Tweet
Closed. (photo: O'Dea / wikimedia)
So it is almost harvest season here in the Golden Triangle of the USA. People are sort of begging those they owe money to wait just one more month. There is that feeling of expectancy in the air. Soon the nation’s most prominent cash crop is to be cut down, trimmed, and bagged up.
Now some 4 and a half years ago, for whatever reason, a young black man, and former “activist” answered a question relating to medical marijuana in a very unenlightened manner. Although he was rather pumped up at the time, about his bright prospects to sit in the country’s highest office, he had never “Considered” the position he should take regarding medical marijuana. He wasn’t sure if it was a state’s rights issue, or it wasn’t. he was going to talk to several of his chosen experts, and then he’d get back to us the electorate.
So we waited and we hoped. For the first three years after being elected, he kept a promise he had made in the early days of the Presidency, that he would leave the medical marijuana issue alone, as far as not going after growers in states where the citizens had decided that medical marijuana should be legal. Then came the Fall of 2011, and like so many promises that he had broken before, Obama allowed his Department of Justice buddies to start a major assault on citizens in California and the state of Washington.
So one year later, and five thousand good paying jobs in California have been destroyed. Many medical marijuana clinics have been closed.
The state of California is unhappy, along with the sheriff of Mendocino California, who had found that local tax revenue from the dispensaries allowed them to hire new police and update their equipment. California itself had received over 125 millions of dollars from the medical marijuana industry for the Fiscal Year 2010. Why were Obama’s people destroying this? And remember, in rural areas, there is a 18 percent unemployment situation, so if you lose your job at the dispensary, you aren’t going to find a new job any time soon.
Today, a further situation – SWAT TEAMS en masse descended on a community in Santa Rosa. Why? Apparently, the crime of photo synthesis!
So since political Powers that Be need to keep people in the middle class happy, the meme is not to worry about this as the Powers that Be are only concerned about the dirty nasty illegal Latinos, and the med marijuana THEY are growing!
Anyway READ THIS AND WEEP — people rounded up and handcuffed while forced to sit on the curbs, while their terrified kids are crying. Local police, Homeland Security and Immigration Agency all involved. Our tax dollars at work!
54 Comments
Today a neighborhood in Santa Rosa, California, tomorrow somewhere in Colorado?
Another reason to vote for more Hope And Change from our Exceptional Ruler.
71 L.A.-area pot dispensaries were raided yesterday by the Feds. Attny General quote:
utter b.s.
I’m not interested in medical marijuana. I’m interested in marijuana use as a recreational drug, like beer or wine. If that were the case, it would be A) readily available without a prescription and B) immune from the fascist insurance and pharma giants who would no doubt co-op it’s cultivation and distribution if it was legal for purely medical purposes. I believe “medical marijuana”, while obviously beneficial for a number of ailments, would make it virtually impossible to legalize for recreational purposes. I understand the idea behind it but I’m opposed to marijuana for purely medical reasons.
Oh yeah, recommended. Thanks for reporting on this!
So useless, costly, and stupid. You can get pot in Ca anywhere you want it and they will never stop it.
There is the issue of government goons suppressing medical research. These researchers have some important results.
Excellent point I had not considered. I think you’re right though. I suspect Amendment 64 in Colorado will put your theory to the test, should it be allowed to pass.
Bankers are cool and so is the Bush Crime Family, Cheney, Negroponte, Kissinger and Chiquita Banana.
Holder/Obama are Fascists.
elise–
Thanks for reporting on this raid. I was blown away when I saw the images of the FBI. Combat gear? Heck, they appeared more militarized than a SWAT Team.
It is hard to believe that a Democratic President would override a state law intended to relieve the suffering of the very (and often terminally) ill. Tragic.
Recommended.
Blue
Ah, the Obamestopo.
The Holderupper at work.
The “priorities” of the “leader” of this legacy party, the party of FDR, of JFK, of the “lesser evil”, elisemattu, seem hell-bent on establishing his “law and order” bona fides … on flexing his “endless war” muscles, both at home and abroad.
Pot smokers, pipeline bockaders, and whistle-blowers of all stripes, are fair game, while bankers, hedge-funders, and warmongers of all sorts bask in the certain knowledge that they are fair-haired favorites who may do as they wish, with assured impunity, immunity, and high-standing in the political “community” …
Ah well, we’ve only another four years of this Constitutional Scholar at the helm of the realm … and then, who knows, perhaps enough may have come to be sufficiently well understood that meaningful change might, just might, possibly, become desirable … or even inevitable.
