Forget jobs and spending cuts. Ask around online, and it seems Americans just want the right to get high.
Marijuana legalization has been the top issue on the White House’s new “We the People” petition site since it launched last month as a way for citizens to lobby for issues that matter most to them.
The marijuana petition already has more than 55,000 signatures — 20,000 more than any other issue on the site and much more than the 25,000-signature threshold administrators set to warrant an official response. The White House has not yet responded to the marijuana petition.
And so it has been each time the Obama administration engaged voters online: Marijuana legalization was among the most popular questions raised on Twitter, YouTube and Change.gov, the president’s transition site…
“The political mind is pretty simple: What can you do for me, what can you do to harm me. … We’re not effectively casting that in either direction,” said Allen St. Pierre, executive director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which started the White House petition…
“We are not nearly as organized to put together the type of donations and PACs that arrest and immediately catch the attention of the elite body politic,” St. Pierre said.
What happens to transparency when the people speak and the president thinks its a joke?
I was gonna go to that website and make my own suggestions, but then I got high.
What happened to banishing abortion, immigrants, and gay marriage? Can we please stick to the bigotry that matters people?
I feel that this is encouraging. People have more interest in fixing a problem (bad drug laws) than in being nasty to people they don’t know.
Once the newspapers get hold of this, we can expect 2 things…
1. Stories about how drugs “damage” you
2. Stories about how illegal foreigners are selling bad dope
Well, Obama and government in general can’t fix the economy. But they could remove the absurd restrictions on ownership and commerce in certain types of agricultural products. Remember that the final push to rid the country Prohibition was due to the Great Depression.
As to the Middle East….who gives a flying fuck anymore? Let, them kill each other off. The faster the better. Bring our boys home and stop shoving our noses into everyone else’s business. If we’d done that decades ago, there wouldn’t have been a 9/11.
f’in’ A! on all counts.
Weren’t you complaining the other day you wanted cheap oil ?
Wrong. The depression didn’t end Prohibition. The movement had been gaining in strength throughout the ’20s. The violence accompanying smuggling and the dangers of bootleg whiskey were what put the end over the top.
The survey here is for MEDICAL MARIJUANA, not recreational pot.
In other words, enough people went blind causing the government to finally react. Why can’t we apply the same attitude towards marijuana? Chemicals, molds, and product cleanliness are all reasonable quality control concerns every pothead currently endures.
They should start by freeing Marc Emery. BTW, beware of the whitehouse website, if you sign up, you’ll get bombarded with spam from Democrat special interest groups within two seconds. Seriously, two seconds. What a slimy operation.
I don’t trust any government website that spams. Thanks for the heads up.
Especially one on a subject that is illegal in my state at least.
Long arm of the U.S. law reaches over Canadian border where he broke no Canadian law.
From Wikipedia.
“He is formerly a retailer of cannabis seeds for cultivation, having started Marc Emery Direct Marijuana Seeds in 1995, which he ran until it was closed by a raid by Vancouver police acting on the request of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on July 29, 2005, despite the fact that the sale of cannabis seeds is legal in Canada.”
“What a slimy operation.”
Sums up the Obama Administration perfectly.
No wonder people would rather get high!
The Obama administration has never seemed to give us transparency for the sake of listening to the people. It’s always just been a talking point.
@spsffan +1: both!
The Romans called it “Bread and Circuses”, back in their day. Now these people want legalize pot, wonderful. Keep the people drugged-up and distracted, and they’ll never realize how bad things are getting. Next thing you know, the U.S. becomes part of a global government, and all our rights are gone…
Smoke-up Boys! Today pot, tomorrow the world!!!
What the hell are you smoking?
Legal Pot ??? Soma, anyone ???
In Canada we have a saying…
One year of seed, 7 years of weed.
They should legalize marijuana. While it may not fix the economy it will certainly go a long way toward making people not give a fuck.
Agree. It truly is a miracle drug.
Obama is just another temporary worker from the group of lying politicians that pass through the White House. The laws last through administrations and cannabis should be legal. We know it is safe and effective but the price will drop once legal and that only hurts the Mexican Cartels which Obama wants to prosper so they will buy more guns from the ATF.
