Obama, the happy drug warrior

[LetTimmySmoke]

Why is the federal government under President Obama arguably tougher on medical marijuana operations than it was under George W. Bush? That's the question that antidrug-war groups have been asking themselves for months.

In 2008, antiprohibitionists thought an Obama administration would not tread on medical-marijuana dispensaries in states where they are legal. Obama 2008 campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt told me Obama "believes that states and local governments are best positioned to strike the balance between making sure that these policies are not abused for recreational drug use and making sure that doctors and their patients can safely access pain relief."

Now that Obama's in office, however, his Department of Justice is not allowing the 16 states that have legalized medical marijuana to self-regulate. Exactly the opposite: Last fall, U.S. attorneys in California warned landlords that they must evict medical-marijuana clubs or risk having their assets seized. In October, the Internal Revenue Service informed dispensaries that they cannot declare standard tax deductions because they are criminal enterprises.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/06/INAT1MNV8R.DTL#ixzz1rOdrbvss

________________________________________________

The right wing in this country may be wrong on just about everything, but they are dead right on how much of an asshole Obama is.

[msongs]

1. because of all the DEA/police getting rich off of putting pot smokers in jail nt

[Bluenorthwest]

2. The President lied his way to office on this issue.

I don't think much of his personal ethics.

[Hawkowl]

35. He lied his way into office on most issues.

Public option being one of the foremost. Ending the Bush tax cuts being another. Closing Gitmo.... ad nauseam

[izquierdista]

3. Bait&Switch

Wouldn't it have been a kick if Obama had baited&switched on the Wall St. banks, the Pentagon brass (by saying "I know I said Afghanistan was the good war, but I changed my mind&quot , and the health insurers? Sure would be a different world.

[Dokkie]

4. Ever watch Romney try to criticize Obama?

You will notice that hes not very good at it, its always about how Obama is not strong enough on some foreign policy issue or some other lousy point. Theres a reason for it and that is because Obama has outflanked him on some of the major rethug establishment policy issues. He knows he got our vote and the republican or center right vote is the only votes at stake so do you u blame his for actually going for the swing vote?

I dont. My only hope is that he shows us some real change during his second term

[Jamaal510]

8. He won't be able to do much without a Supermajority.

Winning re-election is only half the battle for the D's, as we have learned from the 2010 elections.

[tridim]

5. There are thousand more dispensaries operating legally all over the country since 2008.

The article is simply wrong.

Obama supports legal MMJ.

[Son of Gob]

7. Lol

Logic doesn't matter to these FUDers.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/124072756

[JonLP24]

29. I knew claims of FUDers would end up incorrect

Raids are up and he appointed someone who was sheriff of the Seattle area that publicly refused to make cannabis the lowest level of law enforcement priority which is what the voters enacted. Read his comments on medical marijuana as well as legalization issues that crop up. Their doing raids on businesses with state licenses, even his ATF ordered gun shops not to sell to MMJ patients.

[anti-alec]

9. Then why continue the raids in the legal dispensaries

Obama and his DEA does not support legal MMJ despite the fact they continue to violate the 10th Amendment (state's rights)

[tridim]

13. No, state attorneys are raiding dispensaries that are breaking state law.

Like operating too close to schools or not paying taxes.

[anti-alec]

26. Bullshit.

It's been the DEA and the federal government in the middle of the whole mess.

Please provide proof that state attornies are raiding dispensaries.

I give you a letter from Boulder DA to John Walsh - a moron with the Denver DEA:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/15/stan-garnett-medical-marijuana-letter_n_1348204.html

[tridim]

27. That's the whole problem, rogue state attorneys sending in the feds.

Exploiting the federal loophole like the swine they are.

You really need to read more on the subject. The same "OBAMA IS RAIDING CA MMJ DISPENSARIES!!!111" article has been posted on DU about a thousand times in the past 6 months. It is bullshit every time it's posted. All the raids in these articles deal with dispensaries allegedly breaking state law. There are a few raids here and there that were done without due cause, and so far none of those dispensaries have been shut down, they continue to sell medicine. More legal dispensaries are being openend every day.

