Bad news.....maybe for everyone!
- Thread starter BrainSellz
- Start date
VIKINGtrich
Member
Incognegro
Member
Exactly..
Many if not most of Obama's plan won't really take affect or even begin to show change until his second term, and/or after... many were projected for 12years AFTER his election, so that means he'll already be out of office.
He's gotta move smart to be reelected... I hope he wins, I've had enough of both Bush admins, Clinton did what he could, but good ole George W reversed, and nullified alot Bill's actions.
IF Obama gets reelected (I PRAY TO GOD HE DOES) then we may see a BIG swing in the way things are currently being done.
dont hold your breath on any drug policies changing.....not after this move he just did, mo..... i admire your hope in that man ...cuz mine is bout gone
from desperation springs forth self-dependence, get yours now!
ooobummer. the feds will always make their own rules.
F
feral
The president in reality has no power. Obama, Bush, etc. are nothing more than the puppets of a very SELECT few. Those who we know nothing about, will never hear of, and definitively will never see. The powerbrokers.
David762
Member
Some say Obama's playing 3d chess with Republicans
Some say Obama's playing 3d chess with Republicans
but I'm not that hopeful. It really looks like Obama actually is the Reagan Democrat his autobiography and voting record reveals -- any "progressive" talk only comes up in the weeks before elections. Obama could issue an Executive Order re-scheduling cannabis to Schedule 2, or 3 -- but has has re-authorized every Bush EO that strengthens the Bush "Unitary (a dictatorship would be easier) Executive". And then some -- extrajudicial assassination of American citizens, extrajudicial stripping of citizenship, expansion of war in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and extrajudicial preemptive detention of domestic USA citizens. Obama looks like yet another fascist, imho.
Some say Obama's playing 3d chess with Republicans
but I'm not that hopeful. It really looks like Obama actually is the Reagan Democrat his autobiography and voting record reveals -- any "progressive" talk only comes up in the weeks before elections. Obama could issue an Executive Order re-scheduling cannabis to Schedule 2, or 3 -- but has has re-authorized every Bush EO that strengthens the Bush "Unitary (a dictatorship would be easier) Executive". And then some -- extrajudicial assassination of American citizens, extrajudicial stripping of citizenship, expansion of war in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and extrajudicial preemptive detention of domestic USA citizens. Obama looks like yet another fascist, imho.
^the FDA and the AMA, along with other so called "trusted organizations" have already suggested taking it off the schedule one list. the people have spoken in over 15 states about it's med use, and it obvious validity. The federal government chooses to ignore the people over and over and over. this can only happen for so long until people get really angry and do something.
I love the everybody stop paying taxes idea. I also like the idea that American arms companies should stop supplying the military, until this roman style dictatorship is abolished and the people control the government again.
I love the everybody stop paying taxes idea. I also like the idea that American arms companies should stop supplying the military, until this roman style dictatorship is abolished and the people control the government again.
David762
Member
US Patent 6630507 "use of CBD for medical use" issued to the US Government itself in 2003.
DEA judges twice (1988 & 1995) ordered DEA to reclassify cannabis from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2.
President George HW Bush treated for glaucoma with cannabis while in the White House, circa 1991.
The La Guardia Commission did a scientific study in 1939 which determined cannabis should be decriminalized.
President RM Nixon initiated the Shafer Commission to study the harmful effects of cannabis, but when the Report was issued (and called for decriminalization) in 1971, it was shelved and Nixon began the War on Drugs.
From 1942 to 1945 the USA Federal government encouraged farmers to grow cannabis/hemp (Hemp For Victory) to supply rope & canvas for the war effort, in spite of it having been made illegal in 1937.
The Federal government has known for 60+ years that their Prohibition 2.0 inclusion of cannabis was fraudulently based, but it continues to this day as a War on the American People. Ii is a tool in the toolkit of fascists used to exert arbitrary persecution of American citizens as a method of tyrannical control.
I really like your idea of organizing resistance to continued cannabis prosecution by refusing to pay (Federal) taxes. Your local and state governments need those taxes, so pay those ...
wasnt my idea, i was just repeating them, but good post, and great examples
what i dont understand is why this has not been let into the supreme court yet? it is about time we get a current supreme court ruling on the war on drugs. I feel they havent taken the case because they know the drug war is not defend able by facts, and they would have to strike it down. then there goes there budgets. all though they were appointed they were still put there by the interest of private prisons and big pharma.
what i dont understand is why this has not been let into the supreme court yet? it is about time we get a current supreme court ruling on the war on drugs. I feel they havent taken the case because they know the drug war is not defend able by facts, and they would have to strike it down. then there goes there budgets. all though they were appointed they were still put there by the interest of private prisons and big pharma.
that means the DEA was using the house too. it was a time share "house of death"
This is the wrong person for the job...
