Barack Obama has a weed problem

[SHRED]

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

Barack Obama has a weed problem. Not just that he’s admitted using it. He said clearly when campaigning for president in 2008 that he approved of medical marijuana.

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?

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/after_defending_pot_obama_has_to_pardon_medical_marijuana_growers_20142001

[polichick]

1. Action should match words - we'll see.

[SHRED]

2. He needs to pardon them NOW

[polichick]

3. When I say things like that, I'm called "bitter" - but yes...

I agree with you.

[SHRED]

4. Bitter?

You are thinking of these victims rotting away in jail.

This is MLK Day after all.

[polichick]

6. One poster who complains that people don't "praise" Obama enough...

called me bitter all day yesterday for criticizing the prez about his continuing drug policies.

It freaks me out that people are STILL going to jail for weed - and especially poorer people and people of color. Gotta fill those for-profit prisons, ya know!

[SHRED]

13. These are POLITICAL PRISONERS

We need to scream this at the party loyalists. They are sacrificing other people's lives for the sake of politics. They are lower than scum.

[Bandit]

21. Does the Federal Government have Private for Profit Prisons?

I always thought those were just in the states or municipalities. I believe all Federal Prisons are owned and operated by the Government and Federal Crimes mean Federal Prisons.

[malthaussen]

35. Yes, the Feds contract with the prison companies:

http://www.correctionsproject.com/corrections/pris_priv.htm

"The federal government also contracts with them to house a growing number of undocumented immigrants and resident aliens"

So apparently not for drug cases.

-- Mal

[woo me with science]

39. Federal Private Prison Populations Grew by 784% in 10 Year Span

http://www.alternet.org/speakeasy/tikkundaily/americas-corrupt-justice-system-federal-private-prison-populations-grew-784-10

America's Corrupt Justice System: Federal Private Prison Populations Grew by 784% in 10 Year Span

By David Harris-Gershon (@David_EHG)

From 1999-2010, the total U.S. prison population rose 18 percent, an increase largely reflected by the "drug war" and stringent sentencing guidelines, such as three strikes laws and mandatory minimum sentences. However, total private prison populations exploded fivefold during this same time period, with federal private prison populations rising by 784 percent (as seen in the chart below complied by The Sentencing Project):

This stark rise in private prison populations is partially due to increased contracts granted at the state and federal levels to behemoth prison companies such as Correction Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group. These companies claim - against available data - that they can run corrections facilities at lower costs.

However, whether such companies can save governments money is not the central issue. What's at issue here is the corrupt, immoral dynamic that fuels such contracts: the concept of treating inmates as commodities that must be grown for profit. Take, for example, the offer CCA made in 2012 to 48 states: We'll purchase and manage your jails, and in return you [the state] must promise to keep the jails at least 90 percent full.
...
Additionally, for-profit prison companies engage in intense lobbying efforts that have been tied to many of our nation's most stringent sentencing guidelines, and lobby hard against the decriminalization of things such as marijuana....The financial motive to engage in such lobbying was clearly detailed in CCA's 2010 Annual Report (as prepared by The Sentencing Project):


 

[polichick]

40. Seems the boundaries between the fed gov't (state gov'ts too) and...

corporations are blurry at best. I recall reading that some members of Congress have invested in for-profit prison companies.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. He needs to get the DOJ to stop enforcing the stupid pot laws.

In addition to pardoning everyone they snatched up. And not just those caught during his administration.

It only takes an Executive Order.

THEN he can start working on Congress to pass legislation to repeal.

[polichick]

7. Exactly. Why doesn't he use the power that We, the People gave him?

[Comrade Grumpy]

49. He has employed that power and told the feds to back off in state where it is legal.

And that seems to be working so far.

And the Obama administration has been pretty quiet on the medical marijuana front lately. Prosecutors seem to justify the raids that do occur by saying their targets were diverting pot from the medical market, and things like that.

That said, Obama could and should pardon every federal pot prisoner. He's been way too stingy with the pardon power.

