Marijuana: White House Just Says No to Legalization Petitions

[walerosco]

Run time: 04:46 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWQKmhgeOQo   Posted on YouTube: November 02, 2011 By YouTube Member: TheYoungTurks Views on YouTube: 302   Posted on DU: November 02, 2011 By DU Member: walerosco Views on DU: 1617

 
The Obama White House rejected various petitions to legalize marijuana claiming there are no medical benefits to smoking pot. Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss on The Young Turks.

[pam4water]

1. Good points spot on!

[spicegal]

2. Get real, the last thing the president needs to do is stir

up a hornets nest by coming out and saying he supports the legalization of marijuana, even for medical purposes at this point. My God, the right wingers would have a field day with that one. It's going to be a tough enough election already, and that would be political suicide.

[dotymed]

4. He never had to come out and say he was for legalization.

All President Obama had to do (and at first, he was) is to leave the states who had already legalized it medicinally, or decriminalized it, alone. It was/is a state rights issue. Why, after a year and a half of instructing the DEA to leave the legal (by state law) marijuana dispensaries alone (and let the state regulate them) did he start prosecuting this industry?

IMO, he was instructed to by big pharma. They were not getting their cut and they were seeing how lucrative it was.

Unless the "law" that prevents us from negotiating the price of pharmaceuticals, like all other countries do, is removed, then big pharma will keep their stranglehold on our government and our health care system.

[civilisation]

5. Why the majority supports decriminalization,. .

it is not like people are against it,. only those with vested interests. Those that profit from the law enforcment/prisons, the underground market,. or now big pharma. They will call it SOMA.

[DirkGently]

6. Not the issue. His administration's 180 on aggressive enforcement is.

Pretty suspicious timing, leading into an election year, smashing dispensaries and putting them out of business. It completely contradicts the administrations prior statements and signals on the issue.

Looks like quid pro quo for someone. Not unreasonable to think it could be Big Pharma, given they are actively trying to isolate active MJ compounds to create an expensive, patented drug, and given Obama's previous rollovers to the industry in the healthcare debate.

[ihavenobias]

9. I wish that was their motivation. Unfortunately...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GGQISORVqU

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/20/big-pharma-set-to-take-over-medical-marijuana-market/

[TownDrunk2]

3. Got a phone call from Merck did they :)

[spooked911]

7. Good analysis of the end game for MJ and other illicit drugs-- coming soon: SOMA!

[Plucketeer]

8. How is it they say that???

FOLLOW the MONEY??? Yeah, I think that's it.