Back when he was running for president in 2008, Barack Obama insisted that medical marijuana was an issue best left to state and local governments. “I’m not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue,” he vowed, promising an end to the Bush administration’s high-profile raids on providers of medical pot, which is legal in 16 states and the District of Columbia.
But over the past year, the Obama administration has quietly unleashed a multiagency crackdown on medical cannabis that goes far beyond anything undertaken by George W. Bush. The feds are busting growers who operate in full compliance with state laws, vowing to seize the property of anyone who dares to even rent to legal pot dispensaries, and threatening to imprison state employees responsible for regulating medical marijuana. With more than 100 raids on pot dispensaries during his first three years, Obama is now on pace to exceed Bush’s record for medical-marijuana busts. “There’s no question that Obama’s the worst president on medical marijuana,” says Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. “He’s gone from first to worst.”
Pretty decent article. I had a quick squiz at DEA Position on Marijuana. Since they make a big deal about the startling revelation that there is absolutely NO positive medicinal value in SMOKING pot, its clear that by demonizing the delivery mechanism the administration is inviting the Big Pharmas to come in and replace the medical marijuana industry with ‘safe’ pot derivatives. WIN – WIN for both pharmaceutical and law enforcement industries.
I believe ((♫ ……because I do, I do…..)) the Obama “personally” believes and would druther what he said quoted above.
So—the question becomes a “power study” on who/what/how actually rules our country? MEANING—what got to Obama for him to change his mind and acquiesce so many of his druthers?
What exactly are the opposing forces? Too easy to say those who directly profit from it, but that is a good/best/only hypothesis until a better one comes along?
We (the USA) really are causing all our own problems. And they will/can stop when we choose to stop shooting ourselves in the foot. How long can we keep doing this until we lose our foot/leg/worse???
I don’t know. Not forever I wager.
Because he can. It helps having voters who continue to believe anything that the political class tells them every couple of years. But some people aren’t happy unless they are being lied to, having their money taken from them and are being told what to do.
I don’t know why we (they) don’t just legalize it. It’s going to happen sooner or later anyway. The only question is when.
Then again…
I can only assume any pressure to keep pot illegal is coming from certain law enforcement groups who actually make a profit by fighting any growers, distributors or consumers. Pressure to keep pot illegal might also be coming from the alcohol industry too. I mean, if getting high is going to eat into the profits of getting drunk then it makes perfect sense to fight pot being legalized if you’re Anheuser Bush or someone.
And if you run a drug cartel in South America you too probably want to keep it illegal since the more legitimate companies like Phillip Morris can still put you out of business if it all of a sudden becomes legal.
So with bucks like that on the side of pot opposition it’s no wonder they also have political clout. And in case you didn’t hear, Washington (like any other government) runs on money! Therefore, it’s also no wonder that any politicians always move to keep pot illegal. They’d probably outlaw dirt if anyone threw as much money behind that kind of movement too. DUH!
Another opposition group could be the Church too!
Think about it. If you have a whole bunch of closed minded dip-shits banding together promising to vote your butt out of office over anything as stupid as pot legalization that’s some pretty powerful incentive to keep it illegal. Unfortunately, even “stupid” people who prefer to be led down the primrose path (like a sheep to slaughter) have the right to vote.
Our founding fathers probably should have amended the “We The People” clause to “We The Intelligent People” or even just “We The Non-Clergy!”
By the Way BoBo, I don’t know who you are responding to anything I said, but it helps if you click on the little tiny Reply button if you are. (It keeps the comments indented which I think your were complaining about a while ago too.)
Color within the lines do we?
Just why would you think I was responding to you?
Ha, ha.
Let me say that again…
“I don’t know if who you are responding to anything I said…”
Since you did preface your earlier comment with more cryptic dribble by saying “Anon== …” You then went on to say that you didn’t think you agreed with someone 100% or not too.
So it’s hard to tell just who the hell you are directing your comments at when you start a new thread. It’s like you’re talking to yourself! So, are you?
