Some, like Bill O'Reilly, consider the California medical marijuana movement a scam. It's not hard to agree with his position without ignoring the existence of legitimate medical marijuana. Let me explain.
I prefer cannabis to be regulated as a recreational substance like wine, but, as the song goes, you can't always get what you want. As a law-abiding California adult I keep my use of cannabis to that which leaves me immune to state criminal prosecution and that in which the DEA ignores my actions, i.e., as long as I comply with state medical marijuana laws. This seems simple to me.
I like Obama and I wish he would do the right thing and reschedule cannabis as one of the least dangerous, and least addicting, psychoactive substances -- that same song is playing again. Obama did take steps to reassure medical marijuana patients that they are 'DEA uninteresting,' while warning those not complaint with state medical marijuana laws that they remain DEA targets.
Call me odd, but before I asked a doctor for a cannabis recommendation I read the laws and memorandums regarding California medical marijuana. Crazy, I know. Sans-bullshit, here's what will keep a legitimate medical marijuana user safe in California, and, as far as California is concerned, explains why Obama has kept his word.
In 1996, Proposition 215 granted Californians immunity to state criminal prosecution for the cultivation and possession of marijuana for "personal medical purposes" upon "the recommendation of a physician." In 2003, California SB 420 was written to clarify Prop 215 and specified that it did not "authorize any individual or group to cultivate or distribute marijuana for profit."
On Oct. 19, 2009 Attorney General Eric Holder released a memorandum not to focus federal resources "on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana." Holder also mentioned that Congress still determines "that marijuana is a dangerous drug" to justify targeting those who "unlawfully market and sell marijuana for profit."
Get it? See the theme? Money from selling cannabis makes the government stand up and take notice.
The current not-for-profit economic structure does not support California's medical cannabis culture as it operates today. Hard-ass boors, like O'Reilly, ignore the true relief cannabis offers without the physical addiction, or toxicity, of alcohol or pharmaceuticals. On the other hand, only the reckless ignore the present legal difference between medical and recreational cannabis, which amounts to 'no profit.'
Cannabis reform is inhibited by an obsolete classification of cannabis under the Controlled Substances Act. Let us bring the law up to scientific, and moral, reality rather than the other way around. Obama, in your second term, do the right thing and shake up the O'Reilly's of the world with a proper dose of reality by rescheduling cannabis as the virtual harmless substance that it is -- or, at least, do it on your way out.
Originally published on 420dialog.com.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/doug-dean/in-defense-of-president-o_b_1643834.html
"If every man is to forego his freedom of action because many make licentious use of it, I know not what is the value of any freedom" J. Risdon Benney, M.D. 1890
Quoted from "Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers" by Stephen Harrod Buhner”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/03/government-sponsored-study-destroys-deas-classification-of-marijuana/
The most immediate action that the President can take (ignore his lie about not being able to change the law), is to reclassify it as Schedule III, which is where it belongs. In fact, it belongs in the "generally regarded as safe" category.
And 75% of Americans, across both parties, are for it. Far more than the 45% that are okay with same sex marriage.
Rescheduling would not be nearly as impactful as legalization but it definitely would hit the private prison industries and local/state police already feud over who gets to confiscate pot offenders' cars and homes. We have to divorce drug justice from these letters of marque given to the marijuana bucanneers before any meaningful change will ever happen in the US. Meanwhile, all our neighbors are outright legalizing cannabis and, in some cases, cocaine for personal possession and use with the vocalization from their leaders that the US model for illicit drug control has officially failed.
Because police, prosecutors and politicians build their careers and empires on it. Because industries like alcohol and pharmaceuticals don't want the competition. Because other interests like the drug treatment/testing industry and the prison industries depend on it for their life's blood. Because many shaky corporations couldn't exist without the laundered money. And because government uses marijuana prohibition as a means of controlling minorities and the poor.
Of course, the TRILLIONS of dollars made by the drug gangs have not been buried in the ground. They have been invested in legitimate business, causing another huge support of this persecution of millions of innocent people.
For a good view underneath the iceburg, see Catherine Austin Fitts' excellent article: "Narco Dollars For Beginners." - keeping in mind that while Fitts employs cocaine because it best suits her metaphor, FBI statistics show marijuana sales comprise 80 percent of all "illegal" drug transactions.
http://www.ratical.org/co-globalize/narcoDollars.html
It's time to dismantle the marijuana-prohibition-industrial-complex. Unfortunately, Obama has shown for three years he is part of that beast.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4el6EGqcUw&
PLEASE WATCH AND WEEP FOR THE NEEDLESS SUFFERING CAUSED BY PROHIBITION
http://bigbudsmag.com/grow/article/marijuana-vaporizers-bong-smoke-lungs-thc-bubblehash
Obama has no defense. He's the guy that held an online town hall meeting and then had the audacity to laugh at the question ranked higher by far than any other. What kind of leader thinks he is representing the people when he isn't even willing to listen or have the conversation?
The two mainstream parties are hauling us rapidly toward a police state. They both work for the one percent, and cannot be trusted in the least degree.
I have followed Govenor Gary Johnson's career for many years, and believe he is extremely honest, would have a transparent administration, and would work for the 99 percent. He already has a great track record as governor of New Mexico.
It really is that easy. All the other nations of the world would love for the drug violence to end and ending the black markets that grow from prohibition is the only way to end that violence.
we've been living this LIE since 1937:
"The current law against the cultivation of Hemp can be attributed to three men, Henry J. Anslinger, Lammont DuPont, and William Randolph Hearst, who made growing Hemp illegal. DuPont and Hearst were the owners of the largest chemical company and newspaper, respectively. Hearst began printing outlandish stories with headlines such as "Marijuana goads user to blood lust". He also took advantage of the country's prejudice against blacks and immigrants by printing that Marijuana-crazed negroes were raping white women and by painting pictures of lazy, Pot-smoking Mexicans. DuPont's banker Andrew Mellon who happened to be Secretary of the Treasury under Herbert Hoover, also had a nephew-in-law, Henry Anslinger, who had the Marijuana Tax Law of 1937 passed allowing munitions maker DuPont to supply synthetic fibers for the domestic economy without competition.
These men succeeded in a conspiracy which ultimately added to the destruction of the environment, by them producing plastic and paper where Hemp could have been more beneficial. In 1991 DuPont was still the largest producer of man-made fibers, while no citizen has legally harvested a single acre of textile grade Hemp in over 50 years. The standard fiber of world history, America's traditional crop, Hemp, could provide our textiles, paper and be the premier source for cellulose." http://relegalize.info/hemp/history.shtml
The bottom line, is that no one should have the audacity to believe they are in any position to tell others how to live their lives. This part of our society sickens me.