Ex-DEA Administrators Call on Obama to Sue if CA Voters Legalize Pot
The Associated Press reports that in an August 24 letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, the former DEA officials wrote that the potential legalization of marijuana would challenge federal authority and merit a lawsuit against the state - much like the one Mr. Obama has filed in protest of Arizona's controversial immigration law, which the administration say contradicts national policy.
"We would expect the Department of Justice to act just as swiftly and for the same reason," the DEA administrators said of the potential passage of Proposition 19.
The upcoming vote has incited heated national debate on the issue of cannabis legalization, and Californians once again find themselves in a position to set national precedent with a controversial ballot measure. If passed, Californians 21 and older would be the first Americans with the legal right to use marijuana recreationally.
Proponents of the measure argue that legalizing pot would allow for increased regulation of it, and that taxing the drug could bring much-needed revenue to the state. But Gil Kerlikowske, Obama's drug czar, argued in an op-ed to the Los Angeles Times that while it would be "impossible to predict precisely the consequences of wholesale legalization," he could say "with near certainty" that marijuana use would increase with the passage of Prop 19 - and so would the social costs associated with drug use.
But whether or not the Obama administration would be willing to intervene in the matter is unclear. The Justice Department has not issued a statement in response to the letter, and unlike with the case of immigration, the president has not made the legalization of marijuana a central focus of his political agenda.
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According to campaign finance reports, the California Beer and Beverage Distributors State Issues Committee donated $10,000 to the campaign to defeat Proposition 19, the initiative that would establish a legal and regulated marijuana market and provide adults with a safer recreational alternative to alcohol.
We understand why Big Alcohol wants to protect its turf and keep Californians drinking; but why does the No on Prop. 19 campaign -- which is calling itself "Public Safety First" -- share this goal?
Visit http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5559/action/prop19 to send a message to the head of the No on Prop. 19 campaign, calling on him to explain why the campaign is working with Big Alcohol to drive Californians to drink. Then visit the campaign's website -- http://www.Yeson19.com -- and find out how you can help bring about a victory this November.
Marijuana is far SAFER than alcohol, that's not an opinion, it's a FACT! Are you seeing a pattern here? The DEA and big alcohol will both lose money if 19 passes. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY, THEY ARE NOT INTERESTED IN PUBLIC SAFETY! IF THEY WERE, THEY WOULD PREFER YOU MAKE THE SAFER choice, which IS marijuana!
You people in California seriously need treatment for marijuana dependency. The drug pushers have successfully turned you into dopes.
If Prop 19 passes, the entire world will celebrate in that they have successfully made the California people doped. Not only that, the USA people are practicing voodoo medicine called medical marijuana as a smoke-screen for getting themselves doped up. Who are we kidding? The USA is going to the sewer.
The illegal drug pushers will be eliminated when 19 passes! You know, just like they were when alcohol prohibition ended. The year alcohol prohibition ended, violent crime fell 65%! Ending the prohibition of the drug alcohol is exactly why we don't have shootouts over that drug trade any more or the crime and corruption that is CREATED any time you fund CRIMINALS, GANGSTERS AND TERRORISTS with hundreds of billions of illegal drug dollars every year.
It sounds like you are addicted to the drug war. Why else would you want to continue an unconstitutional, illegal prohibition that makes marijuana EASIER for kids to get (illegal dealers don?t ask for ID), causes an otherwise law abiding US citizen to be arrested every 38 seconds, costs tens of billions in tax dollars every year to enforce, has totally failed and is NOT reducing marijuana use by ANY significant amount?
Who?s really dopey? You or the millions of responsible marijuana consumers in the US that have managed to live responsible lives, work their jobs and raise their families despite having their government declare war on them over unconstitutional, oppressive, unjust, marijuana prohibition.
