Thread: Obama's getting it done son!

Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the federal government will now defer to state governments on medical marijuana — a 180-degree reversal of the Bush administration's anti-democratic policies.

The impact was immediate. On the day of Holder's announcement, New Mexico announced that it had issued the first license that any state government has ever issued to a medical marijuana producer in any state. That first nonprofit provider will be able to grow and sell medical marijuana to card-carrying patients without being harassed or raided by local, state, or federal law enforcement officials.

Additionally:

* Rhode Island is poised to expand its existing medical marijuana law to allow for three nonprofits to dispense medical marijuana to registered patients.
* This November, Maine voters will consider a ballot initiative similar to what Rhode Island envisions. MPP's polling shows the initiative is supported by 66% of likely voters.
* The Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota legislatures are debating bills to create new medical marijuana laws that allow for licensed dispensing from day one.
* In Arizona, MPP's campaign committee will be placing a similar proposal on the statewide ballot in November 2010. That initiative is supported by 65% of likely voters.
* In California, medical marijuana is dispensed at approximately 400 collectives that are generating approximately $100 million annually in state tax revenues. They operate under a state law that allows their activity but doesn't provide for state licensing. With federal policy improved and clarified, we expect the California Legislature to pass legislation similar to our Arizona proposal.

To fully appreciate the changes we're seeing, compare the Obama administration's policy to the Bush administration's policy. In the fall of 2001, after executing the first of what would be dozens of medical marijuana dispensary raids over eight years, a spokesperson for Bush's Justice Department said, "The recent enforcement is indicative that we have not lost our priorities in other areas since September 11. The attorney general and the administration have been very clear: we will be aggressive."

As the World Trade Center was still literally smoldering and our country was about to launch two foreign wars, the Bush administration was crowing about how it was arresting medical marijuana patients. That policy was not only cruel, but stupid. Good riddance.

Now that the Obama administration has taken the Drug Enforcement Administration out of the business of busting pharmacy-like establishments, MPP will be lobbying the federal government to also do the following:

* Congress should remove the federal ban on the District of Columbia enacting a local medical marijuana law. In November 1998, 69% of D.C. voters passed a medical marijuana ballot initiative, but every year since then Congress has attached a rider to its D.C. spending bill that prevents this law from taking effect. Even former Republican Congressman Bob Barr, the author of the federal ban, now supports lifting it — and has lobbied on MPP's behalf to do exactly that.
* The DEA should stop preventing the University of Massachusetts from growing medical marijuana for research purposes. A privately grown, regulated supply of marijuana is a prerequisite to getting marijuana approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a prescription medicine.
* The Obama administration should reopen the existing federal program that currently provides medical marijuana to only three patients nationwide but that was closed to new enrollment in 1992. This could be a huge boon to patients in states without medical marijuana laws.

It's all a conspiracy and Obama is not even american because his birth certificate is fake. He does nothing. He only won cause he's black. This is all a clever ruse.

/paranoid american stereotype.

~

I can't wait to see The Obama Deception. I'm gonna have a good laugh at that.

So basically it is still illegal, but the federal government is just not going to bother enforcing it?

No, the Feds are still going to conduct raids, but only on establishments that are in violation of both state and federal law.

As far as I know, this bill hasn't left committee in Ohio yet, but it's a start.

Right, they've decided to go back(at least in small part) to the early American standard that Federal law rarely trumps state law, and that this shouldn't be one of those instances.

It's a pretty huge step in the right direction.
Unfortunately, for whatever reason Obama is still against legalizing it outright.
Maybe he'll do it after his second term starts(or he realizes there won't be one.)
It's probably a really political decision for him to wait.
It's pretty stupid though, seeing as how it would save the US ~$19B a year and add revenue of anywhere from ~$14B-$30B a year. It could potentially be the savior of this economic crisis, or at least a large reason for it.

I can't wait til NY passes MMJ laws. I really thought we'd be like the 8th-10th state to do so. It seems were not even gonna crack the top 15(maybe even 20) which is kind of a bummer.

Originally Posted by Elis D.

I can't wait to see The Obama Deception. I'm gonna have a good laugh at that.

Obama is just like bush.

I don't really like him at all, but to be fair he did about all that he can and should do. Its congresses job to pass laws. They are the ones who need to legalize it, or pass laws regarding it.

Is this really the best use of his time?

We're in a costly and illegal war
We are the last civilized country without socialized medicine
Our carbon footprint is still growing
We're in a financial meltdown

I think legalizing drugs should have a lower priority than all of those much more pressing issues.

Originally Posted by grasshoppa

Obama is just like bush.

Well not exactly. You need to factor in skin color and party affiliation.

Actually, scratch party affiliation. Democrats and Republicans seem to be doing the same thing now-a-days.

And scratch the skin color thing. We're all equal, remember?

So really, you're correct.

It's pretty stupid though, seeing as how it would save the US ~$19B a year and add revenue of anywhere from ~$14B-$30B a year. It could potentially be the savior of this economic crisis, or at least a large reason for it.

20 billion or so from drugs could be the saviour of the financial crisis..?

Uh... slight misunderstanding of orders of magnitudes there I think.

But the point of legalizing drugs is to bring a ton of money into the economy... right? It's not just for kicks or something.

And here was me thinking the point is to nullify the multifarious negatives of a black market...

Originally Posted by BLUELINE976

So really, you're correct.

finally!

I'm not the only member of the MPP here!

Just wondering - what do you think about this statement?

That quote is taken out of context all the time. He is referring to the responsibilities we all have as global citizens. Achieving peace and security depends on more than just sending our military off to other countries to kill people:

“We’re going to grow our Foreign Service, open consulates that have been shuttered and double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011 to renew our diplomacy,” Obama told the Colorado audience.

“We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded,” he said.

Just five days later, the July 7 issue of Defense News published an interview in which Obama elaborated on his goals.

“I believe we can reconfigure our civilian national-security force. We still have a national security apparatus on the civilian side, in the way the State Department is structured and USAID, that harkens back to the Cold War,” Obama said.

“We need to be able to deploy teams that combine agricultural specialists and engineers and linguists and cultural specialists who are prepared to go into some of the most dangerous areas alongside our military,” he said.

thanks for that!
It was bothering me that it was only 20 seconds
(and obviously out of context)

I'm still not liking that guy too much, but surely we'll see soon.

I'm not the biggest Obama fan, either. However, I have been impressed by several things he's done. I hope he keeps it up.