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Over 300 Economists Agree: It’s Time to Legalize Marijuana

MadBuddhaAbuser

Kush, Sour Diesel, Puday boys
Veteran
Or maybe you would prefer his new drug control policy

Obama’s New Drug Control Report Calls for More Workplace Drug Testing, NationwideZero ToleranceLaws,Prescription-OnlyEphedrineProducts, and the Return of the “Above the Influence” Campaign

Mike Riggs| April 17, 2012

The first thing you should know about President Barack Obama’s 2012 Drug Control Strategy report is that it begins and ends with the declaration that the war on drugs is working and will continue apace.

Obama administration policies have “yielded significant results,” according to the President’s introductory letter, which concludes by saying, “While difficult budget decisionsmust bemadeatalllevelsof government, we must ensure continued support for policies and programs that reduce drug use and its enormous costs to American society.”

The report ends with a familiar refrain: “Legalization of drugs will not be considered in this approach. Making drugs more available and more accessible will not reducedrug useand itsadverseconsequencesforpublic health and safety. We will continue to educate young people and all Americans about the science on the harmful health effects of marijuanause.”

The pages in between those two statements contain a broad outline for increased drug enforcement, mandatory rehabilitation programs for people who don’t need or want them, and the return of melodramatic Reefer Madness-style agitprop aimed at teenagers.

The worst policy planscontained in the report are outlined after the jump.

- The report implicitly blames the debate over drug reform—one Obama recently told Univision he’s more than willing to hear—for increased use of drugs by teens:

One possible influence on this observed trend in drug use and perception of risk is the decreased exposure of youth to prevention messages and the presence of messages and policies that downplay the consequences of drug use. WhiletheAdministration supportsongoing research into determining what components of the marijuana plant can be used as medicine, to date, neither the FDA nor the Institute of Medicine has found the marijuana plant itself to meet the modern standard for safe or effective medicine for any condition. The Administration also recognizesthatlegalizing marijuana would not provide the answer to any of the health, social, youth education, criminaljustice,and community quality of life challenges associated with drug use.

- The report encourages carte blanche workplace drug testing, on the grounds that it will curtail productivity losses associated with drug use and improve users’ lives. It also describestheObama administration’s attempt to develop on oral test for workplace drug testing:

In addition to the youth programs mentioned previously, as our young people enter the workplace and others remain engaged in workforce, it is important to ensure a drug-free workplace. The consequences of illicit drug use in America’s workforce include job-related accidents and injuries, absenteeism, health care costs, and lost productivity.

Workplace programs that provide clear policies regarding drug use; offer prevention and education opportunities for employers and supervisors; conduct drug testing to detect and deter use; and support referral and treatment for those who have substance use disorders can play a large role in reducing the demand for drugs throughout our Nation and in helping drug users get into treatment.

These programs provide employees with the opportunity to self-identify and get help. Often, such programs give employees an opportunity to return to the same job, or a similar job in the same industry, thereby creating an incentiveto succeed in their recoveryand resumea fulfilling career. Consequently, drug-free workplace programs are beneficial for our labor force, employers, families, and communities in general.

In 2011, the Administration committed to funding for the scientific determination for oral fluids testing as a complement to urine testing. HHS published a FederalRegisternoticerequestingpubliccomment on the scientificbasis for oral fluid testing . HHS ismoving forward to setstandards for oral fluid testing that will be published in the future for public comment before they can be finalized in the Mandatory Guidelines for Drug Workplace Testing. These Guidelineswill also beavailableforstate and local jurisdictions to apply as appropriate for the prosecution of drugged driving violations,and to encourage the drug testing industry to develop accurate point-of-collection oralfluidtesting devices.

- The report contains a request to Congress for $20 million to Revamp and Reenergize the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, which was defunded by Congress last year because it doesn’t work:

Since 2005, there has been a significant public investment in developing the widely-recognized “AbovetheInfluence” (ATI) brand, a campaign that has been found by independent scientific analyses to be effective, relevant to youth, and instrumental to drug prevention efforts in communities across the country. Unfortunately, despite evidence of its effectiveness, Congress appropriated no funding for the Media Campaign in Fiscal Year(FY) 2012, and the campaign is now operating on a minimal budget composed of its unobligated balancesastheYouth Drug Prevention Media Program.

