Obama administration: Could Overgrow rise again?

[Muleskinner]

I can't help but wonder if the end of Bush/Cheney might open the door for Overgrow to return.

Bush/Cheney was leaning hard on Canada from the day they took office. Now it's clear that Canada was delaying on the things they wanted: Look at Emery and Renee Boje, they were supposed to be extradited 3 years ago and the Canadian govt. suddenly stopped and did nothing until the Bush term was over.

You know the prosecution of RC from Overgrow was a totally vindictive move by the Bush administration. With Obama the Canadiens might go back to business a usual, i.e., ignoring the cannabis seed trade and websites like overgrow.

I see the domain name is still available - is this fantasy or could it happen?

Also, there is an excellent chance that the Liberals will re-take control of the Canadian government as soon as January when they re-convene.

 

[Barn Owl]

I'm going to say Obamna will dissapoint many people. The drug war is here to stay. Obama is a drug war guy. Look at Biden and Eric Holder. Both of these guys are pro drug war. Don't get your hopes up. Obama's "change" BS is a scam.

 

[rdy]

Barn Owl- what will it take to make you happy? What does Obama and Co. have to do to in terms of the Drug War to make you happy?

The man hasn't even taken office yet, you allege that Obama is a "drug war guy," what's that? Biden and Holder are not President, Obama is. The drug war isn't going to end overnight, do you really think Obama's going to just announce that there will be zero drug enforcement in the country? The WoD is not primarily on marijuana, though it seems so.

That said, I don't think Overgrow will rise again, unless the servers and data can be retrieved. OG was OG because of its vast majority of users, ICMag and other places are now the primary hubs for growers. Canada and the U.S. are going to relax their drug policies once Bush's wrecking crew is gone.

 

[Koroz]

Barn Owl- what will it take to make you happy? What does Obama and Co. have to do to in terms of the Drug War to make you happy?

The man hasn't even taken office yet, you allege that Obama is a "drug war guy," what's that? Biden and Holder are not President, Obama is. The drug war isn't going to end overnight, do you really think Obama's going to just announce that there will be zero drug enforcement in the country? The WoD is not primarily on marijuana, though it seems so.

That said, I don't think Overgrow will rise again, unless the servers and data can be retrieved. OG was OG because of its vast majority of users, ICMag and other places are now the primary hubs for growers. Canada and the U.S. are going to relax their drug policies once Bush's wrecking crew is gone.

He needs to do more then this, What was the #1 voted topic got the 4th, out of 5 spots on his answer response:

http://change.gov/newsroom/entry/open_for_questions_response/

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.

In terms of Marijuana law reform, Obama is nothing more then Bush 2.0. Sorry but we lose, he is just another face of the same government sucking the tit of the American Drug war.

Obama 1, people who believed in him 0.

And yes, I voted for him. Lets hope the rest of his rhetoric is truth and not BS, and he is for at least changing the way government has run this country into the ground financially, but after seeing this response I have little faith much will change under his administration for anything. I have grown to not believe anyone that runs for office anymore, Paul, Obama, whoever. In the end, its always about their personal agenda and not whats best for the people of this country.

 

[HerbGlaze]

Lets not get our hopes up or down, we have no clue what Obama is capable of so lets just wait and see, I hope for the best lets just try to over grow the government!

 

[rdy]

Koroz, just like Barn Owl you are already assuming that Obama is a "Bush 2.0." He hasn't even taken office yet. How much time do you really think that Obama himself spent answering the questions on change.gov?

When you're a high level politician, to explicitly say that you're in favor of legalization would be political suicide, sad as it is. When are people going to realize that change is not going to happen until the general public attitude towards ganj changes? The current attitude is the result of billions of dollars of money, propaganda, and manpower from the government, it took a while to get here and itll take a while to change that.

Education is the key here, people need to know that the evils and myths of marijuana are simply not true, once they know this, they may not be in favor of legalization, but they'll be much more likely to agree that the War on Drugs is wasteful.

If legalization happens, it will be the result of:

a. increased public awareness/education about marijuana and the WoD
and
b. increasingly more states allowing medical use, or tolerance

The main problems right now is that nobody, or very few people, are actually doing something about it, or everybody is just too stoned. Many of the legalization movements have stoner/childish image problems that are unattractive to most of the public.

Of course Obama isn't going to focus on pot and the Drug War first, that's been going on for decades, what's another year or few? There are bigger and more urgent problems, simple as that, such as the auto bailout and healthcare. Why don't we let Obama deal with those problems first, gaining supporters in the process, then let him get around to our issue. If he approaches pot too early on, he'll lose a lot of supporters, specifically conservative types. But let him do some good work, and maybe, just maybe, those right wing sorts will actually be open to considering legalization. The man's not dumb.

