Obama is positive for marijuana legalization

[atk7]

Supporting states rights and keeping the feds out of individuals choices , next thing you know he will be the tea party's poster boy LOL , too bad he is just not thier type or it would really happen ... Over all I think he is playing it very shrewd and it is about time we had a president in office that is smart enough to know and brave enough to say that the reefer madness propaganda is all b.s. and always has been. Face it weed was classified as schedule one specifically to use as a tool against the lower classes who incidentally at the time were predominantly minority. And now that there is basically uncontested tax revenue tied to it...the rest will follow . And the country will be the better for it. Just study the history and politics of the time. Don't be offended just sit back and watch a new era unfold

 

[Jhhnn]

It's remarkable how state level legalization plays out against the rhetoric of the authoritarian american right. After preaching States' Rights, personal responsibility & less intrusive govt for decades, they now face unintended consequences of their own making.

Just as remarkable is that MMJ raised America's consciousness sufficiently for the truth to be widely known and for legalization to proceed from there. It was the last thing on our minds 40 years ago. Nobody saw it as a way to crack prohibition, leverage legalization. Beyond doing people a lot of good, it strategically advanced legalization as nothing else could have done.

 

[jakeh]

"I know, it's so much better now that he's issued all those pardons , correcting the terrible injustice."
Agree with Darth Fader completely on this. Discussing the merits of legalization is for the little guys. As president Obama can actually do something like issue pardons in mass for non violent marijuana offenders. Obama is so polarizing I'm not sure he does the cause much good speaking about it. His coming out agreeing with 87% of Americans on mj vs alcohol while a majority of Americans are for legalization shows no courage. Where was Obama on this issue when the polls were not on the side he is on? How do you believe marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol and sleep at night while people are locked up for it while all it takes is your autograph on a pardon? As far as dangerous to your health I'd say:
1. prison
2. tobacco/alcohol
3. marijuana
This is what pisses me off about the press. They should have hammered Obama on action not words.

 

[Jhhnn]

"I know, it's so much better now that he's issued all those pardons , correcting the terrible injustice."
Agree with Darth Fader completely on this. Discussing the merits of legalization is for the little guys. As president Obama can actually do something like issue pardons in mass for non violent marijuana offenders. Obama is so polarizing I'm not sure he does the cause much good speaking about it. His coming out agreeing with 87% of Americans on mj vs alcohol while a majority of Americans are for legalization shows no courage. Where was Obama on this issue when the polls were not on the side he is on? How do you believe marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol and sleep at night while people are locked up for it while all it takes is your autograph on a pardon? As far as dangerous to your health I'd say:
1. prison
2. tobacco/alcohol
3. marijuana
This is what pisses me off about the press. They should have hammered Obama on action not words.

I think you ask for too much. Not that it isn't righteous, but rather that we need a way to get from 75 years of effective propagandization to the other side, to the side where cannabis is legal, acceptable, regulated, taxed & enjoyed without fear.

On the other side, there are still a lot of fearful & well indoctrinated people against or unsure of legalization. They need to become adjusted to the reality of cannabis in small doses, so they don't get up in arms, emotional & exploitable. The successful path in both WA & CO was MMJ followed by citizen initiatives for legalization. That's the current path in other states, as well. Several are on the cusp of legalization.

It works, and will accelerate once legalization flourishes in WA & CO. It's basically a sure thing with some federal complicity.

Federal non-enforcement in those states encourages others to do the same, and the tax revenue will be irresistible. That's not nothing, no matter how much Obama's detractors want it to be.

It's actually a very big something in our favor, probably the best thing that they could do to aid legalization. They're taking a dive. CO & WA gave 'em a little love tap & now they're clinging to the mat feigning helplessness. It's a fight they intend to lose.

 

[420somewhere]

I just want to grow which I can do now!

I don't want to legalize Weed to the point where it will be illegal to grow.

Can you grow for your personal stash in both Washington and Colorado?

