President Barack Obama "Backs" Marijuana Decriminalization Efforts

[Jacob Redmond]

President Barack Obama has said that American states could overhaul their laws to discourage marijuana the same way people have been persuaded not to consume "bad things" like tobacco.

His comments came the same day Washington DC implemented a new law decriminalizing the use of small amounts of marijuana over the objections of some Republicans.

"I think that we have to separate out legalization - there's a lot of concern about drug abuse of any sort by our children and the general population - versus the heavy criminalization of non-violent drug offenses," Obama said.

"And I think that a lot of states are taking a look to see, do we have proportionality in terms of how we are penalizing the recreational user," Obama told Kansas City- based KMBC TV.

"We've been able to discourage a lot of other bad things that people do," CNN quoted Obama as saying, citing success in discouraging the use of other harmful products like tobacco without stiff jail sentences.

"I think that's what every state across the country, including some very conservative states that don't have a lot of tolerance for marijuana, are looking at," Obama said, "is do we want to be throwing people in jail for five, 10, 15 years if they're not major drug dealers but they're using a substance that's probably not good for them but is probably not hurting too many other people?"

Possession of small amounts of marijuana became legal in the District of Columbia yesterday.

Despite a last-hour intervention by the Republican chairman of the House committee that handles Washington DC affairs, Mayor Muriel E Bowser and DC Council members said on Wednesday that they would not back down from implementing the will of the 70 per cent of city voters who approved legalisation in November.

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[MrMicrodot]

Mr President. You need only regulate the legalization of cannabis so people 21 and over can purchase and consume it responsibly are left alone while those who abuse it - as in sell it to minors and so forth are punished under law. Nothing else need be said or done. In short regulate the legalization of cannabis then shut the hell up. Spending fortunes on campaigns to stop people from doing things, historically, tends to get people doing the very things the campaign is alleged to be preventing. eg; stop smoking kids its bad for you! More kids take up smoking. Don't get drunk kids its bad for you; more kids abuse booze. However cannabis gets legalized recreationaly in Colorado with regulations in place and no fuss about warning about so called dangers and after a year the studies show the numbers of teenage cannabis users have dropped significantly. Guaranteed as soon as any campaigns begin on the dangers of cannabis use or what have you the numbers of teenage consumers will magically rise significantly determinded by the degree of the campaign applied. and of course more controlling laws will have to be implemented to "cure" the problem.
As always if the cannabis laws behind the illegal status of cannabis were designed to protect people from harm then similar laws would be making pharmaceutical psychotropics illegal as well given their propensity to send people in to fits of psychotic rage and delusion and go on murder sprees with knives and guns. Not to mention all the other pharma drugs that kill thousands every year.... while cannabis has killed ZERO people in the several thousands of years that we are aware of.

 

[Radogast]

Going after people who sell marijuana to minors is only a short-term idea.
Long term, teenagers need marijuana, medically and recreationally, as much as adults.

If some one comes up with a reproducible, scientifically verified health concern with teen cannabis, I'll change my tune.
I don't expect to see a danger that outweighs the rewards.