The report also calls for a nationwide zero tolerance policy for "drugged driving,"which would meanalldriverswould besubjectedto laws that currently affect only commercial drivers:

The Administration encourages statesto pursue enhanced legal responses, such as per se (or “zero tolerance”) laws. Seventeen states already have per se statutes, and additional states should consider adopting these standards. These same standardshavebeenapplied to 12million commercial drivers in the United States for the past two decades. The Administration has developed educational packets for states, providing them with information on the dangers of drugged driving and why per se laws are beneficial.

- The report also says that “Several options are being considered to further reduce methamphetamine production including prescription-only status for pseudoephedrine/ephedrine products.”

The MarijuanaPolicyProject’sRob Kampia hascalled thereport“appalling,” adding, “The drug czar is trying to resurrect those stupid TV ads, like the one where a teenager gets his fist stuck in his mouth. The budget intentionally undercounts the federal government's expenditures on incarcerating drug offenders, who comprise more than half of the federal prison population. And the budget dangerously proposes a massive escalation in using the militaryto fight drugsdomestically.Congressshould just ignore this budget and start from scratch. Specifically, Congress should not provide the Obama administration with any money to go after nonviolent marijuana users, growers, or distributors."

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition also attacked the report.

"President Obama keeps saying he is open to a discussion but he never seems willing to actually havethatdiscussion,” said LEAP Director Neil Franklin said in a press release. “Polls show that three out of four U.S. voters think the 'war on drugs' is a failure and a majoritynow support marijuana legalization. The time for real changeisnow, but at the Summit of the Americas President Obama announced more than $130 million in aid to fund the continued effort to arrest drug traffickers in Latin America. This prohibition strategy hasn't worked in the past and it cannot work in the future. Latin American leaders know it, and President Obama must know it. Let's stop the charade and begin to bring drugs under control through legalization."

Former ONDCP senior advisor Kevin Sabet,meanwhile, isdoing promotion for the report, which he refers to as “Wake Up and Grow Up.” In anticipating criticism of the report, Sabet writes, "The 2012 release is likely to be attacked by those who are waiting for the day the President will make a U-turn and support legalization—but attackers will unfortunately miss the nuance and striking clarity which characterizes this particular document and its connection with the first Strategy." Fun fact: Sabet wrote the first strategy!

More Reason on Obama's drug policies, including investments in police violence, the myth that the president's policies are "compassionate" and Jacob Sullum'smust-read featureon how Obama turned out to be just another drug warrior.
 

flubnutz

stoned agin ...
Veteran
man, this obama shit bums me out. i swear i hear more republicans talk about legalizing weed. maybe its the libertarian tea party influence, don't know.
 

mrcreosote

Active member
Veteran
225px-Flag_of_INGSOC.svg.png
 

CannaBunkerMan

Enormous Member
Veteran
Unfortunately it's not that simple. The President is just a figurehead and does not have the power to create or change laws. He only has the power to sign legislation into law and he can also impact how a law is enforced through executive order. What is really needed is for each state to have representatives with the balls to go along with the program since it is they who actually create laws. Unfortunately they're mostly in it for the money they can milk from the deep pockets of corporate lobbyists. So what is really needed is for those wanting marijuana legalized to form into a lobby with pockets so deep that the politicians will tell the other corporate lobbyists to go pound sand.

Do you think that if Obama came out (never will) and said that pot should be LEGAL, that it wouldn't bring us closer to ending prohibition? Obama is a turd.
 

HempKat

Just A Simple Old Dirt Farmer
Veteran
That is such an illinformed excuse to back a prez who thinks pot smokers are criminals.

The prez appoints the head of the dea, the secretary of hhs, federal judges, oversees the budget (yes congress must approve, so dont bring your copouts). http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unite...torney_General " The attorney general is nominated by the President of the United States and takes office after confirmation by the United States Senate. He or she servesatthepleasure of the president and can be removed by the president at any time; ."

