Smart Approaches spent $24,000 lobbying against pot laws in New Jersey so far.

Vermont is the only state to have legalized marijuana through legislation as opposed to by ballot

The largest anti-pot money trail in Arizona led to INSYS Therapeutics Inc., which donated $500,000

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.

New York’s failed push to legalize recreational marijuana in the state budget has cast doubt over the future political playbook for passing adult-use cannabis laws.

While a stable of pro-cannabis lobbyists is expected to keep pushing for passage in New York, the anti-pot movement has forged a powerful coalition of educators, law enforcement and health care players.

Some of the anti-pot players spend thousands of dollars each month lobbying a variety of political issues, ranging from retirement funds and prison health care to insurance regulations and electronic cigarettes.

The Medical Society of the State of New York, for instance, has signed lobbying contracts totaling about $357,000 in 2019. It targeted sweeping topics related to medicine, but also influenced state budget battles linked to legal marijuana bills this year.

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The group’s president, Dr. Thomas Madejski, also recently joined medical society leaders in New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware, in opposition to legal recreational pot.

Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a group corralling a lot of anti-pot energy across the country, also signed two lobbying contracts in New York just days after Gov. Andrew Cuomo touted his marijuana legalization plans in January.

The Virginia-based group’s affiliate is spending $14,500 per month on lobbying in New York. The contracts are through SAM Action Inc. and signed by the group’s president and chief executive officer, Kevin Sabet, lobbying records show.

What follows is an analysis of anti-pot lobbying as New York lawmakers renew debates over Cuomo’s vow to legalize recreational marijuana during the post-budget legislative session this year.

The anti-pot group

Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a nonprofit based just outside Washington, D.C., that also has a Manhattan office, has criticized cannabis industry players, including many Wall Street investors, for spending heavily on influencing state marijuana laws.

But the nonprofit’s recent foray into New York political spending follows more than $1 million it contributed to an anti-pot campaign in California, according to the group’s tax records on GuideStar in 2016, the most recent available.

It also spent about $165,000 total to campaign against legal weed in Colorado, Massachusetts, Arizona, Florida and New Jersey in 2016, the records show.

Still, Sabet said his group’s more recent spending has focused on crucial pot battlegrounds in the Northeast.

“New York is a strategic state in shaping the national conversation around commercial marijuana, so we have been dedicating resources to it," Sabet said, adding the group has spent about $24,000 lobbying so far this year in New Jersey.

"These resources are miniscule in comparison to the millions pro-pot industry forces have spent to legalize in New York," he said. "We are grassroots and we build coalitions with parents, doctors, law enforcement and anyone concerned about the impact of more drugs in our communities."

Sabet said the group's funding comes from people touched by addiction who wish to prevent other families from experiencing the same pain. He would not provide specific names, saying the money comes from dozens of individual donors who are not household names.

"We don’t rely on dollars from industries that stand to make billions from legalization," he said.

Meanwhile, pro-marijuana lawmakers in New Jersey recently spoke to the political debate after their pot legislation stalled amid opposition and fears of repercussions with voters, despite polls showing a majority support legalization.

They noted Vermont is the only one of 10 states to have legalized marijuana through legislation as opposed to a ballot initiative, USA TODAY Network reported.

Big Pharma and marijuana

Pharmaceutical industry lobbying has targeted state and federal marijuana laws for years, including the largest anti-pot donation during Arizona’s legal weed debate in 2016, government records show.

The largest anti-pot money trail in Arizona led to INSYS Therapeutics Inc., which made a $500,000 donation to the campaign opposing recreational marijuana. The legalization push ultimately fell short of voter support but efforts to renew it are ongoing, USA TODAY Network reported.

Insys is a pharmaceutical company that makes a fast-acting form of fentanyl for pain relief in cancer patients, according to its website. It also touts on its website a capability to develop pharmaceutical cannabinoids, the active components of the marijuana plant.

In a statement, Insys said it opposed the legal marijuana proposal "because it fails to protect the safety of Arizona’s citizens, and particularly its children." The company also cited its support for continued medical research into the potential medical benefits of cannabis.

Similar links between pharmaceutical interests and marijuana lobbying have also fueled national political platforms.