Obama continues the policy of putting Americans out of work, out of their homes, and into homelessness by chopping down legally grown cannabis and denying that California has the right to write its own laws as expressly provided in the 10th Amendment.
All presidents want to ignore the Constitution and declare themselves boss of the world and it is the job of the people of America to keep these bastards in check.
microbrainmike
So, this law that passed decades ago, is Obama’s fault?
Obama has reduced taxes and the Tea Baggers claim government doesn’t create jobs, but that is still Obama’s fault?
The battle cry of the wing nuts is that Presidents ignore the Constitution. Yet, humorously, they can never pinpoint what they are ignoring. Obama swore under oath to uphold the law. Marijuana is currently illegal and the Supreme Court has sided that marijuana is a Federal responsibility and has every right to arrest users. yet you ignorant Tea Baggers keep piping up with your bull that Obama is violating the Constitution.
You’re just another Tea Bagger idiot out to ruin America.
Economic stimulus for the cost of a pen stroke and nobody will do it, unbelievable!
http://whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petitions/popular/0/2/0/
Just as an indication of how serious this site is, the top eight petitions, by number of signatures each has garnered:
1) Legalize and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol
2) Call in investigation into allegations of prosecutorial & judicial misconduct in the case of Sholom Rubashkin
3) Forgive student load debt to stimulate the economy and usher in a new era of innovation, entrepreneurship and prosperity
4) Abolish the TSA, and use its monstrous budget to fund more sophisticated, less intrusive counter-terrorism intelligence
5) Allow industrial hemp to be grown in the U.S. once again
6) Edit the Pledge of Allegiance to remove the phrase “Under God.”
7) Legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana
8) Crack down on puppy mills
All I have to say is, Sholom Rubashkin must have a big family, and if puppy mills are the eighth biggest problem facing this nation we’re in better shape than I thought.
The top petition has fewer than 60 000 signatures. That’s not that many in a nation with 330 000 000+ people.
6) Edit the Pledge of Allegiance to remove the phrase “Under God.”
Changing it to “adhering to Faith” shouldn’t be offensive to anyone. And faith it is, not undoubtedly “the truth”.
I think the issue should be reworded, the way they did for the Abortion issue. They didn’t say “Pro-abortion”. They changed it to “Pro-choice”. And even the opposite side wouldn’t say they’re “Anti-abortion”. But changed it to “Pro-life”. So instead of saying. let’s “legalize MJ”. It should be reworded (spun) to “Decriminalizing Nature”. Or “Decriminalizing Backyard Agriculture”. The law was likely invented to protect the Tobacco industry from rival competition. Because it relatively easy for anyone to grow weed, harvest it, and sell it. Compared to growing Tobacco plants. And the government has a stake in tobacco sales too. They tax it.
And YET, tobacco is far more deadly, and addictive than MJ. It causes lung cancer. And people find it nearly impossible to stop smoking. And in spite of concerns about child predators living near schools. Nothing is said of tobacco shops appearing near some schools. One opened in my town, across from a Middle School, right after the area grocery store (that sold tobacco too) closed up. I’m sure it’s No coincidence. Because there’s no other such shop in the whole town. Just there, 50 yards in front of the school. The nearest KFC is at least a half a mile away! So why does tobacco sales have to be right on top of one school? And a 1/4 mile from the Senior High and Grade school.
And yet, MJ is made out as the demon weed. And it burdens our law enforcement and court systems, with people guilty of little more than growing something they shouldn’t. Or smoking it. Or making a little cash, selling some. But it’s hardly in the same class as illegal drugs are. And if it were decriminalized in the US, the “fun” of smoking would largely disappear. Because you can only be “Cool” by doing what the Man says you shouldn’t. And if the Man no longer cares about MJ. Most of it’s use will vanish. And while they’re at it, they could decriminalize Hemp. So it could be grown and used in the US, to make cheaper and stronger clothing. But I’m sure the Cotton lobby will object.
All good points especially about the cotton industry.
Cotton has more to worry about with the polyester manufacturers.
Actually, it wasn’t the tobacco industry (murderous bastards that they are) that got cannabis outlawed. It was a combination of racial hatred (blacks in Harlem smoked it!) and threats to the tree based paper industry.
