Six National Drug Policy Orgs to Pres. Obama: End Unnecessary Assault on Medical Marijuana Providers

[LetTimmySmoke]

Washington, DC -- In the wake of recent attacks on medical marijuana providers and patients by multiple branches of the federal government, including Monday's raids on Oaksterdam University in Oakland, CA, a coalition of six national drug policy reform organizations is appealing to President Obama and his administration to follow its own previously stated policies respecting state medical marijuana laws. In the letter, posted in full below, the organizations call on the Obama administration to bring an end to the federal government's ongoing campaign to undermine state efforts to regulate safe and legal access to medical marijuana for those patients who rely on it.

The Obama Administration's National Drug Control Strategy Report 2012, reportedly being released in the coming days, is expected to cling to failed and outdated marijuana policies which further cement the control of the marijuana trade in the hands of drug cartels and illegal operators, endangering both patients in medical marijuana states and citizens everywhere. The members of this coalition stand together with members of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, current and former Latin American leaders whose countries are being ravaged by drug cartels, state officials from five medical marijuana states, and tens of millions of Americans in their call for a more rational approach to marijuana policy.

___________________________________________________

THE LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA:

April 4, 2012

President Barack Obama
The White House
Washington D.C. 20500
Via Fax: [phone]

Dear Mr. President:

Our coalition represents the views of tens of millions of Americans who believe the war on medical marijuana patients and providers you are fighting is misguided and counterproductive. As your administration prepares to release its annual National Drug Control Strategy, we want to speak with one voice and convey our deep sense of anger and disappointment in your lack of leadership on this issue.

Voters and elected officials in sixteen states and the District of Columbia have determined that the medical use of marijuana should be legal. In many of these states, the laws also include means for providing medical marijuana patients safe access to this medicine. These laws allowing for the cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana actually shift control of marijuana sales from the criminal underground to state-licensed, taxed, and regulated producers and distributors.

Instead of celebrating - or even tolerating - this state experimentation, which has benefited patients and taken profits away from drug cartels, you have turned your back as career law enforcement officials have run roughshod over some of the most professional and well-regulated medical marijuana providers. We simply cannot understand why you have reneged on your administration's earlier policy of respecting state medical marijuana laws.

More: http://norml.org/news/2012/04/04/six-national-drug-policy-organizations-call-on-president-obama-to-end-unnecessary-assault-on-medical-marijuana-providers

[limpyhobbler]

1. enough already, make it legal, no more turning honest people into criminals for no good reason.

[barbtries]

2. kick.

i'd sign a petition, anyone know of one out there?

[malcolmkyle]

3. Prohibition Kills!

As with torture, prohibition is a grievous crime against humanity. If you support it, or even simply tolerate it by looking the other way while others commit it, you are an accessory to a very serious moral transgression against humanity.

* The United States re-legalized certain drug use in 1933. The drug was alcohol, and the 21st amendment re-legalized its production, distribution and sale. Both alcohol consumption and violent crime dropped immediately as a result, and very soon after, the American economy climbed out of that same prohibition engendered abyss into which it had foolishly fallen.

“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing, after they’ve tried everything else.”
- Winston Churchill

[Dilldoe]

4. Those of us who support MM need to realize

President Obama is just not interested in supporting it at all. Arresting people gets him money from the private prison industry and blocking any form of legal MM gets him truckloads of money from the pharmaceutical companies.

Besides if he did support it his Legacy would be 'First African American President Legalizes Weed.'

It ain't happening anytime soon.

[fredamae]

5. $75-$80,000,000,000.00 Annually

to Subsidize & Preserve LE Budgets, Prison Industry, Drug Testing Mfg, Drug Testing Facilities, Investigations, Preserving Alcohol, Tobacco, Wine Industries Monopolies, Protecting BigPhRMA and even Black Marketeers.

Prohibition assures us that drug related crime remains elevated, extended/stricter sentencing (ALEC sourced perhaps?) ensures a healthy For Profit Prison Population, the ruination of our kids futures by removing educational opportunities, a felony results in a 30% LIFETIME reduction of earnings and so on.

We, the People have no choice but to invest our tax dollar contributions toward this effort because our Lawmakers insist upon maintaining the status quo for their friends instead of their constituents. What ROI do you realize/benefit from?
Is your community safer as a result of current policies? Mine is not.

At the end of the day, the Majority of Americans Agree the Most Dangerous Element Surrounding The Use of Cannabis Are The Laws, Rules and Policies That Govern It's Use. Period.

[RKP5637]

6. Well said and exactly >>> "...the Most Dangerous Element Surrounding The

Use of Cannabis Are The Laws, Rules and Policies That Govern It's Use." We have stupid laws that do nothing but prop-up black market profits, prison and enforcement $$$, while concurrently murdering people and wrecking lives. It's a failed policy and has been for decades.