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264 Comments
- sbetzen, on 01/26/2009, -11/+197Medical Marijuana is about compassion. Please let the new president know that these raids are against the moral/ethical compass of US citizens.
IF you digg this you may also want to digg http://digg.com/world_news/Petition_to_Stop_Arrest ... I did not submit it, but it needs you diggs too. Lets put this issue on the front page. - kemp34, on 01/26/2009, -3/+141War on Drugs = dumb
War on Marijuana = dumber
War on Medical Marijuana = dumber still
War on Industrial Hemp = dumbest
Congress wake the hell up. Bloody idiots. - normlsparky, on 01/26/2009, -5/+98As a member of MPP, I already sent my letter to Obama. The entire war on drugs needs to end now. New policies based upon harm reduction, scientific data and common sense are long past due. It remains to be seen if Obama will do the right thing or continue to support those who financially benefit from current policies. I have my doubts that Obama will encourage changing current policies. I just don't think he has the political will, unfortunately.
Anyone interested in real change should continue to support organizations like Norml, the Marijuana Policy Project and the Drug Policy alliance. These groups continue to introduce legislation at the state and local level and are directly responsible for many of the recent drug reform laws. - sbetzen, on 01/26/2009, -1/+6580% of the US public is FOR medical marijuana (time CNN poll).... in TEXAS 67% of Republicans are FOR medical marijuana (Scripps poll). John McCain attacked Obama for his stance in favor of medical marijuana.... and his poll numbers dropped and Obama gained support during that week and it was additionally shown that this issue actually helped Obama in the polls... not one indication he was hurt by it.
This is not a political liability and we need to stop pretending like it is... People are not suffering anymore because Americans lack compassion.... they are suffering because Americans assume America has no compassion. STOP... this is a SAFE issue that will save people from agonizing pain and yes, in some cases death. - Frankyfan3, on 01/26/2009, -4/+61“The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture. “ Thomas Jefferson
Munchies Save Lives - dubiousmike, on 01/26/2009, -2/+42I watched a show on (Discovery or NG, ect) where they followed some of the folks currently warring on drugs. It mainly consisted of them flying helicopters through national forests in California busting fields of plants being grown. They were saying that a lot of it is being run (in)directly through major drug cartels in South America and that those folks are the ones who are massacring folks in South America who get in the way of their business.
The one thing that occurred to me though was that Americans who smoke pot for one reason or another are going to continue to do so. By coming down on it so hard, the only people who actually are doing this on a mass scale are the drug lords. And we don't get to tax them on it. Imagine how much money the country would make if there were some sort of system where it could be grown legally and then sold in a way that conformed to society's current view on it. You have to be 18 or 21 or 24. State and Federal taxes would be added to the cost (like cigarettes). Industries like farming, trucking, manufacturing, ect would further prosper.
Yes, we've all heard of short term memory issues, the harm smoke can do to one's lungs and of course, folks who go through the legal system because they buy, sell, transport pot.
I know there are Sundays when I wake up groggy and slowly remembering which girls I hit on and my lungs feel like crap because I smoke cigs when I drink.
What is the difference here? - inactive, on 01/26/2009, -2/+41we must get the federal government to remove marijuanna from the schedual 1 class of drugs.
"Schedule I drugs are those considered to have a very high abuse and addiction potential while having no accepted medical safety or benefit of use. Drugs within this category include heroin, LSD and marijuana. Schedule II drugs also have a high abuse potential but have certain accepted medical uses. They also may lead to psychological and physical dependence. Morphine, PCP, cocaine, methadone and methamphetamines are all classified as Schedule II substances"
marijuanna is not a narcotic and it does have many medical accepted and scientifically proven medical uses. Getting it removed from the schedual 1 classification will be the first step we need to take. explain this to people and pass it on. if we are to have faith in our government our government must not arbitrarily lie to use like this. - Frankyfan3, on 01/26/2009, -2/+38[Citation Added]
http://www.reason.com/blog/printer/126533.html
http://granitestaters.com/candidates/barack_obama. ...
"I would because I think our federal agents have better things to do, like catching criminals and preventing terrorism. The way I want to approach the issue of medical marijuana is to base it on science, and if there is sound science that supports the use of medical marijuana and if it is controlled and prescribed in a way that other medicine is prescribed, then it's something that I think we should consider."
- Barrack Obama (August 21 in Nashua, New Hampshire) - Nauree, on 01/26/2009, -1/+35Pot should just be legal in the first place.
- Frankyfan3, on 01/26/2009, -6/+38President Obama, (why you saying elect?) has previously stated the DEA should not be diverting resources to shut down State licensed and tax-paying medical dispensaries.
FAIL! - roddack, on 01/26/2009, -2/+34Why the hell is Marijuana scheduled 1 in the first damn place.