This is the wrong person for the job...
What: Michele Leonhart's confirmation hearing to be the next DEA Administrator
When: Wednesday, November 17th at 2:30pm
Where: Senate Judiciary Committee, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 226, Washington, DC
In October 2009, the Obama Administration issued a memorandum to U.S. Attorneys discouraging the use of federal resources to prosecute individuals who are in "clear and unambiguous compliance" with their state medical marijuana law. Since then, ASA has tracked more than 30 federal enforcement raids in California, Colorado, Hawaii, and Nevada, all medical marijuana states. By contrast, local and state governments are recognizing the need for, and authorizing methods of, distribution of medical marijuana. In a grassroots push over the next two days, medical marijuana advocates across the country are calling on Senate Judiciary Committee members to ask hard questions of Leonhart. "Leonhart must look at this as a public health issue and do more to reconcile the conflict between local, state and federal laws," continued Woodson.
In addition to enforcement, as head of the DEA, Leonhart will have authority over an unanswered marijuana Rescheduling petition that has been pending since 2002. Filed by the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis (CRC), the petition originally argued before the Bush Administration that marijuana has medical value and should be rescheduled. Now before the Obama Administration, advocates and coalition members are expecting more rigorous scrutiny on an issue that has been progressively moving toward scientific and mainstream acceptance. This past week it was confirmed that Arizona, which narrowly voted for Proposition 203, would become the country's 15th state to pass a medical marijuana law.
Under the authority of the Controlled Substances Act, Leonhart has significant control over medical marijuana research in the U.S., and has used her position as Acting Administrator to obstruct the scientific advancement of this important therapeutic substance. In January 2009, days before President Bush was to vacate his office, Acting Administrator Leonhart thwarted an effort to end federal obstruction of medical marijuana research, ignoring an 87-page recommendation from her own DEA Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner, who ruled that such research was "in the public interest." The DEA and the National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA) have colluded to obstruct medical efficacy studies by prioritizing research on the supposed harmful effects of marijuana.
__________________
This is the wrong person for the job...
What: Michele Leonhart's confirmation hearing to be the next DEA Administrator
When: Wednesday, November 17th at 2:30pm
Where: Senate Judiciary Committee, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 226, Washington, DC
In October 2009, the Obama Administration issued a memorandum to U.S. Attorneys discouraging the use of federal resources to prosecute individuals who are in "clear and unambiguous compliance" with their state medical marijuana law. Since then, ASA has tracked more than 30 federal enforcement raids in California, Colorado, Hawaii, and Nevada, all medical marijuana states. By contrast, local and state governments are recognizing the need for, and authorizing methods of, distribution of medical marijuana. In a grassroots push over the next two days, medical marijuana advocates across the country are calling on Senate Judiciary Committee members to ask hard questions of Leonhart. "Leonhart must look at this as a public health issue and do more to reconcile the conflict between local, state and federal laws," continued Woodson.
In addition to enforcement, as head of the DEA, Leonhart will have authority over an unanswered marijuana Rescheduling petition that has been pending since 2002. Filed by the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis (CRC), the petition originally argued before the Bush Administration that marijuana has medical value and should be rescheduled. Now before the Obama Administration, advocates and coalition members are expecting more rigorous scrutiny on an issue that has been progressively moving toward scientific and mainstream acceptance. This past week it was confirmed that Arizona, which narrowly voted for Proposition 203, would become the country's 15th state to pass a medical marijuana law.
Under the authority of the Controlled Substances Act, Leonhart has significant control over medical marijuana research in the U.S., and has used her position as Acting Administrator to obstruct the scientific advancement of this important therapeutic substance. In January 2009, days before President Bush was to vacate his office, Acting Administrator Leonhart thwarted an effort to end federal obstruction of medical marijuana research, ignoring an 87-page recommendation from her own DEA Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner, who ruled that such research was "in the public interest." The DEA and the National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA) have colluded to obstruct medical efficacy studies by prioritizing research on the supposed harmful effects of marijuana.