Even wiki has to acknowledge the bully pulpit of prez.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power..._United_States " Much of the legislation dealt with by Congress is drafted at the initiative ofthe executive branch. In annual and special messages to Congress, the president may propose legislation he believes is necessary. The most important of these is the annual Stateof theUnion address. Before a joint session of Congress,the president outlines the status of the country and his legislative proposals for the upcoming year. If Congress should adjourn without acting on those proposals, the president has the power to call it into special session. But beyond this official role, the president, as head of a political party and as principal executive officerof theUnited States government, is primarily in a position to influence public opinion and thereby to influence the course of legislationin Congress."

Executive ordercreated the dea.

Presidents can issue blanket amnesty which forgivesentiregroups of people for a crime. PresidentJimmyCarteroffered amnesty to Vietnam War draftees who fled to Canada.

If it's such an ill informed excuse to back someone (although I'm not backing anyone and would say the same thing even if Ron Paul were President). Then how come none of what you post disproves what I've said?

The problem with your interpretation of how the system works is it doesn't take into account how aggressively the party not in control works against the party in control. Typically the only time a President can accomplish something is when his party also controls the house and senate. Two great recent examples are Bush and Obama. Both only succeeded in moving forward on their political agenda when their party had control of Congress and both failed to get anything else accomplished when their party lost control midway thru their terms.

As for executive orders, they can only dictate how laws are enforced they can't lay down new laws. An executive order may have created the DEA but it was to enforce laws created by congress.

As for the Attorney General I guess it doesn't matter to you that he has echoed all along Obama's position of not using the DEA to bust people in compliance with thier State Laws? I imagine you're just another one of the mindless drones that think, "Oh the US Attornies for California are busting dispensaries and so it must have come from Obama and Holder because no way they can act on thier own accord and judgement." Yet as I understand it not all dispensaries have been busted or shut down and the ones that have been busted are accused of trafficing marijuana outside their state. Which if true is clearly not in compliance with state laws and therefore fair game for the DEA under the current Administration's position on the matter. I mean you can be in full compliance as far as the patients on your books and what not but if your moving stuff outside the state and off the books you're still not in compliance.

Whenever I here people like you talk I get this impression you expect a President to one day walk into office and say "You know what, we were all wrong about weed and now you all can grow it, smoke it and sell it, whenever and wherever you want." Look I hate to burst your bubble but it's just not going to happen like that. Not even fuits and vegtables are they that lenient on.
 

HempKat

Just A Simple Old Dirt Farmer
Veteran
Do you think that if Obama came out (never will) and said that pot should be LEGAL, that it wouldn't bring us closer to ending prohibition? Obama is a turd.

No I don't think any President coming out and saying stuff like that will move us towards and end of Prohibition because it's the power (money) behind the parties that are keeping marijuana illegal. Until you change those minds I fear marijuana prohibition will never end. Obama isn't a turd unless your definition of turd is politician. Then yeah all politicians are turds because they don't serve the will of the people who vote them into office, they serve the will of the corporations that fill their pockets with money. Obama is no different on that score much to the disappointment oall those that thought because he was a black man he'd act differently in the Oval Office then every other President of the past century.
 

Anti

Sorcerer's Apprentice
Veteran
If you replace "legalize weed", with "push through Obama Care", can you still say the same thing?


Obama pushed it through all by himself? Why did he have to compromise almost ALL of the good stuff away in order to get it through? Why'd he spend months discussing, debating, changing, etc.? And how come the republicans haven't embraced it now that it's passed?

You really think that if Obama pushed for legalization that Fox News wouldn't start running 24/7 "pot causes blacks to rape white women" news reports?
 

CannaBunkerMan

Enormous Member
Veteran
To say that Obama's stance on legalization has nothing to do with keeping the status quo of prohibition is disingenuous. There is no larger soap box on the planet. I don't care if he doesn't have the clout to push through mj reforms or legalization, I just want him to step up and defend the will of the states and the people.

