Associated Press
It's been over a month since voters in Colorado and the state of Washington approved ballot measures to legalize recreational use and sale of marijuana, despite federal law that reaches a very different conclusion. Yesterday, President Obama addressed the discrepancy for the first time.
President Obama says recreational users of marijuana in states that have legalized the substance should not be a "top priority" of federal law enforcement officials prosecuting the war on drugs.
"We've got bigger fish to fry," Obama said of pot users in Colorado and Washington during an exclusive interview with ABC News' Barbara Walters.
"It would not make sense for us to see a top priority as going after recreational users in states that have determined that it's legal," he said, invoking the same approach taken toward users of medicinal marijuana in 18 states where it's legal.
The president added that this is a tough problem, because Congress has not yet changed the law." He told ABC, "I head up the executive branch; we're supposed to be carrying out laws. And so what we're going to need to have is a conversation about, how do you reconcile a federal law that still says marijuana is a federal offense and state laws that say that it's legal?"
While Obama's comments will be heartening to many on the left, especially those who voted with the majority in Colorado and Washington, and it makes sense the president has little interest in sending federal law enforcement after "recreational users," it's far less clear whether the DEA intends to take a similar approach when dealing with those who cultivate and sell marijuana, even in states where it's legal.
As Matt Yglesias explained, "The DEA doesn't have the resources to target a guy for sharing a bowl with his friends, but they certainly do have the resources to target a large marijuana farm or a fixed-location marijuana retailer trying to establish a legal business. What's more, they have the resources to arrest and prosecute state officials who involve themselves in the licensing and permitting for legal marijuana businesses."
Congressional intervention is needed and practically inevitable. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee is planning a hearing early next year to examine the legal ambiguities and consider legislative options.
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Heartening to which progressives? The ones who heard the exact same thing 4 years ago and then saw increased raids on legally run dispensaries in all MM states?
I'm not heartened at all. Especially after the sweetheart deal that HSBC execs got for laundering drug cartel money.
All excellent points. Obama has proven himself a serious drug warrior, no matter it's more useless than Iraq or Afghanistan, and wastes about as much money.
Here in CA they let people invest in setting up dispensaries and then, because the DA here in San diego named Bonnie Dumanis didn't get what she wanted from the zoning commision so she called the DEA and had them shut down by threatening to confiscate the property of whoever rented stores to them. People used their life savings to set up business and lost everything because they all got evicted. So no, I don't trust them either.
Seen this before... The very minute any State official complains to the DOJ about anything marijuana related, the DEA and their thugs will break down doors and point M16's at innocent people as they steal their livings. Already happened here in Eagle Rock California. One single L.A. City Councilman, Jose Huizar, complained that dispensaries were destroying his neighborhood, and the DEA came in and raided several and closed all the rest. Of course they were not destroying anything, they were in fact regular people doing a regular business, and renting space from regular landlords. Thats all it will take to get DEA agents moving, these folks are career drug warriors who love to get macho and handcuff people, it's a "win" for them. Call me suspicious, I will beleive it when I see it...
SICKENING what happened in Eagle Rock. Beg President Obama to issue a fiat to reschedule cannabis a.s.a.p.
I'm thinking the FDA and DEA could safely move MM to schedule 3.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_Substances_Act
What do you know shooter we agree on something. Will wonders never cease.
There really isn't any use for the prohibition on pot any longer it has outlived it's usefulness. Look at the Netherlands their society is hardly imploding because of Marijuana and Hash.I would go a step further and make it schedule V and tax the crap out of it on a federal level, say twice what it is for tobacco and alcohol.
It's a hell of a revenue stream and it gets rid of the smuggling and crime that comes with it now. Think of the money it would save state and local governments on prosecution and incarceration alone.
dragoon, but think of how much the private prison system will lose. Here in Texas, Gov. Goodhair's good buddies who own the private prisons will now have to go after undocumented aliens and won't that make the rest of Goodhair's support team happy to see their less than minimum wage workers being deported. I can't wait to see the fur fly.
To suggest something like this would undo a good bit of the Texas Miracle™. The only part left is where the rest of the nation helps us out at the pump. Thanks, guys. Keep pumping that gasoline. We will need it more than ever, especially once the Keystone pipeline starts sending oil to be exported.
