In November, AARP The Magazine conducted a poll of older Americans on attitudes regarding the laws on use of Marijuana as medicine, with partial results in a Christmastime press release, and announcing that full results would appear in the Magazine's March April issue.
This drew an attack from Rightwing and Govt. subsidised anti-drug organizations, singling out Features Editor Ed Dwyer, because he'd been employed at High Times Magazine 30 years ago. Example, from "Conservative Truth" From Pot To Porn To AARP by Cliff Kincaid
While the Poll results are still on the AARP website, they never appeared in the Magazine.
Release from the Drug Policy Alliance
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 25, 2004
CONTACT:Tony Newman (646)335-5384
Elizabeth Méndez Berry (212) 613-8036
Drug War Zealots Pressure AARP The Magazine to Kill Medical Marijuana Story
Latest Censorship Campaign Initiated After AARP-Commissioned Poll Finds 72% of Older Americans Support Medical Marijuana
"Don't Give in to Intimidation"
At the beginning of February, AARP posted the findings of a poll they had commissioned on medical marijuana on their website. The poll found that 72% of older Americans ( 45 and over) support an adult's right to use medical marijuana with a physician's recommendation.
A December 18th Associated Press article discussing the poll mentioned thatAARP The Magazine was scheduled to release an article about medical marijuana in its March/April issue. But when the March/April issue reached subscribers in late January, the article was conspicuously absent. The editors had apparently pulled the article in response to malicious attacks by a "media watchdog" organization, Accuracy in Media, and a pressure campaign by fanatical anti-drug groups with a long history of engaging in malicious and dishonest attacks.
"We urge the editors of AARP The Magazine not to cave in to such attacks and to publish the medical marijuana article soon," saidEthan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "Ultimately this issue is not about medical marijuana but whether or not free and open discussion of issues that matter to AARP members will be censored and abandoned in the face of coarse attacks by disreputable forces."
The Drug Policy Alliance is encouraging its supporters (many of whom are also members of AARP), and all believers in freedom of the press, to send letters to AARP urging its leadership to stand firm.