William Randolph Hearst owned lots of forest and wanted to use the trees for newsprint. Hemp had been a more expensive source for paper until someone developed a cheaper way to process it. Then it became a threat to the tree based paper industry, and Hearst, commanding his news empire, made a campaign to get it outlawed, using race bating and other tactics.
Actually, at the time (1930s) tobacco wasn’t considered particularly harmful, despite the obvious long term effects like the smoker’s cough and so forth. Part of this was because a much greater portion of the population died from something else before they could get cancer. The original Surgeon General report on smoking didn’t come out until the early 1950s.
Uncle Patso (6 – Edit the Pledge of Allegiance to remove the phrase “Under God.”)
I don’t know why this is such an issue. “God” is not a religion. And the term as it’s used in the pledge refers more to a “divinely inspired moral code”, than to be subjugated to someone’s idea of a religious belief. But I guess there are those that don’t want to have to live by anyone’s rules. And yet, they’ll be the first ones to sue somebody in court, for any others violating their “god given rights”. What hypocrites! They’ll scream for the protection of their goods, property, and moral lives. From a governing body that operates under the moral code of a “God”. But they don’t want their children, or others’, to know of such an entity. Or the inspiration of such laws and moral code. What do atheists teach there kids? To be cutthroat, and vicious? Because I don’t know what moral code they found, that they manage to divorced from its religious origins. And claim God had nothing to do with it. Even the pagan Romans had their gods, to base a system of laws upon. But only a self-serving moral code, that let them pillage and loot the rest of the world. So I say let the wordage stand, in the pledge. And just explain the context better. Does every little thing have to be so perfectly PC?!! These atheists ought to be grateful the US does enforce Muslim law. They’d be dead.
Let’s parse the goodwill and underpinnings of the “whats wrong with forcing my religion on you position”:
I don’t know why this is such an issue. /// Because in America we are allowed to live free from government enforced notions of religion. Its variously called FREEEEEEEDOM, or freedom of/from religion, or first amendment rights, or separation of religion and state, or please keep your stupidity to yourself.
“God” is not a religion. /// Correct in a sense. Wrong in a broader understanding. God means monotheism. What of the more natural/mystic/multigod belief systems? Its discrimination and support of one kind of stupidity over another. IN AMERICA===we are FREEEEE and our taxes are not supposed to go for that oppression of mind and spirit.
And the term as it’s used in the pledge refers more to a “divinely inspired moral code”, than to be subjugated to someone’s idea of a religious belief. /// One persons moral code is anothers BS. We are a nation of laws.
But I guess there are those that don’t want to have to live by anyone’s rules. /// Societies laws?==Yes. Your made up BS masquerading as divinely inspired rules?==No.
And yet, they’ll be the first ones to sue somebody in court, for any others violating their “god given rights”. /// Made up fantasy BS. When you sue, its based on violation of law–not violation of god given rights.
What hypocrites! /// How stupid, uniformed, and self centered can YOU be?
What do atheists teach there kids? /// They teach the full gamet from out right religion without the god, to humanism, to existentialism, to pragmatism.
To be cutthroat, and vicious? /// Some, but most aren’t Republicans or fundies.
Because I don’t know what moral code they found, that they manage to divorced from its religious origins. /// Ha, ha.===THE LAW. Its written down in books, enforced by the system, and we are all subject to it and living under it 24/7. Just how deep is your stupid hole?
And claim God had nothing to do with it. Even the pagan Romans had their gods, to base a system of laws upon. But only a self-serving moral code, that let them pillage and loot the rest of the world. So I say let the wordage stand, in the pledge. And just explain the context better. /// The context===enough people are stupidly religious in America causing the rest of Constitutional Devotees to keep their powder dry and choose their disputes.
Does every little thing have to be so perfectly PC?!! /// Should be–but as you note, pragmatism helps to apportion resources. Isn’t it God that writes down every little thing? Its only the non-religious that recognize a zone of privacy and the right to be left alone.
These atheists ought to be grateful the US does enforce Muslim law. //// We do? Since when??? What laws??? Be specific????? ===== Bet ya can’t BECAUSE YOU ARE NUTS!!!!!!