__________________
Tactical Farmer
Member
Exactly..
Many if not most of Obama's plan won't really take affect or even begin to show change until his second term, and/or after... many were projected for 12years AFTER his election, so that means he'll already be out of office.
He's gotta move smart to be reelected... I hope he wins, I've had enough of both Bush admins, Clinton did what he could, but good ole George W reversed, and nullified alot Bill's actions.
IF Obama gets reelected (I PRAY TO GOD HE DOES) then we may see a BIG swing in the way things are currently being done.
Dude sorry to neg rep that but whatever your smoking please cut down, quit drinking the water, meds, booze, whatever is clouding your mind because he works for the same team as all those people you "had enough of".
Do some personal research & quit listening to the "news" on TV, Glenn Beck too.
onelung09
Member
where do i sign up for this revolution at ??? cannabis is the least of are worries people there are far worst things that can happen than just losing are favorite herb if this country continues on this path just look back at the past 100 yrs how are government is snowballing down a mountain of power when are we gonna say enough is enough they already have automatic weapons over us soon will be no hand guns ethier and micro chips in are heads
I actually think this is part of the percieved problem about cannabis is that they look at it as just losing our favorite herb . When it has gotten far more complicated then that as it's not JUST OUR FAV HERB>> it's a medicine and should be treated as such.
The problem here is everyone knows the truth and are still powerless to make it right.Thats when you really do start to wonder who are these ppl and how are they getting away with this shit?
Sure you can look at the world and say there are far more important things then this unless you use this for pain/sleep and coping with this shitty world they have made. This should atleast be on Obama's agenda and in a good way none of this bullshit about his hands being tied. peace out Headband707
The problem here is everyone knows the truth and are still powerless to make it right.Thats when you really do start to wonder who are these ppl and how are they getting away with this shit?
Sure you can look at the world and say there are far more important things then this unless you use this for pain/sleep and coping with this shitty world they have made. This should atleast be on Obama's agenda and in a good way none of this bullshit about his hands being tied. peace out Headband707
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Senate Throws Softball Questions
DEA Washington, D.C. -- Michele Leonhart's nomination to be Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) administrator appeared to be on track for an easy confirmation after a Wednesday hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The nomination is opposed by the drug reform, medical marijuana, and hemp movements, but insiders say it is all but a done deal.While reformers had hoped one or more senators would ask Leonhart "tough questions" about her tenure as acting DEA administrator, that didn't happen.
Sens. Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) pressed Leonhart about easing access to pain medications for senior citizens in nursing homes, but that was about the extent of the prodding.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), expressing concern about all that legalization talk in the air, gave Leonhart the opportunity to assure him that she and the DEA stood steadfast. She obliged him.
"I have seen what marijuana use has done to young people," Leonhart said. "I've seen the addiction, the family breakup. I've seen the bad. I'm extremely concerned about the legalization of any drugs," she avowed. "We already have problems with prescription drugs, which are legal, so it's of concern."
Legalizers are singing a seductive siren song, Leonhart warned. "The danger of these legalization efforts, they say we could just end the problem of drugs if we just make it legal," she explained. "But any country that has tried that -- the Netherlands, Alaska -- it has not worked, it is failed public policy."
Leonhart was nominated by President Bush to be administrator at DEA after replacing Karen Tandy in 2007 and has been acting administrator ever since. The Obama administration renominated her as administrator in February, but the nomination languished as the committee dealt with other business, most notably addressing a backlog of judicial nominations and preparing for confirmation hearings for the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.
Medical marijuana and drug reform advocacy groups have opposed Leonhart's nomination on a variety of grounds. As Special Agent in Charge of the DEA's Los Angeles office from 1998 to 2004 and DEA deputy administrator from 2003 to 2007, she presided over hundreds of raids on medical marijuana patients and providers. As acting administrator, she ran DEA while California medical marijuana raids continued unabated until the October 2009 Justice Department memorandum to quit persecuting patients and providers "whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws."
Even since then, while DEA medical marijuana raids have diminished, they have not stopped. According to the medical marijuana support group Americans for Safe Access (ASA), since the memo went out, the DEA under Leonhart has engaged in more than 30 raids of medical marijuana providers in states where it is legal.
"As the deputy director, Ms. Leonhart supervised an unprecedented level of paramilitary-style enforcement raids designed to undermine safe access and the implementation of state medical marijuana programs," ASA said in an alert to its members.
