MikeK
Gold Member
When Barack Obama was running for President he repeatedly, and deceitfully, implied that he would favorably address the issue of marijuana prohibition, once boldly announcing on live TV that he had smoked marijuana "frequently!" His duplicitous commentary on the subject of the utterly unreasonable and widely destructive pot laws undoubtedly earned him millions of votes, not only from current and former marijuana users but from ordinary citizens who are intelligent and well-informed enough to know the pot laws are counterproductive. But after he was elected, President Obama not only ignored the marijuana issue, he once rudely dismissed a reporter's question by saying he didn't have time to discuss it.
So the beat goes on as it has since Ronald Reagan saw fit to escalate the absolutely wasteful and counterproductive War On Drugs, which absurdly includes the relatively benign natural substance, cannabis, which to this day remains a Schedule One drug, placing it in the same category as heroin and methamphetamine. This in spite of the fact that no-one has ever died from or been medically harmed by marijuana, and that marijuana is known to be medically useful, and that marijuana is now fully legal in one state while it is medically approved in almost all states.
There is no question that the Obama Administration could have easily brought about the decriminalization, or the full legalization, of marijuana if the President had seen fit to do it -- which he clearly has not. One can only guess about the reason why, but it is plainly obvious that something is responsible for his reluctance to address this important issue.
Meanwhile, in spite of the fact that drugs are no less available today than they were when Reagan initiated the drug war madness, and that nothing has been achieved by it other than the waste of mega-billions of tax dollars and the rise of a Prison Industrial Complex, the federal government continues to pump billions of dollars in subsidies to local police agencies, such as the Memphis Police Department, to perpetuate such drug-war activities as that which resulted in Memphis police officer Bolton being killed because he'd managed to find 1.7 grams of marijuana on someone in an illegally parked car.
I am aware of absolutely nothing to justify the continued prohibition of marijuana, therefore I know of no good reason for any police officer to be spending (wasting) his/her time and taxpayers' money on anti-marijuana activities. This is not what the sensible citizens of America regard as necessary police activity.
If the dead Memphis cop had simply issued a summon for illegal parking and been on his way he would be alive today. But he didn't do that. And I can only conclude that his death is the direct result of President Obama's failure to do the right thing where marijuana is concerned.
Again, no-one has ever died from using marijuana. But a lot of people have died because of the stupidly unnecessary laws against it.
So the beat goes on as it has since Ronald Reagan saw fit to escalate the absolutely wasteful and counterproductive War On Drugs, which absurdly includes the relatively benign natural substance, cannabis, which to this day remains a Schedule One drug, placing it in the same category as heroin and methamphetamine. This in spite of the fact that no-one has ever died from or been medically harmed by marijuana, and that marijuana is known to be medically useful, and that marijuana is now fully legal in one state while it is medically approved in almost all states.
There is no question that the Obama Administration could have easily brought about the decriminalization, or the full legalization, of marijuana if the President had seen fit to do it -- which he clearly has not. One can only guess about the reason why, but it is plainly obvious that something is responsible for his reluctance to address this important issue.
Meanwhile, in spite of the fact that drugs are no less available today than they were when Reagan initiated the drug war madness, and that nothing has been achieved by it other than the waste of mega-billions of tax dollars and the rise of a Prison Industrial Complex, the federal government continues to pump billions of dollars in subsidies to local police agencies, such as the Memphis Police Department, to perpetuate such drug-war activities as that which resulted in Memphis police officer Bolton being killed because he'd managed to find 1.7 grams of marijuana on someone in an illegally parked car.
I am aware of absolutely nothing to justify the continued prohibition of marijuana, therefore I know of no good reason for any police officer to be spending (wasting) his/her time and taxpayers' money on anti-marijuana activities. This is not what the sensible citizens of America regard as necessary police activity.
If the dead Memphis cop had simply issued a summon for illegal parking and been on his way he would be alive today. But he didn't do that. And I can only conclude that his death is the direct result of President Obama's failure to do the right thing where marijuana is concerned.
Again, no-one has ever died from using marijuana. But a lot of people have died because of the stupidly unnecessary laws against it.
