Obama Comments Beg the Question on Marijuana Legalization
In an interview last Friday with ABC News' Barbara Walters, President Obama said going after marijuana smokers in states that have legalized it should not be a "top priority" of federal law enforcement, but he failed to address how the federal government would respond to efforts by state governments in Colorado and Washington to implement taxation and regulation schemes for legal marijuana commerce.
[image:1 align:left caption:true]Amendment 64 in Colorado and Initiative 502 in Washington were both approved by voters in last month's elections. Their provisions legalizing marijuana possession (and cultivation in Colorado) are already in effect, but officials in the two states are now charged with crafting those taxation and regulation rules.
The looming question is what the federal government will do about that. President Obama's comments Friday did not shed new light on that topic.
"We've got bigger fish to fry" than going after individual pot smokers in Colorado and Washington, Obama said. "It would not make sense for us to see a top priority as going after recreational users in states that have determined that it's legal."
That is in parallel with the administration's approach to medical marijuana. It has not gone after individual patients, but in the past two years, the Obama Justice Department has vigorously and aggressively targeted medical marijuana cultivators and dispensaries for raids, threats of asset forfeiture, and, more rarely, federal criminal prosecutions.
Obama also told Walters that he does not support marijuana legalization "at this point," but he added that shifting public opinion -- polls are now showing majorities in favor of legalization -- and questions about how to allocate limited government resources are good reasons to seek to find a middle ground on dealing with the weed.
The president also said he had asked Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department to look into how to resolve the conflict between state and federal laws. Marijuana remains a Schedule I drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act.
"I head up the executive branch; we're supposed to be carrying out laws. And so what we're going to need to have is a conversation about is how do you reconcile a federal law that still says marijuana is a federal offense and state laws that say that it's legal?" Obama said.
Holder said last Wednesday that he expected a Justice Department review to be completed "relatively soon."
While Obama notoriously partook of the weed in his youth, being a leading member of the "Choom Gang" of serious recreational puffers, according to biographer David Maraniss, he has downplayed his own use and not favored marijuana legalization. He told Walters Friday he had regrets over his youthful behavior.
"There are a bunch of things I did that I regret when I was a kid," Obama told Walters. "My attitude is, substance abuse generally is not good for our kids, not good for our society. "I want to discourage drug use," he added.
Comments
Well,,we have been the number
Well,,we have been the number one question in every public forum since his first townhall meeting but he laughs at us.
We have been the most popular and prolific petitions to the whitehouse petition site and he had a bureaucrat that is charged with keeping marijuana illegal answer our petition with skewed statistics and cherry picked research quotes that added up to less possible harm than most cities drinking water.
Every investigation of marijuana by congress and paid for by tax dollars has recommended the decriminalization or legalization of marijuana and congress has ignored all.
There is a reason the voters in WA and CO voted to legalize marijuana and it is quite obvious,,politicians and legislation can be bought but the people can't.
In reply to Well,,we have been the number by claygooding (not verified)
Very well spoken Clay
. The levee (of cannabis prohibition ) has sprung a leak that can only get bigger .once freedom is unleashed there is no turning back.
The big questions remain
The big questions remain unanswered. I'm looking forward to the DOJ review.
It's one thing to discourage drug use, it's another thing
to not know that cannabis is also an herb, and to think that there is any sanity in forcing people to use alcohol instead of weed.
In reply to It's one thing to discourage drug use, it's another thing by saynotohypocrisy (not verified)
and its also another thing
or any plants. coca leafs, poppy pods, herbal-esque as well and some may very intelligently and politely remark, with all due respect, that simply, for them, a different banned herbal-esque substance is preferred and that no, comments like "just smoke weed" "you didnt do it right" "the kind of ppl your around make a big difference, youve got to be in the right environment" "thats how it is at first, but just keep smoking and after a week or two youll see" etc. etc. are unacceptable excuses to discourage someone else from wanting to not use, as Ginsberg said, the "official dope" (any legalized substance [alcohol, nicotine, and now in 2 states weed]) but rather, as Ginsberg said "dope dope." I do realize he himself was using the word dope to imply marijuana, i however, am quoting him and using the quote to not make dope synonymous with pot but with any illegal substance.
In yesterday's interview with
In yesterday's interview with Barbara Walters, President Obama said: "Marijuana remains a Schedule I drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act."
