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Medical Marijuana Stance Changing Under Obama
U.S. to yield marijuana jurisdiction to states
SAN FRANCISCO - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is sending strong signals that President Obama - who as a candidate said states should be allowed to make their own rules on medical marijuana - will end raids on pot dispensaries in California.
Medical marijuana is displayed in Los Angeles August 6, 2007. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters) Asked at a Washington news conference Wednesday about Drug Enforcement Administration raids in California since Obama took office last month, Holder said the administration has changed its policy.
"What the president said during the campaign, you'll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we'll be doing here in law enforcement," he said. "What he said during the campaign is now American policy."
Bill Piper, national affairs director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a marijuana advocacy group, said the statement is encouraging.
"I think it definitely signals that Obama is moving in a new direction, that it means what he said on the campaign trail that marijuana should be treated as a health issue rather than a criminal justice issue," he said.
Piper said Obama has also indicated he will drop the federal government's long-standing opposition to health officials' needle-exchange programs for drug users.
During one campaign appearance, Obama recalled that his mother had died of cancer and said he saw no difference between doctor-prescribed morphine and marijuana as pain relievers. He told an interviewer in March that it was "entirely appropriate" for a state to legalize the medical use of marijuana "with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors."
After the federal Drug Enforcement Agency raided a marijuana dispensary at South Lake Tahoe on Jan. 22, two days after Obama's inauguration, and four others in the Los Angeles area on Feb. 2, White House spokesman Nick Schapiro responded to advocacy groups' protests by noting that Obama had not yet appointed his drug policy team.
"The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws" and expects his appointees to follow that policy, Schapiro said.
The federal government has fought state medicinal pot laws since Californians voted in 1996 to repeal criminal penalties for medical use of marijuana.
President Bill Clinton's administration won a Supreme Court case, originating in Oakland, that allowed federal authorities to shut down nonprofit organizations that supplied medical marijuana to their members. Clinton's Justice Department was thwarted by federal courts in an attempt to punish California doctors who recommended marijuana to their patients.
President George W. Bush's administration went further, raiding medical marijuana growers and clinics, prosecuting suppliers under federal drug laws after winning another Supreme Court case and pressuring commercial property owners to evict marijuana dispensaries by threatening legal action.
The Bush administration also blocked a University of Massachusetts researcher's attempt to grow marijuana for studies of its medical properties. Piper, of the Drug Policy Alliance, said he hopes Obama will reverse that position.
"If you removed the obstacles to research," he said, "in 10 to 15 years, marijuana will be available in pharmacies."
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52 Comments so far
Show AllIt's a step in the right direction, but Cannabis needs to be legalized outright.
Agreed. It is disingenuous (not to mention destructive) to always split this issue into the "OK" medical marijuana argument and the "not OK" recreational use argument. That plays right into the hands of the moralistic overlords. Marijuana should be legal simply because it is a natural plant on this earth, period.
Aye, legalize it and tax the stuff. You would see a drop in its use by teenagers, as it would lose the cool factor (they'd find another way to piss off their parents). We'd save tons of cash by not locking up users of pot for decades. And gang violence would drop as they'd lose a very profitable business.
Any government that tells its citizens what to do when their behavior impacts nobody but themselves is abusing its power.
"Governments are a means by which people succeed in leaving each other alone."--Thoreau
George Bush Inc. was driving us to totalitarianism as fast as his carl rove machine could go.
I disagree... I have worked in three states to decriminalize... And here's my point of view...
Legalizing ganja will take the criminal element out of the equation, but it depends on how it is legalized...
whiskey is legal, but illegal to still your own...
If pot was sold in drug stores, you would have to get a prescription, and someone else would set the price...
And the potency would be regulated or pegged to a price scale scheme...
If ADM or Monsanto began growing hemp like corn, we could have cheap food, clothes, and building materials and heal our forests...
If they grew industrial marijuana, the quality would go down, they would use petro chemicals and heavy machinery... Lowering quality...
I don't think taxing medicine is a good idea, we should enforce the tax on capital gains and corporate profits again...
