 I want to thank everyone, members of the press, members of Vermont, legislators and others for coming for this press conference. This is a press conference put on by Sam Vermont. Sam starts for SMART approaches to marijuana. We are the leading national organization opposed to the legalization of marijuana. I'm the chief of staff and senior policy advisor for Sam. My name is Luke Niforatos. I'm from Colorado. And the reason why I'm here today, I flew about 1,800 miles, spent all my day yesterday traveling, is because it's important to me to talk to decision makers in Vermont to help them understand what the consequences are of commercializing marijuana. And let me tell you, you've got a state that's made some great strides in terms of reforming marijuana laws. You have a state that has decriminalized the use of marijuana that has looked to give patients access to marijuana. So we're not in a place in the state where we're arguing about folks going to prison or jail. What we're talking about today and what the legislature is debating is strictly and solely should the state of Vermont commercialize marijuana, allow it to become a corporate model and to be advertised and pushed upon the public in this state. That is the question before the legislature right now. And let me tell you, the experience in Colorado has been, in my opinion, concerning and should cause concern for legislators. What we got when we legalized marijuana was big tobacco 2.0. This industry is now invested in by the Billions, by Altria, which is the owner of Philip Morris and Marlboro, by the number five biggest big tobacco juggernaut on the planet, Imperial Brands. And we have the largest alcohol conglomerates investing billions of dollars in this industry as well, Constellation Brands. All of the major, major addiction for profit drug players are getting into this industry. And I don't think that's going to be right for Vermont. And again, what we look at with big tobacco is the targeting of kids. And targeting of kids is something that is happening in Colorado as we speak. Just a couple of months ago, my wife and daughter and I were walking down the street and, you know, my daughter is about three years old. And as parents, we're trying to protect her from secondhand tobacco smoke. But now we've got to worry about secondhand marijuana smoke, which happens about every single time we take her for a walk. We were at a playground in Denver where we live. And two people lit up joints and the smoke from those joints of marijuana covered the playground. And my daughter breathed that in. So that was a huge concern. Just last year, Colorado saw a 4% increase in youth marijuana, monthly marijuana use, which is a huge concern. Washington State, another state that legalized marijuana, saw a 11% increase in youth marijuana use. So youth are impacted by the commercialization of marijuana because they see the advertisements. They see the candies, gummies, ice creams, and waxes, all laced with extremely highly potent marijuana that this industry is selling. So Vermont right now has a very local model. They have done a great job on the social justice front and on decriminalization. But that completely gets erased when you allow a commercial market with for-profit players like big tobacco and big alcohol that only want to make a profit at the expense of people using and getting addicted to their highly potent marijuana products. That's what we've seen in Colorado. I'm a parent and I'm living that every day. And it's something that Vermont parents and Vermont, the public of Vermont, should be very concerned about. I appreciate you listening to me today. We have Mariah Sanderson, who's a local Vermonner, who's going to speak about her concerns with legalization as well. Thank you, Luke. My name's Mariah Sanderson. We asked Luke from SAM National to come into Vermont today to help us better understand what's happening in other states that have made this mistake to commercialize marijuana. I oppose the tax and regulate system that's being promoted here in Vermont to commercialize marijuana, really for two reasons of my two things that are connected to my life that are really important to me. One is that I work in the field of substance use prevention. It's the work that I do every day. I'm passionate about it. I think it's important to create healthy, thriving communities. And this flies in the face of the work that I'm doing. I'm also a mother of two boys who are both middle schooler and a high schooler here in the community. And I think that if we continue to ignore the science and push to commercialize marijuana, it will be the biggest public health mistake of my lifetime and for my kid's lifetime. It is a mistake to believe that somehow, this time, with this substance, Vermont will finally be able to regulate a for-profit addiction industry. It has never worked before. The states that have done it so far have not been able to do it successfully. And it is a mistake for Vermont to think that somehow we're going to be special and do this differently. The consequences and costs of tobacco and alcohol still far outweigh the tax revenue they generate. And even after working so hard to dramatically reduce smoking over the years in our state, smoking still costs for Monters approximately $348 million a year in state medical expenses and results in about 1,000 smoking related deaths each year in our state. So we haven't figured it out with that industry. The idea that we're going to bring in another one to create more deaths and more problems is hard for me as a Vermonter to watch. Allowing another predatory addiction for profit industry like this is a mistake. And it's like the kids like my boys, the future generations that are going to end up paying for it. We won't see what the consequences of that will