 

[ItsGrowTime]

I have grown to not believe anyone that runs for office anymore, Paul, Obama, whoever. In the end, its always about their personal agenda and not whats best for the people of this country.

Yikes! Please don't mix Ron Paul in with the likes of Obama. Night and day difference.

 

[Koroz]

Koroz, just like Barn Owl you are already assuming that Obama is a "Bush 2.0." He hasn't even taken office yet. How much time do you really think that Obama himself spent answering the questions on change.gov?

Read my post again, I said when it comes to the drug war I believe he is Bush 2.0, huge difference between what you said, and what I said.

When you're a high level politician, to explicitly say that you're in favor of legalization would be political suicide, sad as it is. When are people going to realize that change is not going to happen until the general public attitude towards ganj changes? The current attitude is the result of billions of dollars of money, propaganda, and manpower from the government, it took a while to get here and itll take a while to change that.

The general attitude toward cannabis is NOT what it was in the 40's and thats my problem. He ran his campaign on change, change is not doing the same thing that every politician in the past has done, by not standing up for what you believe in because the rest of your party might not agree. CHANGE which is the platform he ran on, is about standing up for what the people want and the majority of people polled (and a small percentage reflected by this "vote") are tired of the broken war on drugs. When his reply to that is to stick the answer to the question as the second to last answer when it was the #1 question people voted for, and then giving a vague response of "Obama does not believe Cannabis should be legal" shows that he is not about change for the good or want of the people, he is for his own hidden agenda (on this subject at least, I said in my post we have to wait and see what happens with the rest of his rhetoric)

Education is the key here, people need to know that the evils and myths of marijuana are simply not true, once they know this, they may not be in favor of legalization, but they'll be much more likely to agree that the War on Drugs is wasteful.

If legalization happens, it will be the result of:

a. increased public awareness/education about marijuana and the WoD
and
b. increasingly more states allowing medical use, or tolerance

The main problems right now is that nobody, or very few people, are actually doing something about it, or everybody is just too stoned. Many of the legalization movements have stoner/childish image problems that are unattractive to most of the public.

Not much to say here, other then we are our worst enemies. From people who can't post a single word with out a word spelled correctly, to people who just don't know how to sound educated it just perpetuates the stigma that we are half brain dead druggies. The war starts in our own yards.

Of course Obama isn't going to focus on pot and the Drug War first, that's been going on for decades, what's another year or few? There are bigger and more urgent problems, simple as that, such as the auto bailout and healthcare. Why don't we let Obama deal with those problems first, gaining supporters in the process, then let him get around to our issue. If he approaches pot too early on, he'll lose a lot of supporters, specifically conservative types. But let him do some good work, and maybe, just maybe, those right wing sorts will actually be open to considering legalization. The man's not dumb.

Huge difference between not focusing on it, and out right saying you are not for the legalization of Cannabis. I do not think his main focus should be the war on drug right out of the gates, but the way he answered the #1 issue posted on both change.gov and change.org says a lot to me about his real interest in doing what the people want, and just telling them what they want to hear.

This is no longer a right wing issue, its a government issue. They are sucking the money down on both sides of the fence, and by him not showing up in force against it, he again is perpetuating the problem. It is a Democratic government come Jan. If there isn't major reform pushed through this next 4 years it has nothing to do with the right wingers, it has to do with the old white money that is feeding the young black president.

As I said before, I am interested how he does with the other "real" problems of our day, the economy, world regulation and policing, removing civil liberties of citizens to "protect" them... those are what matter the most to me, but on THIS issue he already has an "F" out of the gate from me.

So the next question Im sure that will be asked from my post is "What would you have him do?"

Easy, The #1 voted for question, should have gotten the #1 spot on his responses. It should have said something along the lines of, "Although I do not believe in the legalization of Cannabis, I have heard what the people want and will look into the issue with an open mind. I will take into consideration both the economical impact, medicinal impact and the impact of prohibition of all controlled substances on our citizens."

But instead he buried the question, and answer to the bottom of the page, and gave a very "close minded" answer.

 

[Forest20]

I'm just droping this out here. We(USA) are well-rounded people any know ganja,weed takes time to grow. Just let it chill and at the end if it happens to be a Dud pull him out in 4 years) that the beauty of all of this.. Cheers and Jah One Love

 

[kaotic]

Why would anyone want government influence in your garden? Has anyone noticed what happens when the government touches anything? I for one, don't want any regulations, sin taxes (very apt to be raised repeatedly) or restrictions added. I don't profess to know exactly what legalization would do but government would not not be good for our plant. Don't get me wrong, the allure of growing freely sounds nice but nothing is free. I'm happy with my micro growing and small breeding projects as they are. Government intervention is nothing but a hassle. We have a true free market right now, why screw with it? Look where our governments insight has gotten us so far. They no longer have our best interests at heart.