Leonhart is also drawing fire from advocates for overturning a DEA administrative law judge's decision to issue a license to UMass-Amherst Professor Lyle Craker to grow marijuana for FDA-approved research. That decision left intact the federal government's monopoly on the cultivation of marijuana for research purposes. It is grown only at the University of Mississippi.
And she is being opposed as well for her DEA's recalcitrance when it comes to industrial hemp. In a July letter to the committee, the industry group Vote Hemp said it opposed Leonhart's nomination because under her tenure DEA continues to block hemp production in the US, has failed for more than three years to respond to several applications from North Dakota-licensed farmers to grow hemp, and continues to maintain the fiction that hemp is marijuana.
"Michele Leonhart, the nominee for administrator and a lifetime DEA bureaucrat, severely lacks the vision to change policy on hemp farming for the better," the group said. "Vote Hemp strongly opposes the nomination of Michele Leonhart to be Administrator of the DEA."
There is another reason to question her suitability to run DEA -- her dealings with and defense of one-time DEA "supersnitch" Andrew Chambers. Chambers earned an astounding $2.2 million for his work as a DEA informant between 1984 and 2000. The problem was that he was caught perjuring himself repeatedly. The US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals called him a liar in 1993, and the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals echoed that verdict two years later.
But instead of terminating its relationship with Chambers, the DEA protected him, failing to notify prosecutors and defense attorneys about his record. At one point, DEA and the Justice Department for 17 months stalled a public defender seeking to examine the results of DEA's background check on Chambers. Even after the agency knew its snitch was rotten, it refused to stop using Chambers, and it took the intervention of then Attorney General Janet Reno to force the agency to quit using him.
Michele Leonhart defended Chambers. When asked if, given his credibility problems, the agency should quit using him, she said, "That would be a sad day for DEA, and a sad day for anybody in the law enforcement world... He's one in a million. In my career, I'll probably never come across another Andrew."
Another Leonhart statement on Chambers is even more shocking, as much for what it says about Leonhart as for what Leonhart says about Chambers. "The only criticism (of Chambers) I've ever heard is what defense attorneys will characterize as perjury or a lie on the stand," she said, adding that once prosecutors check him out, they will agree with his DEA admirers that he is "an outstanding testifier."
And then there's her connection to the "House of Death" scandal. The "House of Death" in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, was a house used by the Juárez drug cartel to murder people. Dozens of bodies were eventually recovered when the police raided it. The case revolves around a US Immigration and Customs (ICE) and DEA informant in Mexico, code-named "Lalo," who witnessed (and perhaps took part in) a murder in the House of Death during August 2003. In a lawsuit, whistleblower and former DEA Special Agent Sanalio Gonzalez charges that Leonhart and other officials fired him for speaking out about the murders and then helped cover the scandal up.
A number of reform groups have organized Internet and phone call-in campaigns in a bid to derail the nomination.
Students for Sensible Drug Policy, NORML, California NORML, and Firedoglake have all sounded the alarm. So has the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).
Editor's Note: The interviews below were conducted before Wednesday's hearing.
"We are asking our supporters and followers to contact their representatives if they are serving on the committee and tell them to ask her some tough questions about her previous actions," said MPP communications director Mike Meno. "She presided over hundreds of DEA raids on legal medical marijuana providers during Bush admin, and played a crucial role in rejecting applications to do FDA-level research on marijuana."
ASA provided a list of questions for the committee to ask Leonhart, including how raiding medical marijuana providers was an efficient use of DEA resources, how the DEA might work with medical marijuana states, why the DEA didn't just hand over cases of "clear and unambiguous" violations of state medical marijuana laws to state authorities, and when the DEA might get around to deciding the status of a 2002 petition to reschedule marijuana.
"I was hoping that this nomination was going to die a slow death but it appears as if they are going forward with it," said Tom Murphy, outreach coordinator for Vote Hemp. "We sent a letter in opposition, as I know a number of other organizations have. We've also got a pair of action alerts up on our web site. We've been working it against this since June, and we have a long list of reasons to oppose her nomination."
But it doesn’t appear that the senators on the Judiciary Committee are paying much heed to the stop Leonhart campaign. Despite the protests, her nomination is likely to sale through the committee tomorrow and be quickly approved by the Senate.
