Obama says he’s not willing to end the drug war
“I have stated repeatedly — and it’s actually reflected in our most recent statement by our office of drug policy — that we need to have an approach that emphasizes prevention, treatment, a public health model for reducing drug use in our country,” Obama said. “We’ve got to put more resources into that. We can’t simply focus on interdiction because, frankly, no matter how good of a job we’re doing when it comes to an interdiction approach, if there is high demand in this country for drugs, we are going to continue to see not only drug use but also the violence associated with the drug trade.”
He makes a simpler and clearer statement on the other side.
“Just to make sure that I’m actually answering your question, am I willing to pursue a decriminalization strategy as an approach? No.”
So, ALL of you who harbored some
delusion that Obama would somehow do something positive, other than
than something like this, including ME, all of us can just stop wasting time thinking about that.
Ain't happening.
Fuhgettaboutit.
Obama is cheerfully going to perpetuate and exacerbate the unmitigated disaster of the war on drugs.
I mean, even FOX News of all outlets has noticed:
MEXICO CITY (AP) — After 40 years, the United States' war on drugs has cost $1 trillion and hundreds of thousands of lives, and for what? Drug use is rampant and violence even more brutal and widespread.
Even U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske concedes the strategy hasn't worked.
"In the grand scheme, it has not been successful," Kerlikowske told The Associated Press. "Forty years later, the concern about drugs and drug problems is, if anything, magnified, intensified."
This week President Obama promised to "reduce drug use and the great damage it causes" with a new national policy that he said treats drug use more as a public health issue and focuses on prevention and treatment.
So the future progress of this issue will come as all the rest of it has. Individual people in individual states getting issues on the ballots and getting people to vote for them.
Marijuana should never have been made illegal. It shouldn't remain illegal. But politicians, the prison industry and others who don't have your best interests at heart find solace - and billions of dollars - in the continuation of marijuana prohibition.
It's stupid and nobody has the first rational argument to justify it, but in politics, facts are meaningless.
So the uphill, state-by-state battle will trudge on.
Our only choice is to get laws on the books at the state level and risk the evil of the Federal assholes who still believe in all the horseshit we're supposed to be believing.
Now, some Democrats have figured this out [1 | 2 | 3]and they are ahead of the curve, which shows there IS hope, but we're going to still be sent to the black market to get our herb (or risk death by cop to grow our own to save money).
Here's yet ANOTHER Democrat who has figured out which end is up.
New York State Senator Diane J. Savino (D) on Wednesday urged Governor Andrew Cuomo to follow the example of New Jersey and allow marijuana to be prescribed to the seriously ill.
New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie announced Tuesday that he would lift his suspension on implementing the state’s medical-marijuana program.
"New Jersey showed real compassion for Garden State residents who suffer from painful, debilitating and life-threatening illnesses," Savino said in a letter to Cuomo.
Even America-hating Republican mouth-breathers have
apparently seen the light on medical marijuana:
"We're moving forward with the program as it was set up," said Christie at a press conference. "I believe that the need to provide compassionate pain relief to these citizens of our state outweighs the risk we are taking in moving forward with the program."
Former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine signed a bill into law that legalized marijuana in the state for those with certain medical conditions, such as HIV, cancer and multiple sclerosis. But Christie blocked the implementation of the law after taking office in 2010, claiming it needed to be amended.
I m wondering if the MAIN reason he did this was to be oppositional to the Obama Administrations
threats to states with medical marijuana programs (pdf) "which stated the Justice Department was "committed to the enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act in all States.""
Generally republicans are thrilled to foam at the mouth about the dangers of mar-ju-wanna but here we have a vile republican okaying something the lot of them hold in great disdain.
I digress.
Activist groups will have to do like ASA and sue the DEA to get things done on the Federal level.
The medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) and the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis (CRC) on Thursday appealed the federal government's decision to keep marijuana classified as a dangerous drug with no medicinal value.
The Drug Enforcement Administration denied a nine-year-old petition to initiate proceedings to reschedule marijuana in late June, claiming that, "marijuana has a high potential for abuse, has no accepted medical use in the United States, and lacks an acceptable level of safety for use even under medical supervision." The decision (PDF) was announced two weeks ago.
It's this type of expensive, tedious, time-wasting effort that is going to be needed to correct one of the most artificial problems in existence. It's entirely fabricated, it is without a gram of substance, it's all horseshit.
There's no reason but stupidity and recalcitrance involved with those remaining 12 watt bulbs who still feel any need for marijuana prohibition.
None of those people can mount any sort of intelligent defense while the mountain of factual proof resides with us, the reformers.
So it's several more years of the same failed shit and out dear leader is ever so happy to keep it just like it is.
No hope for change here, outside of our hope in each other.
We're on our own.