Marijuana Legalization Issue on Obama's Desk Thanks to Online Petition Program

[Jacob Bell]

Maybe those efforts to fully legalize marijuana in California are a waste of time.

It looks like President Obama will have to officially respond to requests to legalize it nationwide.

That's because someone's bright idea (a White House intern?) to allow Americans to petition the administration online for a surefire response to any issue that gets 5,000 signatures in 30 days has put pot on the president's desk.

Can't wait to see what he says.

The online petition effort, We the People, was only recently launched.

Pot backers started the top-ranking petition (it had more than 35,000 signatures) Thursday and by the weekend it was ready for the POTUS' response.

The "Legalize and Regulate Marijuana in a Manner Similar to Alcohol" petition (a title familiar to those in California who almost passed full legalization in November) asks the prez:

Isn't it time to legalize and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol? If not, please explain why you feel that the continued criminalization of cannabis will achieve the results in the future that it has never achieved in the past?

Legitimate questions, those. Not questions Obama probably wants to answer as he vies for reelection against ravenous a pack of GOP hopefuls that makes Dick Cheney look like a hippie.

While he's in L.A. today Obama can have a look at how quasi-legalization is going via our omnipresent pot shops.

News Hawk- Jacob Ebel 420 MAGAZINE
Source: blogs.laweekly.com
Author: Dennis Romero
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Copyright: LA Weekly, LP.
Website: Marijuana Legalization Issue on Obama's Desk Thanks to White House's Online Petition Program

 

[TorturedSoul]

I'm not aware of a law that requires the President to respond to something that was posed in this fashion. Although I hope he does, 35,000 Americans is only .0112071% of the population. He was questioned about cannabis via an online venue in the past - and he had a good chuckle over it.

Without dealing with cannabis' Schedule I status, there will be no "Legalize and Regulate Marijuana in a Manner Similar to Alcohol." It's inclusion NEEDS to be addressed as a first step to any (federal) legalization progress.

As far as efforts to legalize cannabis in California - and other states - those efforts are not wasted. There are anti-cannabis laws in every state to one degree or another, and they would have to be addressed on a state-by-state basis anyway because the issue is rightfully one concerning the individual states instead of the federal government. (IOW, the power to decide was never granted to the federal government in the first place and like the US Constitution plainly states, all powers that are not expressly granted to the federal government are the states'.) So... Legally, I'd expect it to be like when a state decides to make the latest analogue drug illegal. They can do so or not, as they choose. <COUGH> Such decisions would then be subject to challenges in the courts, of course. Or by direct intervention by a majority of the voters in each state.

If and when the federal issue is addressed, I expect to see progress on a state level come faster and easier. In addition to the people who are already firmly in favor of legalization, there are still many individuals - and, I suspect, more than a few state legislators - whose chief objection to either voting for legalization or at least not voting against it is that it is illegal on a federal level.

 

[demp5294]

You can only hope,but they didn't get this far by accident.

 

[TorturedSoul]

What I want to see is Obama submit to a hair test.

Didn't he once say that he used to smoke a lot of cannabis - and do a little <GUIDELINES> when he could afford it? I guess he can afford it now. And unlike George W. - who rumor says also used to like <GUIDELINES> when he was busy drilling dry holes all over the place and annoying his father to no end - I don't think he got religion, or hypocrisy, or whatever. So you never know.

 

[ilynnboy]

I agree TS,
Unless it is rescheduled, the federal government can and will keep a stranglehold on cannabis.
If it was rescheduled, legalization would move forward at a dizzying pace
That is their choke hold. They ( D.E.A) will be forced out of business or at Least have heavy job loss.
Most people (not all) associated with pot are friendly peaceful people. Why would they want to give up their relatively safe cash cow?

 

[DavidCreb]

i agree Obama has no law in the USA forcing him to reply to this kind of petition. I think it is not time for these top government guys to react yet. The marijuana usage in the states and world wide is still under a lot of questions and there are supporters as well as abusers. I don't think (although it would be very nice if he does) he will react at all.

 

[Llama]

What are the chances that this issue will addressed or even be acknowledged by Obama?

The president is very adept at ignoring and avoiding issues that he does not want to deal with.

This is just another Obama ruse as far as I'm concerned.

 

[TorturedSoul]

The president is very adept at ignoring and avoiding issues that he does not want to deal with.

Seems like most politicians are. And most political candidates. If I ever turn on the television and hear a candidate say, "Well folks, the economy is under the dumpster. The only thing that's still propping up our currency is that enough countries are tied up alongside us that when we collapse, they'll go too so they're helping give some (artificial) semblance of value to the dollar, but half of the rest of the world is just waiting to come calling, call in the mortgage, and fight over what small scraps are left afterwards. The majority of the citizens have some mistaken belief that their lives are best measured by the things that they can own instead of what they can do and who they are. No one seems to realize - or care - that using up the world's resources to produce junk just as fast as we can so that we can fill yet another landfill cannot go on in a world where those resources are finite. Our water is well on its way to becoming undrinkable and within 25 years we'll be living in a reality where the few remaining wealthy have two water lines running into their homes - one, which the majority of people will not be able to afford, supplying water that is still drinkable. The incidence of chronic health problems, cancer, autism, et cetera continues to rise and it'll only get worse because we're polluting our air, our water, our land, even our own bodies with what we put into them. We're killing off the other plants and animals even faster than we're killing each other and before too long the few crops and fruit trees that manage to survive will need to be hand-pollinated to actually produce. They tell me that only the President has the keys and codes to wage ultimate war, but all across the world any madman with the keys to his country's coffers and the writ to do whatever he wants within his own borders can create massive bombs, poisons, and biological agents that would be capable of ending life on a global scale. To sooth our guilty consciences we spend a little money now and then to help feed the poor in other nations while we ignore our own country's homeless, instead telling the government to support them - meanwhile, the population continues to grow at a frightening rate while our usable land and food supply shrinks. We laugh at being 14+ trillion dollars in debt, perhaps because it helps us rationalize not paying our own personal debt. We scream at anyone who mentions raising taxes even though if we double them all across the board and simultaneously pare down government spending to a fraction of what it is now our grandchildren will still be old men before it could possibly be paid off. Even if everyone worked together in a concentrated effort to fix the world, the outcome would be uncertain but as things stand now anyone who tries will be facing odds that can only be understood in the mathematical sense. Basically, folks, we're f*cked. Anyone who manages to get himself elected who actually makes the attempt will be ridiculed by the public, torn to shreds in the press, and quite possibly killed while in office - and history will not remember him fondly. I'm going to try although I don't stand a snowball's chance since I'm not willing to lie, make deals with the greedy and the uncaring, and to throw the innocent under the wheels of the bus in order to win."

Well... If anyone ever stands up and says that, he (or she) will get my vote. As a matter of fact, I'd go out and campaign for the poor b@stard.

 

[demp5294]

The people who control things are betting on the new world order to solve these and they don't care how many of us die to reach their dream.