Indented, non-chronological comments are for retards. They also cause Global Warming [TM].
“They also cause Global Warming ”
And Global Cooling.
And schizophrenia.
Anon==easy to agree with your thought until you see the Pukes are trying to re-criminalize unmarried sex.
What is good, true, common sense, freedom, live and let live, is CONTESTED by evil forces for a variety of reasons: money, religion, power, and so on.
One does wonder if MJ/Drugs were going to be legalized just because it makes so much sense, why hasn’t it been done already?
I still agree with you===just not 100%, but I assume you don’t either?
Obummer
A politician follows what they think makes them popular. They have no real belief system. Only the belief that they must do what will keep them in power.
Oh they have a belief system alright!
Can’t you just see a few of them standing around a Satanic ring chanting: “Oh mighty dollar. Please give us the power to do your most UN-holly work…“?
I would imagine most of them are Democrats!
Sorry but, regardless of any party, they all belong, body and soul, to the political machine.
They become indoctrinated little by little into the machine, where they are either kept as low-level apparatchik or they are permitted to rise up in the organization and they either meet the devil and shake his hand, or they meet with an untimely end.
In Japan they belong to the Yakuza. Here they chase the almighty dollar.
Democrap or Repube, its irrelevant.
Mittens is proving that. He’s been either and/or both at the same time.
Political allegiance is always ruled by expedience.
“the almighty dollar.”
Har!
Is no one familiar with the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs?
Judging by the responses given here, I would say not.
Anonymous says:
2/17/2012 at 4:51 am
Let me say that again…
“I don’t know if who you are responding to anything I said…” /// So why address that question to me? And having addressed it to me……..
Since you did preface your earlier comment with more cryptic dribble by saying “Anon== …” You then went on to say that you didn’t think you agreed with someone 100% or not too. /// Two different subjects. Not related at all.
So it’s hard to tell just who the hell you are directing your comments at when you start a new thread. It’s like you’re talking to yourself! So, are you? ////
♫ I am he as you are he as you are me
And we are all together
See how they run like pigs from a gun
See how they fly, I’m crying
Sitting on a cornflake
Waiting for the van to come
Corporation T-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday Man you’ve been a naughty boy
You let your face grow long
I am the eggman
They are the eggmen I am the walrus
Goo goo g’ joob
Mr. City policeman sitting Pretty little policemen in a row
See how they fly like Lucy in the sky
See how they run, I’m crying
I’m crying, I’m crying, I’m crying
Yellow matter custard Dripping from a dead dog’s eye Crabalocker fishwife Pornographic priestess Boy, you’ve been a naughty girl You let your knickers down
I am the eggman
They are the eggmen
I am the walrus
Goo goo g’ joob
Sitting in an English garden
Waiting for the sun If the sun don’t come you get a tan
From standing in the English rain
I am the eggman
They are the eggmen I am the walrus
Goo goo g’ joob
G-goo goo g’ joob
Expert, texpert choking smokers
Don’t you think the joker laughs at you?
See how they smile like pigs in a sty
See how they snide,
I’m crying
Climbing up the Eiffel tower
Elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna Man,
you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe
I am the eggman
They are the eggmen
I am the walrus
Goo goo g’ joob
Always amusing when a book, treatise, poem, song is right on point? All we have to do is read. = = = or listen?
Or not.
The prison system in the US is an enormously profitable one; we’re talking hugely profitable. *
The people who run prisons have bought** Obama’s cooperation, willing or unwilling.
Busting people for pot or other soft-drug offenses is an enormous profit center for everybody involved, from the police force who are employed at the in-take end, to the killers, thieves and lawyers who write the laws which insure that absolutely everyone is guilty of something, even if its only of breathing too loudly, to the prison food processing factories, to the prison clothes making factories, to the call center owners and parts manufacturers, to the trucking companies who deliver raw materials in and cart finished goods out.
Case closed.
Have an other “Triple Bypass Burger” you fat idiot, and buy the products from our prisons where your own kids are being exploited.