[polichick]

51. Those CA raids seem unjust to me - and seems the prez could stop them...

if he wanted to, and also let a bunch of non-violent people out of prison.

People around the world were behind Obama at the start - wish he'd really gone to town using his executive power for justice.

[underthematrix]

8. I'm sure the president would pardon them all today but

he has to always consider the timing and structure of his decisions given he must make them in a cesspool of ignorance and hate.

[polichick]

10. He could just make them in the Oval Office.

[SHRED]

11. unlike Dr. King who had actual courage

[Bluenorthwest]

12. The President has absolute pardon power.

Justice delayed is justice denied.

[woo me with science]

17. Five years into his Presidency now.

Are we still waiting for the real Obama to emerge?

[Jackpine Radical]

20. I guess he could jeopardize his re-election chances

if he doesn't hold the hard line on pot.

[Phlem]

52. you forgot the hope part.

A line of bullshit for the people just so he can sit on the throne.

Other bullshit:

Bipartisanship, Fucking Drones, the TTP and other trade agreements he signed, No jobs, No prosecutions for Wall street, The Republicans won't let me do anything .....

I've got to stop now, I just got up and am depressing myself to early in the day.

-p

[Bluenorthwest]

9. They should never have been arrested, they should already be pardoned.

nt

[woo me with science]

14. Election season.

There is always a leftward pivot in rhetoric during Presidential or midterm elections. It's as dishonest as it is predictable.

FIVE YEARS into his Presidency, and the best he can do is equate marijuana with alcohol(!) in a speech...just before midterm elections.

FIVE YEARS IN, and the Obama Justice Dept. was conducting marijuana raids as recently as *November* in Colorado. They have been all over the map on this issue rhetorically, but their actions have been an embarrassment over and over and over again. There are midterm elections coming up, so of course we hear the old marijuana promises, again. And the promises won't hold, again. You know why? Because Third Way Democrats are in bed with private prison corporations that depend on these authoritarian policies in order to meet their promises to shareholders.

FIVE YEARS IN. Watch the actions, not the words.
It *always* boils down to corporate profit.

Private prisons are being expanded rapidly under corporate government.

Government guarantees 90% occupancy rate to private prison corporations, regardless of crime rate.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2569173

Poor minorities are worthless to corporations on the street. In prison they can bring in $40,000/yr
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023368969

Poor Land in Jail as Companies Add Huge Fees for Probation
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014158005

The Caging of America - Why do we lock up so many people
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002226110

Private Prisons Spend Millions On Lobbying To Put More People In Jail - Marijuana Laws
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002320974

Keeping private prisons profitable through marijuana laws
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1107761

The Top Five Special Interest Groups Lobbying To Keep Marijuana Illegal
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002590524

The Obama administration is aggressively growing private prisons
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022568681

Obama's 2013 budget: One area of marked growth, the prison industrial complex
http://sync.democraticunderground.com/1002392306

Obama selects the owner of a private prison consulting firm as the new Director of the United States Marshals Service (USMS)
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2010/12/mars-d03.html

Private prison corporations move up on list on federal contractors, receiving BILLIONS
http://www.nationofchange.org/president-obama-s-incarcernation-1335274655

Federal Private Prison Populations Grew by 784% in 10 Year Span
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024361745#post39

Prison Labor Booms As Unemployment Remains High; Companies Reap Benefits
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/10/prison-labor_n_2272036.html

Private Prison Corporation's Letters to Shareholders Reveal Industry's Tactics: Profiting from Human Incarceration
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022665091

Financial growth of private prison industry...Profiting from caging humans.

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/BshteP8i282pcaeH8pdUsA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTUyMA--/

[SHRED]

15. thank you for this!

[woo me with science]

41. Thank you for the thread.

It's important.

[polichick]

16. It's horrifying to think that all it'll ever be is talk...

Did BO sell his soul? Is he not the one in charge? It's baffling and alarming at the same time.