be for not until the years to come. And I think that industries like this, they've routinely proven that they are very talented at using persistence and power and money to whittle away at any attempts to regulate them. Regardless of what we put into place this year, if we were able to, if this moved through, over time they will whittle away at their regulations and the public perception of their harm. I think that it's been six years since they legalized in Colorado. And we're just barely starting to understand what the consequences of that were. They're just barely starting to see the impact of that. And I think it's on us as Vermonters to continue to pay attention to what others are doing and to use that to inform our policy here. We do not need access to more drugs. What we need are healthy brains and an educated sober workforce. We don't need access to more drugs. What we need are safe and sober drivers. And we need policy that supports healthy kids and healthy communities over commercial interests. As a parent, I struggle all the time with how I can help my kids make good choices in the face of media that glorifies and normalizes substance use and alcohol use. And I need my policy makers and my community to help them by providing an environment that makes it easy for them to make healthy choices. We are currently in the midst of an opiate epidemic. And that's in part because 20 years ago we allowed easy access to highly addictive drugs that we did not fully understand. And the companies who would profit off of those drugs helped shape the narrative and they told us that they were safe. As recently as 1994, after decades of research to the contrary, CEOs from seven major tobacco companies testified before Congress under oath that nicotine was not addictive. We cannot afford to be fooled by industries like this again. As a parent, the disadvantage of normalizing another substance for the next generation that is already struggling to make healthy choices is too great. Our state already has some of the highest rates of marijuana use and alcohol use in the nation. And we should be thinking hard about the policies that help support us to reduce that use, not create a system that gives more access to more drugs. We have done such a good job of promoting health in so many areas. We're the healthiest state in the nation. But our high substance use rates are showing that we are not prioritizing kids over commercial interests in these industries. I urge our legislators to make the hard choices to put thriving kids in communities first. My kids are already walking by light-up signs for alcohol and e-cigarettes on their walk to school through five corners in a six junction. Please do not add a fluorescent light-up marijuana leach to that mix. Thank you. Hi, my name is Anne Hassel and I worked as a bug tender in a Massachusetts marijuana dispensary for a year and a half. I was a passionate user and supporter of marijuana. Obviously, I had a change of mind and heart to be standing here before you today speaking against bill S54, urging you to say no to commercialized marijuana. After working as a bug tender and consuming its products, I experienced heavy metal poisoning, severe addiction and psychosis. Politicians say that S54 should pass because it is the will of the people and it'll make things safer. People have no understanding of the reality of the commercialized, industrialized marijuana industry. It's unethical, illegal and dangerous practices harmful to physical and mental health. States are incapable of safely regulating marijuana. Marijuana is being toxically produced, contaminated with mold, illegal pesticides and heavy metals. Marijuana lobbyists are spending millions influencing states, which sanction rules increasing harm and addiction. This chart shows you how potency of THC of marijuana has changed over time. In the 1980s, I smoked bud of 3% THC. In the 1990s, it increased to 13% THC. In 2018, with high THC concentrates, THC has skyrocketed to over 60% THC. Vermont legislators are considering setting a cap of 60% THC for commercial sales. This is dangerous. After consuming high THC, I came very close to having a psychotic break and committing suicide. I came with the commercialized, industrialized marijuana industry cultivates, one of the 20% of heavy users consuming 80% of its products. Vermont legislators think this equation will work. So you have highly addictive THC, in this case it's Shatter, plus promotion to increase users. And here you have gummy bears, again appealing to people. Then you have tax money for prevention used to decrease. Add it up. To increase prevention money, Vermont would need to increase addiction. This equation makes no sense. It's crazy. My hope is that the Vermont politicians will open their minds and hearts and vote for health instead of an addiction for profit industry. Vote no on S54. So hi everyone, my name is Ed Baker and thank you for being here. I wanna be clear, I wanna compliment the Vermont legislature for its hard work responding to the opioid crisis that we face in our state. I just came from recovery day. The governor has designated February 12th, 2020 as recovery day. I was with my peers for a number of hours this morning, celebrating recovery from substance use disorder. I myself am in my own personal long-term very stable, robust recovery from my own addiction for over 35 years. I'd like to add that it was Vermont groups that saved my life and I'm paying back for that. I will pay back for that until I can't pay back any longer. I've listened to people with substance use disorder for three decades in the confidence of the therapeutic setting. I've listened to people, I've learned, I know, I know a little bit about vulnerability. And I'm here to tell you that we have vulnerable populations in Vermont