Obama's Drug Policy

I posted this on my blog thing and thought I would share it here as well.

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Initially I was upset with the way that president Obama addressed a question (regarding the legalization of marijuana) at last thursdays experimental online town hall meeting.

video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YTrrqEdrI8

After acknowledging that legalizing marijuana was one of the top questions submitted, he proceeded to give an unsatisfactorily short answer in which he seemed to pass off the question as a joke and not something to be taken seriously stating "there was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high, and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation and I don't know what this says about the online audience." and "No, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy."

I felt sick and enraged as the crowd immediately laughed. 3.5 million people voted and this was one of the top questions. How can you ignore those kind of numbers? Marijuana prohibition is an issue that needs to be taken seriously and to bash a question because it came from the internet (the place where Obama received most of his campaign funds), making it seem like just a bunch of pot heads sitting around at home on the computer was wrong. Medical marijuana is a very viable alternative medicine and very many patients depend on it.

I have since looked more in depth at the online town hall meeting and its purpose was mainly to address the current economic situation so while still disappointing, Obama's answer does not specifically rule out his support for a change in drug policy. If he didn't want to address the issue as a strategy for fixing the economy than that's understandable; however, many people (myself included) do feel that legalizing hemp and all forms of cannabis would be an outstanding way to solve the economic problems, at very least it must be better than printing an endless supply of money created out of thin air. Right now I can't get carried away about what a great revenue generating product marijuana is / could be; besides that fact that millions of taxpayers money would be saved when law enforcement does not have to go after and incarcerate the cannabis culture; that must be saved for another article as this one is strictly about Obama's stance.

So it wasn't the right time to discuss legalization, fine; but more politicians need to realize that this is an issue that isn't going away and needs to be taken care of in timely fashion. I hope most of us know by now that there are several states with medical MJ bills in place (most notably California) that clash with federal law and it can't stay this way forever. Too many gray areas currently exist between federal vs. state decriminalization and medical legalization. There needs to be a clarification on paper but nobody wants to be the one responsible so we, the people, even as the majority, are ignored.

If the economy isn't a reason to legalize than there are plenty more to choose from. There are still too many people incarcerated for victimless crimes, crimes that some didn't even commit; and I'm not talking about your typical street dealers either, there are patients, growers, shop owners, all people who thought they were following the laws of their locality.

After being appointed (by president Obama), Attorney General Eric Holder said that there would be no more raids by the fed on people operating under the regulations of approved states. Pre-election, Obama said that he supported marijuana for medical use and the states rights to make their own law regarding it. Lets hope he hasn't changed his mind or lost his balls.

Your crying over it sure aint going to change it ...

IMO It'll NEVER be legal at a federal level

Its just not gonna happen..

these people who run this country are old folks who are set in their ways ,In about 50 yrs it may be legal but no time soon

What was he expected to say? 'Yes, yes i believe it would'

NEVER the response you were gonna get

Excuse me? How does that entail crying? I tried to spread some news and information about a subject that I thought people here would be sympathetic to. I understand that its going to take alot for things to change in this country but does that mean we shouldn't try?

Your fighting a battle that cant be won..

Kinda just like the war we are fighting in the middle east..

Do you think that there will be an end one day to suicide bombers ?

come on what did you expect him to say
he is a politician and he needs to secure his image.
Plus how exactly would legalizing weed help the economy it just doesnt make sense.
There are so many different ways it would help, I agree with korvette when he said it would be legal in due time..
But thats just the states here in canada I see it happening sooner but not that soon.
Even though it would have already happened if the states werent so threated by the idea.

It would help the economy in the way that poor business's turned large scale farms would be growing seeds for next to nothing under the sun and selling the herb to various legal outlets for an elevated price. Or, in the case of personal growing in peoples homes, there would be taxes laid down on seeds, lighting etc. Ofcourse, the world hates paying taxes, but i'd rather pay tax to be able to grow weed worry free and be a 'good citizen' at the same time. Wouldn't make a massive, massive difference to the economy, but any extra money at all is nice at the moment. ........Or maybe not haha. Laters

There would not be any extra money .. ANYONE CAN GROW WEED .. They would not be able to ""CONTROL"" it .. Thats why its not legal..

how is the struggle to end prohibition of marijuana anything at all like the war in the middle east??? if anything it should be compared to the utter disaster that was alcohol prohibition. once the propaganda and pseudo science behind marijuana myths are cleared up and the conservatives leave office or are replaced by logical thinkers i think we will see real head way. and as far as it never being legal federally. closed mind thinking like that is whats stopping it from doing so now. why dont people just grow tobacco? because its easier to suck it up and pay for them, WHICH ARE HEAVILY TAXED

for a "marijuana expert" you sure are quick to shoot down an intelligent and interesting thread.

