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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObama's War On Pot
In a shocking about-face, the administration has launched a government-wide crackdown on medical marijuana.
Back when he was running for president in 2008, Barack Obama insisted that medical marijuana was an issue best left to state and local governments. "I'm not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue," he vowed, promising an end to the Bush administration's high-profile raids on providers of medical pot, which is legal in 16 states and the District of Columbia.
But over the past year, the Obama administration has quietly unleashed a multiagency crackdown on medical cannabis that goes far beyond anything undertaken by George W. Bush. The feds are busting growers who operate in full compliance with state laws, vowing to seize the property of anyone who dares to even rent to legal pot dispensaries, and threatening to imprison state employees responsible for regulating medical marijuana. With more than 100 raids on pot dispensaries during his first three years, Obama is now on pace to exceed Bush's record for medical-marijuana busts. "There's no question that Obama's the worst president on medical marijuana," says Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. "He's gone from first to worst."
The federal crackdown imperils the medical care of the estimated 730,000 patients nationwide many of them seriously ill or dying who rely on state-sanctioned marijuana recommended by their doctors. In addition, drug experts warn, the White House's war on law-abiding providers of medical marijuana will only drum up business for real criminals. "The administration is going after legal dispensaries and state and local authorities in ways that are going to push this stuff back underground again," says Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Drug Policy Alliance. Gov. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, a former Republican senator who has urged the DEA to legalize medical marijuana, pulls no punches in describing the state of affairs produced by Obama's efforts to circumvent state law: "Utter chaos."
In its first two years, the Obama administration took a refreshingly sane approach to medical marijuana. Shortly after Obama took office, a senior drug-enforcement official pledged to Rolling Stone that the question of whether marijuana is medicine would now be determined by science, "not ideology." In March 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder emphasized that the Justice Department would only target medical-marijuana providers "who violate both federal and state law." The next morning, a headline in The New York Times read OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO STOP RAIDS ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSERS. While all forms of marijuana would remain strictly illegal under federal law the DEA ranks cannabis as a Schedule I drug, on par with heroin the feds would respect state protections for providers of medical pot. Framing the Obama administration's new approach, drug czar Gil Kerlikowske famously declared, "We're not at war with people in this country."
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http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/obamas-war-on-pot-20120216?link=
This policy is impossible to defend. People who are truly helped are being left without one of the few substances that can aid them in fighting certain conditions.
If you read the article, you will see that the Feds are using every possible method to stop the growth of marijuana. They strong arm banks, landlords and other people who may help dispensaries in some way. They threaten to impose overly harsh penalties in order to scare people. They also use the IRS to warn others of punitive measures that will be imposed.
While they are busy wasting time and resources on this misguided 'war', the administration will insist that they are not doing what is easy for all to see. They seem to live in an alternate universe, and they want everybody to join them there. Frankly, you need to smoke weed to help wrap your mind around the reality they want you to see. LSD would help even more in that regard.
This is one of the most indefensible positions that the President has taken.
Denver Donkeys
(39 posts)regarding about how the MMJ collective are trying to figure out how to deal with the credit cards - American Express has announced last May that they are refusing to accept any more MMJ purchases (although the MMJ dispensaries I go to still accept AEX)
They want to set up a MMJ collective bank where they can get loans to help grow their stuff, and buy what land there are...
Colorado hasn't been quite been hit, but Ft. Collins dispensaries were shut down this week due to a ban on MMJ's - which will be overturned in this year's elections overriding the local laws.
ellisonz
(27,711 posts)jsmirman
(4,507 posts)one thing I was really hoping for was an end to the assault on common sense.
What is the damn point?
Vincardog
(20,234 posts)dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)If you're on the west coast there is still time to get to one of these:
from http://americansforsafeaccess.org/article.php?id=7062
San Francisco, California Rally
Date: February 16, 2012
Time: 5:30pPT-7:30pPT
Meeting on the NE Corner of California Street and Taylor at Huntington Park
Sacramento, California
Date: February 16, 2012
Time: 12:00pmPT
Address: 501 I Street, Sacramento, CA.
San Diego, California
Date: February 16, 2012
Time: 12:00pPT
Address: 940 Front Street, San Diego, California
Corona del Mar, California
Date: February, 16 2012
Time: 6:30aPT-8:30aPT
Address: 5 Crowns Restaurant, 3801 E. Coastal Highway, Corona del Mar, CA
Trenton, New Jersey Rally
Date: February 16, 2012
Time: 11:00aET
Address: Federal Building, 402 E. State St., Trenton, NJ, 08608
Phoenix, Arizona Rally
Date: February 16, 2012
Time: 12:00pMT
Address: Federal Building, 203 North First Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85003
Eugene, Oregon Rally
Date: February 16, 2012
Time: 12:00pPT
Address: Federal Building, 405 East Avenue, Eugene, Oregon
Portland, Maine Rally
Date: February 16, 2012
Time: 12:00pET
Address: Federal Building, 156 Federal Street, Portland, Maine
Seattle, Washington Rally
Date: February 16, 2012
Time: 12:00pPT
Address: Federal Building, 915 2nd Ave., Seattle, WA 98101
Meet at 2nd Ave. and Madison at 11:45.
jsmirman
(4,507 posts)but can you find any humor in my thinking that this is one issue where a same-day, same hour, hurry out and you can still make it! notice is probably not going to work?
I don't even smoke and my lazy ass needs something to be on the calendar.
dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)Lots of such people (not that I know any, hmm hmm) don't live their lives by calendars or watches, and are only too happy to spontaneously redirect, especially for something they believe in.
I am personally trying to talk myself into the hour and a half drive (plus the hassle and expense of SF parking) to get to SF. I can still make it if I leave in half an hour. I'm pretty far north of the city, unfortunately, though I love the redwoods I live in!
Anyway I get that you're looking for a laugh, have one on me, I may be the exact case you're laughing about. Cheers, I enjoy your posts.
jsmirman
(4,507 posts)SSDP here certainly gets together good events, but it's definitely the kind of thing we laugh about from time to time.
Thanks for enjoying my posts, and fight the good fight on this whole back-asswards "war."
It doesn't make sense, and dammit we're just wasting resources. I actually think the tide is turning, which is like, finally, but that it's 2012 and they're still arresting people for smoking pot, it's wackier than any wacky tobacky I've ever seen.
Romulox
(25,960 posts)Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)And that position has been around for a while.
Romulox
(25,960 posts)The position of the Drug Czar existed under the previous several Presidents; it is the OBAMA admin that has ramped up prosecutions of medical marijuana patients.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)Drug arrests soared during the Clinton administration for one thing..
Scuba
(53,475 posts)nashville_brook
(20,958 posts)SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)Seriously though, this is what Obama deems an important priority?
Throwing more people into the for profit prison system for growing/comsuming MMJ after making a statement that he wouldn't use the Justice Dept for that purpose?
Why should anyone believe anything he says from this point on?
_ed_
(1,734 posts)by looking at how certain policies play out. His MMJ policy is a giveaway to Big Pharma and the corporate private prisons. His financial policies are a giveaway to the financial sector. He's bought, or even worse, he actually believes in locking up MMJ patients.
uponit7771
(90,335 posts)DesertRat
(27,995 posts)I would expect this from the Republicans, but why President Obama? and why now?
Uncle Joe
(58,355 posts)Thanks for the thread, grits.