When 19 passes and the sky doesn?t fall, like you and all the other drug war Kool-Aid drinkers think it will, the world may indeed celebrate. It?s about time the good guys win this marijuana war! They said the same things about everyone being an alcoholic if alcohol was legalized but most adults are able to use that drug responsibly. Alcohol and tobacco are both far more addictive and far more deadly than marijuana, yet most adults are perfectly able to use them responsibly. Why is it so hard for you to realize there is an estimated 113 Billion dollars worth of marijuana consumed in the USA every year, yet with the exception of being arrested, there is very little harm to anyone because of it? I hope you see how ridiculous your reasoning really is. Your arguments are nothing but childish innuendos. When faced with science and facts innuendos just don?t cut it!
If you haven?t learned the truth about medical marijuana by now you probably never will. Why do you think the government has been supplying marijuana to patients for decades? Why do you suppose there is a synthetic THC on the market that you can get a Rx for in any state (of course it?s far more expensive than most people can afford and not nearly as effective as using the natural plant). Big pharmaceuticals just can?t compete with nature when it comes to marijuana.
If you can handle the truth about medical marijuana, Google: ?Granny Storm Crow?s List?.
Google: ?WHY IS MARIJUANA ILLEGAL, Pete Guither?
and
?MARIJUANA AND HEMP THE UNTOLD STORY, Thomas J. Bouril?,
or click the links to those articles on the webpage below:
Internet Explorer web browser: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/home
All Other Browsers: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/index.html
Watch this video: ?Irvin Rosenfeld Medical Marijuana Testimony?,
then get back to me about what you think of medical marijuana and heavy long term marijuana use.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1NggzEkltM
Watch this video, (there are seven parts):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjhT9282-Tw
The World Health Organization Documents Failure of U.S. Drug Policies: http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/90295/
As you can see, marijuana prohibition does no good and causes a lot of unnecessary harm, waste crime and corruption.
The USA has been wrong for over seven decades when it comes to marijuana policy. Proposition 19 is going to set things right. VOTE YES ON 19! VOTE YES ON 19! VOTE YES ON 19! VOTE YES ON 19! VOTE YES ON 19! VOTE YES ON 19! VOTE YES ON 19!
According to the ONDCP, at least sixty percent of Mexican drug cartel money comes from selling marijuana in the U.S., they protect this revenue by brutally torturing, murdering and dismembering countless innocent people.
If we can STOP people using marijuana then we need to do so NOW, but if we can't then we need to legalize the production and sale of marijuana to adults with after-tax prices set too low for the cartels to match. One way or the other, we have to force the cartels out of the marijuana market and eliminate their highly lucrative marijuana incomes - no business can withstand the loss of sixty percent of its revenue!
To date, the cartels have amassed more than 100,000 "foot soldiers" and operate in 230 U.S. cities, and it's now believed that the cartels are "morphing into, or making common cause with, what would be considered an insurgency" (Secretary of State Clinton, 09/09/2010). The longer the cartels are allowed to exploit the prohibition the more powerful they'll get and the more our own personal security will be put in jeopardy.
World Health Organization survey of 17 countries finds that we have the highest rates of marijuana and cocaine use.
The United States has some of the world's most punitive drug policies and has led the cheering section for tough "war on drugs" policies worldwide, but a new international study suggests that those policies have been a crashing failure. A World Health Organization survey of 17 countries, conducted by some of the world's leading substance abuse researchers, found that we have the highest rates of marijuana and cocaine use.
The numbers are startling. In the United States, 42.4 percent admitted having used marijuana. The only other nation that came close was New Zealand, another bastion of get-tough policies, at 41.9 percent. No one else was even close. The results for cocaine use were similar, with the United States leading the world by a large margin.
This study is important because it's the first time a respected international group has surveyed drug use around the world, using the same questions and procedure everywhere. While many countries have their own drug use surveys, the questions and methodology vary, and comparisons between countries are difficult. This new study eliminates that problem.
