Kevin Sabet

Kevin Abraham Sabet
Kevin Sabet, speaking at the New Yorker Magazine Festival, 2014
Born	1979 Ft. Wayne, Indiana
Residence	Washington, DC and Cambridge, MA
Nationality	U.S.
Citizenship	American
Known for	A "Third Way" in Drug Policy, A "Smart approach to marijuana policy," "Big Marijuana" "Preventing Another Big Tobacco" "Stopping Big Tobacco 2.0"
Awards	Marshall Scholarship, Nils Bejerot Award for Global Drug Prevention, John P. McGovern Award
Academic background
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley Oxford University
Doctoral advisor	George Smith
Other academic advisors	Bruce Cain William "Sandy" Muir
Influences	David F. Musto Robert L. DuPont
Academic work
Discipline	drug policy, public policy, journalism
Institutions	The White House, ONDCP, Yale University, University of Florida, SAM

Kevin Abraham Sabet (born February 20, 1979) is a former three-time White House Office of National Drug Control Policy advisor, having been the only person appointed to that office by both a Republican (Administration of George W. Bush) and Democrat (Obama Administration and Clinton Administration). He is also an assistant professor adjunct at Yale University Medical School,^[1] fellow at Yale’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies,^[2] the Director of the Drug Policy Institute, and a courtesy assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Florida.^[3]

With Patrick J. Kennedy, Sabet co-founded Smart Approaches to Marijuana in Denver in January, 2013.^[4]

Sabet is the author of numerous articles and monographs including the book Reefer Sanity: Seven Great Myths About Marijuana, now in its second edition.^[5]

Sabet is the recipient of the Nils Bejerot Award given in conjunction with H.M. Queen Silvia of Sweden^[6] and was one of four Americans (along with Jonathan Caulkins, Bertha Madras, and Robert DuPont) invited by Pope Francis to the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences to discuss marijuana and other drug policy.^{[7] [8]} He was invited to speak at the Allen and Co. Sun Valley Investor's Conference in 2018.^[9]

Upon founding SAM, Salon called Sabet "the quarterback of the new anti-drug movement"^[10] and NBC News called him a "prodigy of drug politics."^[11]

Education and career

Sabet is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and Oxford University,^[3] where he received his Doctorate in social policy as a Marshall Scholar. He is an opponent of drug legalization and has spoken on behalf of the Obama Administration on the subject.^[12] After leaving ONDCP after 2.5 years, he became a consultant and professor. Rolling Stone called him one of marijuana legalization's biggest enemies.^[13]

Sabet is the president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM).^[14] He is a regular contributor to TV and print media^[15] and a blogger for the Huffington Post.^[16]

Drug policy advocacy

During his freshman year at Berkeley, Sabet started Citizens for a Drug-Free Berkeley and worked to educate his peers on the "wave of destruction" that comes with club drugs, including MDMA.^[17] He has testified for the US Congress, Canadian Parliament, UK Parliament, and UN bodies multiple times.^{[18][19][20][21][22]} He was a witness in two marijuana hearings after his work in the Obama Administration.^[23][24]

Sabet has written on the need for prevention, treatment, and enforcement to guide drug policy, although he has also argued for abolishing severe sentencing guidelines, like mandatory minimum laws.^[25] His articles have been published in newspapers, such as The Washington Post and The New York Times.^[26] He has argued for removing criminal penalties for low-level marijuana use, has opposed legalization^[27] while supporting continued civil penalties for use, along with mandated treatment. He supports felony charges for manufacturing or selling large amounts of cannabis (or misdemeanors, depending on amount).^[28]

Through the work of SAM, Sabet has been an active voice in successful campaigns to stop marijuana legalization initiatives in Ohio (2015),^{[29][30][31][32][33][34][35]} and legislative initiatives in New Jersey.^[36] In New Jersey, Sabet and SAM have partnered with senators, including Senator Ronald Rice, pastors, community organizers, and other public health and safety advocates to resist Governor Phil Murphy's push to commercialize marijuana in the state.^[37][38][39]

In the 2018 legislative sessions, Sabet and SAM have been active with coalitions in successful efforts to defeat marijuana legalization and commercialization bills in Illinois,^[40][41] New Hampshire,^{[42][43][44][45]} and Vermont.^[46] While Vermont decriminalized marijuana possession in 2013 and allowed for personal use and "home-grow" in 2018,^[47] Sabet and SAM have worked with partners to defeat outright commercialization such as seen in Colorado, California, and Washington.^[48]

Currently, Sabet and SAM are active in coalitions opposed to marijuana legalization ballot efforts in Michigan^[49][50] and North Dakota.^[51][52] As part of this advocacy in Michigan, Sabet likened cannabis legalization to deadly hurricanes, which lead some to question the appropriateness of such a comparison.^[53][54]

Prior to SAM's founding, Sabet wrote op-eds and spoke across Colorado, Washington State, and Oregon.^[55] SAM campaigned against initiatives to legalize marijuana in California,^[56] Maine, Nevada, and Massachusetts.^[57] However, none of these efforts were successful, as marijuana was legalized in each of these states.^[58]

Some say Sabet is arguably the most influential person in the movement against cannabis legalization in the United States.^[59]

However, throughout Sabet's career, many have raised concerns about Sabet and SAM exhibiting a pattern of using questionable methods to present arguments, such as providing misleading or incorrect information and distorting data.^{[60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69]}

In September 2016, Sabet appeared at a forum at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, where he stated he had "props" of two bags of candy that he claimed included one bag of regular candy and one bag of THC infused candy. He asserted, "one of them is real, one of them isn’t." After the forum concluded, Sabet left both bags of candy unattended, which were subsequently stolen. The attendee of the forum (a pro-legalization activist) who stole the bags allegedly submitted them to a laboratory for testing of their marijuana content, and claimed that neither bag contained any THC (the psychoactive compound of marijuana). Sabet later said, "No, of course they weren’t real...I told Fox News that they weren’t that very night. I was making a point that you can’t tell the difference between real and fake pot edibles—and if someone from [the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws] couldn’t tell the difference and had to steal them to find out, I think the point was made pretty well.” despite his claims on the night of the debate that they, were in fact, real.^[70]

In addition to his work on cannabis, Sabet has written on the benefits of alcohol prohibition.^[71] He has also claimed that safe injection sites for IV drug users, a policy that has shown to decrease harm from drug abuse and is endorsed by the AMA^[72] and harm reduction advocates,^[73] could lead to legalization of heroin.^[74] Sabet has joined in opposition to harm reduction policies, including these safe injection sites and needle exchange programs.^[75]

Books and Writings

Sabet is the author of Reefer Sanity: Seven Great Myths About Marijuana, now in its second edition.^[76] He also co-edited Contemporary Health Issues on Marijuana, published by Oxford.^[77]

References

External links

• Official website