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, for example, is among the list of Democratic presidential candidates who have said they would seek legalization through the Marijuana Justice Act. It would legalize marijuana nationwide and expunge convictions of people who have been convicted of marijuana offenses.

Last year, Gillibrand criticized pharmaceutical opposition to medical marijuana on social media, calling big pharma’s actions wrong because, in many cases, it wants to “continue to sell addictive drugs and dominate the market for drugs that address chronic pain.”

One of the drug industry’s largest trade groups, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA, has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on lobbying in New York, but disclosures didn’t indicate if any money went to recreational marijuana debate this year.

The group’s targeted legislation in 2019 related to the state’s health and mental hygiene budgets, Medicaid and price gouging of pharmaceuticals. It also listed general state budget issues as part of its overall lobbying disclosures so far this year, which totaled about $168,000.

The trade group declined an interview request to discuss marijuana reforms.

On the federal government level, PhRMA has spent millions of dollars on lobbying drug prices, taxes and other medical issues since 2015.

It listed the Compassionate Access, Research Expansion, and Respect States (CARERS) Act, which aims to expand research of medical marijuana, as one of its dozens of lobbying topics, records show.

Alcohol, tobacco and marijuana

Pro-marijuana businesses, such as Vireo Health, have described recreational pot’s potential for replacing alcohol and tobacco as a key selling point to doubters.

Yet many alcohol and tobacco companies have recently invested in legalized marijuana, suggesting they see business opportunities rather than competition.

Further, lobbying disclosures in New York show the main political focus for many alcohol and tobacco companies is a mix of taxes, regulations and sales restrictions as opposed to marijuana legal reform.

For example, Altria, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes, has invested $1.8 billion in a leading Canadian cannabis firm and $12.8 billion in e-cigarette maker Juul Labs.

Altria’s listed lobbying targets in New York this year didn’t include recreational marijuana, records show, but they did include sales restrictions on tobacco products and e-cigarettes. Its lobbying disclosures so far totaled about $137,000.

Anheuser-Busch InBev, the maker of Budweiser, also has $50 million tied to developing marijuana-infused drinks. Its lobbying disclosures in New York so far show $20,000 spent on targeting general state budget issues related to transportation, economic development and environmental conservation, records show.

Similarly, alcoholic beverage giant Constellation Brands, based in Victor, Ontario County, has investments in Canadian cannabis business Canopy Growth, which is building a $150 million hemp processing hub in the Binghamton area.

Constellation Brands hasn’t filed lobbying disclosure reports in New York this year, a recent database search shows, but it is listed as a client on federal lobbying disclosures totaling $120,000 related to pro-marijuana legislation in Congress last year.

Constellation Brands’ federal lobbying report was filed by Laura Joshua of Invariant LLC, which didn’t return a phone call and email requesting comment on the matter.

Anti-pot group leader Sabet noted alcohol and tobacco industry investments in marijuana should set off alarms for lawmakers considering legalizing recreational pot.

"Our two legal drugs – alcohol and tobacco – are major public health hazards, partly because they are legal, commercialized, and normalized," he said. "We don’t want to make the same mistakes again with marijuana."

Sabet expanded on the potential repercussions.

"Legalization would create a new, potentially dangerous industry that, like both alcohol and tobacco before it, has a pattern of targeting young people, the low-income and minorities," he said.

A review of some other alcohol-related trade groups and companies, such as distributors and retailers, found their lobbyists in New York state targeted a range of transportation and business regulations unrelated to marijuana.

Meanwhile, The Last Store on Main Street, an advocacy group, has been pushing for allowing recreational marijuana sales in wine and liquor stores.

Its website encourages people to email lawmakers, saying the alcohol sellers are best-equipped to safely keep legal marijuana away from children under 21. The group didn’t file a lobbying disclosure this year, according a recent database search.

The Retailers Alliance of New York, a trade group for wine and liquor stores, signed a $30,000 annual lobbying contract this year, and its disclosures so far listed miscellaneous business as the subjects lobbied.

At the federal level, national alcohol trade groups, like the Beer Institute, have included marijuana issues along with a bevy of others as part of hundreds of thousands of dollars in lobbying, records show.