Meanwhile Obama continues to support legal MMJ in states that have voted for it. The fed doesn't, but unfortunately that's just the law (which most Americans want changed immediately if not sooner).

[JonLP24]

30. Over and over it is clear cases of the Fed involved

Some state attorneys can request all the want but that doesn't mean they feds have to say yes. I've been following the issue in my state since it passed and right away feds were messaging the state, not the other way around.

In a Feb. 16 letter to Gov. Jan Brewer, the federal government reiterated to Gov Brewer and the State of Arizona, that it may prosecute state workers for implementing the medical-marijuana program in Arizona.

Acting U.S. Attorney Ann Birmingham Scheel also said said her office will continue to “vigorously enforce” federal laws against those who operate and/or facilitate large marijuana production facilities and marijuana production facilities involved in the selling of marijuana for medical use.

Scheel stated that Arizona state employees who participate in the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act “are not immune from liability” under the federal Controlled Substances Act.

http://azmarijuana.com/arizona-medical-marijuana-news/letter-az-feds-vigorously-enforce-marijuana-production/

Here is an actual example of a state attorney contacting the feds (not what you think or what you are claiming)

Boulder DA Stan Garnett Wants Feds To Back Off

District Attorney Stan Garnett (from Boulder, Colorado) sent a letter to the feds asking them to stop their crusade against medical marijuana dispensaries that are following state law.

“I can see no legitimate basis in this judicial district to focus the resources of the United States government on the medical marijuana dispensaries that are otherwise compliant with Colorado law or local regulation,” Garnett wrote in the letter dated Tuesday to Colorado U.S. Attorney John Walsh. “The people of Boulder County do not need Washington D.C. or the federal government dictating how far dispensaries should be from schools, or other fine points of local land-use law.”

A Denver Post article stated, “In his letter, Garnett said federal law enforcement officials should instead focus elsewhere: on terrorism, organized crime or major trafficking of hard drugs like cocaine or methamphetamine. Continuing to target dispensaries, Garnett wrote, “would be very disruptive to communities who have spent significant time and resources exercising their right of local control to balance the competing issues around medical marijuana.”"

“Although we will prosecute significant marijuana distribution and possession cases that are outside the medical marijuana dispensary framework, there is a limited role for criminal enforcement relating to medical marijuana dispensaries,” Garnett wrote, according to the Daily Camera.

http://www.theweedblog.com/disgruntled-district-attorney-sends-letter-to-feds-over-medical-marijuana/

I can't believe the denial on this issue. It doesn't help the President pretending things are different than what they are.

[Comrade Grumpy]

31. You are conflating two separate phenomena.

In California, some retrograde local officials who can't tolerate the will of the voters are going after dispensaries. They interpret the medical marijuana laws as not allowing ANY sales. The state law is fuzzy on this, open to different interpretations. The California Supreme Court is looking at four related cases and should provide clarity when it rules.

This is going on in conservative counties in the Central Valley and the Inland Empire. That's one thing.

The federal offensive against medical marijuana distribution is another. It is ongoing and undeniable. US Attorneys across California and the country are threatening dispensaries and landlords with criminal prosecution and asset forfeiture and the DEA is conducting several raids a week in California. These are dispensaries that are operating in accord with state laws and local ordinances. The federal prosecutors are citing the 1,000-foot rule, but it's not state law and it's not a rule. It's a federal sentencing enhancement to commit a drug crime within 1,000 feet of a school, that's all. The feds are using that as some sort of demarcation to go after dispensaries.

There is most definitely a war on medical marijuana distribution by the Obama Justice Department. You would have to be willfully blind to deny that. I don't know why I'm even wasting my time with you.

[DiverDave]

11. Whats the color of the sky in your world?

Poor sick people STILL are considered criminals, after he PROMISED he wouldnt.

I think you need to research your answer.

[tridim]

14. Obama has called no legal MMJ patient a criminal. Ever.

[Comrade Grumpy]

32. Yet his Justice Department is busy arresting their providers.

I don't know how you can continue to deny reality. It's pretty sad.

[tridim]

36. His justice department is enforcing current federal law.

They have no choice.