Some here suggest that, because there are so many people out to get him, BO has to be extremely careful about what he does - but the truth is he had an entire world of people backing him at the beginning. 99% of the world vs 1% - and he seems to have chosen the 1%

Unless, again, they chose him and he's essentially powerless.

[SHRED]

18. I could see corporate power...

...pulling him aside and letting him know that there are ways to keep him and his family safe as long as he "plays ball".

But pardoning medical pot growers? I don't see the downside.

[Jesus Malverde]

19. I'd say the federal governments deal with the Sinaloa cartel is a bigger problem...

Tons of cocaine shipped to the United States under the watchful eyes of the DEA..

[tridim]

22. President Obama helps our cause and immediately he is attacked...

by the exact same DU'ers who attack him for EVERYTHING HE DOES.

Worthless thread. Congratulations.

[SHRED]

23. "our cause"

How does not pardoning political prisoners help "our cause"?

[tridim]

24. Obama is helping us legalize cannabis.

I already know you think that is a bad thing. Bye.

[Le Taz Hot]

26. I'm sorry, WHAT?

"Obama is helping us legalize cannabis."

Oh, please, provide me with proof of this.

ETA: See Post #14 in this thread. WMWS gives you many links disproving what you just claimed. And notice, Woo provided links. You? Not so much.

[SHRED]

27. He could do two things instead of lip service

1. Order his administration to take the necessary steps to declassify Cannabis from a Schedule 1 narcotic to a lesser schedule.
2. Pardon those in Federal prison rotting away who followed their State's medical marijuana laws.


See? That wasn't so hard was it?

--

[progressoid]

28. He's helping us legalize cannabis by arresting legal purveyors of cannabis.

Yeah, that makes sense.

[Le Taz Hot]

30. My head hurts.

[progressoid]

58. Kind of like how we bombed freedom into Iraq.

[TeamPooka]

53. He has done no such thing. He has prevented progress with the his AG's actions. nt

[msongs]

42. "our cause" = the blind worship of the a politician lol nt

[Le Taz Hot]

25. People in this thread are challenging

him to walk the walk instead of just talking the talk. Holder, HIS A.G., has made more pot busts than Dim Son. We're not supposed to question that?

Blind partisanship is a horrendous thing. It makes otherwise good people justify horribly wrong behavior. Your post demonstrates that as you don't even address the issue, only attack the messenger(s). It's the last bastion for those without a counter-argument.

[tridim]

29. I've been addressing the issue since Obama made his statement over the weekend.

This post is an pure attack by someone who hates Obama.

I am doing DU a service by attacking the messenger.

[Le Taz Hot]

31. You're looking less than intelligent

by attacking the messenger.

Right now, we're in THIS thread and you've yet to "address the issue."

Feel free to use this space to do so.

[tridim]

32. This "issue" has been raised three times this morning.

Twice by the same OP.

It's pathetic. OP is on ignore.

[Le Taz Hot]

34. Well, see, there's the problem.

I am in this thread. And since you've addressed the issue three times this morning already, there should be no problem addressing it again since I, who am asking you to provide proof that "Obama is helping us legalize cannabis.", am currently in this thread.

Thanks in advance,

LTH

[SHRED]

33. "hates"

LOL.

Wrong.

I attack him from the Left and defend him from the RWnutjobs. As we all should.

I thought the DU was a place for Liberals and Leftists to share their ideals and not a place for cheer leading a political personality or Party?



-

[Rex]

37. Don't you hate it when a fellow Obama voters says you hate Obama?

I think it is their way to distract from the topic at hand. Yeah...we hate him so much we voted for him TWICE!

[SHRED]

38. precisely

[morningfog]

47. It is so bizarre. It is their way of trying to silence any dissent.

I don't get why they take it so personally. Like you shot there dog because you don't full throat praise an action of our President. It's also their way of calling you a racist, which is just pathetic.

[Rex]

55. I think a lot of them are authoritarians

or control freaks, whatever you want to call it. They get mad when you don't believe the exact same thing as they do.

