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ONDCP Still Fuming About New Mexico's Medical Marijuana Law

The following post from ONDCP's blog illustrates how trivial their objections really are:
Bad things happen when drug-legalization groups send mixed messages about marijuana to the American public. Check out this story out of New Mexico:
"It was all a misunderstanding. Really.

"Dude, I totally thought weed was legalized in New Mexico," police say a man with 67 marijuana plants in the trunk of his car told them.

"Well, it's not," the police officer replied.

A man was busted at the Border Patrol checkpoint on U.S. Highway 70 June 12, allegedly while transporting a large number of marijuana plants in his car.

He told police he thought weed had been legalized in this state." [Alamogordo Daily News]
This might be ONDCP's version of a "funny" post. And it is kinda funny in a sad way, although the officers' version of what the man actually said sounds a bit too perfect to me (note also that he didn't actually get in much trouble because the plants were unimpressive).

Regardless, nothing could be more disingenuous than ONDCP's feigned dismay over this incident. Believe me, they love it when stupid people get arrested for pot and they pray for anything to happen that could be construed as a negative consequence of protecting patient access.

If hapless growers get the wrong idea, it's because every attempt to pass a medical marijuana law is turned into a confusing, high-profile controversy by ONDCP. It is those opposing medical marijuana laws who obscure their meaning and feverishly equate them with broader legalization. If the drug czar's office shut up about it, programs like New Mexico's could be established around the country with less and less fanfare each time.

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medical marijuana

being a retired corrections officer you would think i'd be the last person backing medical marijuana laws but i back them for two different reasons. the first reason is personal in that i have a nerve disease and have been in severe pain 24/7 for six years now dispite taking very potent prescription narcotic drugs. i'm at the point now that i'd be willing to try anything, legally or illegally to be out of pain for even a short amount of time. the second reason is that marijuana laws are no different than prohibition was in the early 20th century. as soon as prohibition ended, so did the violence that was caused by it. the countless billions of dollars that state and federal governments would save if marijuana was legalized could probably subsidize every college in the united states w/in a very few years. being a correction officer for 20 years i can tell you the tens of thousands of people, just in new york state that became career criminals after getting busted at a young age for fairly minor marijuana offenses. consider that each inmate cost the state or federal government approximately $30,000.00 a year to confine and multiply that by roughly 500,000 inmates (and i'm sure that's a low estimate) and that is what is is costing us tapayers to house nonviolent criminals each year. after being studied by doctors and scientists for at least 50 years no significant medical or psychological problems have surfaced that i'm aware of and it has been proven that alcohol hurts a person much more in moderate use that marijuana does. as soon as the people in this country get over the marijuana madness scare of the 50's and do away w/ these draconian marijuana laws we can stop building prisons and eventually close half of them down w/in twenty years and spend that money where we really need to spend it. that's in our public school systems, making sure our future generations can get a free college education or learn a technical trade so we can remain he best country in the world. if we keep imprisoning our youth for minor violations and destroying their lifes before they have a chance to even start one, or destroy a hard working person's family because he or she might enjoy sitting home and smoking a joint at night instead of going to a bar after work, then it won't be but a couple more generations before we become a bankrupt country in more than one way.

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