All the regulars here at LP know that I support Obama and worked my ass off to get him elected. Overall I think he's done a "good" job - not great, not fantastic, not amazing, just good. So objectively there's a lot of room for improvement, but comparatively he's doing pretty well. By that I mean "good" is good enough considering that the other option is "insane and horrible".
One of the areas where he's doing worse than a Republican is Marijuana. He campaigned saying he would direct the federal government to leave Medical Marijuana states alone and not use their resources to go after anyone under the Medical Marijuana umbrella. At first the Justice Department declared they were going to follow that directive, but the reality is much different. Here in CO there have been more raids on Medical Marijuana by the DEA under the Obama Administration than there were under the Bush Administration. Some of you won't believe that I'm saying this, but on the issue of Marijuana Obama is WORSE THAN BUSH. Obama promised better treatment and gave more verbal support to MMJ than bush did, but that rhetoric isn't being applied in reality.
It seems to me like he's getting so beat up on all the other issues that he's abandoned ship on Marijuana. That's somewhat understandable, and I do agree that education, clean energy and health care are more important than legal MMJ. But the crazy thing is that an issue like Health Care is much more controversial than MMJ, and when looking at the facts MMJ is a much clearer and easier issue than health care is. I'd hoped that Obama would be capable of sitting down, looking over the facts and coming to a rational and logical conclusion, but on the issue of pot, where the information is there to be understood, he hasn't made the connection. And the fact that he could have so much trouble figuring this easy issue out worries me about his ability to deal with the more complicated ones.
I'm ready for our politicians to get up and pronounce their support for Marijuana. The fear is illogical and when our leaders continue to act like there's a reason to fear weed it perpetuates the cycle. Our current leaders are all a bunch of cowards. I'm an independent voter who has been siding with the democrats lately cause they're not as crazy as the republicans, but god they do overall suck. I'm sick of this 2 party system filled with liars and cowards. I hate having to vote for the lesser of two evils, to choose between warm shit and cold shit. I'm sick of it.
Anyway here's what I originally meant to post but then I started ranting. Oh, and do note that this article, which is very critical of Obama and calls him out for lying, is from the Huffington Post, a place that people often consider to be Obama lover central:
Election 2008: What a wonderful time to be a medical marijuana patient in Colorado! Voters had just elected Barack Obama as the President of the United States of America. "Hope" was in the air. Thousands of Colorado medical marijuana patients and caregivers were certain that the Federal government would cease trampling on their State constitutional rights after Inauguration Day.
Candidate Barack Obama had explicitly stated, "I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana; it is not a good use of our resources." Watch:
Later in the campaign, Obama promised, "I will not be using Department of Justice resources to try to circumvent state laws on the [medical marijuana] issue," since America has violent crimes and terrorism to deal with. Watch:
Instead, mere hours after the new President was inaugurated, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration ("DEA" unleashed a campaign of terror on medical marijuana patients in California. Optimists in the marijuana movement attributed this to nasty Bush holdovers and career bureaucrats throwing one last temper tantrum.
In the wake of these raids, new U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, laughingly reassured us that Candidate Obama's statements are "American policy" now that Obama has become President:
On October 19, 2009, our hope was further bolstered with the issuance of formal written guidance (PDF) from the U.S. Justice Department related to medical marijuana.
The issuance of that guidance seemingly removed one of the last significant impediments to upstanding business entrepreneurs serving Colorado's suffering medical marijuana patients. A new industry started to form, creating jobs, paying taxes, and leasing vacant commercial space. The cobwebs began to clear from Colorado's dormant economy.
Then, on February 2, 2010, amid gasps from nearly the entire marijuana reform movement, medical marijuana patients, and other open-minded science-based thinkers, Obama formally nominated former Bush DEA Administrator Michelle Leonhart, to head the Obama DEA.
Leonhart has a notorious career as a jack-booted administrator of the least successful government program in modern history, i.e. the Drug War, and has a fawning affection for the highest-paid DEA snitch of all time, Andrew Chambers, a criminal who has been found to have committed perjury by at least two federal appeals courts. Any hope that Obama would chart a new course on drug policy was dashed by this horrible nomination.
Only ten days after the Leonhart nomination, the belligerent Obama DEA dropped the equivalent of a nuclear bomb on Colorado's medical marijuana patients with an armed militarized raid on small-time home-based medical marijuana farmer Chris Bartkowicz. The day of this raid, the DEA Agent in Charge, Jeff Sweetin, declared open federal warfare on Colorado's entire nascent medical marijuana community.
