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.

“It is disturbing that, despite the DEA’s vague claims about violations of state and federal laws,” Aaron Smith from the Marijuana Policy Project noted about the Drug Enforcement Agency, “they apparently made no effort to contact the local authorities who monitor and license medical marijuana providers.”

Furthermore, sales tax violations are rarely handled this way. The California chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws points out (http://stash.norml.org/dea-raids-pot-dispensary-in-sf-over-alleged-sales-tax-improprieties/), “The normal process in such cases is for the Board of Equalization to audit the business in question, NOT for federal agents to enter like storm troopers and steal all of the business’s inventory.”

This episode should remind liberal pot activists of the potentially despotic power involved in tax collection. The power to tax is the power to destroy. Raids like this are unusual but not unheard of in mere tax cases. Presumably, if California’s marijuana industry were governed only by libertarian law — no violence, no theft, and no fraud (http://www.ca.lp.org/platform/Platform2006-2007.pdf)– there would be far fewer excuses for the feds to step in.

Short of exempting medical marijuana from sales tax altogether, how can future outrages be prevented? California should go on the offensive. It should legalize marijuana, leave its regulation to the market, and, for now, treat it like any other retail good in terms of tax law.

The state could do so by treating marijuana as a legal medicine, thereby protecting users and distributors from federal sanction, assuming Obama keeps his promise to the letter. California could make medical marijuana completely legal — like aspirin or cough syrup — and allow retailers of all types to sell it without license or prescription.

Marijuana could be sold in grocery stores and pharmacies as an over-the-counter treatment. It could be made available everywhere. This measure would make it much harder for the feds to raid facilities as though they were underground, barely legal operations. It would expose the contradictions in the DrugWar.

The Drug War is a total disaster (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123439889394275215.html). It has failed to significantly reduce drug abuse while violating personal liberty, serving as an excuse to shred the Bill of Rights, and being the major cause of gang violence, whether in our inner cities or on the border with Mexico.

If America ended drug prohibition, the Mexican border violence that has killed thousands over the past couple of years would end completely. Unfortunately, Obama is moving in the wrong direction, sending more troops to the border. Such state violence has forced the drug market underground, and every successful breakup of a dominant cartel only opens up a vacuum inevitably filled by other smaller groups violently competing over turf. The more the government cracks down, the worse it will get.

On medical marijuana, Obama was supposed to signify a shift in policy. His last DEA raid should put that myth to bed. By legalizing medical marijuana in 1996, California forced the issue over whether federal drug laws should supercede local standards. In terms of public opinion and political pressure, much has been won. It’s time to keep pushing.

In Gonzales v. Raich (2005), the Supreme Court’s five liberals all voted for federal supremacy over California’s medical marijuana laws, so more court cases might not be the answer. California should instead continue to liberalize its drug laws. Doing so will, at least, complicate Obama’s policy of federal raids and further undermine faith in the national government setting drug policy.

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.

We can sit here and argue all we want about marijuana, and I am willing to do that… but why not let Hemp go free? What did it ever do to you?

It is no secret that you support ethanol, so why not support Hemp, which is a much better source for ethanol than corn? What about the “green jobs” you keep talking about? Isn’t production of hemp one of the most green jobs possible? Why is it that we can’t grow our own hemp, yet we buy it from Canada? Where is the logic?

It would be one thing if Obama had took the time to share his thoughts as to why he believes the legalization of Marijuana (the United State’s biggest cash crop) would not help our economy… but instead he just made a joke.

I, for one, am highly disappointed.

Here’s what NORML had to say:

“Let the White House laugh for now, but the public knows that this issue is no laughing matter. This week alone, legislators in Illinois, Minnesota, and New Hampshire voted to legalize the use of marijuana for authorized individuals. Politicians in three additional states heard testimony this week in favor of eliminating criminal penalties for all adults who possess and use cannabis. And lawmakers in Massachusetts and California are now debating legally regulating marijuana outright.”

(NORML)

Here is the video:

What do you think?