Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM)

We are SAM. Smart Approaches to Marijuana. We are professionals working in mental health and public health. We are bipartisan. We are medical doctors, lawmakers, treatment providers, preventionists, teachers, law enforcement officers, and others who seek a middle road between incarceration and legalization. Our common sense, third-way approach to marijuana policy is based on reputable science and sound principles of public health and safety. We at SAM: - believe in an approach that neither legalizes, nor demonizes, marijuana. - reject dichotomies — such as “incarceration versus legalization” — that offer only simplistic solutions to the highly complex problems stemming from marijuana use and the policies surrounding it. - champion smart policies that decrease marijuana use — and do not harm marijuana users and low-level dealers with arrest records that stigmatize them for life and in ways that make it even harder for them to break free from cycles of substance dependence.