The insane drug war isn't going to end anytime soon, apparently....

[marmar]

from AlterNet:



Just Another Drug Warrior: Obama Defends War on Pot in New Rolling Stone Interview


The Obama administration is under fire for its assault on state-approved medical marijuana programs, and President Barack Obama is gearing up for the presidential election by shedding responsibility for raiding dispensaries. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone publisher Jann S. Wenner, Obama attempted to defend his administration's war on pot as consistent with his 2008 campaign promise -- one medical marijuana advocates have not forgotten -- to respect state medical marijuana laws. In the interview, Obama deflected blame for the crackdown onto federal prosecutors and what he considers to be illegitimate operations in legal dispensaries. His arguments, however, are flawed.

Obama told Rolling Stone:

What I specifically said was that we were not going to prioritize prosecutions of persons who are using medical marijuana. I never made a commitment that somehow we were going to give carte blanche to large-scale producers and operators of marijuana – and the reason is, because it's against federal law. I can't nullify congressional law. I can't ask the Justice Department to say, “Ignore completely a federal law that's on the books,” What I can say is, “Use your prosecutorial discretion and properly prioritize your resources to go after things that are really doing folks damage.” As a consequence, there haven't been prosecutions of users of marijuana for medical purposes.

But for medical marijuana to be safe and regulated, there must be providers. What's more, marijuana patients have, indeed, been arrested. And as dispensaries continue to close -- and states fear opening them -- people who use marijuana medically but buy it illegally are offered little to no protection from prosecution.

Obama further defended busting medical marijuana dispensaries by alleging that they sell to recreational users:

The only tension that's come up – and this gets hyped up a lot – is a murky area where you have large-scale, commercial operations that may supply medical marijuana users, but in some cases may also be supplying recreational users.

But dispensaries do not determine who is a legitimate marijuana patient. In Colorado, for example, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment issues medical marijuana cards to patient applicants. In other states, licensed doctors admit patients to a medical marijuana program. Determining whether those prescriptions are legitimate is not the job of dispensary operators, nor should they be prosecuted for providing medicine to patients who have obtained proof that marijuana helps them. Similarly, such a medical judgement is not one the Department of Justice, or Obama, is qualified to make. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/908790/just_another_drug_warrior%3A_obama_defends_war_on_pot_in_new_rolling_stone_interview/

[Alexander]

1. Obama just plain sucks on the Drug War issue

Although I have no illusions that any of the Republicans would be any better, not even Ron Paul.

I'll give thanks to my state government, which recently decriminalized marijuana.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. What he really really said as candidate...

"What I’m not going to be doing is using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue simply because I want folks to be investigating violent crimes and potential terrorism. We’ve got a lot of things for our law enforcement officers to deal with.”

And:
WW: Would you stop the DEA's raids on Oregon medical marijuana growers?

Obama: I would because I think our federal agents have better things to do, like catching criminals and preventing terrorism. The way I want to approach the issue of medical marijuana is to base it on science, and if there is sound science that supports the use of medical marijuana and if it is controlled and prescribed in a way that other medicine is prescribed, then it's something that I think we should consider.
http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-9003-six_minutes_with_barack.html

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. Yeah and then he got elected.

Banksters off the hook

MMJ user/growers/dispensaries on the hook.

Great priorities there, O.

[Fumesucker]

10. Remember his speech on race in America as a candidate?

That was what clued me in as to his attitudes, he managed to get through an hourish long speech on race in the USA without once mentioning our prisons bursting at the seams with black men just like him.

One in three black men will serve time in prison in their lives and the first black president seems to think it's not a problem that needs to be addressed.

[kenny blankenship]

3. Takes a very different attitude to banks stealing homes.

Curious. The One moves in Mysterious Ways, his double standards to uphold.

[MannyGoldstein]

4. Obama smoked pot. But

you can't.

Got it?

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. FOLLOW THE MONEY

It is self explanatory.

[sabrina 1]

6. I think the Drug War will end, but not by anything the US does. It will end because

other countries, particularly in S. America eg, will legalize drugs, which is already showing signs of happening, because it is they more than the US, who suffer the most from the militarization of the Drug War, which they have said.

The world is moving on on so many levels, eg, old Cold War policies are being totally rejected now in Latin America and the Caribean nations, and the 'War on Drugs' is also finally, being rejected. The US should be leading the charge, but sadly as some of the leaders of Latin American nations said recently, we are stuck in those old Cold War policies where everything is viewed as a 'war'.

[RKP5637]

8. Einstein on insanity ... doing the same thing over and over again and expecting

change. Something like that ...

[lib2DaBone]

9. The DEA has 10,000 employees in 60 countries...

We can no longer afford this.

President Obama is delivring bodies to the Private Prison Corporations.

Corrections Corporation of America is now selling prison labor pools as employees for call centers and manufacturing.. while paying prisoners 15 cents an hour.

[SammyWinstonJack]

11. Sometimes, I wonder how Obama sleeps at night.

[msongs]

12. gee Mr. Obama, are any of the medical pot users murdering women and kids with drones? nt

[midnight]

13. Science and lawyers do not mix.... It's a shame....

[saras]

14. This is a really good issue to test "least harm" instead of punitive philosophy

[Meiko]

15. There is a lot

of money changing hands in this so called "war on drugs" Much of it between government agencies. The entire program is out of control.