We discussed earlier how the top Justice Department attorney in Washington State said that the federal government would not yield to the state referendums legalizing marijuana use and possession. This followed a statement the day after the election that the Administration would not change their policy on targeting marijuana, including medical marijuana. However, a new Gallup poll shows an impressive 64 percent of Americans object to the enforcement in state legalizing or decriminalizing pot. Only 34 percent supported the continuation of the Obama policy.
What is fascinating is that even those who oppose legalization of marijuana still opposed the Obama policy by 43 percent.
The Obama policy for the last four years has been the subject of continual criticism. As on national security and civil liberties, Obama has not wavered from continuing and even expanding on the earlier Bush policies. The massive bureaucracy of police, prosecutors, and policy makers in the drug campaign have become something of a perpetual enforcement machine — relying on the proceeds of drug raids and seizures to support hundreds of thousands of jobs. In the meantime, we are giving criminal records to tens of thousands of people every year and clogging our courts with pot cases. This is a case where citizens are far more rational than their leaders. Yet, for four years Obama have refused to budge on the issue and, after these historic state measures, the Justice Department has said that it will not yield even in these states. This includes a highly misleading statement made by the U.S. Attorney in Washington state. The Administration has previously declined to enforcement certain immigration laws and can clearly redirect federal resources toward enforcement of more serious drugs. The Administration could have backed off of these raids and prosecutions at any time in the last four years and, according to statements after the election, is not inclined to do so in the second term. The question is how much pressure can brought to bear on Congress, particularly from states who want to tax marijuana which could bring in billions in new revenue.
Ya see. The Willard was wrong. That 47 percent is 64 percent.
Barry has the same statistical number of supporters as Dubya had as he rode off into the sunset. No wonder because he’s just saving a place for our future totalitarian leader.
I see this as just further evidence that the Federal government – in it’s corruption and malfeasance – now sees itself as a national government which is something outside the bounds of the Constitution. We are in form a Federal Republic. The Federal government exists to serve the needs of the states and their citizens, not the other way around. The Federal government’s recalcitrance in this matter just goes to illustrate who their real masters are on this matter: Big Pharma, Big Alcohol and the Private Prison-MIC-LE Industrial Complex.
The people want marijuana legalized.
There is no just reason to continue to fight against them.
The lessons of Prohibition are clear.
The only excuse now is bribery and corruption to maintain the illegal profits surrounding a wrongly prohibited substance and the enforcement machinery around said prohibition.
The crime of making Industrial Hemp illegal should be addressed as well. When we see all the signs of ‘peak oil’, the mining of the Canadian Tar Sands was always the major predictor of peak oil, why continue to make a plant that can replace thousands of oil based products ‘illegal’ to grow?
It is the height of stupidity. The whole government is in a tizzie about the price of oil and food and the declining industrial base in America that led to massive job losses, etc. If we had a decent law regarding industrial hemp, we could have thousands of ‘home grown’ industries.
Products that have a closed ‘carbon cycle’. We could replace all the oil based single use plastics with hemp. Medical products like plastic gloves. Car parts and anything made of fiberglass. Industrial hemp as a base material would lower the amount of carbon dumped into our atmosphere each year.
Look at the dismal results of the recent climate change talks in Doha. If Obama wants to support reduction of greenhouse gasses by ‘voluntary’ means, in both business and production, he should legalize industrial hemp today!
Business corporations would form. Farmers would plant. Machines to process would be bought. Hempcrete building materials would be made. Soundproof hemp wall board would be manufactured. People would be hired to work in all sorts of new industries.
Our whole government is blocking the way for economic growth by denying American farmers the right to grow the most useful plant on Earth. It is idiocy.
Professor Turley: >”The question is how much pressure can brought to bear on Congress, particularly from states who want to tax marijuana which could bring in billions in new revenue”.<
The answer is: It doesn't matter. Since WHEN has ANY administration cared about what the public thinks or wants?
Yes, Michigan has legalized medical marijuana……
Lets not forget, like everyone else in government, Obama is a whore, nothing more, nothing less. The alcohol and pharmaceutical industries, who pay our whore’s very well, are both very much opposed to legalizing marijuana.
As has been mentioned, we could tax marijuana which would be good for the government, but marijuana does not require much “processing” so it is hard for large companies to make much money from it – as they do from alcohol which is much more of a manufactured product. So, much like the food industry opposes more natural and less processed foods, the alcohol industry opposes marijuana.
And, it goes without saying why the pharmaceutical industry opposes legalized marijuana. We are the most medicated nation on earth by far, there have been several recent articles, including a special by Sanjay Gupta on CNN, discussing the shockingly high percentage of Americans taking prescription drugs of the “mind altering type” – narcotics, antidepressants, Valium, Xanax, etc.
So, this is how America works. They pay the whore, and the whore does what he’s told because he likes the money and the power.
So much for “hope and change”.
I say tax the production and purchase of marijuana.
bettykath,
I think Portugal got it right by decriminalizing the use and possession of marijuana, but possession should not be illegal. Of course, the prison industry would fight any decriminalizing of the drug laws,notwithstanding the sense it would make.
