Saturday, December 19, 2009

JP Morgan Chase Bank and Drug Policy

Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) is starting a boycott of JP Morgan Chase over its charity giveaway contest. Registered charities were competing for votes. The charities with the most votes were supposed to receive donations from the bank. Two drug reform organizations and an anti-abortion group appeared to be in the lead, but none of them won.

The New York Times reported on this yesterday and noted:
JPMorgan Chase & Company is coming under fire for the way it conducted an online contest to award millions of dollars to 100 charities.

At least three nonprofit groups — Students for Sensible Drug Policy, the Marijuana Policy Project and an anti-abortion group, Justice for All— say they believe that Chase disqualified them over concerns about associating its name with their missions.

The groups say that until Chase made changes to the contest, they appeared to be among the top 100 vote-getters.

I certainly believe that a private business can do what it wants with its money. But we should remember that almost all banks are now dependent on the government for help. JP Morgan Chase received about 25 Billion dollars from the U.S. Government. We are not dealing with a private business here, but rather with an organ of the government. We should expect that our government should be neutral and fair. We should expect our government to play by the rules that it sets down. They should not have started this contest and encouraged all charities to take part if they were going to exclude groups that they considered to be controversial. They should have been upfront about this.

I don't do any business with JP Morgan Chase. I think that people who are interested in drug reform (or who at least believe in fair play) ought to reconsider their relationship with this bank. Of course, it doesn't matter anyway. If they lose business, the government will just give them money.

10 comments:

  1. Knew this was going to happen, sorry .....

    SSDP can accomplish a great deal with this one though, they're a super group of young people.
    And MPP, well they're gaining strength and power with every passing moment.

    Maybe, just maybe, this will turn into a positive for the end Prohibition movement.

    If possible, please keep us updated on this one Mr. Cooke.

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  2. Wow. This makes me wish LEAP had been in a position to win one of these prizes like SSDP. I'm sure LEAP would have had something to say if the organization was unfairly removed from the competition.

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  3. In my mind David part of the solution as well as part of the problem in this end to Prohibition movement is there are different groups all doing their own little thing to facilitate ending Prohibition.
    Somewhere along the line a gathering of the end Prohibition "clan" must come together and exert its strength. OR maybe that's a stupid idea and we're better off with each end Prohibition organization doing their part. Don't know, just don't know.

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  4. I'm ashamed to be a member of Chase Bank.

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  5. JP Morgan paid back its bailout money, stop being a moron.

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  6. I apologize for the poster below me. I linked this blog post to another forum and he made the correction on that site. I told him to feel free to correct you on this one. Apparently someone who read my post felt that it was a good idea to call you a moron as well as correcting your post.

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  7. Bear, close your account with them. Open an account with a Credit Union. Nearly everyone can get an account with a Credit Union.

    I'm looking for a credit card company other than B of A too, anyone with an idea? Guess we need to call them all and find out. Only thing is, be kind to the person on the other end of the line as they are just a pawn in their big bossess game, an employee who has to do their bidding so to speak.

    I'm ashamed to say I have a relative in the state of Maryland that works for Chase Bank. He's a former stoner turned straight and it's one of those "gag me with a shovel" moments.
    Worse than an ex-cigarette smoker on a crusade to save all the other smokers.

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  8. I agree with Lea that Credit Unions are the way to go. Lea, try Discover for CC.

    Some of us (many? most?) of us are just pawns to these mega corps(es). My mortgage has been bought and sold so many times you'd think it was a tired old ... Currently in the hands of the aforementioned.

    But just like a prostitute, Chase is only putting on a show for others. Should it come as any surprise that most of us want "change" and they are surprised most people didn't vote for plastic fake mom & pop apple pie LLC Inc. multinational conglomerate?

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  9. Chase reminds me of the religious self-righteous in the parable of the Good Samaritan. They would not go over to the person so obviously in need of help for fear of his "bad energy" rubbing off on them. ("Naked fool was robbed blind, probably had it coming to him, probably God's will. I sure don't need to be seen with him.")

    Instead of picking up the trash that some slob threw on the ground, why pick up the McDonald's cup/Starbuck cup/etc...? Other people will see you carrying it!!! They might think you were a consumer of their products!!! What kind of message are you sending when you hold wasteful one-time-use containers from those trash masters?!!!!! Do the right thing and turn up your nose. Ignore those things you find distasteful!!! Follow the crowd!!! Seek the praise of humans instead of God!

    Not.

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  10. @ Me, "Should it come as any surprise that most of us want "change" and they are surprised most people didn't vote for plastic fake mom & pop apple pie LLC Inc. multinational conglomerate?"

    I sure didn't mean to sound like I thought all orgs in the running were astroturf. Sorry for being so jaded and cynical.

    But our country is going town the tubes so fast due to the greedy rich jerks, I am crying.

    Smelling Salts
    EFF - http://www.eff.org
    Spin Analysis - http://www.prwatch.org (finds a mind boggling amount of fake front companies set up by the mega corps(es) pretending to be small people like you and me).
    Tracking money in politics - http://www.OpenSecrets.org

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