*) Labor is the major component of any product production or delivery. Imagine running Apple’s Foxconn factories, but with people who cant do anything else because they are stuck on the job 24/7/365.***
**) Where has that billion dollars that Obama’s about to spend on his reelection been coming from? In part from the place where most politicians would be if they didn’t write the laws to suit themselves.
***) If anything Apple is to be congratulated for not using prison labor here is the US****.
****) Before anybody thinks that I’m an Apple apologist, lets also take into account the logistical headaches of transporting the unfinished assemblies from one factories to the next and you’ll see that Apple used Foxconn to streamline their production, not out of any humanitarian, do-gooder, knee-jerk sentiment.
Meanwhile, if you want to know how the really rich pricks are living, and where, here’s a hint:
The 12,400 are not driving their old mostly-reliable Ford sedan down to the Quicky Mart to pick up some Hostess® Twinkies™.
Poddy – What’s wrong with prison labor? Every prison I know of, the inmates are required to work at some job or other. Why not make an assembly line job that might:
a) teach ’em a skill?
b) pay some of the cost of their confinement?
Not exactly slave labor and it can be voluntary. Lots of prisons have manufacturing jobs. I remember buying some office furniture made at one prison or another. Some care mus be used. I remember there was some prison that was doing order fulfillment for an internet shopping site. Giving convicts access to credit card and other personal info is maybe not a good idea…
There alot to like about prison labor but some concerns:
How you do make sure cheap prison labor doesnt hurt the job market?
How long until you start filling prisons to meet labor needs and not as a social punishment/rehab? Much like the judge that was paid for juvie convictions to inflate the private facilities business.
He’s creating jobs for DEA agents and prison guards.
If the DEA report (which most have not read) is accurate, it does make a good case to keep it illegal, esp the part about teenage rising drug use.
On the other hand, the case to make it legal appears equally, if not more, compelling.
It’s a dilemma that maybe the current situation is as you might say, goldie locks- about right. Those that want it get it and the worse parts are somewhat under control.
In other news… the US has the dumbest high school graduates amongst all developed nations!
It’s an election year, what were you expecting.
Dallas, the cultural avatar says:
2/17/2012 at 7:03 am
If the DEA report (which most have not read) /// I haven’t
is accurate, /// Sure
it does make a good case to keep it illegal, // BS!
esp the part about teenage rising drug use. /// It goes up, it goes down. Nothing ruins a life more than being thrown in jail for drug use. Not even the drugs. How did you take your eyes off the target?
On the other hand, the case to make it legal appears equally, if not more, compelling. /// Well–if more compelling, how did the DEA make a good case? Never seen you so wishy washy before.
It’s a dilemma /// BS==no its not.
that maybe the current situation is as you might say, goldie locks- about right. Those that want it get it and the worse parts are somewhat under control. ///NO!!!! Not at all. ABSOLUTELY NO REASON for those that want it, get it thru illegal and unregulated untaxed sources. What you smokin?
In other news… the US has the dumbest high school graduates amongst all developed nations! //// Dallas==don’t let the FUD wear you down. If you need an energy boost===then simply withdraw.
The GREASTEST HARM of illegal drugs is the system than keeps them illegal. There are pros and cons to all we do. On Balance===illegal drugs cause more harm than good. Legal Drugs will still cause harm===JUST NOT AS MUCH.
Keep you eye on the balls.
You seem to be perfectly assured that permitting free drug use is simply AOK and without consequence. I’m not quite there. I like smoking pot and having sex in the park like any other American but I am at least a little concerned about the consequences to youth. Your point about youth in prison is valid.
Hey, given the pros and cons, I would legalize it. But let’s not kid ourselves. Drug use, like alcohol use has serious consequences.
We have many things that are for adults that we arent good for children – alcohol, r-rated movies, sex
If you ban everything that *could* harm children, theres not much left.
We cant bubble wrap the world, nor should we.
Yaknow==you are SOOooooo WRONG! Innocents who want nothing to do with drugs get trapped/injured in its effects and traffic all the time.