Why the ***** do people think they have a right to tell other people what they put in their own damn body. - skoubydoo, on 01/26/2009, -0/+31"I think the war on drugs has been an utter failure."
-Barack Obama - inactive, on 01/26/2009, -2/+32Much 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.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle_blog/2008/dec/ ... - JROXZ, on 01/26/2009, -3/+28What we need is the same "responsible withdraw" from the the War in Iraq for this War on Drugs.
- sockpuppets, on 01/26/2009, -4/+29No, you're a towel.
- EhBlueDuck, on 01/26/2009, -3/+25The post is titled: 'DEA Must End Raids on Medical Marijuana Providers' ... and has nothing to do with legalization.
Maybe this is more relevant...
"Dear Friend,
Thank you for contacting Obama for America to inquire about the Senator's position on allowing severely ill patients to use marijuana for medical purposes.
Many states have laws that condone medical marijuana, but the Bush Administration is using federal drug enforcement agents to raid these facilities and arrest seriously ill people. Focusing scarce law enforcement resources on these patients who pose no threat while many violent and highly dangerous drug traffickers are at large makes no sense. Senator Obama will not continue the Bush policy when he is president.
Thank you again for contacting us.
Sincerely,
Obama for America" - toxicshok, on 01/26/2009, -2/+23I'm fairly sure there is a way to tax it, the same way we tax tobacco.
- xMedic, on 01/26/2009, -2/+22We will eventually have it legalized, one way or another.
- angelgabe, on 01/26/2009, -1/+20This is less about medicinal use MJ and more about tax payer money being used to harass people and businesses that are not technically breaking any state laws. They operate in the open, they have licenses and they pay taxes.
- Bravetiger, on 01/26/2009, -4/+22Yes the DEA raids do need t stop. The government can't even get state and federal legislation in sync, so government officials are tripping all over each other... wasting tax money.
Speaking of wasting tax money... Hello drug war, education and reform not criminalization is what is needed. Criminalization just opens up a huge black market of trade, smuggling and whole plethora of nasty stuff. - trickonion, on 01/26/2009, -7/+24you guys are ***** retarded http://change.gov/newsroom/entry/open_for_question ...
>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. - Pstall, on 01/26/2009, -4/+21He is President Obama, no longer President-elect. You are however correct in the fact that the new President is not in favor of the legailzation of medical marijuana nor is the new surgeon general.
- sbetzen, on 01/26/2009, -3/+20You may also want to sign the petition mentioned in the first comment, aside from digging it.
Here is the contact info for the white house if you want to take the next step and call them
Phone Numbers
Comments: 202-456-1111 (may take a few tries)
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD
Comments: 202-456-6213
Visitors Office: 202-456-2121
You can also call or write to the President:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500 - avianeddy, on 02/17/2009, -2/+18Rather than allow the terminally ill access
to a BENIGN PLANT, our gov't (in bed with
Big Pharma) prefers to get them addicted
to horrible "prescription drugs" that only
drain what little vitality and money they have.
W... T... F! - BineySyndrome, on 01/26/2009, -0/+15As homebrewer and a smoker (and I consider myself to be pretty in-the-know) I would actually say more effort would go into growing decent pot than brewing my own beer. There is a much larger financial investment in the equipment needed for decent quality cannabis as well.
The main reason we won't even see industrial hemp legalized anytime soon is that it would challenge so many major industries because it is a better alternative. It's no conspiracy that hemp can outdo many other products jobs, it's simple economics. It would undercut a lot of very well established industries. - dharmazazen, on 01/26/2009, -2/+17and interesting documentary about the marijuana industry in California that aired on CNBC last night: http://www.cnbc.com/id/28281668/
The War on Drugs is lost and is a monumental waste of time and money, Obama admitted this before he ran for president. Tax and regulate is the way to go. states could potentially earn billion$.
- inactive, on 01/26/2009, -0/+15This is true. Now that the boomers are moving into the senior citizen bracket there's no significant segment of the population left still believing the hype about "the dope" being dangerous. Probably for the first time in US history, a majority of the population has actually tried smoking the stuff at some point.
- reneewatkins, on 01/26/2009, -1/+15To me this is something a rational administration would accept: marijuana is of great medical value, and as a recreational drug is less addictive than the legal ones and less harmful than those which are illegal. It should not be illegal.
- ChiefUCF, on 01/26/2009, -0/+14Sanjay Gupta was offered the position a couple of weeks ago and he'll probably be in place by the end of the month.
- jshhmr, on 01/26/2009, -3/+17Fellow Americans: Is it not time for all of us to come together to end this prohibition? Is it not time for a revolution that tells our government that we are sick and tired of the ignorant restrictions that they have put upon us for NO reason? I ask all AMERICANS to help end this! We WILL not stop, We WILL not FAIL! WE WILL WIN THIS FIGHT!!!!! My mom's LIFE was extended by 2-3 years because of the POSITIVE qualitles of marijuana! I WILL FIGHT ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!