"Unfortunately, I don't think there's any chance of stopping her nomination," said Murphy. "She was nominated by Bush, and the committee sat on it, and renominated by Obama and they sat it on. Now we're a lame duck session, and they’re moving it. That tells me they have the votes to get it through and it's a done deal."
"The prospects aren't good. Every office we've talked to has said they weren't going to go against an Obama nominee," said Bill Piper, national affairs director for the Drug Policy Alliance, which also opposed the nomination. "But if we can get some senators to put pressure on her publicly or privately, maybe she will quit being such as obstacle when it comes to things like Amherst and the raids. We're taking sort of a harm reduction approach, like when Asa Hutchinson was grilled during his hearing and came out in support of reducing the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity."
Getting Michele Leonhart to back off a little on the medical marijuana raids would be a welcome consolation, but don't hold your breath. Progressive drug policy stances are not the traditional province of the DEA, and it looks like nothing is going to change there for the foreseeable future.
Read more of Phillip S. Smith's work at the Drug War Chronicle.
Source: AlterNet (US)
Author: Phillip S. Smith
DEA Washington, D.C. -- Michele Leonhart's nomination to be Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) administrator appeared to be on track for an easy confirmation after a Wednesday hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The nomination is opposed by the drug reform, medical marijuana, and hemp movements, but insiders say it is all but a done deal.While reformers had hoped one or more senators would ask Leonhart "tough questions" about her tenure as acting DEA administrator, that didn't happen.
Sens. Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) pressed Leonhart about easing access to pain medications for senior citizens in nursing homes, but that was about the extent of the prodding.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), expressing concern about all that legalization talk in the air, gave Leonhart the opportunity to assure him that she and the DEA stood steadfast. She obliged him.
"I have seen what marijuana use has done to young people," Leonhart said. "I've seen the addiction, the family breakup. I've seen the bad. I'm extremely concerned about the legalization of any drugs," she avowed. "We already have problems with prescription drugs, which are legal, so it's of concern."
Legalizers are singing a seductive siren song, Leonhart warned. "The danger of these legalization efforts, they say we could just end the problem of drugs if we just make it legal," she explained. "But any country that has tried that -- the Netherlands, Alaska -- it has not worked, it is failed public policy."
Leonhart was nominated by President Bush to be administrator at DEA after replacing Karen Tandy in 2007 and has been acting administrator ever since. The Obama administration renominated her as administrator in February, but the nomination languished as the committee dealt with other business, most notably addressing a backlog of judicial nominations and preparing for confirmation hearings for the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.
Medical marijuana and drug reform advocacy groups have opposed Leonhart's nomination on a variety of grounds. As Special Agent in Charge of the DEA's Los Angeles office from 1998 to 2004 and DEA deputy administrator from 2003 to 2007, she presided over hundreds of raids on medical marijuana patients and providers. As acting administrator, she ran DEA while California medical marijuana raids continued unabated until the October 2009 Justice Department memorandum to quit persecuting patients and providers "whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws."
Even since then, while DEA medical marijuana raids have diminished, they have not stopped. According to the medical marijuana support group Americans for Safe Access (ASA), since the memo went out, the DEA under Leonhart has engaged in more than 30 raids of medical marijuana providers in states where it is legal.
"As the deputy director, Ms. Leonhart supervised an unprecedented level of paramilitary-style enforcement raids designed to undermine safe access and the implementation of state medical marijuana programs," ASA said in an alert to its members.
Leonhart is also drawing fire from advocates for overturning a DEA administrative law judge's decision to issue a license to UMass-Amherst Professor Lyle Craker to grow marijuana for FDA-approved research. That decision left intact the federal government's monopoly on the cultivation of marijuana for research purposes. It is grown only at the University of Mississippi.
And she is being opposed as well for her DEA's recalcitrance when it comes to industrial hemp. In a July letter to the committee, the industry group Vote Hemp said it opposed Leonhart's nomination because under her tenure DEA continues to block hemp production in the US, has failed for more than three years to respond to several applications from North Dakota-licensed farmers to grow hemp, and continues to maintain the fiction that hemp is marijuana.
"Michele Leonhart, the nominee for administrator and a lifetime DEA bureaucrat, severely lacks the vision to change policy on hemp farming for the better," the group said. "Vote Hemp strongly opposes the nomination of Michele Leonhart to be Administrator of the DEA."