If drugs were LEGAL then only those who do the drugs would get hurt leaving the rest of us alone.
My apartment manager got hit with a crowbar when he happened upon a drug deal going down. ONE MORE INNOCENT PERSON PHYSICALLY INJURED BY THE LAW MAKING DRUGS ILLEGAL.
I had another manager embezzle funds to pay for drugs. I WAS FINANCIALLY INJURED BECAUSE OF THE LAW MAKING DRUGS ILLEGAL.
Allowing people to be mostly affected only by their own decisions is reason enough to legalize drugs.
Raising Taxes is a good enough reason to legalize it.
Regulating its safety and purity is a good enough reason to legalize it.
Unfunding Organized Crime is a good enough reason to legalize it.
Yet some say the DEA makes a good argument otherwise?
Ha, ha. Pull my finger.
You’re surprised that Obama would support the federal government over a concept of states rights?
NEw Ron Paul smoking Game. The Media supports drug use.
If Ron Paul comes in first, you smoke a joint.
If Ron Paul comes in second, your smoke two joints
If Ron Paul comes in third, you smoke three joints
If Ron Paul comes in fourth, you smoke four joints
The medias blatant staging of Romney as the winner will encourage the public to smoke more marijuana.
He does what the corporations tell him to do.
The Kennedy second shooter is STILL living near the grassy knoll.
Why is [insert government entity name here] Cracking Down on Medical Marijuana? It depends:
– How many people truely need medical marijuana?
– How often will it be prescribed for dubee-ous conditions?
– How often will it be wrongly prescribed as a lifetime drug?
– How much will medical marijuana fraud cost the taxpayer?
– How much will widespread use further dull and sedate the American spirit?
– How much easier will it be for users to “logically” move on to other debilitating drugs?
– How many potheads will apply to become authorized distributors?
– How would you distinguish between medical and “free-range” marijuana?
[Feel free to cherrypick through the above, but at least some of these concerns have reason for establishing formal controls.]
One thing for sure, government will use this as an excuse to expand and increase revenue. For them, it’s about money and control. For the thoughtful citizen, it’s about balancing freedom, need, and responsibility. For society’s drop-outs, its about getting high off someone else’s dollar.
Personally, I bet the truely legimate annual need for medical marijuana could be provided by a few, small, regional farms with a monitored and reported output.
All of the reasons you have listed are why Marijuana should be legal and government should not have their nose in it. No taxes no regulation. Marijuana must be made completly publicly available with no paper work bull. If someone grows and someone drys and someone sells good for them. the government did not help them, infact the government hurt them. tax on electricity, tax on petrol, tax on land, tax on purchasing farm equipment. tax tax tax tax. Marijuana tax is not an option and would criminalize the trade. Marijuana will be most undesirable when it is avaible in every store in the nation. Look at synthetic CAnnabinoids such as K2, or Spice. They are available in stores and they for the most part sit on the shelves. It takes a local television news blitz about the dangers of K2 to get that stuff sell. Teenage cigarette smoking is down because its gross. In areas where Medical Marijuana is legal less people are interested in marijuana because its no longer a guilty pleasure.
Reefer Madness Made Marijuana some old fogie holistic remedy the most exciting thing in teenagers lives.
– How many people truely need medical marijuana? For the sake of argument, let’s say ONE. Why would you deny him something that he truly needs? How does supplying a needed medicine to one individual harm society?
– How often will it be prescribed for dubee-ous conditions? How often is anything prescribed for dubious conditions? Antibiotics? Pain killers? Class? Anybody?
– How often will it be wrongly prescribed as a lifetime drug? Wut? I can’t parse that into a meaningful statement/question. I’ve never heard of a lifetime drug. I think you are confusing pot with heroin or something.
– How much will medical marijuana fraud cost the taxpayer? Uh, less than the war on drugs costs taxpayers now? And I can’t think of a single situation where medical pot costs taxpayers a cent.
