The Real Reason Obama Won’t Support Marijuana Legalization

[Jim Finnel]

Much has been made of the fact that a marijuana legalization question was ranked #1 when President-elect Obama opened his Change.gov website up to questions from the public. In an open vote, the public spoke loudly and clearly that marijuana reform was the very first issue that the new President should address. For our trouble, we’ve been rewarded with the sorriest excuse for an answer that Obama’s transition team could possibly have provided:

Q: "Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?" S. Man, Denton

A: President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana.

Care to elaborate? You see, we all knew what the answer was. The point was that we all wanted to know why.

As frustrating and insulting as it is to witness an important matter brushed casually to the side without explanation, Obama’s answer actually says a lot. It says that he couldn’t think of even one sentence to explain his position. Within the vast framework of totally paranoid anti-pot propaganda, Obama couldn’t find a single argument he wanted to associate himself with. That’s why he simply said "No. Next question."

All of this highlights the well-known fact that Obama agrees that our marijuana laws are deeply flawed. He‘s said so, and has back-pedaled recently for purely political reasons. If Obama’s transition team tried to give an accurate description of his position on marijuana reform it would look like this:

Q: "Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?" S. Man, Denton

A: President-elect Obama will not use his political capital to advance the legalization of marijuana. While he agrees that arresting adults for marijuana possession is a poor use of law enforcement resources, he believes that the issue remains too controversial to do anything about it.

It’s really that simple, which makes our job quite difficult. Any ideas?



News Hawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: StoptheDrugWar.org
Copyright: 2008 StoptheDrugWar.org
Contact: drcnet@drcnet.org
Website: The Real Reason Obama Won?t Support Marijuana Legalization | Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)

 

[timireferseed]

Re: The Real Reason Obama Won't Support Marijuana Legalization

I believe the Obama team will ease up on the laws were medical use is concerned.Pres.Obama is not in office yet, lets see how things play out for us in this comming year.Often in government what you hear is not all that is being thought of. Ya I agree, and I am sure there is those in government that relize the value of reforming Cannabis laws for profit.And then you have the old gaurd that has endured years of Cannabis proaganda and are esentually brainwashed into believing what thier government has rammed down their throats about Cannabis.

 

[livelong420]

Re: The Real Reason Obama Won't Support Marijuana Legalization

I'm an Obama fan, but obviously he's not perfect. He's striving for a bi-partisan leadership role. Legalizing pot isn't something that's bi-partisan. The voter base is way too convservative for that kind of thing, and he knows it. He doesn't want to lose all those votes for his next term that he'd lose if he supported such an initiative.

 

[odiemea]

Obma like the rest of the politicians are nothing but lier's & thieves
unless he(obama) can prove different
by the sound of his response to the question he will be like congress(DO NOTHING)
GOD SAVE US ALL FROM THE TRAITOR'S IN OFFICE

 

[chancedebris]

NoChanga
Unless more civil disruption occurs. "Things the way we were told they were supposed to be" are crumbling under their feet. They are more worried about getting their fortunes offshore to some safe haven like Bermuda or Dubai.

 

[Dr. 215]

That sucks.

 

[Keith Lake]

I wouldn't get too down yet - my fellow plant lovers

Who amongst us really thought Obama would come out for legalization as a first act.

I'm very hopeful a halt to the DEA raids is coming, and I'm still somewhat hopeful there will be deemphasis on cannabis enforcement in general.

I still think we are going to have to go through a decrim phase before legalization is feasible

Just my opinion though

We now return you to your regularly scheduled bong hit...

 

[hood1]

As of the last study I saw it is predicted that one in three blacks will be behind bars thanks to the war on drugs. Perhaps if that goes up to 50% of all blacks in jail he will give us a reason?

We will NEVER respect a law born of racism perpetuated by greed and supported by lies!!

CFH