[morningfog]

46. Just hide it and move along.

[Rex]

36. You know what, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say he will do it.

Once it is within his power to do so and weed is federally legal...he will pardon all the non-violent drug offenders. I believe.

[davidthegnome]

44. Isn't it within his power right now?

To pardon these prisoners? I know he can't suddenly make weed legal all by himself, but he can grant pardons to anyone, as far as I understand it.

[morningfog]

48. Only for those convicted of federal crimes.

But yes, and federal convictions can be pardoned by him.

[AtheistCrusader]

43. Weed Bowl 2014 (WA vs. CO) is a humorous opportunity to keep this issue on the front... burner.

Serious subject, yes, to be sure. Few bigger. But levity makes the message easier to digest.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

45. The truth? The same reason he's done more deportations....

He doesn't want to give the Right Wing ammo to use against him by claiming he's soft on crime.

They claim that he may be a swaggering, overbearing, tin-plated commie from Kenya,....but he's not soft.

[TeamPooka]

54. Do you and he know that Obama's not running again for anything?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

56. The Right is in constant campaign mode and suffer from projection.

[TeamPooka]

63. What does the Right Wing have to do with Obama's chosen course of action?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

64. Don't you know job #1 for Democrats is to prove to the beltway they're as good as Republicans?

[ProSense]

50. But

"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. "

...Bush isn't the one working to change the policies.

"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?"

What about the people "163" prosecuted under Bush? Doesn't Obama have a "duty" to pardon them too?

The President addressed crack sentencing in his first term, and recently announced a new policy.

Police Groups Furiously Protest Eric Holder's Marijuana Policy Announcement
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014581533

U.S. Orders More Steps to Curb Stiff Drug Sentences

By CHARLIE SAVAGE

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Thursday expanded its effort to curtail severe penalties for low-level federal drug offenses, ordering prosecutors to refile charges against defendants in pending cases and strip out any references to specific quantities of illicit substances that would trigger mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

The move, announced by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. at a speech before the annual conference of the Congressional Black Caucus, builds on a major policy change he unveiled last month to avoid mandatory minimum sentencing laws in future low-level cases.

“By reserving the most severe prison terms for serious, high-level, or violent drug traffickers or kingpins, we can better enhance public safety,” Mr. Holder said. “We can increase our focus on proven strategies for deterrence and rehabilitation. And we can do so while making our expenditures smarter and more productive.”

The policy applies to defendants who meet four criteria: their offense did not involve violence, the use of a weapon, or selling drugs to minors; they are not leaders of a criminal organization; they have no significant ties to large-scale gangs or drug trafficking organizations; and they have no significant criminal histories.

- more -

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/us/politics/administration-orders-new-step-to-curtail-stiff-drug-sentences.html

Background on progress.

Justice Is Served

By Laura W. Murphy

June 2011 marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon's declaration of a "war on drugs" — a war that has cost roughly a trillion dollars, has produced little to no effect on the supply of or demand for drugs in the United States, and has contributed to making America the world's largest incarcerator. Throughout the month, check back daily for posts about the drug war, its victims and what needs to be done to restore fairness and create effective policy.

Today is an exciting day for the ACLU and criminal justice advocates around the country. Following much thought and careful deliberation, the United States Sentencing Commission took another step toward creating fairness in federal sentencing by retroactively applying the new Fair Sentencing Act (FSA) guidelines to individuals sentenced before the law was enacted. This decision will help ensure that over 12,000 people — 85 percent of whom are African-Americans — will have the opportunity to have their sentences for crack cocaine offenses reviewed by a federal judge and possibly reduced.

This decision is particularly important to me because, as director of the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office, I have advocated for Congress and the sentencing commission to reform federal crack cocaine laws for almost 20 years. In 1993, the ACLU lead the coalition that convened the first national symposium highlighting the crack cocaine disparity entitled "The 100 to 1 Ratio: Racial Bias in Cocaine Laws." Now, 25 years after the first crack cocaine law was enacted in the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act, the sentencing commission has taken another step toward ending the racial and sentencing disparities that continue to exist in our criminal justice system.