– How much will widespread use further dull and sedate the American spirit? Some. However, if you’re trying to eliminate things that “dull and sedate the american spirit”, you will have a LONG LONG list of things to banish. Start with religion.
– How much easier will it be for users to “logically” move on to other debilitating drugs? Again, you display your confusion of pot with crack or heroin or something. Using pot leads to dealing with drug dealers. Drug dealers could theoretically lead you to try more harmful drugs, although I’ve never actually heard of this happening. Make it legal, and this argument goes away. You might as well say that drinking milk causes people to try drugs, because almost all drug users have drunk milk.
– How many potheads will apply to become authorized distributors? What difference does that make? How many alcoholics sell beer? How many drivers sell cars?
– How would you distinguish between medical and “free-range” marijuana? Why would you want to? How can you distinguish between homemade beer and budweiser?
Thanks Ugly for your comments. In response:
—-
“- How many people truely need medical marijuana? For the sake of argument, let’s say ONE. Why would you deny him something that he truly needs?”
A: I’m sure we could find a substitute medication for this ONE person.
—-
“- How often will it be wrongly prescribed as a lifetime drug? Wut? I can’t parse that into a meaningful statement/question.”
A: What I meant was similiar to giving a person with a temporary leg injury permanent handicap car tags. Remember, I’m referring to medical marijuana use.
—-
“- How much easier will it be for users to “logically” move on to other debilitating drugs? Again, you display your confusion of pot with crack or heroin or something.”
A: I’m not talking about a physical dependency, but rather the mind set to explore other ways to get high. Also, once you’ve tried drinking milk, you’re likely to try other milk products, just to see what they taste like. And you’ll probably like them. But you’re not likely to suddenly hanker for a grapefuit.
—-
So… I agree with you that there are lots of abuses with existing legalized substances, and they should be dealt with.
But why pile on? I don’t buy the argument “might as well, they’re doin’ it or gonna do it anyway”. It’s a defeatist approach that leads society downhill.
What’s the real basis for your passion with marijuana?
Regards.
What is your reason for forbidding free choice of treatment and even choice of “entertainment”? Why not restore prohibition while you’re at it? Alcohol is a big cause of domestic abuse and of many bad life choices — let’s ban it and forget all the good times people have, all the people that got closer because of it. Because, you know, beer drinkers might one day drink absinthe, and that is just… bad and wrong! And because that thing in the 30s worked so well.
I am personally currently uninterested in using any sort of drugs. But I want freedom to choose treatment if I get sick, and I want freedom to use drugs if I want to. Would I be hurting you if I used them? You’re saying, “yes, potentially”? Now, tell me, if it were legalized, does the chance of me hurting you increase or decrease?
“Now, tell me, if it were legalized, does the chance of me hurting you increase or decrease?”
Increases statistically. More users (why not, it’s legal), more chances for negative outcomes if you drive or if you’re my airline pilot.
Look, I don’t want to roll back the freedoms we already have, but there are enough problems managing them.
I just think we’re in the fast lane to ruin and liberal minds want to step on the accelerator. Everybody thinks they’re the responsible exception to the rule. Too many aren’t.
I would talk about the effect on the family unit, but somehow I don’t think that matters to the “it’s all about me” faction.
Thanks for you comments.
Sam,
you are completely dragging that one part out of the context of dangers already being greater than they should be. If crime is having a field day due to drugs (and it is, at least in the US and Mexico), then you should reconsider how you can hurt the organized crime instead of fearing that people *might* be irresponsible.
It increases the same way alcohol’s legality increases the danger. Alcohol is harmful to society — so let’s ban it and bring back the gangsters from the 30s. Right?
Drunk drivers are a problem — so let’s bring back the gangsters from the 30s. Right?
Let’s presume that people will be irresponsible before our every single decision, even if the “status quo” doesn’t seem ideal, and is in fact no status quo, but the constant struggle just to keep running in the same place.
Let’s adapt, legalize, and then educate the same way driving under the influence of alcohol is being combated.
