My attitude is if the science and the doctors suggest that the best palliative care and the way to relieve pain and suffering is medical marijuana, then that's something I'm open to, because there's no difference between that and morphine when it comes to just giving people relief from pain.posted by deanklear at 6:01 PM on May 25, 2012 [2 favorites]
--Presidential CandidateObama
When Rhode Island first enacted its medical marijuana law in 2006, it was a relief to people like George DesRoches, who uses marijuana to alleviate the extreme pain he suffers due to fibromyalgia. But while Rhode Island’s initial law protected him from arrest, it didn’t provide a safe and regulated means by which he could obtain his doctor-recommended medicine.Contrast that with his quote while he was seeking my vote, and hopefully you'll understand why I have my position. He lied to me to get my vote, and not only on this issue. So while I'll begrudgingly vote for him again in 2012, it still pisses me off that the only other option is Mitt frikken Romney.
So, like many others, he turned to the black market. Once, while attempting to purchase marijuana on the street, he was robbed at gunpoint.
After hearing stories like George’s, Rhode Island lawmakers expanded the state’s medical marijuana policy in 2009 to create state-licensed compassion centers, where patients can go to purchase their medicine in a safe and above-ground environment.
The state was set to license three such compassion centers this summer. That is, until U.S. attorney Peter Neronha sent a letter to Gov. Lincoln Chafee this April threatening federal law enforcement action should the state move forward with its plan to open the centers.
Bowing to these Obama administration threats, the governor suspended the compassion center program, leaving patients like George to fend for themselves on the black market just to obtain their doctor-recommended medicine.
Anyone who thinks President Obama has ushered in a new era of compassion, science-based policy and respecting states’ rights to enact medical marijuana laws needs to have a chat with patients like George.
I refuse to equate the drug cartel violence in present day Mexico to kids getting high in Hawaii in the 70s. (Even if one of those kids is currently the president.)Right... has it occurred to you that those cartels are making money because of the drug laws one of those 'kids' is enforcing right this minute?
Despite his protest to the contrary, he can decline to enforce federal drug law just the same as he declined to enforce DOMA.In fact, this is exactly what he said he was going to do after he was elected. The DOJ sent out a memo saying it wouldn't go after people who were not violating state laws. Since then, he's done exactly that and is continuing to crack down more and more. So the question is: why?
So you think the DOJ, itself was being "Unrealistic" when it said it wasn't going to interfere with people who were not violating state law?
I'm a total David Simon on this issue, but if you think Obama has the power to affect drug policy enforcement in any more than the most limited ways, or think it's a viable option for him to spend political capital trying to push reform, you're not being very realistic.
Re. Mexico, maybe a different US drug policy would have helped if it had been put in place decades ago. But if weed were legalized in the US now, when there is a massive US market for it legal or illegal, and the cartels control production, I don't see how anything is going to change. Who has the power to take production away from them? Is R. J. Reynolds going to head down to Michoacán and step all over their action?You don't think it's possible to grow marijuana in the US? Why would they need to head down to Mexico?
The MPP's chart is a bit like arguing that Lincoln avoided regulating the airline industry.Speaking of Lincoln
"Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe of sweet hemp, and playing my Hohner harmonica." ~ Abraham LincolnAlso, I think you have it backwards. The point is that Obama was the worst president with respect to medical Marijuana, while someone said Reagen was worse.
She probably doesn't. As I said, US attorneys enjoy a great deal of autonomy and are not directly answerable to the USAG, so it's a mistake to think of them as flunkiesWhen Bill Clinton was elected, he fired every single US Attorney General. The bush administration also fired a bunch, but got in trouble because they did it for political reasons. The Obama has the power to fire USAs at will.
Oh gimme a break on the Mexican drug war death statistics. This is Hawaii we're talking about. You don't import weed to Hawaii. You bend over and pull it out of the ground. Sheesh.Holy crap dude read the thread: this is not about whether or not Obama's youthful pot smoking was a bad thing, but whether or not Obama, despite having done so himself, is actively cracking on people doing the same thing today. It's the height of hypocrisy.
Is R. J. Reynolds going to head down to Michoacán and step all over their action?R.J.Reynolds have killed a fuck of a load more people than the Drug Cartels, and probably given less of a shit about it too. Tobacco and Pharma companies probably think a basement full of dismembered policemen is quaint.
There is the West Wing argument that a president can only ever get anything substantial done during the first two years of his administrationI thought it was 100 days.
But actions have consequences, and it's possible that Obama going all out on legalization could give Romney a better chance at winning--in that sense it's a no brainer to play it safe and create the illusion of being "tough on crime".Yes, but the problem here is that you are placing the consequences of political results above the actual, real-world consequences of, say medical marijuana providers getting shut down and thrown in jail. It's exactly because actions do have consequences, and especially consequences in the real world, with real people, outside of DC that this stuff matters.
Or simply an example of a man changing his mind. Having children can do that to you.I suppose it can, but if you were paying attention you would know that this is something that changed while he was president. Right after he was elected, the DOJ came out and said it wouldn't interfere with state laws. In the past during his political career he'd said he'd been in favor of decriminalizing marijuana (at least at the state level, in the state senate)
The cries in this thread that Obama has his hands tied and can do nothing remind me of the same argument that was put forth in every thread previously on gay marriage.Sure, and just like with Gay marriage, simply coming out in favor of legalization would be huge. Rather than that, though the Obama administration opposed prop 19 in CA.
Convenienceposted by y2karl at 10:37 PM on May 28, 2012
We were not made in its image
but from the beginning we believed in it
not for the pure appeasement of hunger
but for its availability
it could command our devotion
beyond question and without our consent
and by whatever name we have called it
in its name love has been set aside
unmeasured time has been devoted to it
forests have been erased and rivers poisoned
and truth has been relegated for it
we believe that we have a right to it
even though it belongs to no one
we carry a way back to it everywhere
we are sure that it is saving something
we consider it our personal savior
all we have to pay for it is ourselves
W.S. Merwin
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posted by Dr. Zira at 4:31 PM on May 25, 2012 [31 favorites]