And therein lies the rub. To be a Schedule I drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act a substance must be known to be harmful, be unusually addictive and have no medical value. Cannabis has no LD-50—zero potential for overdose and therefore is extraordinarily safe by any conceivable metric. Multiple peer-reviewed studies place Cannabis in the same category of potential for addiction/abuse as coffee. And, as there are substances in Cannabis that can shrink cancers, and help cancer patients improve quality and duration of life, there is no question but that cannabis is of extraordinary medical value. This farce must cease. Cannabis is simple not a Schedule I drug. The president can deal with this one by de-scheduling Cannabis. And if he has any sense he will.
Just one thing to say
Wimp.
Aren't his comments strangely familiar?
This is almost exactly what he said last time... when asked about medical marijuana. "It's not a top priority, to go after folks following state laws. We have bigger fish to fry" etc. It's almost the same stance he took then, word-for-word. What does it mean? They won't go after USERS, but they will go after growers and retailers?
Well hopefully at this point Congress will have a say in the matter. Exempt Washington and Colorado and let the grand experiment begin!
Elliot Ness didn't support
Elliot Ness didn't support repeal of prohibition either.
Legalize it Already!
Okay, it doesn't matter whether or not it is legal or illegal...."kids" are going to get it either way. I am just speaking my opinion. I do think that marijuana is less dangerous than drinking alcohol on a regular basis.
Think of all the "Alcoholic Anonymous" meetings that are out there and think about smoking marijuana and all the studies about marijuana. Marijuana exhibits NO PHYSICAL dependence like alcohol does, and one cannot even overdose from it. WOW!!!! Those are 2 things that are significant. Think, Mr President! Think about that please!
Just legalize it already for recreational use! It is much better and safer than alcohol. AMEN!!!
EATING CANNABIS OIL CURES CANCER
In reply to EATING CANNABIS OIL CURES CANCER by EATING CANNABI… (not verified)
No.
I believe in the curative properties of cannabis, but come on.. it does not cure cancer. Stop making us look silly -_-
In reply to No. by Uncle Bob (not verified)
I seem to smell the stench of appeasement in the air.
The Controlled Substance Act is a bogus pile of crap. Nixon lied and lumped medicinal and hemp into the mix after the Marihuana Tax Act was overturned. So why do appeasers and politically correct lapdogs keep insisting there are no cancer treatments or even cures from Ganja? Physics is a linear entity. Nothing comes from nothing. Each step in a process leads to another. Ganja either is or it isn't. Studies prove it has properties that could reverse and kill off cancer cells. But the politically crippled continue to try and appease sympathy over basic reality. You believe the dung worriers to the point you will take any scraps they drop you. Like tinkle down voodoo economics. Pitifools, same as those trading their Federal rights to grow a reasonable amount, which is by the Feds own standards 300 joints every 25 days. For an ounce or less. After repeated raids and the Supreme Court ruling in Raich v Gonzales that any exchange would be considered commerce and under the jurisdiction of the Feds. Still for those wanting the money regardless of the citizens. Continue to enact restrictions on themselves for individuals. As it stands there is only one state permitting recreational use and that is CA under Prop 215. Note. Compassionate Use Act not the MMJ Act
Anyone for any reason and the amount is determined by the Feds.determined by the Feds. Nothing is written in the law about selling it and since Raich the only way to sell or give it away in charities is to remove it from the bogus CSA, Don't be fooled by Leahy's new legislation that would lower the Feds standards to an ounce or less. How the hell do you grow an ounce or less? But that seems too much strain on the fascist corporations to allow. As it stands the Feds have patents on cannabinoids and a place to grow it. GW's sativex sublingual spray is already on the market and could be in the US whenever they want it. Keeping Hemp and Ganja outlawed, to sell. The personal use would still be legal for individuals as it is now in states with laws on the books or without laws against it. But only under state guidelines. MMJ states have to follow the hoops and barriers they provide. Under the protection of the 10th amendment granting states jurisdiction over all things not designated to the Feds under the Constitution, or Commerce Clause. So Feds rule states and interstate commerce and states rule individuals. Most of the arrests are by states and these appeasement's and appeasers are only perpetuating this for profit police action known as the ganjawar.
The vast majority of prohibitionists
profit on the drug war,
... and that is their only motive.
WHAT DOES $2,000 MEAN TO YOU?
Tell Congress: We Need Jobs, Not Cuts, Got Hemp?
As sir Hilary said...
QUESTION: In Mexico, there are those who propose not keeping going with this battle and legalize drug trafficking and consumption. What is your opinion?