A little misleading, I think. "Bigger fish to fry" definitely invokes the idea of going after harder drugs, but it likely means that he'll be going after growers and dispensers.
I mean, Medical Marijuana has been legal for quite a few years already in several states, but dispensaries have clearly been raided (and, conveniently, their cash seized). This just says that there's no money in going after recreational users, and all the money to be made in taking the profits from the businesses that work with marijuana.
I'm hoping he means the fiscal cliff fight or would be overjoyed to hear he meant prosecuting Cheney, Rumsfield and Co or the Wall Street thieves that have destroyed much of what was good in America. Buuuut you could be right? :(
What I really want to hear President Obama say is that he has ordered the DEA to remove cannabis as a Schedule I drug and make it the same as alcohol and tobacco.
While the Justice Department's treatment of legal Medical Marijuana is awful here in California, until it is no longer Schedule I (or the entire DEA is fired and replaced with smarter folk-not gonna happen) we have to suspect the worst.
Yeah...this feels like just cover. Certainly the DEA isn't going to go after the dude smoking a blunt on his couch...but the Obama administration has already proven that they aren't a friend of pot by their actions with MM.
Unfortunately, legal weed needs the help of (*shudder*) Congress.
Maybe if Congress took a couple of hits, they'd @!$%#ing relax.
Just sayin'
Barack, fire Holder and use the DEA money to plug the deficit, Leahy will be the spear point, and you should stop buying into that gateway drug crap oppressed minority ethos.
If you really care about equality and rights you should acknowledge that the industrial prison complex has around 36% of criminals, the rest are blacks, Hispanics and others who have been incarcerated over minor issues involving small amounts of pot etc.
See: Eugene Jarecki's new documentary on the subject, ...
What century are you living in Mr. President?
Yes, this "gateway drug" canard is easily skewered. If it is a gateway drug, which is questionable, it is precisely a reason to decriminalize it or reschedule it. When someone discovers how innocuous and pleasant marijuana is they will naturally suspect all prohibition to be a fuss about nothing.
Of course, the issue of prohibition in general is also questionable. Experience with alcohol prohibition shows that it is a counter-productive strategy that merely creates criminality and violence while failing to prevent its continued use. The whole, failed, last century drug policy needs to be scrapped. Let's hope Leahy's team get this ball rolling.
I heard an interview with a heroin addict a few years ago and he was asked what was the first thing he became addicted to. His answer, "mothers milk". Some people are just addictive personalities and will find something to get high on no matter what. But most of us just want to have fun once in a while.
In '69 I was 21, just like the song. that's when I smoked my first joint. Now I'm 64 and have continued to smoke when the occasion arises and I am healthier than most people my age and I still work fulltime and manage to do all the things I need to do.
I have a problem with insomnia. I tried the prescribed medication for it and it made me walk in my sleep and eat in my sleep and once I woke up in the front yard with my car keys in my hand, dressed in my underwear and a t-shirt. I decided I liked living and gave up the Ambien. Since then I got a doctor to prescribe medical MJ and I've been sleeping and staying put while doing it ever since. Of course I had to go back to buying it from illegal sources since they closed the dispensaries. I decided it was safer to deal with the mexican mafia than kill myself drivng while asleep.
It's a good thing that the United States is no longer bound by the terms of treaties that we've pushed on other countries.
So many expect the President to pick and choose which laws he will enforce and which he will ignore. Others say he should enforce all laws with equal zeal ignoring the availability of resources to do so. And most all of these critics disregard the size and complexity of the task at hand, that is, managing the various agencies that have thousands of enforcement officers and specific policies and training they must follow. While in reality he can legally, at most, prioritize which laws will be enforced to balance his Constitutional requirement of enforcing the law against the available resources with some regard to the politics of the people.
Perhaps, we should be petitioning and critiquing the arm of government that actually decides what legislation to enact or repeal.
And yet the Obama administration chose not to defend DOMA, so apparently there's precedent.
Chose not to defend DOMA when contested as a Constitutional pricipal. Still enforces DOMA until repealed. Different things.
Legalize marijuana and tax it heavily; pardon people in jail for marijuana-related charges, and save on incarceration costs; get rid of a source of law-enforcement corruption (both direct bribery and distortions caused by legal drug-related confiscations), and stop turning so many citizens into law-breakers.