"Technically, every dispensary in the state is in blatant violation of federal law," Sweetin told the Denver Post. "The time is coming when we go into a dispensary, we find out what their profit is, we seize the building and we arrest everybody. They're violating federal law; they're at risk of arrest and imprisonment."
Sweetin's apocalyptic declaration of war and threat to "arrest everybody" terrified Colorado's sick and suffering medical marijuana patients. The day after the raid, I filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility against the DEA agents involved in the raid. My complaint was quickly and decisively backed by U.S. Congressman Jared Polis.
To this date, months later, neither Congressman Polis nor myself have received any response to our pleas to the Obama administration to uphold its "American policy."
Although Sweetin eventually backed away from his full frontal declaration of war, and Obama sent him to Quantico, Virginia, Sweetin's words pale in comparison to what Obama's Justice Department had in store next.
On February 16, 2010, the U.S. Attorney for Colorado filed a criminal prosecution against Bartkowicz in federal court. Obama appointed John Walsh as U.S. Attorney, and Obama's hand-picked federal prosecutor further upped the ante, successfully requesting that the Court place a gag order on the Bartkowicz defense from even mentioning his intent to comply with Colorado state law at the jury trial.
The Obama Administration's court filings reveal that Bartkowicz faces a grotesquely disproportionate 20 years to life in prison only because he went on television to discuss what he believed were legal actions in growing medical marijuana.
Progress is being made against Marijuana Prohibition. Soon, this modern-day Prohibition will be as extinct as a saber tooth tiger. In the meantime, however, that cornered tiger still has sharp claws and long teeth that can destroy human life and freedom. Obama has done the opposite of what we thought, and what he promised. Instead of caging that tiger, he has unleashed it.
Colorado's medical marijuana community should fear the Obama Justice Department. An objective analysis reveals that, as far as Colorado medical marijuana is concerned, eight years of George W. Bush were better than one and a half years of Obama. Bush Justice did not prosecute a single Colorado medical marijuana grower or patient over eight years. Obama has conducted numerous medical marijuana raids and property forfeitures, and seeks to steal Chris Bartkowicz's youth from him. With Obama's term not even half over, there seems little "hope" for "change."
0 votes
InnovativeYogis.com
Last edit: 21/10/2010 12:16
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terrybunny19240 United States. Oct 21 2010 12:46. Posts 13829
Well I guess obama does what is best to get reelected and beeing pro mmj probably isnt.
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Surprise United States. Oct 21 2010 13:03. Posts 275
Honestly dude I would just stop paying attention to politics. The entire American political game is totally retarded and fucked beyond repair. Time and energy are better spent elsewhere.
You haven't seen Polish politics yet. They fuck up our country beyond all comprehension. But what can you expect from post-communists?
BIBLE (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth)
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terrybunny19240 United States. Oct 21 2010 14:04. Posts 13829
I'm curious to know exactly what role obama has in these raids and how his control over the DEA is manifested
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DarkDevildog United States. Oct 21 2010 14:32. Posts 1764
Bush loves his Kush?
If she touches you 60% of the time, and is aggressive with her tits, you have it get it in before she crushes your nuts on the turn
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Jubert69 United States. Oct 21 2010 15:07. Posts 3191
On October 21 2010 12:03 Surprise wrote:
Honestly dude I would just stop paying attention to politics. The entire American political game is totally retarded and fucked beyond repair. Time and energy are better spent elsewhere.
Maybe there's a reason why the American political is game retarded?
Last edit: 21/10/2010 15:08
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YoMeR United States. Oct 21 2010 16:18. Posts 12438
On October 21 2010 12:03 Surprise wrote:
Honestly dude I would just stop paying attention to politics. The entire American political game is totally retarded and fucked beyond repair. Time and energy are better spent elsewhere.
Maybe there's a reason why the American political is game retarded?
lol QFT.
if you can't find an easy solution let's become part of the problem! weeee
eZ Life.
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BanelingBust United States. Oct 21 2010 16:46. Posts 5
On October 21 2010 12:03 Surprise wrote:
Honestly dude I would just stop paying attention to politics. The entire American political game is totally retarded and fucked beyond repair. Time and energy are better spent elsewhere.
+1, Totally agree, corporations won a long time ago. Shir is hitting a critical mass. I'll live my life in peace if possible, if not death is nothing to fear.