OK. So you want to put the drug dealers out of business through legalization. When they morph into a new business venture that further impacts society, we legalize that too? You can see where this leads.
I appreciate your viewpoint and will ponder further, but we may have to “agree to disagree” on this one.
You know, the real problem I think is that we are so dependent on one another, yet we seek ever more individual freedom. The phrase “One man’s vice is another man’s virtue” comes to mind.
If something is a vice, it is a personal sin that the individual needs to solve by himself, but in solving which society can help. Forbidding a non-harmful thing does not solve the problem.
People going on a murderous rampage is a wildly different thing than taking drugs. One is affecting other people directly, other is doing so only indirectly. You cannot eradicate either problem, but in case of the second, you can make it a personal problem instead of problem of society.
What I’m talking about is that if war on alcohol didn’t work in the 30s (and instead created violent gangs and enabled mafia in the US to take roots), what makes people think that there is no correlation between war on drugs and number of drug-related gangs?
I really don’t mind if my friends are using drugs. I simply don’t know if they do. If I noticed and if I minded, I’d simply go away.
If I have trouble breathing when someone around me is smoking, I ask that person if he’d stop smoking. Alternatively I simply go away.
Similarly, I enjoy occasionally drinking beer. I enjoy getting together, mixing cola and wine and sharing an enjoyable evening. If I minded people around me doing it, I’d go away.
I simply don’t think people are such assholes that drugs themselves turn them into violent gangsters. It’s the prohibition that does. If they abuse the drugs, they may turn into raving lunatics — but that’s their personal problem.
Thanks for the discussion!
Thank you, too!
You need to stop reading blog posts all day and get some factual information. Pot today is highly addictive. I deal with teenagers every day (age 13+) who are addicted to pot. It causes the same symptoms and conditions as ADHD so many parents and doctors give them medication for ADHD.
Your brain keeps growing until you are 25 years old. Smoking pot while your brain is still forming causes brain damage.
Do you see any correlation between our failing education system and teenage pot use? I see a direct connection.
Do the research for yourself, although you will have to accept studies based on science and not religion or politics.
dang what? Wish I had more time to respond to this bit of idiocy…13 yr olds Mam, are addicted to everything!
Really? And you don’t think the failing education system has anything to do with the quality of teachers, the bureaucracy involved, and the shoddy pay/benefits that teachers get in most areas? Try actually experiencing any of this first-hand before you start proselatizing based on your narrow view of the world Mike.
You bandy the term “addiction” like it means something. Teens get addicted to video games, sex, drinking, and YES! OMG! Even tobacco, and it’s all legal.
And your so-called research in many regards is biased by government funding. You know how quickly your funding will be pulled if you publish a gov’t funded study that supports the uses of cannabis in a positive light?
And before you get back on your erudite tower, maybe you should look at all of the terminally ill people all around the world who can benefit from cannabis in *any* form.
Do people a favor while you’re at it: try opening your mind and actually look at all the facts before making yourself look stupid. Evidence shows that legalization actually *will* cause a drop in usage, as well as keep from *destroying the lives of young people who are branded criminals and are introduced to a rotten criminal justice system over what should be a petty offense.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=portugal-drug-decriminalization
Interesting how all of the “data” supporting a theory that “pot” is highly addictive is coming from places such as Illinois and the mid west. Why don’t you come out to California and see for yourself the “damage” that “pot addiction” is causing. Certainly no more damage than the media propaganda that pumps into your living room via Fox News each and every night.
Focus the goddamned energy and resources on Meth and Heroine. Half of the computer programmers in the Silicone Valley that have made billions of dollars in technological infrastructure for the world to base it’s economy upon have done so under the influence of pot.
Pull your head out of the sand.
FullyFedUp says:
2/17/2012 at 11:10 am
“Interesting how all of the “data” supporting a theory that “pot” is highly addictive is coming from places such as Illinois and the mid west. Why don’t you come out to California and see for yourself the “damage” that “pot addiction” is causing.”