Hehe stimulate the economy? If they made it legal id have storage units packed with grow ops, i wouldnt let a person within 15 miles buy from a store lol. Theyd have to have strick laws on either the resale or the growing of it.....wait isnt that where we are now? And the deal with " why people dont grow thier own tobacco" (not that some dont) is that it hasnt been illegal for almost 100 years like weed has so the initial sale money of weed would still be worth growing----eventually trickling off ,from all the undercutters, to not even worth paying the electric bill. Point is the government probably wouldnt get a dime of it. I mean think about it id rather have one of the good folks on this site grow it for me then buy the governments crap ( and you know theyd just mass-produce crap lol). Just knock off the jailtime for some guy growing 2-5 for his own use and call it a day, i think that would make enough people content

Taxation aside, it would help the economy (and the environment) through new industrial hemp products. Hemp paper - hemp is vastly more of a renewable resource than trees, months to grow compared to years. Hemp fuel - it is feasible, biomass fuels can replace fossil fuels and hemp is the number one biomass producer containing 77% cellulose.

i agree government grown weed would suck. but thats where industry comes in. government doesnt grow tobacco. not only would crime drop as a result of legalizing weed but sales of grow materials and products aimed at marijuana users would sky rocket. also, i am not talking about avid marijuana enthusiasts such as ourselves purchasing weed but normal people who dont have the time or desire to grow their own. i dont really know why fast food chains and grocery stores dont support our cause, think what the result of millions of people being able to get high legally would have on food sales. all im saying is what is the down side??? give me one good one.. absolutely nothing about gateway drug effect or any bs like that. something legitimate

Yeh guys incase you haven't noticed, most people can't be bothered with growing weed.

If they legalized weed it would help, no ones saying it's going to cure. But it would obviously help.

My 55 year old dad wouldn't have a clue about growing weed, and would probably never even give growing a try, but he still likes weed.

All that would happen is it would be seriously fucking cheap.

holland has benefited from cannabis tolerance. people are allowed to grow their own, but stoners still go and buy from coffee shops. if it were legalized or decriminalized here, we would save billions... more money to give to the bankers

One reason it wouldnt help the crime......what are the weed dealers gonna sell now? When i sold weed if it was made legal then believe me there would be a giant jump into narcotic sales for me and god knows how many others. Im not bashing legalization believe me im just seeing things realistically. Mass production of hemp for products that usually require trees sounds damn good. Only thing i fear is lets take a 20 of haze atm in my state ok, thier anywhere from .7 to 1 gram for 20. Now if some dumb 12 year old came up to me and asked to hit my L id tell him/her " hell no". Now if they asked someone else that person might say "throw in first then" and that would be like 5$. Now if it was legal it could be 1$ making it that much easier for em. I mean i know 12 year olds right now that go out everyday trying to get up 20$ and most of em do, just saying i think the number would climb alittle too much for my taste i mean look at how many of those young little basterds are smokin cigarettes.

theres an answer for this. the us govt has enough weed stored to supply everyone for 40 years. no one knows that though it was in a 1999 issue of high times or somethin. yet if you sold it like a pack of cigs ( phillip morris already has a patent on it) for a reasonable price it would sell quickly. it would force weed dealers to get jobs cuz ppl can buy it in the stores for cheaper and better quality than what the dealer has. so it can be controlled. and if you want to grow it; go through the channels to do it legal through your state for tax purposes and supply and demand (I.E. medical, and one day retail sales) so the govt. could sell them in stores cheaper than the dealers and if you want to grow anything more than you can consume you will have to do it legally. it was predicted that marijuana sales would produce over 40 billion dollars in the first 5 years in the usa. say for instance i want to get high. go to the gas station buy a pack of joints for ten dollars rolled already like a cig. the taxes would obviously be outragious henseforth the 40 billion. and put an age limit on it just like alcohol. weed was here well long before alcohol. but of course the republicans are like kid control and this and that. well worry about contributing to minors on other things that kill (I.E. alcohol prescripiton drugs etc) hey dont forget they can make you take classes carry a permit to possess and regulate it in many other ways. it would be nice to have the govt pay me to grow. and not to forget the other industry for hemp- paper and textile industry

we would make money but at the same time we would lose money.. think about it people would realize how many uses there are for marijuana, for example not alot of people outside of the cannibus culture realize that you can make paper out of hemp, so if it were legalized logging industries would suffer a huge blow same with the pharmicutical industry and the petroleum industry...no matter how much it sucks to say i think the government would lose to much money if it were grown on a large scale basis..however i can think of no reason private citizens shouldn't be able to grow it for personal use.

EhKay47 said:

come on what did you expect him to say
he is a politician and he needs to secure his image.
Plus how exactly would legalizing weed help the economy it just doesnt make sense.;

Even though it would have already happened if the states werent so threated by the idea.

Click to expand...

Totally an ignorant thing to say that cuz if you knew all the different products that could be made and distributed you wouldn't have said that, you know you can make paper and burnable FUEL out of hemp? that alone could bring in billions....uhem sorry 2.5 billion to be exact a year, eliminates hundred of EXPENSIVE perscription pills that DAMAGE the body pretty fuckin bad, oh and lets not forget slap an age law and manage it like alcohol (since weeds illegality is closely related in perception AS alcohols prohibition) tax the MANUFACTURED and prepackaged joints, blunts, cigars ect. then yea i'd say its a very profitable venture, (and lets not forget the money we'd save on prisons and jail for no longer fuckin waisting our time on puttin users and dealers away for pot.)

again, think before we speak? and know your facts