SM, I don’t know whether to be surprised at AK’s rate of arrests or not. I’ve certainly been around people who smoke pot in the lower states but not to the extent that I experienced in AK. It just seemed to be the thing that so many people did that it was generally accepted. Or maybe it was just the people I was around.
A few cities in Michigan also legalized medicinal pot during this last election.
We need to demand that the Federal government get out of the pot prohibition business and stop wasting our resources in fighting a battle the public no longer supports.
“Obama has not wavered from continuing and even expanding on the earlier Bush policies. The massive bureaucracy of police, prosecutors, and policy makers in the drug campaign have become something of a perpetual enforcement machine — relying on the proceeds of drug raids and seizures to support hundreds of thousands of jobs. In the meantime, we are giving criminal records to tens of thousands of people every year and clogging our courts with pot cases. This is a case where citizens are far more rational than their leaders.”
Time for a new chapter in civics textbooks that explains these phenomena as results of the reality of an epigovernment and what those handlers want done.
Higher ups want this done for ulterior motives, possibly an international drug industry.
http://www.alternet.org/story/9504/pot_busts_much_more_likely_in_some_states,_counties Alaska leads the country in pot arrests. Texas is one of the least friendly to users.
“When Colorado’s marijuana measure passed last month with 55 percent of the vote, Hickenlooper cautioned pot smokers not to get too excited because the drug remains illegal under federal law. Colorado and Washington officials both reached out to federal authorities to see if they planned to sue to block the state pot measures. There’s been no signal, with federal authorities simply repeating that the Controlled Substances Act remains intact.
Hickenlooper said there are still many questions to be answered about how federal authorities plan to respond to state marijuana legalization. Colorado’s measure specifically directs lawmakers to regulate commercial sales of marijuana, something federal authorities have repeatedly said they won’t allow.
The governor said he’s not frustrated by the slow federal response.
“They’re going as fast as they can,” Hickenlooper said. “There’s no black and white, right and wrong answer here.”
Colorado’s constitution now allows adults over 21 to possess up to an ounce of marijuana, and six plants. Hickenlooper has set up a task force of lawmakers, law enforcement, marijuana activists and agriculture officials to suggest how the drug should be regulated. The group has a February deadline for suggesting pot rules, which must be approved by the Legislature.” Washington Post
States rights in red states don’t work out so well….. voter suppression, no gay marriage, poorly funded public schools ,restrictive abortion laws, overuse of the death penalty, repressive drugs laws at the state level…..
Excerpt:
Portugal Decriminalized All Drugs Eleven Years Ago And The Results Are Staggering
Samuel Blackstone | Jul. 17, 2012, 9:37 AM | 193,394 | 50
Portugal Drug Bust
AP Photo/ Paulo Duarte
On July 1st, 2001, Portugal decriminalized every imaginable drug, from marijuana, to cocaine, to heroin. Some thought Lisbon would become a drug tourist haven, others predicted usage rates among youths to surge.
Eleven years later, it turns out they were both wrong.
Over a decade has passed since Portugal changed its philosophy from labeling drug users as criminals to labeling them as people affected by a disease. This time lapse has allowed statistics to develop and in time, has made Portugal an example to follow.
First, some clarification.
Portugal’s move to decriminalize does not mean people can carry around, use, and sell drugs free from police interference. That would be legalization. Rather, all drugs are “decriminalized,” meaning drug possession, distribution, and use is still illegal. While distribution and trafficking is still a criminal offense, possession and use is moved out of criminal courts and into a special court where each offender’s unique situation is judged by legal experts, psychologists, and social workers. Treatment and further action is decided in these courts, where addicts and drug use is treated as a public health service rather than referring it to the justice system (like the U.S.), reports Fox News.
The resulting effect: a drastic reduction in addicts, with Portuguese officials and reports highlighting that this number, at 100,000 before the new policy was enacted, has been halved in the following ten years. Portugal’s drug usage rates are now among the lowest of EU member states, according to the same report.
One more outcome: a lot less sick people. Drug related diseases including STDs and overdoses have been reduced even more than usage rates, which experts believe is the result of the government offering treatment with no threat of legal ramifications to addicts.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/portugal-drug-policy-decriminalization-works-2012-7#ixzz2Eklpy9W5
Puzzling,
That’s one part of the equation….. I’m for personal choice….. I’m not of the school that its a gateway to other drugs…..
I’m also for states rights…..
As bob esq pointed out the other day….. There are no general federal criminal laws…… I wonder if the founders knew something about oppressive overlords….
Bring on the domestic drones! Obama’s war on cancer patients, AIDS patients and states rights marches on.
I wonder if it is pride / power issue…
“No state can tell us what to do. We’re the Federal Government”
As JT states the main impediment to changing all of this is the massive bureaucracy built by the “Drug War” complex that get massive amounts of money searching out and jailing people. It is in the personal interests of many supposed “experts” to continue to flog the need for the “drug war”, even though all efforts thus far have been total failures. Even the drug treatment industry has a “cure” rate of 15 to 20 %, which is less than impressive.
Historically a man named Harry J. Anslinger, an Elliot Ness contemporary, dreamed up making Marijuana illegal after he faced job loss when alcohol became legal again. So it goes.