Yo k2o4 you do know why marijuana is illegal, it's not some accident, people are making alot of money off it being illegal and I don't mean the drug dealers. I mean alcohol companies/big pharm/police/prisons
it's so stupid, fuuuuuuck
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Holly23 United States. Oct 21 2010 17:39. Posts 150
Lets be serious here, are you for the use of medical marijuana because you genuinely want to see relief for certain types of pain and other symptoms in a more natural way for patients? Or is it because this type of government action could potentially lead to mass legalization U.S. wide for everyone? When I say everyone, I'm referring to you.
I'm really questioning your motives here. Personally, I do not smoke pot, so I would never consider this a top priority issue or even consider creating a blog entry titled "Obama Failure".
Are you really promoting this issue out of pure altruism?
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curtinsea United States. Oct 21 2010 18:28. Posts 576
I smoke some weed, for sure, but I don't push for it's legalization. Frankly I think, and have said in threads here before, that legalization would hand it right over to the tobacco corps and the government, prices would skyrocket from regulation and taxation, and it would still have a large black market, which could only be discouraged through even harsher penalties for growing herb.
But ABSOLUTELY we need to really lay back on the amount of resources devoted to enforcing the stupid marijuana laws, and not going after publicly approved medical marijuana operations is the first step.
It really doesn't matter if you're left or right, a thinking person can see that the huge amounts of money spent on interdiction and penalization could be far better spent.
But just last week Holder made it clear that this administration would continue enforcement regardless of what the people want.
Lets be serious here, are you for the use of medical marijuana because you genuinely want to see relief for certain types of pain and other symptoms in a more natural way for patients? Or is it because this type of government action could potentially lead to mass legalization U.S. wide for everyone? When I say everyone, I'm referring to you.
I'm really questioning your motives here. Personally, I do not smoke pot, so I would never consider this a top priority issue or even consider creating a blog entry titled "Obama Failure".
Are you really promoting this issue out of pure altruism?
I think Marijuana should be legalized for everyone over the age of 18, and that parents should be able to decide if they want their kid to smoke or not (the same way it's ok to have wine at dinner if your parents pour it for you).
I also know that weed should never have been made illegal in the first place - for thousands of years it has been used in religious, medical and recreational ways and never caused a problem. Nearly every single thing your told about why weed is "dangerous" or "bad" is a blatant lie, and most of us have been fooled. I know I was. I spent my entire life until the last 6 months thinking that weed had so many negative affects. I was blown away as I started doing the research and realized that I'd been duped.
I also know it has many medical applications and uses, and can be used to treat ailments more safely and efficiently than what we do now. For example while receiving chemo, cancer patients become nauseous and lose their appetite. They currently have to take 2 separate medicines to deal with this, 1 to reduce the nausea and one to increase appetite. Marijuana can cure both of those problems, and it's safer to use cause it's natural and not a pill we created in a lab somewhere. Another example is a friend of mine who has fibromyalgia and has had to walk with a cane for years. She was prescribed vicadin and perceset which made her feel sick, sleepy, and incapable of functioning at a regular level. And on top of that, she still felt constant pain and needed her cane to walk. One day her friend got her to smoke some weed, and without even noticing she'd done it, she walked across the room without her cane. It was the first time in years that her pain was gone and she could walk without a cane for support. Now she takes weed everyday, is highly functional, very smart, and doesn't use her cane.
There are thousands of other medical stories like that which prove beyond a doubt that Marijuana has medical benefits. That's what's so great about this plant - you can use it to have a good time or to cure a medical problem or to just engage a deeper thinking process. And all of these things safely, without risk of addiction or dangerous side effects. Most of the pills we prescribe today can kill us (Heath Ledger overdosing on sleeping pills for example) but it's impossible to overdose on Marijuana. Hell you can drink too much water and die, but you can't smoke too much weed and die.
My motivation is selfish and altruistic - I will benefit from legalized marijuana, but not that much since I already have my medical card and can buy it in stores. I just won't have to pay fees for my card anymore. Now that I've lived the life of buying weed in stores rather than from a drug dealer, I truly believe that all Americans deserve to have that right. I think locking people up and preventing them from getting financial aid for college because of 1 joint is insane, but we do it to 750,000 people a year, more people than we arrest for violent crimes. I think that's wrong and unjust and I want it to stop.