By voting in favor of retroactivity, I am pleased that the commission chose justice over demagoguery and concluded that retroactivity was necessary to ensuring that the goals of the FSA were fully realized. It is important to remember that even with today's commission vote not every crack cocaine offender will have his or her sentence reduced. Judges are still required to determine whether a person qualifies for a retroactive reduction so, contrary to what some have said, this is not a "get out of jail free card."

- more -

http://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/justice-served

Chance at Freedom: Retroactive Crack Sentence Reductions For Up to 12,000 May Begin Today
http://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/chance-freedom-retroactive-crack-sentence-reductions-12000-may-begin-today

Sentencing Reform Starts to Pay Off

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

In 2010, Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act, which reduced the vast disparity in the way the federal courts punish crack versus powder cocaine offenses. Instead of treating 100 grams of cocaine the same as 1 gram of crack for sentencing purposes, the law cut the ratio to 18 to 1. Initially, the law applied only to future offenders, but, a year later, the United States Sentencing Commission voted to apply it retroactively. Republicans raged, charging that crime would go up and that prisoners would overwhelm the courts with frivolous demands for sentence reductions. Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa said the commission was pursuing “a liberal agenda at all costs.”

This week, we began to learn that there are no costs, only benefits. According to a preliminary report released by the commission, more than 7,300 federal prisoners have had their sentences shortened under the law. The average reduction is 29 months, meaning that over all, offenders are serving roughly 16,000 years fewer than they otherwise would have. And since the federal government spends about $30,000 per year to house an inmate, this reduction alone is worth nearly half-a-billion dollars — big money for a Bureau of Prisons with a $7 billion budget. In addition, the commission found no significant difference in recidivism rates between those prisoners who were released early and those who served their full sentences.

Federal judges nationwide have long expressed vigorous disagreement with both the sentencing disparity and the mandatory minimum sentences they are forced to impose, both of which have been drivers of our bloated federal prison system. But two bipartisan bills in Congress now propose a cheaper and more humane approach. It would include reducing mandatory minimums, giving judges more flexibility to sentence below those minimums, and making more inmates eligible for reductions to their sentences under the new ratio.

But 18 to 1 is still out of whack. The ratio was always based on faulty science and misguided assumptions, and it still disproportionately punishes blacks, who make up more than 80 percent of those prosecuted for federal crack offenses. The commission and the Obama administration have called for a 1-to-1 ratio. The question is not whether we can afford to do it, but whether we can afford not to.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/02/opinion/sentencing-reform-starts-to-pay-off.html

Washington Gives Us Something to Get Excited About (No, Really!)
http://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/washington-gives-us-something-get-excited-about-no-really

How to Process Eric Holder’s Major Criminal Law Reform Speech

By Laura W. Murphy

Attorney General Eric Holder just called mass incarceration a moral and economic failure. He just outlined several major proposals that he says will help to ease major overcrowding in federal prisons. And he just suggested that federal prosecutors should avoid harsh mandatory minimums for certain low-level, non-violent drug offenses.

What should we make of the nation’s top prosecutor calling out the US for throwing too many people behind bars and challenging the failed war on drugs?

First off, we should acknowledge that this is a big deal! This is the first speech by any Attorney General calling for such massive criminal justice reforms. This is the first major address from the Obama Administration calling for action to end the mass incarceration crisis and reduce the racial disparities that plague our criminal justice system. In the same speech, the Attorney General committed to take on the school-to-prison pipeline and called on Congress to end the forced budget cuts that have decimated public defenders nationwide. This is great news.