 

[vta]

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n1138/a06.html

Could Obama's Pro-Marijuana Commerce Secretary Spell a Golden Era for POT REFORM?



December has been an interesting month for marijuana, or cannabis as it is known to scientists and all too few others. To kick off the month, the U.S. Supreme Court decided against reviewing a California state appellate court ruling arguing that its medical marijuana law trumped federal law. That, in effect, set the stage for better implementation of medical-marijuana law in not just California, but every state that has one, while also reminding local police that the job of enforcing federal drug policy is, in fact, not its job.

Two days later, the oldest stash of cannabis ever found was unearthed from a 2,700-year-old grave in the Gobi desert, aptly reminding humankind and its ass-backwards politicians that pot has been around a lot longer than lobbyists. If the eye-candy archaeological slideshow didn't fully illustrate the value of such a stash, the scientists did.

"As with other grave goods, it was traditional to place items needed for the afterlife in the tomb with the departed," explained Ethan Russo, lead author of the Journal of Experimental Botany paper that announced the find.

But as readers pondered packing their own trusty pot for use in the afterlife, better news broke on the same day: President-elect Barack Obama nominated New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to his Cabinet as secretary of commerce. Given that Obama had already confessed to inhaling -- "that was the point," he classically cracked -- and once declared the hyperbolically named War on Drugs "an utter failure," adding that America needed to "rethink and decriminalize" American cannabis laws, Richardson's nomination to Commerce was cause for celebration. After all, Richardson signed a bill in 2007 making New Mexico the 12th state to legalize medical marijuana.

"So what if it's risky? It's the right thing to do," he said of his decision. "My God, let's be reasonable."

Reason is indeed what proponents of decriminalization have been crying for after four consecutive presidential terms derailed their hopes and maneuvers for legalized cannabis, medical and otherwise. But something has always stood in the way of that inevitability, and it has usually leaned quite heavily on the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause, which states that Congress has the right to regulate commerce between the United States and other nations, as well as between its own states. It remains the most widely interpreted clause in the Constitution and has been more abused than the American people's goodwill. In the landmark case Gonzales v. Raich, the U.S. Supreme Court, under the distracted leadership of Justice Antonin Scalia, sided with the Bush administration's argument that banning the homegrown cultivation and consumption of marijuana is a federal imperative, even when no cannabis changes hands or travels across state lines. The lunacy of the ruling even threw rightward justices like Clarence Thomas, Jr. off their creaking rockers.

"Certainly no evidence from the founding suggests that 'commerce' included the mere possession of a good or some personal activity that did not involve trade or exchange for value. In the early days of the Republic, it would have been unthinkable that Congress could prohibit the local cultivation, possession and consumption of marijuana ... Respondents Diane Monson and Angel Raich use marijuana that has never been bought or sold, that has never crossed state lines, and that has had no demonstrable effect on the national market for marijuana. If Congress can regulate this under the Commerce Clause, then it can regulate virtually anything -- and the Federal Government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers."

Thomas is right, but a mostly Democratic Congress and Richardson offer the best chance in years to right this conundrum. With Richardson at Commerce, and Congress on the hunt for new sources of green, environmental and financial, during a time of deep economic recession, the launch window for legalization has never been wider...

"Richardson was a strong champion for legal access to medical marijuana," explains Reena Szczepanski, director of New Mexico's chapter of the Drug Policy Alliance. "In his role at the Commerce Department, he may be well-positioned to examine the economic contributions of the medical cannabis sector to the economy in states that have medical cannabis laws."

Well-positioned is right, but will Richardson exhibit the kind of spine he showed in the Democratic primary, when his brave decision on medical marijuana in his own state caused him to stick out like a sore realist? The answer came, once again, in December. When asked in an interactive question-and-response forum on Obama's transition site Change.gov whether the president-elect will "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.," the site's answer was the following curt, depressing cop-out: "President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana."

That is probably a play-it-safe deferral, given that Obama has yet to take office. But it is still disappointing, given that legalization is an even safer position with the public.

"The main obstacle to legalization of medical marijuana is that many politicians haven't yet figured out that it is a popular, politically safe issue," argues Bruce Mirken, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project. "The fact that it keeps rolling up wins surely helps with that, and the continuing stream of positive scientific studies does as well. But clearly the public is more divided on marijuana policy outside of medical situations, and we need to do a better job of understanding the public's concerns and addressing them."

In order for that to happen, a public dialogue needs to take place on legalization, and that is almost sure to happen under Obama's watch, as well of that of his friendly Democratic Congress. Indeed, the balls have already begun to roll.

