Somin can't print verbatim quotes because a third grader would recognize the context of Obama's statements.
I agree with you that President Obama's stated position before he was elected was less than ideal for us. In fact, it was pretty poor. He was consistent in saying that he didn't think that people should be able to grow their own. But, he also consistently said that the Justice Department wouldn't "waste their resources" with medical marijuana prosecutions. Of course this is pretty weak assurance, basically saying "Well, I'd be busting you, but I've got better things to do.", I still believed him. It seemed like he thought the issue was a bothersome inconvenience, and that he would direct the Justice Department to let the states deal with it.
The first Holder memo that everyone thought was so great seemed to reinforce this "I've got better things to do" attitude. At that time, Professor Somin pointed out the shortcomings of this memo in this post. If you read the memo, it does seem to be long on "The Department of Justice is committed to the enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act in all States." and short on "As a general matter, pursuit of these priorities should not focus federal resources in your States on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana." I still thought it was a signal that he would basically defer to the states. The new memo showed that this was not the case:
The Ogden Memorandum was never intended to shield such activities from federal enforcement action and prosecution, even where those activities purport to comply with state law. Persons who are in the business of cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana, and those who knowingly facilitate such activities, are in violation of the Controlled Substances Act, regardless of state law.
I guess if your point was that President Obama's position on Medical Marijuana always sucked, and that it sucks now, you are right. What stupid, whiny fucks Somin and I are for thinking otherwise.
YouTube Video, Barack Obama, 2008: "not wanting to let people grow their own, or start setting up mom and pop shops" but
"what I'm not going to be doing is using Department of Justice resources to circumvent state laws on this issue"
YouTube video, Barack Obama, 2007: "I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana, its not a good use of our resources"
Question from an Oregon newspaper, and Mr. Obama's answer:
Q:Would you stop the DEA's raids on Oregon medical marijuana growers?
A:I would because I think our federal agents have better things to do, like catching criminals and preventing terrorism.
Attorney General Eric Holder, March 2009:
"The policy is to go after those people who violate both federal and state law, ...Given the limited resources that we have, our focus will be on people, organizations that are growing, cultivating substantial amounts of marijuana and doing so in a way that's inconsistent with federal and state law," -
The Washington Times, 2009:
Drug Enforcement Administration agents this week raided four medical marijuana shops in California, contrary to President Obama’s campaign promises to stop the raids.
The White House said it expects those kinds of raids to end once Mr. Obama nominates someone to take charge of DEA, which is still run by Bush administration holdovers.
“The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind,” White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.