Anyone who isn’t stoned can see what a mess the state of Ol’ Cali is. You guys are way too stoned out there in Cali. In fact up in Humboldt and other such places where laws are more pro-pot the medical pot establishments that sell legal weed are now financially being hurt by the liberal laws they fought for. They keep losing money when pot becomes more and more legally acceptable. Now these pro-pot business people who fought for legalization of pot are now fighting to keep pot illegal! Pot heads, go figure!
Y O U A R E A N IDIOT
get educated, until then STFU
“Do you see any correlation between our failing education system and teenage pot use? I see a direct connection.”
You just convinced me. You completely pwned yourself and didn’t even notice. You must have seriously rotted your brain on “mary jane” when you were in school.
how many 13 year olds get carded/ID checked by their dealer today?
How many people get carded by their liquor store if they try to buy legal alcohol?
it is common for ATF or local constables to check liquor stores for selling to underage kids, that doesn’t happen now for pot dealers, unless the dealer is busted (but not for selling to underage).
if pot was legal and had a legal consumption age, the legal consumption age would be enforced by law. That is not happening now at all…
it seems underage pot smoking like underage alcohol would not go away, but would be better enforced than is happening now.
the enforcement $$ would be better spent on underage pot than on arresting adults who smoke and harm no one but themself.
my $.02
“Why is Obama Cracking Down on Medical Marijuana?”
Because he’s a Megacorp Prison Planet Stooge like every other politician. DUH!
I don’t believe that the classification of cannabis as a schedule 1 drug was because of a conspiracy necessarily. I think it was the result of ignorance and scientific illiteracy.
http://everythingimportant.org/cancer
Shubee: The scientific report handed to Pres. Nixon regarding cannabis was disregarded, and had no effect on policy; the man’s corrupt little mind was already made up. Even today the tons of non-biased, non-gov’t funded scientific studies including anecdotal evidence, and evidence based on documented cannabis use all over the world for millenia, are largely discarded by the US gov’t. Why? They’ve dug themselves into a hole, and largely there are people’s mortgages and house boats that rely on the big funding the DEA gets now. Do some research on the number of current inmates who’s sole reason for incarceration was cannabis. You’ll be surprised at how large it is.
Correct: President Obama does what the corporations tell him to do. I only doubt that the corporations truly realize how they are crippling innovations in medicine and are causing unnecessary suffering and death.
Well, corporations rejoice in causing unnecessary suffering and death, not to mention crippling innovation (in medicine and other fields). So long as there’s a buck in it for them….or at least if it doesn’t cost them anything.
Which turnip truck did you fall off of?
Don’t get me wrong. I think there’s sufficient evidence to prosecute President Obama and most in Congress for crimes against humanity. I only want them to get a fair trial.
“There’s no question that Obama’s the worst president on medical marijuana,” says Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. “He’s gone from first to worst.”
Just another empty, unfulfilled promise, ie: a lie, in an unending series from The Anointed One.
What’s saddest is that you can sustitute almost any other subject in place of Medical Marijuana, and the statement is still valid.
-And more so every day.
Agreed!
Marijuana is a gateway drug to a police state. When idiot potheads smoke marijuana, idiot cops look for the stuff everywhere. There is no forth amendment anymore. Legalize pot just to restore the forth amendment.
However, Obama hates the Constitution so he keeps the drug war alive. He wants to use those noknock raids and SWAT teams against his political enemies and just use the excuse that some cop smelled pot.
These conflicting laws gotta go. Too many peoples lives are being ruined because of them. And it is costing taxpayers too much money to regulate. This war on mary jane is fruitless.
It’s nobody’s business what I smoke.
>Why don’t you come out to California and see for yourself the “damage” that “pot addiction” is causing.
The state is going bankrupt. I thought we were supposed to tax it to solve all our budget problems?