Herb should be decriminalized, lowest priority to law enforcement, and the penalty for posession be no fine or jail, only community service, to help folks learn how to grow their own food, or whatever...
Why should there be ANY penalty for cannabis use? What is the harm of people doing something as long as they are acting responsibly? Why should the state have any business screwing with anyone as long as they aren't breaking some other law? That is just another excuse for the gov't to stick it's face into people's lives for doing nothing. There is no point to it.
We don't make those who drink do community service, even though their drug of choice leads to violence, drunken driving accidents, and in sufficient quantity, death. We don't make cigarette smokers do community service in spite of the fact that 450,000 Americans die every year from their drug of choice. Tobacco is the ONLY product that when it's used according to directions kills the user. Cannabis has never been linked to death in 4700 years of medicinal use and 10,000 of historically proven recreational use. Sugar has more health risks than cannabis does.
I was busted a year and a half ago for growing my own medicinal cannabis. Now I have a year to go on probatin, I've thrown over $3500 into the state's coffers, I have had to endure "anger management classes" with people who were there for wife beating and fighting in bars, I have been piss tested and had to go through 9 minths of breathalyzers even though I hadn't had drink in 23 YEARS (I'd been using cannabis to keep me away from drinking). I've put on 25 pounds in the last year having apparently turned to food instead of cannabis to deal with my depression (the reason I'd been using cannabis in the first place).Before and after the rial, such as it was, I had people in the "justice system" tell me that I should be taking DRUGS instead of doing drugs for my depression. The insanity of that alone is enough to make me want to tear my hair out.
And just who was I hurting? I'd been growing my own so that I didn't have to deal with the black market for 20 years, and I have had the cops lie to the DEA, telling her that I promised to "assist" them and then didn't. Who would I know to turn in after not buying anything for 2 DECADES?
We did the same or worse to 830,000 Americans in 2006 ALONE, and it's probably higher now. We waste tens of billions every year to screw another nearly 1 MILLION Americans for something that doesn't kill anyone anywhere.
This is clearly a situation where the law makes things worse than the original complaint. Such a law cannot be allowed to stand.
BTW, it was 1913 when this country first made cannabis illegal. It was CA that did it, it's fairly fitting that they be the first state to be driven to such a bad fiscal point that they finally reversed it.And why did they make cannabis illegal? So they could kick out the Mexicans. In 1917, four other Southwestern states did the same thing, and for the same reason.
It's time this lying, deadly, painfully ridiculous law be repealed, and a formal apology be made by the gov't's of each state the the feds to the people of the country for such a destructive action.
It's up to US to make them change it. Flood their offices with emails, letters, and phone calls to tell them it's time to stop this idiocy. When the people lead, the leaders will follow.
Philosophically I agree that using cannabis shouldn't be a crime...
I am sorry to hear of your experience with the criminal justice system...
The war on drugs is a sham and a racket...
However, if legalized, of would be commodified by big business and lose the quality,
and regulated like liquor, so you still would be arrested for growing your own...
Decriminalization would mean you could grow enough for your own use, at minimal to no risk...
Yet prevents cartels like the mexican mafia from taking over mendocino and humbolt with huge grow operations that squeeze out the family farmers...
Community service is not a punishment like a prison chain gang under the current laws...
Volunteering to ameliorate your community is something you should be doing anyway...
You can get hours for tutoring in academics or music, coaching little league, helping out a NGO, or picking up trash in a city park...
I wish you well as you disentangle yourself from the system...
Hear, hear WJM!
We must draw the government line at the personal body. What you do with your free body, according to the Declaration of Independence is your business, not big brother's, not your employer's. Drug testing and prohibition is a loss of liberty that should not be tolerated by free men. It is clearly stated that this freedom is a right bestowed by nature (later changed to "a right bestowed by the creator" by congressional objection in 1776.)
Invasive testing, including the blackmail now committed by Huge corporations to "Monitor" your body fluids for the presence of anything they don't like is unconstitutional. It is often used as a solution to get rid of Union organizers. It is too much power to put in the hands of a single man, without any probable cause or with out a fair hearing. Confiscation of vehicles and land by law enforcement today is also a violation of due process of law.