Recommended to the consideration, and possibly the conscience, of everyone at FDL, even those who will vote for more of this … believing (and afraid) that they’ve no other choice …
Thank you, elisemattu.
DW
Yep. I believe that if marijuana were legalized purely as a therapeutic pharmaceutical, the insurance companies and big pharma would be unable to let that huge cash cow make tons of cash for anybody but them. They couldn’t let that go by so rather than paying $40, $50, or $60 for a quarter ounce of weed, we’d be paying $200 and up for a gram. And they would almost certainly try to remove the buzz inducing cannibinoids. Not to mention that getting a positive result on a urinalysis for cannabis without a prescription would still result in termination or not being offered a position. Fuck that. It’s better and safer than alcohol and needs to be treated just like wine or beer.
Thanks DW. So well put. X2.
Arguably, in the most corrupt decade in our country’s history, we really think there’s no narco money behind these political shakedowns and arrests? Paalleezze, screw me harder I’m not really feeelin’ it yet! The benefits of shutting legal sales of _______ ( insert booze, naturopathic medicines, Chinese herbs, Cuban cigars, opium or cigs, etc here ) falls mainly into the profit centers of whom, exactly? That which is difficult to tax and control is not interesting to capitalists. That product, whose supply and demand can be controlled by the state and the politicians, interest capitalists a great deal. Just sayin’.
tweeted and recommended with thanks elise.
It was a mistake to form the union and for the states to ratify the Constitution. Some presidents are worse than others, none has been good. None aspired to be. Wretched men, good for nothing.
Good people need blankets, and their children are crying. I’m tired of fighting, but I’ll vote to secede and try anything else.
Ten years ago Colorado approved a medical marijuana initiative; in Nov., legalization is on the ballot. It includes state licensing, taxation, etc. Also included are mechanisms for legalizing and farming industrial hemp, which is sincerely cool.
My guess is that given the massive propaganda campaign *against* MMJ in 2000, and the fact that all the bogus alarms that didn’t pan out…it helped to gain support for complete legalization.
OBomba’s raids are also creating a lot of anxiety here. Sadly, the 2000 bill didn’t provide much about how to dispense the reefer, which has made a sick part of the raids punishing the landlord/owners of buildings renting to dispensaries. Their properties sometimes get seized by the Feds, which is horrid in itself, but also gives landlords a great reason *not to rent* to dispensaries.
Other failures and loopholes in the 2000 law I’ll skip as not altogether useful. ;o)
@ AitchD. God, using the Chief Joseph broke my heart. But please, my dear friend: Fight with us some more forever; we need not believe we will win…to make the fight worthwhile, not to mention…worthy.
love,
wd
I’ll bet Wall street is having a real chuckle over that bit of hypocrisy.
They oughta change the name of the DOJ to “Obama’s Department Of Selective Law Enforcement” and be done with it.
Rec’d, elisemattu, and thanks.
I got my MMJ card just recently in order to see if cannabis might make life easier for me in some respects. Mr. wd has to go to the dispensary for me (complicated rigamarole), but he reports quite an array of different products are there, and obviously many businesses have created a lot of different products, from salves to tinctures to edible sweeties (yech) and far beyond.
The list of physical conditions it helps is growing all the time. And may I take this opportunity to say Fuck You to Obomba and his DoJ, without whom this product could stay hassle-freely available in states where it’s legal. Legal.
He could speak out at least on legalizing MMJ nationally, but of course, he won’t. Campaign OBomba was a horse of a different color.
Aye, well stated.
Thank you elisemattu. Recommended.
Not useless — a easy repeat villain — MJ is a plant that can be grown easily enough. Those who do the growing/processing/marketing do it for same reason(s) Big Petro is in the gas/oil biz — the $$ profits make the risks/downsides well worth it.
MJ has been under USG eradication regimes for decades and yet is still there and still serving as easy repeat villain. A villain that keeps on giving to local,state and federal police/legal and prison regimes/ organizations. Americans are showed police/police SWAT/DEA etc. teams doing this “important” crime suppression on MJ growers and sellers to pour cement around “need” for police,SWAT,DEA etc. doing so.
Not useless.
Costly? Not if your paycheck or your politics depend on busting MJ.
Stupid? Or wickedly smart?
