romney on MMJ: "aren't there issues of significance you'd like to talk about?"

Originally Posted by abandonconflict

I am still waiting for the anti-Obama mouth breathers to rebut. Come on, convince us how Obama is waging a drug war.




WHO HAS BEEN BUSTED EVEN IF THEY WERE STATE COMPLIANT?

bumped for lack of answers

Originally Posted by FlyLikeAnEagle

Wrong. The POTUS cannot selectively decide which laws are enforced and which are not, that would be an abuse of presidential power. We don't elect kings.

LMFAO. . .yeah, no President EVER abuses their power, let alone does anything illegal or borderline so.

You better believe that not only CAN the President do this, but they ALL do it.

The Presidents all sign laws with "signing statements" indicating how they think a particular new law should. . .or shouldn't. . .be enforced. In some cases POTUS's even speculate on the Constitutionality of laws they themselves are signing! There is no constitutional provision for this. . .but they all do it.

One other way this is done is simply by setting Law enforcement priorities.

Every law enforcement agency is overworked and understaffed. So their department directive GREATLY affects the type of cases any agency will pursue.

If the President says "Forget the State-legal grow ops; go after border violations instead" then that's what the DEA does. And that is what it *DID* do, until relatively recently when the Obama administration reversed its earlier "hands off" policy.

Wrong again. 77% of Americans support medical marijuana.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_1...-legalization/

Look again at what I actually said.

There is a big difference between "The American public" (which is what you're saying) and "The VOTING public", which is what I said.

Your poll says 77% of American adults favor MMJ. Maybe that's true, and maybe it isn't.

But in the empirical reality of the actual world, MMJ is still illegal in 2/3 of the States, and most of them have NO provision for legalizing it any time soon. 77% is a supermajority of support for ANY issue. If American VOTERS actually supported MMJ by 77% margins, it would be legal everywhere.

It isn't, and its not even close.

Therefore there is a big disconnect here between the Americans purportedly surveyed by that poll (who probably significant skew young and liberal), and the ones who actually cast votes (who skew older and more conservative). Or the poll is flawed in other ways too.

Again **WHEN** (ie if) the American voting public comes around, I'd expect motion towards decriminalization on a Federal level. But not until then.

Originally Posted by abandonconflict

Non compliant grows/coops/dispensaries get busted, everyone gets inspected.
What sitting president among the last 10 have allowed a third of the country to partially legalize it?

Well lets be clear here.

The POTUS doesn't have the ability to alter State law.

If States want to legalize cannabis, that's up to them. Likewise if they want to ban it, its up to them. The President doesn't have a say in this one way or the other.

The President, incidentally, doesn't even have much of a say in whether or not the Federal gov't legalizes cannabis. He can veto proposed legislation to legalize it, or sign it, but ultimately for this to happen it has to pass through both halves of the Congress first.

The biggest practical effect the POTUS has on drug policy is in Federal LAW ENFORCEMENT, since all Federal L.E works at his authority, and he sets both the tone and over direction of law enforcement policy.

I'm not going to argue that Obama hasn't been more "pro-cannabis" than Bush, but its simply not correct to assign to Obama credit (or blame) for what the States are doing on their own initiative.

Originally Posted by Jogro

Well lets be clear here.

The POTUS doesn't have the ability to alter State law.

If States want to legalize cannabis, that's up to them. Likewise if they want to ban it, its up to them. The President doesn't have a say in this one way or the other.

The President, incidentally, doesn't even have much of a say in whether or not the Federal gov't legalizes cannabis. He can veto proposed legislation to legalize it, or sign it, but ultimately for this to happen it has to pass through both halves of the Congress first.

The biggest practical effect the POTUS has on drug policy is in Federal LAW ENFORCEMENT, since all Federal L.E works at his authority, and he sets both the tone and over direction of law enforcement policy.

I'm not going to argue that Obama hasn't been more "pro-cannabis" than Bush, but its simply not correct to assign to Obama credit (or blame) for what the States are doing on their own initiative.

The gay rights camp probably didn't think DADT was enough in 1993, although I'm sure they would all call it a step in the right direction. Patience grass hopper.

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