Peace

 

[unregistered190]

I am hoping Obama is prepping the public for a shift in policy change.

 

[atk7]

I just want to grow which I can do now!

I don't want to legalize Weed to the point where it will be illegal to grow.

Can you grow for your personal stash in both Washington and Colorado?

Peace

In Colorado yes, but with a plant limit which is fine with me ...baby steps .. and for those that want o to open the floodgates right away you have to remember he is a sitting pres that still has over three years to go and still has to contend with a congress that he has to deal with that has fought him on every item every step of the way so he is prudent to take things a little at a time . Otherwise there will be a huge backlash. And he has other things he needs to do just as a normal course of doing business. We don't need three years of total gridlock . That will do absolutely no one any good. We are dealing with American politics after all

 

[wantaknow]

well ,from todays news release ,I would say everyone is striking while the iron is hot ,this needs to be done ....but it wont happen like we would want it ,ever......,they will monopolize it just as the cig co did ,big money will step on everyone every time ,

 

[atk7]

Wantaknow Which news release? there are hundreds out there, from both ends of the spectrum

 

[entheogen]

Isn't the real issue personal freedom? If I can grow it myself, and am not selling it to other people, than it's nobodys business but mine if I choose to smoke it.

Whatever your opinion is on the health benefits or negative consequences is irrelevant. We should not have to debate or have dictated to us every aspect of our lives. If I want to eat too much sugar, fat, caffeine, or smoke cannabis that is my choice.

Now, I'm sure there is some mamby-pamby government alphabet agency wackjob that would jump at the chance to debate the negative consequences to society of poor health...but let me stop you right there.

I'll start worrying about the negative effects on society when my government stops giving tax breaks to companies spewing toxic shit into the water and the air that I have to ingest to stay alive. When I can go on a walk and not have to breathe exhaust...maybe we can talk.

Until then just do your fucking job...Which the last time I checked was supposed to be representing the people. If 87% of the public believes cannabis to be less harmful than alcohol, and alcohol is legal...seems a no brainer. No?

 

[wantaknow]

the huff post ,

 

[Eighths-n-Aces]

I know, it's so much better now that he's issued all those pardons , correcting the terrible injustice.

Nice attempt at diversion. If you hadn't heard, the last election was over a year ago. So ... there is no alternative. Another hint: this thread is about the President, not people who aren't President. Maybe you can start a thread about all the people who aren't President who would be worse that the shithead who is. Of course, average chicks all look hot standing next to a fatty, so that is really misdirection at best.

"it's important for it to go forward because it's important for society not to have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished."
-Honest Obe


If only it wasn't just the select few getting punished everything would be just grand! If we just put mo whitey in jail there wouldn't be anything to complain about!


Even when he gets it right, he gets it wrong. You don't end injustice by spreading it more evenly.

Actions, not words. Still waiting for the pardons. Is he waiting for his 3rd term to actually do something besides make an uncontroversial statement.

diversion ????? i had no idea that is what i was trying to do, but if you say so .........

IMO obama is a tool just like anyone he ever ran against is a tool, just like the people who run for office after him will be tools. but at least the tool in charge at the moment is talking about legalization instead of talking about kicking down doors in all the med states, and that is a good thing isn't it?

IMHO if obama issued pardons and closed the DEA down today half the population would be calling him a dictator anyway.

this shit is american politics at it's best. hate the guy in charge at the moment no matter what he does, second guess everything, vote for some douche who says he is going to change everything and repeat the cycle

at this point anyone who wants to be president must be brain damaged anyway

just the way is see it. but thank you for the lecture anyway

i do have a question though. why is it that not believing that every problem this country has at the moment can be blamed on the current POTUS translates to supporting him in everything he does? do we just enjoy polarizing everything to the point that we solve nothing? .......... or has it worked so well for all of us over the past 30 or so years that it makes perfect sense to keep doing the same thing for a while longer?