Grow some nuts Obama, if you had been caught when you were younger, would you have EVER become president? It's okay for our leaders, but not for the people. I will only vote for people who will stand up for what's right. I voted for Obama, and I thought he would do just that, with his fucking mantra of change, but I was wrong.

So, if our presidents can't influence change, then why do we vote for them? The cure for disenfranchisment is a long and difficult road. Is it time to throw off our oppressors? Is that the only route left to us?
 

Anti

Sorcerer's Apprentice
Veteran
If you replace "legalize weed", with "push through Obama Care", can you still say the same thing?

I completely disagree with you here.

To say that Obama's stance on legalization has nothing to do with keeping the status quo of prohibition is disingenuous. There is no larger soap box on the planet. I don't care if he doesn't have the clout to push through mj reforms or legalization, I just want him to step up and defend the will of the states and the people.

I agree with you here.

Grow some nuts Obama, if you had been caught when you were younger, would you have EVER become president? It's okay for our leaders, but not for the people. I will only vote for people who will stand up for what's right. I voted for Obama, and I thought he would do just that, with his fucking mantra of change, but I was wrong.

I'm with you here, too.

So, if our presidents can't influence change, then why do we vote for them? The cure for disenfranchisment is a long and difficult road. Is it time to throw off our oppressors? Is that the only route left to us?

We're at stage one of the cure now, We are attempting to diagnose the problems.

The sooner we can all figure out a consensus point to rally around, the better.
 

CannaBunkerMan

Enormous Member
Veteran
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/75421_Page2.html
Obama's pot promise a pipe dream?
By: Byron Tau
April 21, 2012 07:02 AM EDT
120413_obama_marijuana_reuters_605.jpg

President Barack Obama has turned out to be a real buzzkill.

Back when he was running in 2008, Obama said he supported the “basic concept of using medical marijuana for the same purposes and with the same controls as other drugs” and that he was “not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws.” He didn’t go farther. But he also didn’t do anything to dissuade speculation among medical marijuana proponents who took this as a sign that the man headed to the Oval Office was on their side.

Four years later, the raids on drug dispensaries have kept up — despite a Justice Department memo formalizing low-enforcement priority instructions from Attorney General Eric Holder, who announced in a March 2009 press conference that the raids would stop on distributors who were in compliance with state and local law. Obama never said anything about supporting legalization or decriminalization, but his medical marijuana statements were enough to get him heralded by some in the larger pro-pot community as the best hope for chipping away at the decades-long drug war.

But the hopes that Obama would be a kinder, gentler, more tolerant drug warrior have gone up in smoke.

“I’m very disappointed,” Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), a longtime supporter of marijuana legalization and medical marijuana, told POLITICO. “They look more like the Bush administration than the Clinton administration.”

(Also on POLITICO: 4/20: Nine pols who talked pot.)

The dejected medical marijuana supporters are hardly alone. For many in 2008, candidate Obama was like a political Rorschach test: They projected strong progressive positions about everything from legalizing gay marriage to ending all military involvement onto a candidate who never said he agreed with them — but also never explicitly said he didn’t.

Now they’re looking at four years into the Obama administration and wondering where they went wrong.

“I believed in him,” Montana-based activist and medical cannabis user Sarah Combs said about the president. “I don’t believe a word he says now.”

Combs, a native South Carolinian who uses medical marijuana to treat her epilepsy, packed up her life and moved to Montana, where medical marijuana has been legal since 2004.

According to Combs, a sizable Montana community of patients and growers felt empowered by the DOJ memo and the administration’s supportive statements to open up shop, register patients and begin paying taxes on what they thought was now a legitimate business. Then in 2011, federal forces from several agencies raided 26 dispensaries across 13 Montana cities. Other dispensaries have been raided in states like California, Washington, Michigan, and Colorado.

All told, the federal government has raided more than 100 dispensaries — with the most recent busts of a San Francisco Bay area marijuana training center. Obama has vowed more money to hunt down Latin American drug traffickers, promising an extra $200 million in a 2011 press conference with El Salvador President Mauricio Funes. He’s kept in place Bush administration anti-medical marijuana administrators in key administration positions.