MJ should have been legalized decades ago with the growing and selling of it moved from being criminal act(s) to being standard commercial act(s) with the full licensing/taxing regime(s) put in from A to Z to capture the tremendous $$ economic activity. At this point one is given to believe the only reason this was not/has not been done is because this $$ slice of pie is being served to other interests who are not interested in losing this slice of pie.
Who are these “other” interests?
Police and legal regimes,prisons,agencies of USG that like MJ being kept “illegal” to help grease the neverending War On Drugs USG has been conducting for decades with no end in sight seemingly being the sought and desired feature–not the bug.
Barack Obama is not a stupid American. Surely understands the politics of MJ lead to War On Drugs politics which then lead to what USG has been doing around these politics/police $$ funding for decades.
Barack Obama is looking at a very comfortable post POTUS career and retirement. What does POTUS Obama gain from coming out for legal MJ and cutting down several layers of state and federal police? Lots of hard core enemies a very good initial response. Where is the payoff for Barack Obama? Obama already is headed for being re-elected as POTUS being Obama is the OnePercents choice for being in WH.
Barack Obama is not a profile in courage. That is plain to see.
Too bad about how the story above ends or ended. MJ should have been legalized decades ago.
If Americans can buy tobacco products on a legal,commercial,heavily taxed basis why not MJ?
Keeping MJ is a big slice of Easy $$ Pie for those who answer the why not question(s) with “Because we do not want MJ made legal and put on a commercial basis as that would screw up our slice(s) of pie.”
MJ is no more a threat to general society than tobacco and brewed beer have ever been. Keeping MJ illegal is a method of control to impose punishment that serves authoritarian political desires.
What purpose(s) does keeping MJ illegal serve for PTB?
Control. Punishment. Imposition of authority. Using fear to impose control and work the threatening of $$ penalty/legal/penal perils.
What is the goal of authoritarian American police,SWAT,DEA,HLS etc.?
Keep budgets,get bigger budgets,keep the paychecks coming? Yes? Yes.
To be “needed”. To keep the slice(s) of pie. Keep making pie(s).
Remember when Tom Hagen is about to tell Vito of Sonny’s violent murder, and Vito says, “But you had to have a drink first…”. He’d got out of his sick bed, says he hears crying. After Tom tells him, Vito concludes the paraphrase of Joseph’s surrender speech. I’ve supposed that Brando had something to do with that dialogue.
An ‘old’ post:
The very last San Diego County dispensary, operating in unincorporated, county-only jurisdiction, under a negotiated, current, and undisputed agreement with the SDC Sheriff, was finished off by the feds about a month ago.
I’m not surprised they’re now moving to close down the smaller counties, like Sonoma.
Here, millions of dollars of investments and leases were lost to both pharmacies and landlords. Probably a couple thousand jobs lost.
Just when the Federales de Mexico were getting some foothold against the cartels, Obama supplies a cartel subsidy.
And an “aye” to you too. Well said.
You’ve articulated the other side of the coin that motivates Obama in his promise-breaking vendetta.
Persecuting easy targets while vigorously serving the varied special interests threatened by the prospect of legal MJ, why, that encapsulates the essence of Obama.
Look at the way he terrorizes war protesters as he protects the interests of the MIC, and the way he spies on and jails environmental protestors as he protects the interests of those who poison for profit, and…
He’s the world’s biggest crooked cop.
Thinking about it a little more, I now understand why Colorado is not experiencing the same suppression.
It’s a swing state.
What’s happening in California is 100% volitional on the part of Mr. Obama.
Cynical…but not beyond the realm of our “new” reality based police state.
Disgraceful. Clearly the intent is to horrify, to convey the message that, yes, you live in a country where SWAT can march down any street a flatten you like the insignificant bugs you are…and what are you going to do about it?
I would ask how Obama supporters are going to spin this one, but there isn’t going to be any spin because they’ll just ignore it.
I can only say how grateful I am to be part of this board, where I can vent against this man Obama and his dreadful policies. Other “liberal” forums are run by people so closely associated with the current POTUS that they might as well admit it. (Skinner of DU is married to the woman who was a major staffer for Hillary Clinton when she was running for the Pres. in 2008)
Everyone here is coherent and many folks are so often eloquent. All 27 posts above are logical, and what a relief that no one told me that if I feel this way, I will be held responsible should Rmoney get in.