 

[atk7]

 

[Loc Dog]

Obama Admits Marijuana Is Less Dangerous Than Alcohol
Posted by Johnny Green at 2:11 PM on January 19, 2014 Ending Marijuana Prohibition Add comments

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obama marijuana legalizationAn interview was released by the New Yorker today in which United States President Barack Obama had some interesting things to say. It was a lengthy interview covering many areas of public policy, with a specific Q & A session about marijuana. When asked asked about marijuana, Barack Obama stated the following:

”As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.”

There are two ways a marijuana reformer can look at these sentences. One way to look at it is ‘Obama just said that marijuana isn’t more dangerous than alcohol.’ This is a significant statement for the President of the United States to make about marijuana. The other way to look at it is ‘Obama is such a hypocrite. Why the F doesn’t he just legalize it like alcohol then!?’ Both ways to look at Obama’s statements are definitely valid. Obama went on to say:

“Less dangerous, he said, “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer. It’s not something I encourage, and I’ve told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy.” What clearly does trouble him is the radically disproportionate arrests and incarcerations for marijuana among minorities. “Middle-class kids don’t get locked up for smoking pot, and poor kids do,” he said. “And African-American kids and Latino kids are more likely to be poor and less likely to have the resources and the support to avoid unduly harsh penalties.” But, he said, “we should not be locking up kids or individual users for long stretches of jail time when some of the folks who are writing those laws have probably done the same thing.” Accordingly, he said of the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington that “it’s important for it to go forward because it’s important for society not to have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished.”"

I agree with Barack Obama that marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington is important for going forward. Everyday that marijuana is grown and sold legally, and tax revenue piles up, is a day that the world gets to see that legalizing marijuana is a great thing. Everyone wins, no one loses, no matter what Kevin Sabet says.

What do readers think of President Obama’s comments? Are you surprised at his comments? How many of you out there think that this is rhetoric, and that he needs to back up his words with actions? That’s how I feel for the most part. I can read 1,000 of these types of statements by Obama, but until he actually backs it up with actions and does something more than issue a meaningless memo, I still think he sucks.

To learn more about how marijuana is safer than alcohol, check out this great resource that Marijuana Policy Project has.

 

[Jhhnn]

What do readers think of President Obama’s comments? Are you surprised at his comments? How many of you out there think that this is rhetoric, and that he needs to back up his words with actions? That’s how I feel for the most part. I can read 1,000 of these types of statements by Obama, but until he actually backs it up with actions and does something more than issue a meaningless memo, I still think he sucks.

If you think Mitt Romney's DEA would have been sitting on the bench when retail marijuana stores opened in Colorado, you're probably delusional.

Clearly, Obama has done more than issue meaningless memos. What he's really done is invite other states to legalize, regulate & tax cannabis. By 2017, I hope it'll be too big & too late to go back. I'm confident Obama's people believe that as much as I do.

For those of us living in other states, it's time to get going, do what can be done to promote legalization. Supporting MJ activists financially is a good start- send 'em a check, like we've done every year for a very long while. Or volunteer as a canvasser, stuff envelopes, whatever they need done to get proposals on the ballot or under consideration by their state legislature.

Marijuana won't legalize itself, and bad mouthing what the Obama Admin has done serves us not at all. Them just getting out of the way of state level legalization, going along with it, is an enormous boost for legalization everywhere.

 

[AuZeN]

we can hope for a better tomorrow

 

[oldchuck]

Face it weed was classified as schedule one specifically to use as a tool against the lower classes who incidentally at the time were predominantly minority. And now that there is basically uncontested tax revenue tied to it...the rest will follow . And the country will be the better for it. Just study the history and politics of the time. Don't be offended just sit back and watch a new era unfold

You are correct that the first wave of prohibition was motivated by racism and class repression starting about 1910 and culminating in the 1937 tax act but the official "War on Drugs" was started by Richard Nixon in about 1970. Nixon and his crowd of thugs were not so much motivated by race and class but fear of hippies and political leftists which they considered the same. They sold their war to the "silent majority" as a grave threat to the American way of life. Free love, rock & roll, dope, and get out of Vietnam were all part of the same package.