Central American leaders at last week’s Summit of the Americas in Colombia urged Obama to consider decriminalization or legalization of drugs as a potential solution to the drug war. The president called the idea “corrupting,” and said the United States would not be moving in that direction.

Those now facing charges believe they were exposed, and then betrayed by Obama and the Justice Department policy.

“Many people who did not feel fully protected from federal law enforcement did feel protected after that memo was released,” said Combs, who says her supply of medical marijuana has suffered because of the raids.

Obama sees his history on medical marijuana enforcement differently. The president was again asked about the Justice Department medical marijuana policy at a high-dollar fundraiser at Washington’s St. Regis Hotel filled with liberal mega-donors who paid $35,800 a plate to attend. According to a source with knowledge of the event, which was closed to reporters, Obama reportedly said that the DOJ was raiding purely on a case-by-case basis.

Frank says he got a frustrating response when he buttonholed Obama to complain that this wasn’t true: Obama told the Massachusetts Democrat that, to the best of his knowledge, the 2009 hands-off policy remained in place.

Frank told POLITICO that he’s preparing to send the president press clippings to demonstrate that raids continue across the country.

The tide has turned on the issue — beyond medical marijuana, there’s growing support for full legalization — Frank said, and there’s no reason the president should be lagging behind.

“Obama now lags Pat Robertson in a sensible approach to marijuana,” said Frank, referring to the conservative evangelical leader’s recent criticism of the drug war.

White House officials and administration insiders say cannabis supporters misunderstood, projecting their hopes for legalization or decriminalization onto an administration facing the fact that marijuana is still in the same legally classification as heroin, LSD and ecstasy.

White House spokesman Matt Lehrich said medical marijuana patients are not being targeted by federal law enforcement — but that it was always the administration’s intention to go after traffickers.

“The administration’s position has been clear and consistent,” Lehrich said. “While the prosecution of drug traffickers is a core priority, targeting individuals with cancer and serious illnesses is not the best allocation of federal law enforcement resources.”


That doesn’t necessarily square with what happened within the Justice Department in the early days of the administration. According to a source familiar with the drafting of the 2009 Justice Department memo, it was definitely the department’s intention to move away from the Bush administration raid policy in a limited, narrow way.

But Kevin Sabet, former senior adviser at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy in the Obama Administration, said he blames people who read between the lines of the memo and read past the actual words that clearly state that federal law supersedes any state drug laws “mainly by legalization advocates, who thought they could market the memo as a green light for marijuana sales and cultivation.”

“They’ve always known that they were violating federal law, and in most cases, state law as well. When you have organizations that want to legalize all drugs as the main backers of these so-called ‘compassionate use’ efforts, the pieces of the puzzle come together quickly,” Sabet said.

Still, even allies of the president find the status-quo unsustainable: with the medical marijuana community dazed and confused over how exactly how tolerant the federal government is willing to be.

“It would certainly be nice for the attorney general and the president to clarify the federal policy,” said Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), another member of Congress critical of marijuana prohibition and the various interpretations of the DOJ memo. “Currently it’s largely at the behest of the regional attorney deputy general.”

That “low enforcement priority” has nevertheless ensnared many prominent marijuana dispensary owners in federal probes — with many facing charges and potentially stiff prison sentences.

“I think that you can always try to split hairs on legal details, but the fact is during the campaign, he said that it sounded like he was supporting it,” said California-based activist Richard Lee, whose Oakland dispensary was raided this month by the Drug Enforcement Agency and Internal Revenue Service.

“He was with us, and then Holder seemed to reiterate that with his press conference remarks. It does seem like he’s reversed,” Lee said about Obama.

But despite all the disappointments there remains hope among some pot advocates that the president himself isn’t to blame, and might still be on their side.

“There is no indication that the recent crackdowns come at the direction of Obama himself. It is more likely that he simply does not care about this issue,” Morgan Fox, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project. Obama “probably does not realize that his positive statements during his campaign no doubt motivated many of the people that voted for him.”

Still, Fox said, that’s no excuse.