- Hetman, on 01/26/2009, -1/+14You are not a DR. Who are you to decide who needs marijuna or not. Prozac can cure deppresion but marijuna can not? At least with Marijuana you do not have an increased chance of suicide if you come off of it.
- ATXChappy, on 01/26/2009, -1/+14harrisbradley is not out of touch. He is talking about President Obamas' response to a question asked at his website change.gov. The number one question asked in his first round of questions from the public was.
"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.?"
And, the response was.
"President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana."
But, the federal government keeps saying we need to have a discussion about this issue. But, that was their only response. Quite a dialog eh? - Paranor01, on 01/26/2009, -2/+15If it exists, it's taxable. It's the fact that it's one of the "red alert" issues like abortion, stem cells, etc.
- mrsteveman1, on 01/27/2009, -0/+12http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1 ...
Sanjay Gupta is flat out wrong here, i'd go so far as to say he is biased and ignoring reality. - ohearn, on 01/26/2009, -3/+15The desire for tax revenue is the only way you will ever get legislators to make it legal.
- inactive, on 01/27/2009, -0/+11***** that, how about doing that 40 years ago? You shouldn't have to wait for what is your birth right. Oh and if Obama / congress doesn't legalize it, ***** them too.
- FasterGun, on 01/27/2009, -1/+121) I think that if selling pot is legalized, then we would see prices absolutely plummet unless it is tightly regulated.
2) If my previous prediction is correct, it would be hard to compete with these hypothetical future factory-marijuana-farms, even if you do indeed grow decent bud.
3) People are wicked lazy. Why go through all that trouble of trimming, weeding, drying, etc. if you can just pick up a few joints at the mart down the block? And if it is sold in a store, it can pretty easily be taxed by the government. - milkmage, on 01/26/2009, -1/+12he doesn't have to change the entire policy, all he has to do is say lay off in the sates where voters have approved medical pot. that in itself would be a huge step in the right direction.
- Hetman, on 01/26/2009, -3/+13A country cannot exist with out taxes. The problem comes when the government taxes us for things that we do not need. A good example of this is the war on drugs. They are using my tax money to fight a so called war they cannot win. The government should be trying to decrease demand, not supply. Because if there is a demand someone is going to be willing to supply this country with drugs.
- AZExile, on 01/26/2009, -0/+10solution: harrisbradley was quoting Obama's website from a few weeks back.
- Otto, on 01/27/2009, -0/+10Brewing beer is actually very easy. Way easier than growing a plant properly.
Although I grant you that there are more gardeners than homebrewers. - jmad1776, on 01/26/2009, -1/+10This issue is about compassion for anyone suffering,and anyone in prison for selling a useful herb,it's also about large pharmacueticals controling government policy,marijuana is a natural herb unlike synthetics derived from oil based products,which brings us to the oil cartels,can anyone see a pattern emerging.
- inactive, on 01/26/2009, -1/+10"I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana dispensaries; it is not a good use of our resources," then Presidential Contender Obama said, on August 21st 2007.
- EarlOfLade, on 01/27/2009, -0/+9Legalize, license and tax!
- FXNGLAS, on 01/26/2009, -1/+10I would love to see the day where I can walk into a convenience store and pickup an 1/8th of the finest right off the shelf.
That won't happen for awhile though, and like those ghey H&R Block commercials, I GOT PEOPLE. - sbetzen, on 01/26/2009, -1/+10Last I checked this article was about MEDICAL Marijuana... lets not confuse the issues.
- OneRottenTomato, on 01/26/2009, -2/+11Have they finally run out of tips and leads on extremely dangerous, gun-toting drug lords and gangs to apprehend? I guess there's more honor and bigger rush of adrenaline in smashing skulls to pavement of glaucoma and wheelchair ridden patients. I know I'll sleep better at nights when these dangerous types are put behind bars. /s
- Paranor01, on 01/26/2009, -0/+8The difference is that Marijuana does have a lot more medicinal properties than cigarette's, in at least 95% of people it results in non-violent behavior (which definitely is no way close to alcohol), and Hemp, which is in the plant family of Marijuana has 1000's of good uses from string to cloth to paper to multi-purpose oil.
It's a winning plant in almost any way you look at it.
Stop the "war on drugs" at least on Marijuana, legalize it, tax it, allow better hemp production, and boom! you have more than enough money to pay for the new health & education plans. - chase001, on 01/26/2009, -1/+9Drug laws were created as back handed ways of punishing people being poor or having brown skin. The Prison Industrial Complex must be fed.
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