos of what appear to be 30 white men and three white women, all dressed in suits, ties and business casual attire.

Smart Approaches to Marijuana said the billboard features executives of pot companies and major corporations like Constellation Brands, Aurora Cannabis and Altria — investor in Juul and the parent company of Philip Morris.

Amid debate over social equity, some states with legal marijuana are struggling to overcome racially biased pot policing, cannabis industry influence and financial limitations, USA TODAY Network reported.

For example, early findings in Massachusetts show nearly 2,500, or 72%, of the 3,400 active cannabis industry players were white, and just 160, or 5%, were black or African-American.

Another 200, or 6%, identified as Hispanic, Latino or Spanish, the cannabis commission reported.

In contrast, the state's population is 22% Latino or African-American.

Meanwhile, police in New York kept arresting hundreds of people on marijuana charges this year despite the push to legalize pot and the fact that some prosecutors were declining to take the cases.

Some arrests seemingly disregarded the fact that several district attorneys stopped prosecuting or reduced penalties for low-level marijuana possession to limit unjust harm to poor and minority communities.

But to understand the complexity of reform, consider people of color are still being targeted by police in legal pot states like Colorado, despite drops in the overall number of marijuana arrests.