SECRETARY CLINTON: I don’t think that will work. I mean, I hear the same debate. I hear it in my country. It is not likely to work. There is just too much money in it,
Shame on the Drug Worrier Profiteers
Methinks Thou Dost Protest Too Much
For those with alobama short term memory loss... smoke better pot
Nixon lied to schedule Ganja #1
Nixon's Treason
Special Report: Definitive proof of a historical mystery is often elusive, even with archival documents and memoirs. Skeptics can always say some witness or some evidence isn’t perfect. But the case that Richard Nixon sabotaged the Vietnam peace talks in 1968 to win that pivotal election is clear, writes Robert Parry.
But would he lie about Ganja?
Cancer in the Family
Cannabis Stops Metastasis In Aggressive Cancers
The ominous part is that this isn't the first time scientists have discovered that THC shrinks tumors. In 1974 researchers at the Medical College of Virginia, who had been funded by the National Institute of Health to find evidence that marijuana damages the immune system, found instead that THC slowed the growth of three kinds of cancer in mice -- lung and breast cancer, and a virus-induced leukemia. The DEA quickly shut down the Virginia study and all further cannabis/tumor research...
Proven : Cannabis is a safe medicine
by Ian Williams Goddard BOSTON, Jan. 30, 1997 (UPI) -
CANNABIS DOES NOT CAUSE CANCER
The U.S. federal government has failed to make public its own 1994 study that undercuts its position that marijuana is carcinogenic - a $2 million study by the National Toxicology Program. The program's deputy director, John Bucher, says the study "found absolutely no evidence of cancer." In fact, animals that received THC had fewer cancers. Bucher denies his agency had been pressured to shelve the report, saying the delay in making it public was due to a personnel shortage.
The Boston Globe reported Thursday (1-30-97) that the study indicates not only that the main ingredient in marijuana, THC, does not cause cancer, but also that it may even protect against malignancies, laboratory tests on animals show. The report comes on the heels of an editorial in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine that favors the controlled medical use of marijuana, and calls current federal policy "misguided, heavy-handed and inhumane."
The Clinton administration has said that doctors prescribing marijuana could be prosecuted for a federal crime. Marijuana has been reported to ease the pain, nausea and vomiting in advanced stages of cancer, AIDS and other serious illnesses, but the federal government claims other treatments have been deemed safer than what it calls "a psychoactive, burning carcinogen." However, The Boston Globe says the government's claim appears to be undercut by its own $2 million study.
Marijuana May Live Up To Be The Elixir of Life By Ravi Chopra
New research suggests cannabis could have some benefits when administered regularly in a highly potent form. Most "drugs of abuse" such as alcohol, heroin, cocaine and nicotine suppress growth of new brain cells. However, researchers found that cannabinoids promoted generation of new neurons in rats' hippocampuses.
New Topic
Post As: DdC
Title:
Huge Expenditures of your Tax Dollars
There are huge expenditures hidden all over the budget in the name of the drug war. Military expenditures, money for mercenaries in Afghanistan, money to local police. There is money hidden all over the budget for the drug war. Billions.
I can see why Obama thinks that marijuana is no priority.
Obama on Pot
Granny Storm Crow July 2012
Granny Storm Crow has just released the new PDF version of her MMJ Reference List for July 2012, and as usual, it breaks all previous records. This time, it’s a solid 840 pages of links to medical studies showing the positive benefits of cannabis for medical use. Here’s her intro:
Granny Storm Crow
In reply to Granny Storm Crow July 2012 by DdC (not verified)
pot is still a schedule 1 drug
if the federal court is addressing the schedule one status of pot, this list should help some
Why Does He Regret It?
He's the president. It's not like he destroyed his brain with it, got caught by the police, or flunked out of college. If anything it will help contribute to a longer healthier life for Obama due to THC's anticarcinogenic effects, effects against Alzheimer's, etc... I have the feeling that he doesn't really regret it, because to truly regret something you have to know why you regret it or at least have a feeling of regret that can be introspected to get at the real reason why(which is sometimes a non-reason, sometimes it turns out you aren't feeling what you think you are). Unless he regrets it because he thinks that information is bad for his political career I doubt he really regrets it. He just says he does as a socially acceptable response, possibly even knowingly. In fact I'd have more respect for him if it was knowingly. People especially politicians shouldn't dupe themselves as to their own opinions.
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