Fascism is about the corporations having control. It doesn’t necessarily involve hurting the Jews, or having armies that go goose stepping through the streets. Apparently sometimes fascism involves co opting a party that once stood for human rights, civil rights, and logical spending of money on wars on poverty and a safety net. Now the leadership of this party is more interested in spending money on wars against people who need to grow a product to help them deal with cancer, MS, migraines etc. The irony that this latest SWAT rampage came in the same time period as announcements of the proof that cannibinoids thwart cancer is not lost on me. Like many other philosophers have pondered, fascism *always* entails massive amounts of corruption. It is sad that our modern, American version of fascism is willing to act in a corrupt manner against people who are sick.
There are so many things that are wrong with subjecting the users, the growers and the providers of medical marijuana that I don’t know where to begin. I do know that way back at the end of the millenium, I researched how people with MS were ending up in their wheelchairs in the penitentiary – all for the CRIME of growing their own med marijuana to help control their tremors. The fact that we are again returning to this specter frightens me. And given that currently we have little alternatives, except that of building the third parties and fourth parties, over the coming decades, gives me a dull ache in my temples every time someone starts talking abut the “upcoming elections.”
I once got a traffic ticket for (unknowingly) passing a cop on the freeway. As he was writing the ticket, he said, “if you’re dumb enough to pass a cop, you’re dumb enough to get a ticket.”
To which I add, if you’re dumb enough to vote for Obama (thinking he was even marginally left of center, despite the ample evidence to the contrary), then you deserve to get busted.
To those growers who didn’t vote for this Reagan in MLK’s clothing, I apologize.
Once you step outside the bounds of partisanship, there are a lot of people who aren’t going to vote for lying hypocrites just for the sake of the “team”.
Despite the “blame the victim” nonsense that comes from the ‘bots, the Democrats will only have themselves to blame if Romney should somehow win.
“Why were Obama’s people destroying this?”
Because he’s a country-club republican.
And also, because these little executive muscle-flexers are all he’s got left after using all of his clout to do rehab on the GOP.
Anything else?
Elise, you have put your finger on a bright, shining, recommendation for FDL.
To the posters who won’t enlist in the “Obama sucks less!” army…
To Dave Dayen, Kevin Gostola, and a few others, who refuse to shill for Obama…
And to Jane Hamsher, for letting us have the debate…
heartfelt thanks.
And while I’m at it, here’s Ted Rall’s latest:
http://news.yahoo.com/comics/ted-rall-slideshow/
Sorry, but I voted for Obama and I’m not the least bit ashamed of it. He looked and sounded like the best chance we’ve had for real change since FDR.
Which leads us to this, two beers:
Who did you support in 2008?
Who did you support in 2008?
It wasn’t Obama. I saw what the DNC did in Michigan and that was the beginning of my not calling myself a Dem any longer, though I’m about the most liberal and proud of it person I know. I didn’t know he was a “Reagan in MLK’s clothing” (good description) but I knew something smelled pretty horrible (probably not unlike the air in NYC on 9/11/01)
Okay, we get that you were…perceptive…enough to not support Obama.
Were you perceptive enough to pick up on the fact that Hillary (for example) supported Joe Lieberman against Ned Lamont, a good anti-war candidate?
Or that Hillary wouldn’t eat that vote to support the savage idiocy of Bush invading Iraq, for nearly five years, until she saw it was costing her the nomination?
In short, who DID you support? I’d like to hear what candidate(s) appealed to you.
All conspiracies aside, does anyone think the law enforcement concerns would want to loose the billions in fed dollars and income from asset forfeiture that is the boon of the War on Drugs? I have friends on the force, who assure me that every call answered is exacerbated by alcohol whenever it is involved, and it usually is, and none are by dope.This just shows where the priorities lie for funding. I expect the War on Terror will have a similarly warping effect and with the reaction of law enforcement to OWS this seems to already be the case.
I see now that you were using Joseph’s words as allegory, not as representative of your own spiritual ennui; there are times I have following along with your cryptic allusions.
This was a good comment, AitchD, and you have me musing again about the many ways we are socialized, indoctrinated toward obedience, educated to become cogs in the profit machine, advertized to death to become ‘consumers’ of the same; smacked down when we individuate and consult our own internal guides and ethics to choose ‘the road less traveled’ that is seen as so threatening to the status quo the PTB require to facilitate our own disempowerment and downfall. Their mistake is always that theirs will come next, of course.
But as for you comment about secession, states’ rights are certainly at the core of much of this issue. The most recent spate of MMJ dispensary closings was caused by the CO US Attorney who claims that federal ‘1000-feet-from-schools’supercedes state law, county decisions, and city ordinances to make choices about where outlets can be.