[DeSwiss]

18. B.S.

"As for medical marijuana ... I'm not familiar with all the details of the initiative that was passed, but I think the basic concept of using medical marijuana for the same purposes and with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors, I think that's entirely appropriate. ... I'm not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue." ~Barack Obama, The Mail Tribune March 23, 2008

[sad sally]

34. Gee, the President's support must be secret, otherwise why would his administration do these things?

Deputy Attorney General James Cole, along with the four US Attorneys from California, has ramped up federal efforts to close or displace several hundreds of medical cannabis providers in California. Their tactics have included: raiding specific dispensaries and prosecuting their owners; filing civil forfeiture proceedings against landlords who rent their property to medical marijuana providers; threatening to federally prosecute newspapers and radio stations who accept ad revenue from medical cannabis operations; and, most recently, intimidating local lawmakers who have either enacted or are publicly supportive of cannabis oversight regulations. Speaking with radio station KQED San Francisco last month, Tommy LaNier – Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy's National Marijuana Initiative – boasted about the administration’s efforts to strong-arm local officials, stating "[We] have ... advised those places where they're trying to regulate marijuana -- which is illegal under the Control Substances Act -- (that) they cannot do that.”

In Colorado, United States Attorney John Walsh has sent letters to owners of dozens of the Centennial State’s medical cannabis facilities stating, "Action will be taken to seize and forfeit their property" if they do not cease their operations. Unlike similarly targeted dispensaries in California, the operations on Walsh’s hit list are explicitly licensed by the state and thus fully compliant with state law – a fact that Walsh’s letters readily acknowledge but appear content to ignore. "This ... constitutes formal notice that action will be taken to seize and forfeit (your) property if you do not cause the sale and/or distribution of marijuana and marijuana-infused substances at (this) location to be discontinued,” they state. “[T]he Department of Justice has the authority to enforce federal law even when such activities may be permitted under state law.” Ironically, the Justice Department’s letters arrived just weeks after US Attorney General Eric Holder publicly told (read: lied to) Colorado Congressman Jared Polis, an ardent supporter of the medicinal cannabis industry, that that the federal government would only target medical cannabis operators that "use marijuana in a way that's not consistent with the state statute."

But the Obama Justice Department isn’t only sending letters to cannabis dispensaries owners and their landlords. Last year, the DOJ also mailed letters to numerous state lawmakers, including the Governors of Delaware, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, as they were debating legislation to allow for the licensed distribution of medical cannabis. The letters threatened federal prosecution for those involved with said efforts – including, in some cases, state civil servants – if the measures went forward. As a result, most didn’t.

The IRS has assessed crippling penalties on tax-paying medical cannabis facilities in California by denying these operations from filing standard expense deductions;

The Department of Treasury has strong-armed local banks and other financial institutions into closing their accounts with medicinal marijuana operators. In Colorado, where the state’s estimated 700 licensed cannabis dispensaries are routinely subjected to state audits, there no longer remains even a single bank willing to openly do business with med-pot operators.

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/154070/why_is_the_obama_administration_suddenly_fixated_on_stomping_out_medical_pot/?page=2

[Warren DeMontague]

6. Your body doesn't belong to you, it belongs to the government, the church, to "God", to us.

that's what all this shit boils down to, in essence.

[Fumesucker]

10. Obama just wants us to avoid the misery and dead end of drug addiction like he had to deal with..

Imagine how far Obama could have gone if he had only managed to avoid getting addicted to drugs..

[Summer Hathaway]

12. Only an asshole

would call the duly-elected Democratic president 'an asshole' on a Democratic website.

But perhaps you just have a very limited vocabulary, and are unable to express yourself in an intelligent, adult manner - in which case I apologize for bringing attention to your linguistic deficiencies.

[Scurrilous]

15. 3-3 to Leave It Alone:

At Sat Apr 7, 2012, 07:05 PM you sent an alert on the following post:

Obama, the happy drug warrior

REASON FOR ALERT:

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate. (See <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=aboutus#communitystandards" target="_blank">Community Standards</a>.)

YOUR COMMENTS:

The OP is inappropriate and rude. OP can make his point without referring to the President as 'asshole.'