Those of us in that pariah class of young radicals were painted as the ultimate evil and we were crushed, culturally, politically. Reagan piled on more shit.

Now, unfortunately in many ways, weed has no particular cultural or political content. What I am seeing with all this legalization stuff is a lot of hustlers out to make the big bucks legally, pretending to be righteous hippies or compassionate healers while they are really nothing more than dope dealers. State governments and soon big corporations will be taking over the cartel role and us old political hippies will be shit out of luck, again. It's nice that it cures cancer though.

 

[Jhhnn]

You are correct that the first wave of prohibition was motivated by racism and class repression starting about 1910 and culminating in the 1937 tax act but the official "War on Drugs" was started by Richard Nixon in about 1970. Nixon and his crowd of thugs were not so much motivated by race and class but fear of hippies and political leftists which they considered the same. They sold their war to the "silent majority" as a grave threat to the American way of life. Free love, rock & roll, dope, and get out of Vietnam were all part of the same package.

Those of us in that pariah class of young radicals were painted as the ultimate evil and we were crushed, culturally, politically. Reagan piled on more shit.

Now, unfortunately in many ways, weed has no particular cultural or political content. What I am seeing with all this legalization stuff is a lot of hustlers out to make the big bucks legally, pretending to be righteous hippies or compassionate healers while they are really nothing more than dope dealers. State governments and soon big corporations will be taking over the cartel role and us old political hippies will be shit out of luck, again. It's nice that it cures cancer though.

I'm having trouble with some of the negativity surrounding current legalization victories. I mean, we should all be able to agree that completely removing the "lawbreaker" stigma from cannabis production & use is a very good thing. We should also be able to agree that state level MMJ followed by citizen initiatives to legalize is a proven method, essentially enjoying support from the Obama Admin.

Colorado's path is one that others really, really, really need to adopt as their own, particularly the personal growing provisions. Prohibition becomes impossible when the state Constitution allows you to grow your own, and it serves to keep mass marketers more honest wrt pricing. As this unfolds, I see private cultivation moving outdoors

Old Hippie radicals? That would be me. I think, if we look at it carefully, that we've changed America as much as they've changed us over the years, creating a new & more vital synthesis. Face it, the notion that some states might legalize cannabis would be absurd if the nation were wearing a 1967 headset.

 

[oldchuck]

Old Hippie radicals? That would be me. I think, if we look at it carefully, that we've changed America as much as they've changed us over the years, creating a new & more vital synthesis. Face it, the notion that some states might legalize cannabis would be absurd if the nation were wearing a 1967 headset.

No argument there, fellow old hippie radical. I think there are lots of ways legal weed can be kept as a cottage industry but I don't see that happening the way things are going.

I don't want to see people jailed for weed any more than you do but I think mom and pop weed businesses are going to have a pretty short life span. Government and the politicians are too greedy not to mention the big corporations who have yet to figure out a way to cash in. So nothing really changes and we get Brave New World with everybody stoned and stupid as ever. Please prove me wrong.

 

[TheCleanGame]

No argument there, fellow old hippie radical. I think there are lots of ways legal weed can be kept as a cottage industry but I don't see that happening the way things are going.

Everyone keeps likening the burgeoning cannabis market to the current tobacco and alcohol market... but not completely.

Yes, there are going to be huge commercial producers of mediocre cannabis very soon. I see federal prohibition dropping within the next 5 years max.

People will still drive 2 hours from Denver to buy my cannabis... should I end up setting up shop. People who know quality and care about themselves will travel that extra mile and pay that extra dollar for the right stuff.

There are tons of small distilleries, wineries and breweries that put out superior quality at a price and people pay. There are small tobacco producers that command top pricing for their tobacco products... much more than what the commercial boys get paid. Just not as much volume.

Keep it Clean!