It’ll be interesting as hell to see what happens if or when any of the several states vote to legalize reefer. You’d expect the same crap from the DoJ, and when a challenge would inevitably reach the Supreme Court, the rulings could be colossal, depending which case or cases they might choose to hear. (As will the Monsanto case they will hear in October).
Dunno much about federalism or home rule, but I reckon we’ll hear more about both in days to come. ;o)
If the ill among the people cannot get legal access to a harmless plant to assuage their pain,
What chance do the people have to get legal access to a harmless plant to heighten the pleasure of their lives?
Snowballs in hell anyone?
Indeed. I just checked my account at Democratic Underground which I hadn’t for months and with a grand total of, as far as I can tell, two posts ever — both well within the stated site TOU — any attempt to log in leads to a page stating,
“Posting privileges for the account Kurt Sperry have been revoked. See Democratic Underground’s Terms of Service for more information.
This decision can be appealed by contacting the Administrators, who may reverse the decision if they are provided with a compelling reason to do so. If the Administrators do not respond to the appeal within seven days, the appeal has been denied. ”
Two posts:
“I can respect the arguments for LOTEism as pragmatism over principle but if you have no ideological limits you cannot in good conscience cross, then you have no ideology at all beyond reactionary contrarianism. Yes, the Democrats are better than the Republicans, but that’s setting the bar at floor level. I’ll support actual liberal Democrats where I can find them and I’ll vote for them, but centrists (American centrism is still rabid conservatism), blue dogs and corporate DNC/Third Way types? Never. Ever. They are slime.”
&
” Ronnie Was Essentially a Grifter Straight Out of Central Casting
selling trickle down voodoonomics like borax soap. The more puzzling question is why Obama and the mainstream corporate Democrats are almost equally in thrall to his misguided ideology.”
But I digress.
Takeaway — DU is a useless intellectually and ideologically bankrupt, censorious, partisan organ of the fascist corporate arm of the Democratic Party. Not just a veal pen, but a nasty hellish veal pen with sadistic minders torturing the calves through the cage bars and a bunch of servile bootlicking veal thanking the minders for keeping discipline. Truly a cesspool of psychopathologies. Just like DailyKos, except perhaps even worse.
Sorry again for the digression.
My remark about seceding doesn’t mean ‘states’ rights’ to me as much as the people’s rights. I know how ‘secession’ can evoke images of the hissing of Sumter lawns, of nullification and interposition. My main point is that the United States no longer functions the way it was meant to function when there were only “several states”.
When there are a dozen or twenty states, a few of them can exert a very strong influence on the whole (the union). With 50 states, no state or small group of states can have any influence. Each state has become little more than a beggar for the potential of favors out of federal largesse, which comes from the people.
The Executive Branch has become too powerful and has perverted the Constitution’s structure as well as its design for governance. Hence, the unprecedented power of the presidents in modern times.
The nation’s populace has grown too large for any kind of democratic representation in either chamber of Congress. The House is as large as many small colleges, but I’d bet the students at any of those schools know one another much better. House members no longer co-operate as state and district representatives with a common interest outside of their partisan philosophies.
It’s no wonder that corporations have rushed into the breach as opportunists, heedless of ethical constraints, written rules and laws, or elections that regulate lawmakers.
Thanks for the clarification *and* thinking. But my points about states’ rights in this and other issues, still stand, I think.
This from an interview with Noam Chomsky reported at counterpunch.org:
“…In fact, all through Latin America, there is a major effort to decriminalize Marijuana, maybe more, but, at least, Marijuana. In Uruguay, they are instituting state production of Marijuana. In most of the hemisphere, there is a strong effort to decriminalize it. In fact, in the Cartagena meetings, the hemispheric meetings held a couple of months ago, the United States and Canada were totally isolated on that issue. Everyone wanted to move in that direction…”
Chomsky goes on to describe how the US has managed to destabilize many South American countries through this damaging policy. The ramifications are what matter to our current leadership, not what it does to people who need the salutary effects of medical marijuana and are unjustly criminalized, nor those whose communities are rendered unsafe as the drug mafia has its way. This is so obvious as not even to be worth defending, and in truth I have not heard any rational argument as to why it should be government policy, except for the destabilization of societies this government wants to dominate.
I don’t think it is a matter of size. And corporations didn’t rush into the breech. They were welcomed in, and are doing very well in little New Zealand also. Size isn’t the issue, greed is.