Why not tax the hell out of stuff that we the public have to pay the ensueing hospitals costs for??? Such as, such as,, cigarettes (emphesima), sugar products (diabetes), hard booze (liver disease),.. Show me a hospital bed with a patient due to pot smoking.
I'll bet in 5 years or so we'll see a significant number of people quitting the nicotene, herion, meth, hard booze, to go to a SAFE preference in marijuana.
And nation,, let's not forget that hash (same drug as marijuana) is still (here in Colorado, anyways) 1 year minimum imprisonment and $100,000 fine.. AKA legalized entrapment.
Actually hash isn't the same thing as marijuana anymore than cocaine is the same thing as chewing coca leaves. Hash is a processed form of a sort of a resin made from the flower buds that can be smoked in a hookah. Check out wikipedia. That is probably is no more destructive than marijuana is beside the point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashish
hash and all concentrates are from the leaves and stems, only rarely is it derived from flowers.
Obama's words are ringing hollow in California right now...
Until the DOJ, DEA and our state's Attorneys Julia Duffy and Melinda Haag end this ridiculous, politically motivated persecution of dispensary owners, marijuana might as well be illegal in California... The harassment of dispensary owners has been relentless for the last 3 years due to the unchecked power of these state's attorneys, and, of course, Governor Brown has been totally "absent" during this time. For greater insight into what this political pressure means for both business owners and patients, the plight of Steve and Andrew DeAngelo, and their current struggle to save Harborside Health Center will bring you up to speed... They are among the best examples of what a medical dispensary can be, and yet, they have been targeted by Attorney Melinda Haag for closure. And her reason for going after Harborside is particularly specious: they are so big, they are obviously doing something wrong. (I'm totally serious, look it up...)
Many cannabis users are medical patients, seeking relief from ailments ranging from arthritis to cancer. We are not the bad guys, we are patients and providers of a substance that has been known since the time of "The Divine Farmer" Shennong (2800 century B.C.) to have profound medical value.
Our state's attorneys have been primarily using asset forfeiture threats against landlords of these medical marijuana providers to force them out of business. Recent closures in the Bay Area include such respected providers as The Vapor Room and HopeNet. Compassionate and professional providers like Harborside Health Center should be applauded for what they are doing in the community, and not be forced out by career politicians trying to score cheap political points at the expense of public health and safety. Even Oakland Mayor Jean Quan spoke out publicly this week against any further legal action against HHCOAK, which incidentally, provides the city of Oakland with $1.4 million in desperately needed tax revenue annually.
California cannabis users and providers are not the criminals. Julia Duffy and Melinda Haag will be the ones held to judgement, historically, for the damage they are doing now. Cannabis is proving effective in the suppression of cancerous tumors, and not just in overseas labs, they are now replicating the same results in studies at California Pacific Medical Center - San Francisco. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/19/marijuana-and-cancer_n_1898208.html
Obama and his old "Drug Warrior" VP, Joe Biden would be wise to bring themselves up to speed regarding medical "marijuana". Much has changed since the days of Cheech and Chong, and they both risk looking quite foolish in the eyes of history.
Ask yourself this: If you had the opportunity to develop a whole new class of drugs effective upon cancer, would you fight for every opportunity to make that happen?
Or would you cowardly turn away, not wanting to risk your perceived" political viability"?
This is a question Obama will likely have to answer. I, among millions, am very curious as to what he might say...Let's start asking some intelligent questions about cannabis. How many more have to die from preventable disease? We have to re-examine this Federal prohibition NOW, not later.
I don't look at it like it was made legal but they are not sending people to court or jail for using it. Our jails and courts should be used for real crooks.
President Obama, do you remember the speech you gave about having the audacity to change? It's time to reduce the Marijuana to a non drug schedule such as alcohol and or cigs..How many more days do people have to sit in jail for this ridiculous war on drugs that doesn't work? You are my president and I voted for you and now as a member of the national majority that supports legalization, I hereby order you, as my employee of the federal government to get it done. You wanted, no you begged us for our support and you got it, now I am demanding that you settle up and legalize marijuana because its what the public wants, we the people...remember, having the audacity to change means not caring what others may think about you for doing it...
The federal goverment shying away from there sworn duties. Shocker!
there are so many good things that are happening, not only with the laws in the election, but seeing the gas prices going down too. We all are making a difference.