Obama and Eric Holder Are Still Lying About the Medical Marijuana Raids
On Thursday, Eric Holder lied to Congress about DOJ's escalating attacks against medical marijuana:
Mr. Holder said federal officials are not going after those who are staying within the confines of their states' medical marijuana laws, but said some have "come up with ways in which they are taking advantage of these state laws."
"We limit our enforcement efforts to those individuals, organizations that are acting out of conformity with state law," Mr. Holder told a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing. [Washington Times]
That statement is simply false, and flagrantly so. It's been widely reported in the press that federal prosecutors have threatened to arrest state officials merely for administering their own medical marijuana laws. One cannot claim that regulators performing their official duties are "acting out of conformity with state law". They are the state. You can't threaten them with arrest and then subsequently claim that enforcement is only directed at those who violate local laws.
Moreover, the feds have raided hundreds of dispensaries without making any effort at all to determine whether state laws are being violated. Most of the time, they're just confiscating money and medicine without even charging anyone. They keep saying the people they raid were breaking local laws, but they aren't proving that to be the case. When have they ever demonstrated that any of these businesses were violating state laws?
This whole just-enforcing-state-laws excuse is the same nonsense we were hearing from the President a month ago, and the Obama Administration's ability to comfortably repeat this crap owes much to the media's total failure to follow up on it.
Where is Ethen on the President's decision to raid Dispensaries?
I will never forgot the glowing review Ethen Nadelmen gave President Obama as the keynote speaker at the New Mexico DPA conference shortly after Obama was elected. Although, Ethen acknowledged there were clues to the president's hostility toward reforming the drug war, as he put it, "President Obama is a different person than Bush" implying that we reformers could expect better decisions from Obama than Bush.
The reality is Obama in his first term has been worse...much worse than Bush. Aside from the choice of terminology not to use the term drug war to describe the drug war, Obama has demonstrated the belief that cracking down on dispensaries, bringing back the JAG grants, appointing Drug warriors like Michele Leonhart to head the DEA among other decisions, is to his political advantage.
Is it possible that Ethen is holding out hope that if Obama is re-elected, he will act differently in a second term? Yes, that could explain his lack of criticism for what has been the most disappointing president since we an American president set arrest records for marijuana who didn't inhale. Not me. I abandoned the Obama ship when the First Lady Michele was asked by a Washington reporter what should we do about America's drug problem and she without hesitation replied "I think we need to do more of the same."
Ethen must know the old Chinese proverb, "Fool me once" Well, the drug war is an on-going narrative that will require a long term battle strategy. By supporting Gary Johnson, I am investing in future campaigns that could offer the voters of this country a third choice and by that option a real choice from the Republicrats. Ethan don't wait for Obama to come to the sensibilities he displayed as candidate Obama in the Democratic primary of 2008. That train doesn't run anymore. It served Obama's purpose quite well, though.
Thanks Scott
Thanks. I'm glad to see Ethen no longer beholds Obama has a friend of drug reformers.
Many of us were optimistic
Many of us were optimistic about Obama, not just Ethan, and for good reason. He'd had more forward-thinking comments on drug policy than any of his predecessors. It's good strategy to give credit for anything remotely positive that a politician does, because they respond well to praise. That he stabbed us in the back is now obvious to all, but I don't think Ethan was ever way off base in his comments two years ago (nor was I when saying similar stuff). The situation just took at turn for the worse since then, unfortunately. I had a some good things to say about Obama at one point. I don't anymore.
Fool me once,
The President lied about what he intended to Do and Not Do. Who could have foreseen that.
I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you”. Friedrich Nietzsche
Dems and reps, different pages from the same bad book!
Holder is a pathological liar
Thank you for covering this story. I don't see this news on the other sites I visit. I share your contempt of the federal government's illegal medical marijuana raids and the Obama administrations lying about it.
Prohibition is the Trivial Writ Large
Do we as a society legalize and regulate the most popular illegal drug on the government’s spectrum of drug delusions? One which has a proven history of being safer than most OTC pharmaceuticals? One which is definitely safer than most prescription drugs. One which by relative comparisons concerning adverse side effects makes tobacco and alcohol look like the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre?
That this kind of hysteria surrounds what may be the most benign drug on the planet says more about people than it does about marijuana. It’s one of those situations that makes sense only when one accepts the fact that people like Eric Holder and certain segments of society are wired up like a transformer after a lightning strike. Plenty of sparks, but no connections.
Rather than eliminate the prohibitionist menace, it may be more compassionate to send prohibitionists into a therapy program where they can be weaned from their addiction to persecution. Prohibitionist rehab may be the next big money-maker for the judicial industrial complex. In fact, it may be the only way out for the entire therapeutic state. Doctor, heal thyself.
Giordano
Excuses by Holder are Fast and Furious
Yes, Holder is lying. Lots of little white lies. Half truths. Hidden agenda's. Congress notices. Not enough.
Support Johnson later, vote Barry now
@William Aiken makes some good points but consider the ALTERNATIVE (cigpuffin' Johnny in the Speaker Chair two Gunsmokes from the White House)-- remember Nader in 2000, don't do anything that helps elect any Republican until that party severs its ties to the $igarette tobacckgo oligopoly which bankrolls anti-cannabis Drug War.
Doesn't seem likely that the criminal Electoral College system can be eliminated before this November, but work on getting an open primary and top-two runoff in place nationwide (Emergency Constitutional Amendment?) by 2016, when it might make sense to campaign for Gary Johnson.
@Giordano, please stop saying "drug" when you mean cannabis, like that's a drag. Use "herb" or "tokes" (as in "Barry used up all our tokes").
Romney didn't sound at all promising on cannabis but remember that Mormons have the best record in preventing $igarette addiction so if Romney stands with Church instead of Party a heck of a lot of tobacckgo money won't be available to run Republican campaigns and help them hold on to the House in the future. Look at the constituency: Republican voters 20 percentage points more opposed to cannabis legalization than Democrat ones.
You might want to do a little research
Try typing this into Google. It might help disabuse you of this fantasy that we have two 'Parties'
Obama Clinton June 6 2008 Chantilly Virginia
and understand that this has been going on behind American's (and seemingly, much of the rest of the Developed World's) backs for decades. Which makes a hash of the entire "Nader screwed the pooch" argument.
When the deck is stacked against you by the 1%, when all you have is their Hobson's Choice to 'choose' from, Nader only served as a convenient scapegoat for intellectually lazy (or simply craven) 'progressives' .
Oh, and needless to say, with the vast majority of the participants being Big Oil and Big Banking, two groups who'd be devastated by a resurgence of an agrarian-based, energy production economy that could not be monopolized, you begin to understand why their cat's-paws in Gub'mint are so terrified of industrial hemp, and use the hoary old (and intellectually insulting) chestnut of 'not being able to tell the difference between hemp and weed, so we can't make it legal again' argument.
The Duopoly is bullshit. There's only one Party with two wings, and that's the Oligarch Party. Also known in the past as The Money Power. And it cares not one whit about 'Parties', when the leaders of 'both' 'Parties' are nothing but fingers on the same hand.
Thanks MXWEED - clear as mud
You would make a good lobbyist.
A Religion for the
Just doing their job.
Aboma and Holder are DEA puppets and have no real power.
They are obviously doing what they are told to do. The real power resides with the faceless few, otherwise referred to as the one percent.Of course they're lying about
Of course they're lying about the raids, just as they lie about everything else. What a bunch of pathetic, incompetent bozos running the country. Gary Johnson 2012
Obbummer Lies and Patients Die
I bet Obama still carries
I bet Obama still carries California by a landslide.
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