There is another reason to question her suitability to run DEA -- her dealings with and defense of one-time DEA "supersnitch" Andrew Chambers. Chambers earned an astounding $2.2 million for his work as a DEA informant between 1984 and 2000. The problem was that he was caught perjuring himself repeatedly. The US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals called him a liar in 1993, and the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals echoed that verdict two years later.
But instead of terminating its relationship with Chambers, the DEA protected him, failing to notify prosecutors and defense attorneys about his record. At one point, DEA and the Justice Department for 17 months stalled a public defender seeking to examine the results of DEA's background check on Chambers. Even after the agency knew its snitch was rotten, it refused to stop using Chambers, and it took the intervention of then Attorney General Janet Reno to force the agency to quit using him.
Michele Leonhart defended Chambers. When asked if, given his credibility problems, the agency should quit using him, she said, "That would be a sad day for DEA, and a sad day for anybody in the law enforcement world... He's one in a million. In my career, I'll probably never come across another Andrew."
Another Leonhart statement on Chambers is even more shocking, as much for what it says about Leonhart as for what Leonhart says about Chambers. "The only criticism (of Chambers) I've ever heard is what defense attorneys will characterize as perjury or a lie on the stand," she said, adding that once prosecutors check him out, they will agree with his DEA admirers that he is "an outstanding testifier."
And then there's her connection to the "House of Death" scandal. The "House of Death" in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, was a house used by the Juárez drug cartel to murder people. Dozens of bodies were eventually recovered when the police raided it. The case revolves around a US Immigration and Customs (ICE) and DEA informant in Mexico, code-named "Lalo," who witnessed (and perhaps took part in) a murder in the House of Death during August 2003. In a lawsuit, whistleblower and former DEA Special Agent Sanalio Gonzalez charges that Leonhart and other officials fired him for speaking out about the murders and then helped cover the scandal up.
A number of reform groups have organized Internet and phone call-in campaigns in a bid to derail the nomination.
Students for Sensible Drug Policy, NORML, California NORML, and Firedoglake have all sounded the alarm. So has the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).
Editor's Note: The interviews below were conducted before Wednesday's hearing.
"We are asking our supporters and followers to contact their representatives if they are serving on the committee and tell them to ask her some tough questions about her previous actions," said MPP communications director Mike Meno. "She presided over hundreds of DEA raids on legal medical marijuana providers during Bush admin, and played a crucial role in rejecting applications to do FDA-level research on marijuana."
ASA provided a list of questions for the committee to ask Leonhart, including how raiding medical marijuana providers was an efficient use of DEA resources, how the DEA might work with medical marijuana states, why the DEA didn't just hand over cases of "clear and unambiguous" violations of state medical marijuana laws to state authorities, and when the DEA might get around to deciding the status of a 2002 petition to reschedule marijuana.
"I was hoping that this nomination was going to die a slow death but it appears as if they are going forward with it," said Tom Murphy, outreach coordinator for Vote Hemp. "We sent a letter in opposition, as I know a number of other organizations have. We've also got a pair of action alerts up on our web site. We've been working it against this since June, and we have a long list of reasons to oppose her nomination."
But it doesn’t appear that the senators on the Judiciary Committee are paying much heed to the stop Leonhart campaign. Despite the protests, her nomination is likely to sale through the committee tomorrow and be quickly approved by the Senate.
"Unfortunately, I don't think there's any chance of stopping her nomination," said Murphy. "She was nominated by Bush, and the committee sat on it, and renominated by Obama and they sat it on. Now we're a lame duck session, and they’re moving it. That tells me they have the votes to get it through and it's a done deal."
"The prospects aren't good. Every office we've talked to has said they weren't going to go against an Obama nominee," said Bill Piper, national affairs director for the Drug Policy Alliance, which also opposed the nomination. "But if we can get some senators to put pressure on her publicly or privately, maybe she will quit being such as obstacle when it comes to things like Amherst and the raids. We're taking sort of a harm reduction approach, like when Asa Hutchinson was grilled during his hearing and came out in support of reducing the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity."
Getting Michele Leonhart to back off a little on the medical marijuana raids would be a welcome consolation, but don't hold your breath. Progressive drug policy stances are not the traditional province of the DEA, and it looks like nothing is going to change there for the foreseeable future.
Read more of Phillip S. Smith's work at the Drug War Chronicle.
Source: AlterNet (US)
Author: Phillip S. Smith