Medical marijuana is busted while criminal banksters get a get out of jail free pass. And right before the election, too.
Obama is rubbing his contempt for progressives right in our faces. I would never vote Republican unless forced at gunpoint, but if forced at gunpoint to vote for Obama or Romney, I would vote for Romney.
If this admitted and allegedly former cokehead and pot smoker had ever been caught – or narked on by a scared friend who had gotten busted, he would have never gone to Harvard; never have been president. But he has the compassion of a Mitt Romney and is untroubled by the fact that 850,000 people a year are still getting busted for pot. How many promising futures are being snuffed out every day?
I have read that Obama can change this by the simple expedient of reclassifying marijuana from schedule I to schedule II or III, but I am having a disagreement about it and neglected to save any links on the subject. Could someone help me prove my case?
Thanks
Those strategically placed periods on either side of “perceptive” lead me to believe you’re insulting me. End of conversation.
“Obama is rubbing his contempt for progressives right in our faces.”
It is this aspect of the president’s character that I find impossible to ignore, and it frankly amazes me that so many other people can block it out. What kind of schmuck makes phone calls and knocks on doors and raises money for this guy after he kills the public option, illegally bombs Libya, wages war on government whistleblowers and medical marijuana, wipes his filthy shoes on the rule of law over and over again, and dispatches his stooge to call progressives “retarded”? What reasonable person would ever again lift a finger to help a lying, arrogant, shamelessly unprincipled jerkoff like Barack Obama?
Jon Walker blogs most of the Just Say Now articles, and the reclassifying issues have been discussed there. You can search at the Firedoglake home site (or click “Home” at the bottom of this page) where there’s a search field.
Thanks a bunch, AitchD.
Very similar thoughts and feelings in my mind and heart, and my spouse’s also.
Obama does it because he knows he can. Because we now live in a nation where so many people consider themselves liberal Democrats, even as they act like Right Wing Assholes. They run the companies they inherited from their parents, without any of the liberal values they should have imbued while growing up. They pay the workers as little as they possibly can. The moment that their company flounders, they file for bankruptcy and really don’t care that the workers’ pensions will be raided in order to pay off the company’s debts. After all, they will get the golden parachutes, worth millions, so, so what?
They have never bothered to look at the overall gestalt of our society. A friend of mine, a Catholic nun who helps run a University in the Midwest, told me that our nation couldn’t possibly be heading for fascism because if it was, it would be discussed on the evening news!
Far too may liberal Democrats who grew up on the right side of the tracks remained detached from what happens in our nation, until it affects them directly. In the early Eighties, the textile mill jobs were outsourced; that was fine, as after all, no real American worth bothering about would be willing to work at a textile mill. Then the auto industry jobs went down to Mexico – but what sort of cretin works in a factory all day? Certainly not the type of American worth bothering about. It wasn’t until the damn tech and computer jobs started to be outsourced that their panties were tied up in a knot. How dare the captains of Silicon Valley outsource jobs and affect the REAL AMERICANS who had gone to college. Then the outrage was finally hitting the fan.
The same attitude is permeating Northern California. I know “Growers’ and their thoughts on what happened Wednesday are oddly smacking of their white=skinned superiority: “Well, it’s not about stopping growing – it’s about illegal immigration.”
They have never read or at least they have forgotten Martin Niemoller’s fine summary of how fascism works: “When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
“When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
“When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
“When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn’t a Jew.
“When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.”
Obama cannot change the classification of marijuana, but the head of Justice Department can do it. So in a sense, Obama chooses whoever is the top dog at Justice, and then they can do it.
However, Eric Holder is not about to decriminalize the substance, or even bring it down a notch on the schedule. If Obama wanted, he could instruct Holder to do so, but again, I think most of us here at FDL understand how Obama is sworn to work for Big Phrama as surely as he is sworn to work for Monsanto and the Big Financial Concerns.
In this segment from Jimmy Fallon, Obama offers up the fact that his Administration is determined to handle the marijuana issue as a “Public health matter.”
I guess the folks at the WH don’t read the news releases about how successful marijuana is, in terms of its cannibinoid oils, and just plain smoking it, in order to defeat cancer!
If only he would look into the fracking of toxic chemicals into the aquifers – and take that on as a public health issue.
http://www.oldelmtree.com/showthread.php?tid=23540&pid=226095#pid226095
A heartbreaking but totally accurate assessment of the situation. Thank you, elisemattu.