and I know you know this. We have adolescent children simply by nature of being adolescent children. They are vulnerable to addiction. Adolescence is a risk factor. It's just a very fact of being an adolescent, put you at risk. We have people with mental health disorder, many too many of them and we know about them and we're struggling to help them. People with mental disorder are at risk to develop addiction. We know this today. We have people in recovery, thousands upon thousands of people struggling and achieving robust and powerful recoveries. We don't need another psychoactive chemical on retail sale in Vermont. As Luke had referenced, we've already legalized medical marijuana. We've decriminalized marijuana. This is far enough. I urge you to understand that you've done a wonderful job. This is far enough. We don't need to go any further. We hear a lot about regulation. I beg you, I beg you, take a look at alcohol and tobacco. Two of the regulated commercially available drugs. Two of the leading causes of preventable death on earth. In America, just under 400,000 people died. Tobacco related illness last year. Just under 100,000 alcohol related last year. That's not to mention the other 72,000 from different types of illicit drugs. We do not need another psychoactive chemical on the market. We need to regulate and I don't mean to be lofty about it. I know the legislature knows much more about this than I do. But here's one example of something on sale right now at a medical marijuana dispensary in Vermont. It's called cookies and cream. I asked you, when was the last time you took a medication named cookies and cream? Cookies and cream, 84.8% THC. This is an incredible concentration of THC. We need to regulate the medical marijuana industry. That's about it for me. I just want to say that 10 years from now, 10 years from now, I want to look back on this and I want to be proud of what my legislature did. I want to be proud that my legislature put public counts above the profit. I don't want to be proud of my attorney general for litigating big cannabis. Hello, my name is Dr. Catherine Antley and I'm a member of the Vermont Medical Society and I'm here to let you know that the medical society is opposed to the creation of retail sales of marijuana in Vermont. That resolution was passed by the body. We're almost 2,000 physicians and the reason that we were opposed is we recognize that this for-profit industry will target our children and the most vulnerable. They'll do this by making candies, candy cigarettes is what they did with tobacco and they'll do the same thing with the THC candies. What happens when you give first amendment free speech rights to an industry and corporate personhood? The individual bravangers cannot fight this. So if South Burlington wanted to prevent a pot shop from being next to their high school, their lawyer for their small town would be up against perhaps a suite of highly paid California lawyers or out of state lawyers who would come and litigate over and over and over again. So that's what it means when we are giving corporate personhood and free speech advertising rights to a legal entity. And that's why Vermonters know that 70% of Vermonters want to stop where we are right now. New Emerson Poll says what situation we have in Vermont right now is legal to smoke and to grow in your own home. But the power of the industry is not strengthened by our laws and our legal system. So this is very important. And why do doctors come out against? Well, we are the ones who are in the ERs when the kids come in and they're psychotic. The psychosis rate, I had a conversation with someone from South Carolina, they said California, their psychosis rate has exploded. Everybody thought this was not going to happen. And the reason that it has is the explosion in the concentration of the THC together with targeting the children. Cannabis hyperimidus syndrome has actually killed people. They will not eat, they become dehydrated, their kidneys shut down. And then of course we have suicidality, increased suicidality and depression. Why is this? THC makes you feel good. It overwhelms your system. It goes into the receptor which normally is filled with anantimide, which is your natural body made. But when you have very powerful THC which locks in, your body forgets how to make anantimide. So that when you stop using the THC, you plummet and the kids end up extremely depressed and in a suicidal state. This is important for every Vermonter to understand. And so we are taking care of these kids. In Colorado we've seen a quadrupling of youth showing up in the ERs. If more youth weren't using, we wouldn't see a quadrupling of youth showing up in the ERs in distress. So I'll just end with swarming the legislature for the last year has been lobbyists. These lobbyists are paid by the industry. And I think it's important to understand that these lobbyists are not public health professionals. They do not study public health for a living. They study how to sell their product for a living. People who, and yet they are telling legislators, and we are getting emails from legislators who tell us that youth youth rates have not increased. This is a false statement. Study after study after study. I have a number of references. The study that they quote has been repeated and refuted. More studies have come up. Youths, youths, rates have increased in commercialized states. So if your legislator is voting for this for the wrong reasons, please call them. And I just wanna thank everybody for coming. I think it's very important that we pay attention to this important topic. Thank you. So that concludes our press conference. We're happy to take questions. If members of the press have questions at this time, we can do any visual interviews. However you all wanna do it.