After Defending Pot, Obama has to Pardon Medical Marijuana Growers He Jailed

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2014/01/defending-marijuana-prosecuted.html

After Defending Pot, Obama has to Pardon Medical Marijuana Growers He Jailed
By Juan Cole | Jan. 20, 2014

~snip~

Yet his Attorney General, Eric Holder and his Department of Justice went on to launch punitive campaigns against legitimate marijuana businesses operating within state law. It isn’t even clear these raids and arrests were constitutional, since no interstate commerce was involved.

He has averaged 36 medical marijuana prosecutions a year since taking office in 2009, whereas even W. only averaged 20 a year. Most egregious are that many of these cases were brought against persons who needed the drug to ameliorate painful medical conditions.

Now Obama comes out and says pot is no worse than alcohol. So was he not in control of Holder and the Department of Justice? Was he seeking campaign money from Seagrams and Big Pharma, who are afraid of competition from marijuana? What explains this massive hypocrisy and willingness to ruin people’s lives to enforce a prohibition he doesn’t agree with?

Doesn’t he have a duty to pardon the 154 people he has prosecuted in contravention of his campaign pledge and in contravention of state laws?

[Egalitarian Thug]

1. "Defending pot"? Puh-lease, he did his now-typical sidestep and tacit approval of the parasites.

"No more dangerous than alcohol", but we're going to continue to ruin thousands of lives every year.

And why not? He got away with it, so fuck every body else. So sad, too bad, sucks to be you.

[Eleanors38]

2. Drug prosecutions increased under Clinton as well.

Seems there was a culture war Anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better mentality with Democrats , which shows how the GOPers own Democrats on this issue. That is changing. Now we'll wait to see if significant GOPer players come out for legalization in an effort to win over a more youthful constituency. Pot is a loose football that no one has jumped on.

[DeSwiss]

3. K&R

- The most pitiful part in all this, is that we act as if this is the best we can do. They don't have to tell us the truth, since we do nothing at all when they lie. So I don't think we can blame these so-called leaders of ours for what we've allowed them to get away with......

K&R

Protect Whistleblowers: Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government. Obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process. ~Barack Obama, Change.gov. 2008

Etc., etc., etc.......

[cali]

5. thanks. etc, etc. for sure.

[cali]

4. President Obama's actions belie his words. He often says the right things and

does the wrong things.

[RKP5637]

18. Yep, he has a pretty good track record on that! n/t

[B Calm]

6. He is being a hypocrite. I expected that from a Republican,

but not a Democrat!

[Bluenorthwest]

7. Hypocrisy is a Sacrament to Obama. Most self indulgent rhetorician ever.

He loves to step up and let the words and promises flow, just so he can turn on his polished heels and do exactly the opposite.
He will never follow through, so any 'good' things he says are without value. Just stuff he says, like 'any bill I sign MUST contain a strong public option to help control costs' (pause to drink in the cheering) but his actions rarely match his words.

[B Calm]

9. Just like when he campaigned he said he would look at repealing NAFTA,

and what does he do, tries to get passed another insane trade deal.

[RKP5637]

19. Often he tells people what they want to hear, and then does the

opposite. That, is the thing that irks me most about Obama. I fall hook line and sinker for what he says he's going to do, and then I find the opposite is what he did. It really irks me. I've heard similar from dems and repubs who have supported him.

[zeemike]

8. Words.

And for some people that is enough.

[tridim]

10. Were these 154 people prosecuted for selling cannabis legally? Or did they break a law?

Like not paying taxes for instance.

Until this answer is clear, this article and the accusations in this thread mean exactly nothing.

[madokie]

13. I agree and with that it makes us part of the problem

around here.

[truedelphi]

22. There is a marijuana-related arrest made in California every seven minutes.

Sometimes it is because the person being arrested was on parole, and so they are not supposed to have marijuana on them, or in their household.

Sometimes it is because they' re actually someone the cops think is good for something else, and they use the marijuana as an excuse to hold that person.

And a lot of the time, what is described in this article is due to over zealous Eric Holder's DOJ:

http://my.firedoglake.com/elisemattu/2012/09/26/santa-rosa-calif-gets-hit-by-gestapo-today-092612/

In any event, until Obama puts his money where his mouth is and fires Holder, and then installs someone to head up DOJ who will re-schedule marijuana, I have no reason to applaud him.

Funny how Obama could be so committed to extending the Bush-era tax cuts, and he did that basically overnight, what he Yet he finds it impossible to do as he voter approved HB 420, promised to do here in California, which was to respect our state and to leave dispensaries and med marijuana growers and providers alone.

[Dustlawyer]

11. Eric Holder is a shill and a continued embarrassment to my profession!

Obama has done many great things since taking office, but he has also shown that he too is not free from the pressure of special interests! He has coddled Wall Street to an unbelievable degree, especially considering the housing bubble and mortgage fraud.

[kelliekat44]

12. Eric Holder is one of the greatest AG in our history. Check his accomplishments and stop

belittling him for upholding the laws. Get Congress to change the laws. And check out the organized crime convictions and lock-ups under Holder.

[Dustlawyer]

14. Uh, what about Wall Street where he came from?

[Romulox]

16. LOL. Good one! nt

[Romulox]

15. The President can unilaterally reschedule Pot. He's being *massively* disingenuous. nt

[sorefeet]

21. Exactly Romulox, it was signed in

with a flick of the wrist by one man it can be removed the same way. Executive order. Like I have said before, I have been lied to for 61 years. And with the invention of the computer, you can't lie to me anymore. So when someone like Nancy Grace says that pot smoker tend to murder their families, I know she is an ignorant, lying, shill that is making a total fool of herself. And Obama can't bullshit me either. From the preacher man to the President the lie always supports MONEY.

[Le Taz Hot]

17. He's not going to pardon anyone.

His, I'm sorry but I'm going to say it, mealy-mouth claim that "marijuana is not any worse than alcohol" is for 2014 voter consumption. Between the 20 states that have legalized medical cannabis and the 2 that have legalized cannabis altogether, with more to come, he sees the writing on the wall and that he has been on the wrong side of this issue all along. As others have said, it would have been nice if he had actually LEAD the way but that would have pissed off Big Pharma and goddess knows we can't do that. Further, his statement that "marijuana is not any worse than alcohol" was, technically, correct, but most of us know that CANNABIS (the correct word) is not harmful and actually has numerous medicinal benefits that have been documented in peer-reviewed studies.

PO isn't going to pardon anyone because he would see that as pissing off the conservatives and if there's anything about Obama that you can count on it's his aversion to upsetting the conservatives.

[RKP5637]

20. He often rides the picket fence and gets his ass torn up by

both sides of the fence. He should listen to the facts rather than trying to appease voter's emotions, and the facts say over and over and over and over again that pot is not bad for one, and alcohol in comparison is a wretched drug. Often, he boxes himself in with his rhetoric.