"Legislation will be reintroduced in the House of Representatives during Obama's first term to reform America's antiquated and overly punitive federal marijuana laws," explains Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws ( NORML ). "One bill seeks to allow state governments the ability to legalize and dispense medical cannabis without running afoul of federal law. Another seeks to remove federal anti-drug penalties on the possession of up to 100 grams of marijuana, roughly 3 ounces, by adults. One would hope that the new Congress will hold hearings on these proposals and begin a long-overdue, objective political discussion on Capitol Hill regarding the need to amend America's marijuana policies."

Given that the Bush administration left behind political and economic wreckage at home and abroad, decriminalization and reform might not be at the top of either branch of the government's to-do list. But an exponentially increasing climate crisis, resource shortage and recalibration of globalization and consumption is going to demand some homegrown answers, as nations, states and even cities circle the wagons and look for answers from the interior. And since cannabis has been with humankind for at least a newly established 2,700 years, can grow in practically any climate and was once cultivated by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, there may be no place like home when it comes to turning around a superpower.

"That we spend billions every year in futile efforts to eradicate America's No. 1 cash crop, a drug markedly less harmful than alcohol, is insane," says Mirken. "And with the federal deficit approaching a trillion dollars, it is time to bring marijuana out of the underground economy, regulate it appropriately, and generate billions of dollars in tax revenues. Instead of guaranteeing all the profits to criminals, which is what prohibition does."

And if money isn't the point, let's move instead to morality. Even on that diaphanous front, the numbers have spoken.

"Since 1965, America has arrested over 20 million Americans for violating marijuana laws," explains Armentano. "Penalties include probation and mandatory drug testing; loss of employment; loss of child custody; removal from subsidized housing; asset forfeiture; loss of student aid; loss of voting privileges; loss of adoption rights; and loss of certain federal welfare benefits, such as food stamps. In human terms, some 34,000 state inmates and an estimated 11,000 federal inmates are serving time behind bars for violating marijuana laws. In fiscal terms, this means U.S. taxpayers are spending more than $1 billion annually to imprison pot offenders."

That's money and lives that disappear down the drain, never to return. And in the end, that is probably the reality that Obama and Richardson will be forced to reconcile. So even if Obama is against legalization now, he will probably be for it later. And if not him, someone else, who pissed-off voters will no doubt vote into office one day.

"It is not politically risky for the incoming administration to move forward in this area," adds Armentano. "This is a realm where the public is well ahead of the politicians."

 

[hamstring]

WOW, Hot topic.

Well here goes, Action speaks louder then words let wait and see. No one and I mean no one could get to be a president by spouting;” I am pro MJ". Please find me one guy besides George Washington who has done this.

When most of us go to work we are not running around yelling, " I am PRO MJ, I am PRO MJ!!!" over and over. Are we to believe we are a failure in the efforts to change the laws? It doesn’t add up I have to first think about my day-to-day life I am not a martyr not many are.

Jeez, I am willing to put my house, my car and well here it goes my life that even if you are 19 years old that in your lifetime you will not see a President come out and declare MJ completely safe and legal. If a person did it would be political suicide it's not done like that "I wish". Slowly over time small changes lead to the big change. That’s why the Med. MJ laws are such an important step.

Will Obama make the all the changes we want, HELL NO. All I am looking for is a small change even how MJ is viewed if not the laws. Baby steps baby!

 

[twisted treez]

please go to www.change. org and tellhim in a letter to hiself how you feel, tell him that he was voted on by potheads and gays and evryone else , and to sum this is not important but tous it is

 

[Koroz]

Please, if you do, use online spell check and don't use "internet speak" before you send it.

Although here it might not matter, the last thing we want to do is give them the impression we are uneducated potheads. I send in a new message every day, but it isn't going to help if we don't appear to be somewhat intelligent.

I am not the smartest man on the planet, so I spell check every message I send. But as a former employer, I can tell you if I get an application, or resume filled with spelling errors I just dump it, and I bet he does the same with as many of those messages as he gets.

 

[accessndx]

Dyslexics UNTIE!

Dyslexics UNTIE!

I am not the smartest man on the planet, so I spell check every message I send. But as a former employer, I can tell you if I get an application, or resume filled with spelling errors I just dump it, and I bet he does the same with as many of those messages as he gets.

What about people that have dyslexia!?!

 

[Koroz]

What about people that have dyslexia!?!
(CUT IMAGE FOR SIZE

Dyslexia doesn't break spell checkers, but I am going to steal that image cause its hilarious. laugh. I spit soda out of my nose =(

 

[nycdfan042]

more and more chatter about oh bama decriminalizing pot
http://www.esquire.com/the-side/richardson-report/obama-marijuana-legalization-122308

i hope the waiting on line to vote for him was worth it!