Show Me the Facts

Via: Libertarian Perspective: Respond to Medical Pot Raids with Legalization:

Activists are outraged over President Obama’s raid of Emmalyn’s California Cannabis Clinic in San Francisco (http://www.mpp.org/states/california/news/ca/dea-raids-pot-dispensary-in.html), but they should not be surprised.

Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder, had promised to end federal medical marijuana raids as conducted by the Clinton and Bush administrations, leaving alone dispensaries operating legally under state law (http://www.ocregister.com/articles/policy-marijuana-judge-2345186-lynch-department). Obama broke the spirit of the promise, but not the letter. The excuse for this last raid was state law violations — supposedly, sales taxes were being evaded. Now the feds will probably prosecute under federal law.

The state government was not agitating for a crackdown. Sacramento was not complaining about sales tax evasion. San Francisco had given a permit to this dispensary.

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While I had no real assumptions that Obama would completely legalize marijuana, I had hoped that a man in his position would respect something that he himself started (the interactive town hall). A few of the top questions posted to the White House’s website referred to legalization of marijuana; asking not only if the President would support legalization or not, but why he wouldn’t.

Obama took time to go over many of the top questions, yet when it came time to answer the most popular one:

“There was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation, and I don’t know what this says about the online audience ,” Mr.Obama said, drawing a laugh. He said he wanted to make sure the question got answered. “The answer is no, I don’t think that was a good strategy.”

(NY Times)

I personally don’t understand why he did not take it as a serious question and–even worse–seemed to alienate much of his audience by saying, “I don’t know what this says about the online audience”.

You know what it says, Obama? It says that the internet audience is curious why you will continue to allow corporate needs and greed outweigh the will of the people. Marijuana as a drug aside, Hemp is aboslutely, unquestionably a non-issue when it comes to the “health and safety” of the American public.

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