I could keep going but I think this is long enough. But please send me a PM or keep replying if you have more to ask or say cause I love talking on this issue and I have a lot of information that I'm very happy to share =)
InnovativeYogis.com
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Jubert69 United States. Oct 21 2010 19:42. Posts 3191
On October 21 2010 16:39 Holly23 wrote:
Lets be serious here, are you for the use of medical marijuana because you genuinely want to see relief for certain types of pain and other symptoms in a more natural way for patients? Or is it because this type of government action could potentially lead to mass legalization U.S. wide for everyone? When I say everyone, I'm referring to you.
I'm really questioning your motives here. Personally, I do not smoke pot, so I would never consider this a top priority issue or even consider creating a blog entry titled "Obama Failure".
Are you really promoting this issue out of pure altruism?
I DON'T care if one person wants to smoke marijuana, do crack, prostitute, have an abortion etc.
If we have medical marijuana, that will help our country by being able to tax it. It will also allow less congestion in our courts because of so many cases are due to possession of marijuana.
But ABSOLUTELY we need to really lay back on the amount of resources devoted to enforcing the stupid marijuana laws, and not going after publicly approved medical marijuana operations is the first step.
It really doesn't matter if you're left or right, a thinking person can see that the huge amounts of money spent on interdiction and penalization could be far better spent.
Totally agree with you on this
But just last week Holder made it clear that this administration would continue enforcement regardless of what the people want.
Yeah that is some FUCKED UP shit right? What a bastard.
On October 21 2010 17:28 curtinsea wrote:
I smoke some weed, for sure, but I don't push for it's legalization. Frankly I think, and have said in threads here before, that legalization would hand it right over to the tobacco corps and the government, prices would skyrocket from regulation and taxation, and it would still have a large black market, which could only be discouraged through even harsher penalties for growing herb.
I have to disagree about the price - the price of MMJ was way lower in the 70's when it was decriminalized in 11 states around the USA. But when Regan started pushing his renewed war on drugs, the price skyrocketed cause marijuana was one of the top targets. The high price is a result of the governments prohibition - the more dangerous it is for a criminal to sell it, the more risk he has to take, the higher the price is. That's why different states have different prices for 1/8th, cause each state has different laws. The drug dealers are aware of this so when they sell weed to a stricter state, they raise the price. Also, cocaine was illegal at the time that weed's price rose, but the cocaine price dropped dramatically because all of the focus by the government was on weed. So we've seen drug prices rise/fall according to the degree of attack the gov puts on it. If we remove the illegal nature I'm positive prices will either drop or stay the same. They won't go up. Already here in CO the price has dropped. $35 1/8th's are very common. Most places sell between 40-50 per 1/8th. But as the competition ramps up the prices keep dropping and it's awesome.
Of course there would still be a black market, but it would be tiny. In CO every person I know who grew weed before the medical MMJ laws came into the fold once the laws became open. My point is that if you have 2 choices, to grow weed legally and sell your product in every place that alcohol is sold, or grow it illegally and take the risk of jail and just sell to people the old "dealer" way, the logical choice is to do it legally. And that's what I've seen happen here. I've watched every single one of my pot dealing friends go out of business and all of my grower friends start growing legally under state laws.
Most importantly, if we legalize weed we will take a huge source of profit away from drug cartels, especially these crazy fucks on the mexican border who are committing suicide bombings, killing government officials, and overall terrorizing that region of the country. 60% of their profits come from weed market that our government has given them. Legalizing and regulating weed takes that revenue away from the drug cartels. I don't think the cartels will suddenly go legit, they'll just switch to selling other drugs. But it will be a big hit to them. If we really want to eliminate the drug cartels we have to legalize all drugs. I'd bet that many criminals in the cartels would continue to do criminal activity, but the definitely wouldn't be doing it by selling drugs. And if we want to control what drugs our kids have access to, we definitely should legalize. Drug dealers don't ask for ID.
Anyway I'm rambling a bit but overall I think that legalizing and regulating weed will create so many positive benefits that once it happens people will be saying "wtf was the big deal and why didn't we do this earlier?"
On October 21 2010 13:04 Night2o1 wrote:
I'm curious to know exactly what role obama has in these raids and how his control over the DEA is manifested
I don't know much more than what's in the article I posted and the videos, but it seems to me that Obama has the ability to direct their mandates and actions and can tell them not to use resources to attack medical weed, and supposedly that is what he told them, as that's what eric holder said. But for some reason they aren't following that order and Obama ain't doing shit about it.
InnovativeYogis.com
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Surprise United States. Oct 21 2010 20:35. Posts 275
On October 21 2010 12:03 Surprise wrote:
Honestly dude I would just stop paying attention to politics. The entire American political game is totally retarded and fucked beyond repair. Time and energy are better spent elsewhere.