The ACLU can proudly say that it has been deeply engaged in policy discussions with this administration, and Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Many of the reforms that we have long championed made it into the Attorney General’s speech, including:

1. Developing guidelines to file fewer cases
   
   
2. Directing a group of U.S. Attorneys to examine sentencing disparities and develop recommendations to address them
   
   
3. Directing every U.S. Attorney to designate a Prevention and Reentry Coordinator
   
   
4. Directing every DOJ component to consider whether regulations have collateral consequences that impair reentry
   
   
5. Reducing mandatory minimum charging for low-level drug offenses
   
   
6. Expanding eligibility for compassionate release; and
   
   
7. Identifying and sharing best practices for diversion programs
   
   
8. Calling into question zero tolerance policies and other policies that lead to the school to prison pipeline
   
   
9. Challenging the legal community to make the promise of Gideon (right to counsel) more of a reality

- more -

http://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform-racial-justice/how-process-eric-holders-major-criminal-law-reform-speech

[Cha]

61. I see you got crickets to your questions, ProSense.. you

make some very good points. those talking about "lip service".. perhaps they wished PBO hadn't said Pot was no worse than alcohol from the White House to get more progress made on this issue?

Too bad he can't wave his magic wand and zip it's done. He knows things take time.. like DADT, DOMA and the advancement and acceptance of Gay Marriage.

DADT- "In the Dustbin of History After 17 Years"

http://www.hrc.org/laws-and-legislation/federal-laws/dont-ask-dont-tell-repeal-act-of-2010?gclid=CJLd-Lb0i7wCFTCCQgodx0EABg

". By striking down Section 3 of DOMA, the Supreme Court has affirmed that all loving and committed couples who marry deserve equal legal respect and treatment. It marks an enormous victory for equal justice under the law and ends DOMA’s two-tiered system for marriage, which for over 16 years has forced the government to pick and choose among marriages and create a "gay exception" that only caused pain, uncertainty, and financial harm."



http://www.freedomtomarry.org/states/entry/c/doma

17 States with Legal Gay Marriage and 33 States with Same-Sex Marriage Bans

http://gaymarriage.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004857

Thanks for all your information on what's being done as far as the War on Drugs with the Obama Admin. Great Progress!

[Coyotl]

57. I don't think so. Congress and the states get to change the laws, not Obama.

He does have big problems to deal with every day. He is doing it, but weed isn't as "high" on his list as some stoners and prisoners would rate it.

[RainDog]

59. Grievances

People can nurture grievances here about issues or people and on and on, or do things to change the existing circumstances. I've decided not to waste my time with anger. It's something I've been learning about privately, as well. ymmv.

I think it's a BIG FUCKING DEAL that the president of the U.S. admitted that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol (whatever the exact wording, that's the reality.) He is communicating a different message to the American public and to the various bureaucracies that deal with these things - and to Congress, as well.

Agencies in the U.S. government have their fiefdoms and those in govt. have their processes to deal with changes in policy. It's not going to happen by fiat of the president. That sort of politics isn't how our nation does things.

jmo.

[Skittles]

60. it's what happens when your position changes with the direction of popular opinion

[Buddyblazon]

62. This fucking shit again?

I own a grow store and have been a part of this industry for years.

Entities that have been busted were generally breaking the law. Like the dispensaries here that just got busted for working with Colombian drug cartel. Yet I still hear idiots here making claims like, "Obamas just a liar.". Seriously? The dumb fucks were participating in illegal activities with a notorious drug cartel.

See....these places don't get busted for nothing. You have to do something.

But here in Colorado, we found that they leave the vast vast vast vast vast majority of dispensaries alone. Why? Because they're following the rules.

I've explained this over and over and over again here on DU. The only reason I can think that people continually ignore this common tidbit of these busted dispensaries breaking the rules...and dispensaries following the rules being left alone....is that they just want it to be true that Obama has it out for weed businesses. Trying to explain this over and over is like smashing your head into a brick wall. People are going to believe what they want to believe. Even when somebody that works in the industry (like myself) tells them they're incorrect and explains it to them.


Let me remind everyone here where the stance on marijuana was before Obama. Trust me when I tell you that under Obama we have witnessed the birth of an entire brand new industry....legalized marijuana.