They’d be dead. //// This makes me think maybe you have a typo above===unintentionally something less than the whole thing?
Gregg===stand out posting. I hadn’t noticed you were so unhinged before. Is Alfie using your name?
Silly human.
bobbo,
One of your more reasoned posts. Well done sir.
Yes it was a typo. I don’t always catch them. The US doesN’T enforce Muslim laws. Cause if it did, I’m sure there’d be zero atheists in the country. Or at least, none foolish enough to brag about it.
And since I highly doubt that you can find any nation or country on earth, that didn’t have some form of religious influence over its laws’ origins. Then you can’t demonstrate any laws from anywhere, that came about by random change. Like some form of Natural Selection and Evolution, but for legal principles, instead of organic species. I think all these 50 cent terms, such as humanism, existentialism, pragmatism, came very late into existence. And are a feeble attempt to take credit for pre-existing morals, as some kind of amoral philosophy. The religious did all the leg work. And the atheists came along later, to try and claim that the same thing can be achieved by their half baked code of ethics. But it’s impossible to prove their ideas would ever work, with a total absence of religion, in the world. So it just gets to piggyback along, and pretend it works as well, or better.
How about “One nation under frisbee”? Even the pagan Romans had primitive frisbees.
I never knew they were bikers!
This guy is so not-electable now. And I have the feeling he WANTS it this way. Gah – are there any adults around to run the country?
Only, we can’t find any in the Republican Party.
The republicans made job creation a platform last year. Yet, since taking over the House, they have yet to introduce a jobs creation bill. They have introduced 15 bills that ban abortion, even though a majority of Americans are in favor of abortion. Yet, not one bill creating a job.
Obama is low in the polls at the moment. Yet, he is double what the Tea Baggers are. Americans are well aware that the Tea Baggers are the tail wagging the dog. Aligning to the Tea Baggers might gain the Republican nomination, but it won’t win over the independents or even less strident Republicans.
It must really suck to support a party so full of losers.
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Obama’s Truck with Teleprompter was STOLEN TODAY !!! Left the O-Man SPEECHLESS !!!
So now he’s almost as inarticulate as George Bush II was, WITH a teleprompter. Eh?
Ffffffffffffffffft. (sniff-sniff) You’re ALL, like, crazy, man.
Only idiots ignoring history want prohibition to continue. Drug criminalization harms everyone, victims and crooks. Legalize drugs, remove incentives for organized crime, and treat victims. Drug criminalization is only a tool for government and police control of certain populations.
Some supporters of legalization merely want to defund the gangs, uncorrupt entire nations, politicians, police and courts, unclog the courts, free the police to find actual criminals, and generally admit the prohibition just doesn’t work.
So instead we have the lunacy of high drug use AND high destruction of society. The worst of BOTH worlds.
Back to the topic of Legalizing weed. Or decriminalizing growing stuff. The thing I found interesting about Ken Burns’ “Prohibition”, was that the wealthy were in favor of it (at first), because they felt the poorer would do more work if they weren’t allowed to drink. And then the wealth stocked up on all the booze their wine cellars could hold. So they, themselves wouldn’t suffer. Years later, the wealthy changed their minds and wanted prohibition repealed. Because the Great Depression had left so many jobless, the wealthy’s own income was the sole source of revenue. Making alcohol legal again, would mean the gov. could tax its sale, and not have to pick on the rich. What a bunch of self-serving A-holes. Kind of reminds one of the S&L and Subprime Mortgage meltdowns. The wealthy sure have a lot of stupid ideas, that they get the gov. to go along with. And then the country has to pick up the pieces, afterward. Outsourcing US jobs to overseas, will prove to be another one.
BTW, one of the most deadly poisons on earth is Risen. And it’s made from the caster bean. Which you can legally grow or buy online. Nothing stops anyone from making this stuff, and killing thousands with it. Except maybe a Moral Code, and the temporary lack of knowledge of how to do it. But MJ growing and selling is what’s illegal. Even though it’s use rarely ever kills someone. No more so (and probably a lot less) than alcohol abuse, causes accidents and suicides. But apparently “feeling good” is something that must be controlled by the government. And is only allowed by presently licensed and grandfathered commercial industries like alcohol, tobacco, and firearms.