Action Alert: Stop the Department of Justice from using funds to crack down on medical marijuana
AMENDMENT TO H.R. 5326, AS REPORTED
OFFERED BY MR. ROHRABACHER OF CALIFORNIA
At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert
the following:1 SEC. ll. None of the funds made available in this Act to the Department of Justice may be used, with respect to the States of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, to prevent such States from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.
Good news in Illinois. Federal appeals court bans enforcement of Illinois eavesdropping law
Why Obama got touch on medical marijuana: 3 theories — None of these three theories actually nails it, in my opinion.
Arrested, Jailed for a Legitimate Pain Script at The Agitator.
Terrance Huff Files Lawsuit Against Illinois Police Officer Michael Reichert Over ‘Trekkie Traffic Stop’ by Radley Balko at Huffington Post
Alcohol Prohibition Not Helping Native Americans Deal With Harms of Alcohol by Tony Newman
Why has Obama gotten tough on mmj? $$$$$$.
Remember, we have the best politicians money can buy.
.
.
Marijuana driving limits die on Colorado House floor
———-
A dear friend of mine from back in the days of DC Metro NORML celebrates a small (not insignificant) victory in Charlottesville VA:
http://www.examiner.com/article/drug-law-reformer-lennice-werth-reacts-to-charlottesville-marijuana-vote
She certainly doesn’t look like it’s been 20 years since I’ve seen her. Still chippin’ away too
Should U.S. Troops Fight the War on Drugs?
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/05/08/should-us-troops-fight-the-war-on-drugs/resuming-a-mission-put-on-hold-after-911
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/05/08/should-us-troops-fight-the-war-on-drugs/green-berets-value-is-proven-in-war-on-drugs
AddyCat linked this in the last thread. I am currently experiencing a significant amount of rage after having read them. True drug war criminals – who’s keeping the list?
The three theories on why Obama “got tough” on medical marijuana are silly.
1. Obama doesn’t want to look soft on crime
Um… no. That’s ridiculous. The fact is that Obama already took whatever political hit he was going to take when he announced the new non-interference policy with respect to states that allow medical marijuana. That was way back in 2009. And there was no “political hit” from the announcement. Probably because medical marijuana is overwhelmingly popular. And the few whack-jobs that don’t like it already hated Obama. So the announcement rallied his supporters and didn’t move the needle with his opponents. Does anyone remember “Obama is soft on drugs” being a talking point among his conservative critics when it looked like Obama actually intended to keep his promise? I don’t. On the other hand, his current betrayal has infuriated his base but done nothing to make him more palatable to the aforementioned whack-jobs.
2. He doesn’t think potheads vote
That’s too asinine to address. It’s also not a reason FOR his reversal. At best, it would help explain why he doesn’t fear the political fallout from his betrayal.
3. States pushed too far, leaving Obama little choice
Huh? Did states’ policies change dramatically between the 2009 announcement and whenever the crackdown began (almost immediately as I recall)? What the hell does that even mean? Were people dying in the streets from marijuana overdoses? And if the states did “push too far” such that the medical marijuana programs began to become unpopular with the public, how is that not a problem for the states to address?
REAL REASON: MONEY
It seems to me that the real reason is pretty simple: money. There are several powerful vested interests that stand to lose billions and billions of dollars when marijuana is legalized. They can read the writing on the wall and they are panicking. They used whatever combination of bribes and threats were needed in order to bring about the current crackdown in a desperate (but ultimately doomed) attempt to stop our momentum. It may be true that “no army can stop an idea whose time has come.” But that doesn’t mean they won’t try.
I’m with you, Francis. Any “explanation” that doesn’t mention Sativex is probably off by a couple orders of complexity.
“They used whatever combination of bribes and threats were needed in order to bring about the current crackdown in a desperate (but ultimately doomed) attempt to stop our momentum.”
That is the Chicago Way. So true. Prop. 19 almost passed in CA. Who gave the most money to that fight? Richard Lee. Who did Obama just target? Richard Lee. Who just said he’s going to have to step back because he is seriously fearful of what Obama is going to do to him? Richard Lee. It would be very interesting to see which other donors toward Prop. 19 got raided. That is classic Chicago politics, right there.
Obama has been a drug warrior since day one. And he always will be, because of the monied interests that own his party. And it isn’t Sativex driving him, although they cheerlead, its lobbyists for the government employee unions and law enforcement organizations that are driving him. They put money in campaign coffers, campaign ads everywhere, and provide boots on the streets every election.
Good post!
Real reason why there’s a crackdown:
1) The Ogden memo led to an explosion in MMJ dispensaries in California and Colorado.
2) Law enforcement flipped out when they saw this happening, and forced the federal bureaucracy leaders at DEA to insist on a crackdown.
3) Faced with a choice between a furious law enforcement lobby and a furious marijuana lobby, Obama chose the latter. He figures that not many people will vote against him because of marijuana, but a fair number will vote against him because their local police chief says Obama is making the streets less safe. Obama is probably right about that much.
I gotta disagree. There was no benefit to Obama, the locals were dealing with it, and the regulations were in the pipeline. L.E. doesn’t make the policies, no matter how freaked out they might get. They’re tools. All their honking and chirping at the local level had them shot down by LOCAL and State courts UPHOLDING the laws. Obama had pledged a hands off attitude and that’s where the needle sat until he, for whatever reason, decided to move it. And there wasn’t a huge backlash against those dispensaries, (just a vocal minority led predictably by local DA’s and L.E.) poll after poll indicates the public supports both medical marijuana AND safe access.
I still believe it’s a simple quid pro quo. That’s an everyday way of life here in the Nation’s Capital.