JURY RESULTS

A randomly-selected Jury of DU members completed their review of this alert at Sat Apr 7, 2012, 07:18 PM, and voted 3-3 to LEAVE IT ALONE.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: I'm rather torn on this one. While it's rather rude to refer to anyone as an "asshole", President Obama is a public figure. My heart tells me to hide it while my head says to leave it alone. I vote to leave it alone.
Juror #2 voted to HIDE IT and said: Calling the President an "asshole" is, in my book, free (and even necessary from time to time) speech. While others might think referring to the President as an "asshole" is an unacceptable statement of disrespect, that's not why I'm voting to hide. Saying that the right wing is "dead right" about anything, especially something this controversial, is begging for a flamewar.
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #4 voted to HIDE IT and said: I agree with the alerter. This post would be fine without the last sentence.
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #6 voted to HIDE IT and said: over the top

Thank you.

[Summer Hathaway]

16. And yet people here wonder why

Democrats continue to leave this site.

I was actually waiting for someone to alert on my reply. I was interested in seeing how a jury could justify calling Obama 'an asshole', while taking objection to a poster calling the asshole who posted that comment what he is - an asshole.

But the night is young ...

[TheKentuckian]

19. Obama is a public figure elected to office responsible for reprehensible policy

Not a fellow member of the community being directly addressed.

Calling Ben Nelson an asshole for a position is not in the same ballpark as ragging out another member but it is exactly the same as calling Obama an asshole for one of his poor positions.

I don't get what you don't get about politicians being held to a different standard than a fellow poster

I'm a Grayson fan and he even actually posts here but it is a world of difference between calling him an asshole for a vote, position, or behavior as a public official and addressing him an asshole directly in a thread are very distinct things and I have no idea why there would be any misunderstanding on that.

[DeSwiss]

20. ''Freedom of expression is no respector of person.''

That's the only way it can work. It's strange that after all this time, I'm still confronting something that should be so obvious.

''First, states cannot censor their citizens in order to make a “civil” society. Second, knowing where to draw the line between harmless heightened emotion and vulgarity can be difficult. Third, people bring passion to politics and vulgarity is simply a side effect of a free exchange of ideas—no matter how radical they may be.'' ~Justice John Marshall Harlan II, U.S. Supreme Court 1971

[Summer Hathaway]

24. Believe me

there has been no misunderstanding here.

And I don't get what you don't get about that.

[LetTimmySmoke]

21. Yep. I'm a pot smoking asshole.

I don't care for politicians who want to classify me as a criminal. Fuck them. I don't care what party they're in.

[LetTimmySmoke]

23. Looks like the prohibition on my post fared about as well as the drug/alcohol prohibitions.

[JonLP24]

33. You don't have anything substantial to add?

Nothing on do you support/not support this crackdown? Or do you have facts that show much of what posters are arguing is BS? Just interested in trying to find posts to hide or threads locks?

[Fumesucker]

17. One thing we know for sure..

Obama thinks it would have helped his life immensely if he had gotten busted and gotten help for his cocaine and cannabis abuse when he was a young man.

Another promising young life ruined by the hell of drug addiction.

Edited for speling.

[LetTimmySmoke]

22. Yep. If he were caught, he wouldn't have been president.

He didn't have a rich family to protect him like W.

[Zax2me]

25. Yea, only the indigent go to Harvard.

By the time you get into a prestigous school like Harvard you assume protections, opportunities and advantages that the 99% just don't and won't have access to.

[RZM]

28. I don't consider the president to be an 'asshole'

But this is the issue I am most unhappy with him over. He'll never have my full support until he changes his stance on it. I'll still vote for him, but I don't appreciate this stance at all.

[FarLeftFist]

37. G.F.YOURSELF. You're the only one who called him an asshole. You a RWer?

[JohnnyRingo]

38. I don't have a prescription for weed, but I never go without.

I'm admitting that openly on a public internet forum, yet I don't expect jack-booted Obama agents to kick in my door and haul me away. So Obama isn't cashing in what's left of his political capital, after health care reform and the stimulus, to make sure people can smoke legal weed. Big deal.

I suppose you could say medical marijuana is the biggest single issue we face as a nation today, but that just sounds like someone begging for an intervention.