“Obama has gone from being the greatest hope for marijuana reform to the greatest disappointment, and is now officially the worst president in terms of interference with state medical marijuana laws,” Fox said.

Kenneth P. Vogel contributed to this report.
 
L

longearedfriend

apparently there are more marijuana smokers in the us then there are people who voted for the president
 

flubnutz

stoned agin ...
Veteran
it ain't obama's fault, there isn't enough up-side on legalizing weed and there is plenty of downside, thanks to the social conservatives who love to portray it as succumbing to SIN ... but ... when i hear republicans talking about the wisdom of inflicting the sort of punishment the law dishes out to weed people being questionable, i wonder... they're reaching, and they have got the machine and the money to know where to put out feelers. maybe now's the time for BIG social action. mass sit down smoke-ins and arrests. preferably including blunt-smoking grannies. think of the civil rights movement. think of, crowds of potential voters.
 

HempKat

Just A Simple Old Dirt Farmer
Veteran
To say that Obama's stance on legalization has nothing to do with keeping the status quo of prohibition is disingenuous. There is no larger soap box on the planet. I don't care if he doesn't have the clout to push through mj reforms or legalization, I just want him to step up and defend the will of the states and the people.

Grow some nuts Obama, if you had been caught when you were younger, would you have EVER become president? It's okay for our leaders, but not for the people. I will only vote for people who will stand up for what's right. I voted for Obama, and I thought he would do just that, with his fucking mantra of change, but I was wrong.

So, if our presidents can't influence change, then why do we vote for them? The cure for disenfranchisment is a long and difficult road. Is it time to throw off our oppressors? Is that the only route left to us?

It's hard to say why people vote for who they do because there are all sorts of reasons. Some vote just because of how a President looks. Many have come forward since Obama's election and admitted they voted for him just because he was black. Some vote the way they do because they vote the party line and that's what their parents did and their Grand Parents and Great Grand Parents, etc. Some vote for whoever is opposite of the previous administration. Like if the previous president was republican but they didn't like how he did then they might vote democrat at the next election. Some people vote based on campaign promises which is surprising because historically campaign promises are seldom kept and the ones that are, are almost never kept the way people thought they would be.

Some do even more and speculate what someone might do based on something they said that was related. Like all this stuff you posted here about how disappointed mmj supporters were because they thought Obama would do more because he said he didn't see anything wrong with treating and regulating marijuana like other medicines. The fact is that Obama never promised anything with regards to MMJ, Sure Obama could have done more to make his position clear and to stop people from thinking he was going to do all this and that for MMJ but think about that for a second. Had he done so he would have lost votes and maybe the election. Politician's typically don't intentionally do things to lose votes and they're only too happy to let people's imaginations run wild because then later on when criticized for not doing what the people hoped they would do they can say "I never promised that".
 

CannaBunkerMan

Enormous Member
Veteran
I'm tired of the political misdirection. If it's not Obama's fault, then who is responsible, other than spirits and vapors? Obama needs to lead, not campaign.
 

sso

Active member
Veteran
im starting to think obama is the Ultimate politician.


appear to promise them everything, without saying anything at all really.
 

Mrs.Babba

THE CHIMNEY!!
ICMag Donor
Veteran
im starting to think obama is the Ultimate politician.


appear to promise them everything, without saying anything at all really.

That sounds like EVERY politician, not just the prez...just sayin
 

stc9357

Member
Come on with the Obama shit he has no real power most adults would know that by now. To come out for legalization on the cusp of a new presidential campaign would be political suicide now how many of you would basically get yourself fired at your own job?

I'm black and have his back because I don't expect anything out of politicians. Now lets get to the real issue if you Californians could stop getting high for a second and actually go about legalizing in your state then something would happen. You have three different things up for ballot and none of them will make it your wasting time all while getting high and complaining. Motherfuckers in cali have it so good but they still complain like little bitches I'm tired of it.

Excuse me I'm dry right now and just had to tell you how I really feel about you pussy californians. That being said I might be joining you in 4 years but most likely I'll stay here in NC make bank and disobey the man at the same time.
 

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