Maybe there's a reason why the American political is game retarded?
I used to think that way too. Here is why I changed my mind.
1) Most people inherit their beliefs about politics from their parents. They seldom question why they believe what they do and typically only look at information that runs contrary to their beliefs in a critical light. Conversely, they will look at information that supports their beliefs in a non-critical way. They will look for news and information sources about politics that reinforce what they already believe. Rupert Murdoch is a genius because he realized people wanted to have their pre-existing beliefs confirmed by the news they watch. A large portion of the American public was not having their beliefs confirmed by their news sources and thus a large untapped market existed. He took advantage of it and profited handsomely. This is of course, not to imply Fox News is the only biased news source.
2) The American media is mostly run for profit. News outlets sell a product to a customer. The product is the attention of an audience and the customer is an advertiser. This has some undesirable consequences when it comes to how people receive information about political issues. News stations have a strong motive to construct their programs in a way that is most interesting. This often comes at the price of actually informing an audience about an issue. The American news is essentially entertainment and not truly information.
3) The American media has strong ties to large corporations, wealthy people, and the government. News stations and news sources have a dialectical relationship. Part of that relationship is that news media compete with each other over limited news sources. In order to secure an exclusive interview or build a relationship with an important figure a reporter may choose to go soft in an interview. Many American media companies are owned by large corporations. These companies will obviously not criticize the actions of their owners very harshly. Finally, manipulating the media for the interests of a large government or corporation is a huge industry. You've heard of it before, its called public relations. I am not saying that PR exists only to dupe the public, but there is certainly some unethical stuff that goes down there. Look into the BP oil spill a little if you want a concrete example.
4) Lobbyists. Enough said.
I could go on with these for awhile but I don't really feel like it. If you still don't believe me go vote and tell me how you feel about it 4 years from now. Did your candidate give you what he promised? I strongly doubt it will happen.
the games you own at, end up owning you
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Holly23 United States. Oct 21 2010 21:18. Posts 150
On October 21 2010 18:42 Jubert69 wrote:
I DON'T care if one person wants to smoke marijuana, do crack, prostitute, have an abortion etc.
If we have medical marijuana, that will help our country by being able to tax it. It will also allow less congestion in our courts because of so many cases are due to possession of marijuana.
While I never actually stated my own personal stance of the subject, I'm inclined to agree with you. I large portion of tax dollars are wasted enforcing marijuana laws.
k2o, I'm completely for the use of marijuana used for *medical purposes* and I'm aware of the positive effects for patients with severe illnesses.
My biggest problem with your blog is:
1. ) using the sick people argument to jusitfy your own use (but atleast your honest and admitted your motivation is selfish and altruistic)
2.) Labeling Obama a failure.
We have alot more important things going on in the country currently. This should not be a top priority issue at this time. Unfucking the previous administration and the "lets go capitalism, nooooo regulation" lovers mess should be top of the agenda.
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curtinsea United States. Oct 22 2010 10:28. Posts 576
Well with all due respect, if marijuana were legalized, the tobacco industry is best prepared to take up manufacture and distribution of the product, as they have the infrastructure to grow, process, package, and tax stamp the product already in place. If you can't see that, you are blind. The evil demons would be in control of our precious weed.
As for price, I was smoking cigarettes in 1982 and paying 75 cents a pack. I was also smoking weed and paying $30 for an eighth. Today that pack of cigarettes is $7.50 (1000% increase) and that bag of weed is $40 (25% increase).
You are wrong (naive) if you think legalization will do anything to reduce the price of weed.
tomorrow, for sure
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curtinsea United States. Oct 22 2010 10:42. Posts 576
You are right that weed was cheaper in the '70s, but it was also CRAP, full of stems and seeds, dry as a bone and crumpled up to dust. You couldn't know that because you hadn't been born yet. The move to indoor grown weed is changed everything, and the price of that weed has stayed pretty constant ever since.
Once legalized and taxed, the home grower will still have to be stamped out, just as the moonshiner is, because the product will have to be under the governments control.
Most people who are pro legalization, dream of everything being the same, just legal. That simply is NEVER going to happen.
That is why I advocate policy changes with regard to enforcement rather than outright 'legalization.'
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unleashed a campaign of terror on medical marijuana patients in California. Optimists in the marijuana movement attributed this to nasty Bush holdovers and career bureaucrats throwing one last temper tantrum.