Over 50% of Americans now favor legalization according to the latest Gallup polling & while the Feds can interfere with our access here in California,but they can’t keep thousands of people from becoming new patients each week ! There are four competing measures for legalization collecting signatures for the November ballot & much like the voters ignored federal laws to the contrary by approving medical marijuana,this time they appear ready to finally repudiate federal policy once & for all ! Interesting story this week about medicinal marijuana & Washington D.C. One attorney speculates that since Congress allowed Washington D.C. voters to approve the use of medical marijuana,that anyone following their own state laws regarding medical marijuana can’t be prosecuted by the Feds under the “equal protection clause” of the U.S. Constitution. Whatever is granted by Congress to some Americans applies to all Americans couldn’t be much clearer. In the meantime if you’re displeased with President Obama’s clear betrayal on this issue you can always vote for Green Party candidate Rosanne Barr in the June primary. The President needs to be reminded that legalizing marijuana got more votes (46%) than Meg Whitman (who spent $160 million) & he needs our votes in November as he can’t get re-elected without California’s electoral votes !!!
Medical Marijuana (def.) – a scam front for “give me free weed for life for my chronic back pain that nobody can prove doesn’t really exist. Send all bills to the government. They never run out of money. Now, where’s my log shaker of salt?”
Please. Take two aspirin and get your ass to work.
I bet you’re high right now. Come on, admit it. You’re among friends here.
Afraid not. If I was high, I couldn’t be this lucid.
Yep. He’s poked. Someone give him a Rice Krispie square.
Lucid, ha, more like ludicrous to minimize pain. Typical statements from an alcoholic.
It is extremely hard to figure this administration out. Obama has to know that the people who voted to legalize medical marijuana voted for him so why bleep them off?
To make his Conservative supporters happy? That doesn’t sound real likely does it? Do you think that Obama believes he can win over Ron Paul and his supporters?
Let’s do an Adam Curry and follow the money.
Why would sane people do a fast and furious and equip known drug lords with high powered weaponry by the truck load and then nobody can figure out who authorized the project? The Attorney General of the United States can’t figure out who on his staff okayed this operation. Do you really think he’s that incompetent?
Why block something that many of your supporters want like medical marijuana?
We know that some of the major financial institutions in this nation have been tagged for money laundering. We know where Obama got many of his staff from including the same or related institutions and that his money raisers, including the DNC, takes money from those institutions. We know that Obama gave back $200,000 because the public learned it looked like it might be tied to drug money.
That gift would at least suggest that drug dealers and people with ties to organized crime think Obama being President is in their best interest to the point of making major finical contributions to his campaign funds.
Do the drug dealers of this nation or their associates want medical marijuana to be readily available? I think not. It would reduce their income substantially as well as that of their business associates.
While not an attractive theory on many levels I’m reluctantly putting forward the hypothesis that the WH is acting to protect the financial interests of many of their most important contributors.
Please note that I didn’t suggest anything as uncouth as Obama or his aids taking money directly from the drug cartels. I would think Obama would be much more fastidious than that. It would need to pass through a few hands first.
Y’all have fun now.
How about we legalize drugs and ban gambling?
Gambling is separating a fool from his money and putting it back into the tax system. Like state lotteries, etc.
Bobbo hit a home run here in his comments.
Violence affects everyone, but drug use generally affects mostly the user.
Get rid of the idiotic violence and drug wars by legalizing drugs and let the morons destroy only their own lives instead of negatively impacting the rest of us with senseless violence.
Most of these drug abusers/drug peddlers are intent on destroying their own lives and that is fine with me. Let them rot themselves away without hurting the rest of us, they are doing this anyway.
Meth makers tend to end up with major burns and major medical bills sooner rather than later. The impact of most drugs on health is a huge negative.
Are you suggesting that drug users be denied access to medical care unless they can pay for it? If not who is going to cover the bills which will be substantial.
I’m not seeking an answer but some lazy checking:
http://time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html
I’m not naive enough to believe one article is “gospel”. But this particular account is saying it worked ok in Portugal.
I suppose it’s worth a shot but I’d like the states to be allowed to do there own thing with the Fed gov staying out of it.
I think the locals have a much better chance of making this or anything work and if something doesn’t work you haven’t bleeped up the entire nation.