It's getting to the point that I don't even recognize this country anymore nor it's inhabitants.
The founding fathers fought tooth and nail to give us the Bill of Rights and we should fight to the death to strike down most of the unconstitutional laws on the books today.
Your Obedient,
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
Anti drug laws give governments more control. Simple.
Yes, The economic crises will finally make it mandatory... the largest cash crop in the world and if we taxed it just at say 1 dollar a joints worth, the revenue could probably pay for the best health care... and the new cookies would not even damage the lungs at all..,.. Makes me hungry!
The plants would save the top soil and give oxygen and we could manufacture practically anything with the oil and fiber.
Tom Jefferson knew it was a National security Issue to grow and use Cannabis.
"and the new cookies would not even damage the lungs at all"
Some recent research indicates that cannibis, when smoked, may, that is may, because more research needs to be done, help PREVENT lung cancer. It MAY even have an anti-cancer effect on existing disease. I have not read anything to suggest that smoked cannibis has any effect, good or bad, on developing emphysema (other than the fact that I know some people who have smoked it for 40 years or more and do not have emphysema... yet...)
d.k.shaw
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of
patriots and tyrants. ....Thomas Jefferson
Herein lies the essence of many of Obama's "policies".....they look pretty, but have little substance.....rhetoric with a tint of change.
You ain't no Jefferson, so cut the crap!.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of
patriots and tyrants. ....Thomas Jefferson
Who said I was?..What's the purpose of that attack??
I hear hemp actually enriches the soil and doesn't deplete it. God, if only it were legal to grow could I then use it to undo the extensive damage to my farming soil caused by my earlier temptations to grow loads of corn for profit. Even after cutting down on growing corn for sales, the damage has still yet to heal. Oh well, I guess we're in a situation where we won't be given the cure but the damage done stays for a long time. :(
"I hear hemp actually enriches the soil and doesn't deplete it. "
It does .. i actually grow some in my yard and compost the leaves (not the buds !!).
Thank you President Obama.
Typical Republican hypocrisy - States Laws, when it comes to slavery and homophobia, but federal laws for pot. I am so glad the nightmare of Republican-facist rule is over. It's time to legalize pot and prostitution and tax them both!
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Oh, come on now. Thats just a goddamn piece of paper.
d.k.shaw
You mean a goddamn piece of written-on-hemp piece of paper.
Please place those little black bars across the specimens shown in the accompanying photo.
This kind bud porn is making my lungs water!
(It's not addictive... just irresistible!)
· Yr Obd't Servant
racom40
While we are at it, end the ridiculous 'war on drugs', aren't we all tired of these losing, stupid wars that aren't wars. Check out the history of hemp, marijuana and you will find it has always been a conservative issue, maybe it can be called the conservatives 'war on American rights'!
I wish PA would legalize it for medical use. My opthamologist has already told me its okay with him if I use it for my glaucoma, but of course he cannot prescribe it. We've even run the following experiment. One office visit he measured the pressure in my eyes at 22 in one eye and 19 in the other, and this is while using Lumigan, one drop in each eye at bedtime. I left the office and came back an hour later. I cannot to tell you what transpired in that hour, taking the 5th on that and no I don't mean a 5th of liquor, but when I came back into the office the values were 12 in one eye and 14 in the other, well below the danger level. And, no, I wasn't driving under the influence of anything, especially not a 5th of liquor, because I had a friend drive me. Plus the music ... yes, the music ... seemed so ... three dimensional ... 5th dimensional, even ...
d.k.shaw
There's a fleet of cuban fishermen who use it to fish at night. They can see much better than the other fishermen... guess who catches the most fish?
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"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.", Albert Einstein.
Ed note: white phosphorous, dense metal super weapons, nuclear stick-up, missile defense, bailouts and propaganda!!
EKATON,one of my clients is a landscape architect,he used to purchase seeds from Mark Emory at Cannabis Culture but then when Mark was busted I started giving him free seeds and he says it helps alot. peas in.