Some of the most striking numbers are from the Netherlands, where adults are permitted to possess a small of marijuana and purchase it from regulated businesses. Some U.S. officials have claimed that these Dutch policies have created some sort of decadent cesspool of drug abuse, but the new study demolishes such assertions: In the Netherlands, only 19.8 percent have used marijuana, less than half the U.S. figure.
Even more striking is what the researchers found when they asked young adults when they had started using marijuana. Again, the United States led the world, with 20.2 percent trying marijuana by age 15. No other country was even close, and in the Netherlands, just 7 percent used marijuana by 15 -- roughly one-third of the U.S. figure.
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy tried to dismiss the study, Bloomberg News reported:
Trying to find a link between drug use and drug enforcement doesn't make sense, said Tom Riley, spokesman for the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington. "The U.S. has high crime rates but we spend a lot on law enforcement and prison,'' Riley said yesterday in a telephone interview. "Should we spend less? We're just a different kind of country. We have higher drug use rates, a higher crime rate, many things that go with a highly free and mobile society."
Funny, ONDCP takes precisely the opposite line whenever a state considers liberalizing its marijuana laws. In a March press release, deputy Drug Czar Scott Burns railed against a New Hampshire proposal to decriminalize marijuana, saying such a move "sends the wrong message to New Hampshire's youth, students, parents, public health officials and the law enforcement community," and would lead to "more drugs, drug users and drug dealers on their streets and communities."
Back in 2002, denouncing a proposed marijuana law reform in Nevada, ONDCP distributed a list of talking points to prosecutors specifically slamming the "extremely dubious" Dutch system of regulated sales, saying, "Increased availability of marijuana leads to increased use of marijuana and other drugs."
In fact, ONCDP's latest excuse for the failure of U.S. drug policies -- that enforcement and penalties don't really have much effect on rates of use -- is probably just about right. But it also dynamites any justification for our current marijuana laws. The WHO researchers put it this way:
"The U.S., which has been driving much of the world's drug research and drug policy agenda, stands out with higher levels of use of alcohol, cocaine, and cannabis, despite punitive illegal drug policies. ... The Netherlands, with a less criminally punitive approach to cannabis use than the US, has experienced lower levels of use, particularly among younger adults. Clearly, by itself, a punitive policy towards possession and use accounts for limited variation in nation level rates of illegal drug use."
For this we arrest 830,000 Americans a year on marijuana charges?
The Feds can derail the Medical Marijuana laws and Legalization of Marijuana anytime they want.
Legalization needs to start at the Federal level with Congress.
If the states voted to approve legalizing slavery, do the states really have the right to do this? NO. Because slavery is against Federal Law.
Right now, the Feds are just acting powerless or doing a wait and see. Actually, the Feds do not enforce certain laws anymore like illegal immigration and illegal drugs, that's why the problem grew so big and it is out of control.
And when this happens, the states begin to put things on the ballot on their own and approve the ballot even though it is against Federal laws.
For what it's worth I don't think there will be that much revenue from it. Most people will grow their own...like it should be. The government really has no business taxing us because we chose to relax with a beer, wine, or joint as far as I'm concerned. Tax us on business activities and income, but stay out of my personal life with all the darn taxes.
Get over it. Marijuana is a plant and it has good and bad properties. People should not be criminalized for using it. We need to legalize RIGHT NOW and then deal with what ever aftermath happens...because any aftermath is our fault for prohibition in the first place. If we all grew up in a world were Marijuana was legal then it would be no different than other herbs to us. Want proof? Chine for thousands of years treated marijuana as a medicine and it wasn't a problem for THOUSANDS of years. It's not the drug that's the problem. It's our society and our mind set that's wrong. We fear other peoples addiction therefore we criminalize it. It's total Jewish/Christian intolerance ******** that has driven almost every bad decision this country has ever made. time to ACTUALLY separate church and state.
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No more the cost of legalized alcohol. Imaging the tax dollars we could squander on making alcohol illegal again. We could double the budget of the DEA!