Nanoo
Other medical herbs we are free to grow, why not include marijuana. As my cousin pointed out to me, we don't need to legalize it but decriminalize it. A small step in the right direction but still putting profit in the middlemen.
Yes, absolutely decriminalize it. Cannibis should have the legal status of... well... grass (smirk).
d.k.shaw
Reversing the various and sundry evils of Dumbyuh will take time and effort, but Obama is heading in the right direction. The Hypocrisy of Dumbyuh and his spiritual soul mates is at least as high as the twin towers he ignored and allowed to be attacked. Big Pharma Uber Alles! Smaller Gov'mint- unless it contradicts my personal agenda. Faux News is the poster child of their philosophy. Propaganda over truth- Their Motto.
When comedians like Bill Hicks and others are speaking the truth that otherwise intelligent people DARE not speak, something is wrong with this picture.
The Dumbyuh agenda A-Z = Epic Fail!! To the 'Thuglicans- May your exile into the political wastelands be a long one.
Free Mark Emory the prince of pot!
And may I remind you that yesterday was the 15th anniversary of Bill Hicks' death.
Long live Bill!
And in honor of The Master . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSH6ofHbeUw
The very first thing that Bush's Attorney General Ashcroft did after the Patriot Act was signed into law was to bust head shops that were selling glass pipes over the internet; including Tommy Chong. This was somehow supposed to "protect us from terrorists"(?) as I recall. (Operation Pipe Dreams and Operation Headhunter).
All it really did was put alot of glass blowers out of work. They make much more than the rest of us, so when they all collected unemployment it put a strain on local economies in more ways than one.
Your Tax dollars at work!
I'm So glad the Repugs are gone.
Speaking from Seattle, where I live, this looks like pretty good news. Washington State has a medical cannabis law, but it's totally screwed up and most patients need to obtain their recommended medication from the black market. (Although I did hear just this week that some pharmacies dispense "joints" to patients with doctor's recommendations--does anyone know about this?)
To me, it was a huge signal when Obama appointed Seattle's police chief, Gil Kerlikowski (sp?), as drug czar. Seattle's voters passed an initiative several years ago directing its police force to place marijuana enforcement at the lowest level of priority. A police spokesman, when asked about this initiative, basically shrugged and said, "It already is our lowest priority." Yes, Seattle is a fine city in which to live!
I hope, I hope, I HOPE this signals more substantive changes to come. Do I dare hope for an end to the "War on Drugs"? (That's probably too much, I know...)
Yeah Fast Eddie 75,those joints are garbage, "ditch weed" grown in Mississippi at the only federal facility licensed to do so.It is not quality medical grade weed.Mostly leaf, not from Sensemia and what most growers would discard as "scuff".Today the choices allow a designer strain according to your symptoms ,needs and preferences.Most buying clubs have many strains,smokeless vaporisers and edible product to choose from. peas in
Thanks for the tip on the pharmacy variety. It figures.
I know some buying clubs are around, because one was raided sometime last year. Not by the DEA, surprizingly, but by the Seattle Police. Once they learned they had raided a medical provider, they sheepishly returned all the files. The DEA, typically, confiscated all the medicinal herb, so patients went... Where? Probably to another club or the black market.
My partner lived in California before she moved up here with me. She had a prescription, and it was a delight for her to go into a storefront, describe what symptoms were to be treated, and come out with something appropriate. [To me, it's ALL appropriate, though I do have favorites. Just can't remember 'em.]
We've tried some lower-cost vaporizers but were not impressed. The "Volcano" is a great vaporizer, but I won't be able to afford one of those until my health insurance company covers it. Oh, wait, I don't have health insurance.
Peace
marijuana is a broader issue of democracy and responsibility which will never go away untill solved
edweg
In Connecticut we passed a medical maryjane law and the governor vetoed it.Bummer. it comes up again soon and Mrs Rell will probably veto it again!A friend of mine is looking at a 5-10 year sentence for a few plants he and his wife needed for medicinal purposes.It would be nice if the feds reclassified Cannabis and legalized industrial Hemp too. peas in
Not So Fast.
Global warming took off when Marijuana use became prevalent.
Millions of Bic liters, their heat released into the ozone.
The plant grows WARMER, but worst-indoor growers potentiating photosynthesis via artificial C02 production! (mix 2 cups sugar + 1-2 tsps yeast in 1.75 liters warm water in 2 liter plastic bottle, don't make a bomb, vent the top) only works during the "day, lights on," can increase yield by 1/3rd plus amps the quality. Creates denser buds.)
On the other hand, these factors can be off-set if every 4:20, 730 times a year, all pot heads pull their vehicles over. Turn the engines off. Do bong hits. Then drive.
Peace2UALLS, Joe.
no one has the right to deny this wonderful plant to anyone else...much less curtail one's liberty...every human has an inherent right to many things here on this planet, and this immensely beneficial plant is one of them...
How many of you are sick?
The Surgeon General says:
GOVERNMENT WARNING: Marijuana use can cause complex thoughts leading to better ideas of how to live your life. Caution, free thinking has been routinely reported with continued use.
Maybe you should try some, joe. It will help your constipation.
What do you mean? How many posters have medical conditions that are efficaciously treated with cannabis? That's between them and their doctors.
joehope
I'm sick of people that want to take my freedom away. And lowlifes that support jailing marijuana smokers.
It is sick to support caging people for smoking a mellow plant.
Thanks, Joe.
I'm sick -- of you, that is.
Legalize cannabis now!
"If men had been forbidden to make porridge of camel's dung, they would have done it, saying that they would not have been forbidden to do it unless there had been some good in it."
--Muhammad
It is time for change! President Obama could change things with the stroke of a pen. He could take cannabis hemp off the Dangerous Substance List and let the conversation begin.
Changing the medical marijuana laws is a step in the right direction, but changing the discussion about hemp is a necessity. America needs new innovative industry and hemp is the plant for the future.
If you haven't read the book "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" by Jack Herer, it is available for free at www.jackherer.com Jack Herer has documented all the various uses of cannabis hemp and backs it up with documentation. It is a new direction for America, fact, not spin. It's time to stop spinning Ordinary Americans and educate them with facts.
The plant cannabis hemp is more than a drug, it's an industry.
Hey FastEddie75. You can make your own vaporizer. You need an air popcorn maker, a silicone oven mitt, a steel mesh tea ball that fits the neck of the popcorn maker, and an oven bag. The weed goes in the tea ball and sits in the neck of the popper. The oven mitt sits on top with a finger sized hole in the finger end. The oven bag goes over the hole to catch the vented vapor. Watch the heat! You may have to turn the popper off before the weed actually burns. The oven bag will fill with vapor and can be passed around like a hilarious balloon. Just don't leave the popcorn maker running too long while covered. You should have a fire extinguisher, old Genesis albums and feather boa ready at all times.
Thanks for the tip! Sadly, I have no Genesis albums. Would Jefferson Airplane or the Doors suffice?
I believe it was PBS, claimed it was the SW states that put the pressure on the Feds to criminalize it so they could bust undocumented workers.
Historical records tell us that it was originally made illegal in 1913 by the state of California so they could kick out the Mexicans. In 1917, Colorado, Nevada and a few other states did the same thing for the same reason. By the time it got to the federal level, it was testified to in congress that we needed to make it illegal to keep white women from wanting to sleep with black men. It's racist no matter which way you look at it.
By the time we got to the 70's the conservaitves figured out (brilliant lot that they are) that the whole 60's unrest happened because of cannabis and other drugs. They didnt' stop to think that it could possibly have been because soem people didn't want to go to another country to stop people there from figuring out their own way of life, or that there were people here who were genuinely not happy with how things were being done. They blame the anti Viet Nam movement, the Civil rights movement, the women's rights movement and the whole lot of other movements on cannabis. That is why they really don't want it legalized, and have thrown away millions of their fellow citizens lives in the last 30 years.
It's time for this nonsense to stop being the way of our lives. They are all terrified of life in general, and it's a real shame that we have all had to live by their fears. When the poeple lead, the leaders will follow.