poledriver
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2005
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Is Obama Finally Ready To Dial Back The War On Drugs?
In a 2011 Reason cover story, I explained why drug policy reformers had been bitterly disappointed by President Obama’s performance during his first few years in office. With the notable exception of his support for shorter crack sentences, which Congress approved almost unanimously in 2010, Obama had done very little to de-escalate the war on drugs, despite comments prior to his election that led people to believe his administration would be less repressive than his predecessor’s.
To the contrary, the feds cracked down on medical marijuana more aggressively under Obama than they had under George W. Bush, even though he and his attorney general, Eric Holder, repeatedly promised the opposite. The administration continued to defend marijuana’s status as a Schedule I drug, a category supposedly reserved for substances with a high potential for abuse that have no accepted medical applications and cannot be used safely, even under a doctor’s supervision. When the subject of marijuana legalization came up, Obama literally laughed at the idea. Finally empowered to release drug offenders serving sentences that he had said were too long, Obama issued only one commutation during his first term and was on track to leave behind the stingiest clemency record of any modern president.
Some critics of the war on drugs—a crusade that Obama had declared “an utter failure” in 2004—predicted that he would improve in his second term. Safely re-elected, he would not have to worry that looking soft on drugs would cost him votes, and he would finally act on his avowed belief that the war on drugs is unjust and ineffective. As Obama embarks on the third year of his second term, it looks like the optimists were partially right, although much hinges on what he does during the next two years. Here are some of the ways in which Obama has begun to deliver on his promises of a more rational, less punitive approach to psychoactive substances:
Marijuana Legalization. Although the federal government cannot stop states from legalizing marijuana, it can make trouble for the ones that do by targeting state-licensed growers and retailers. Under a policy announced in August 2013, the Justice Department has declined to do so, reserving its resources for cannabis operations that violate state law or implicate “federal law enforcement priorities.” The department also has refrained from challenging state marijuana regulations in court, a strategy that could have delayed the opening of cannabusinesses in Colorado and Washington even if it was ultimately unsuccessful. In a New Yorker interview last January, Obama said “it’s important for [legalization] to go forward” in those states. Speaking to reporters at the U.N. last October, William Brownfield, the assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, said international anti-drug treaties should be interpreted to allow such experiments.
Unlike earlier promises of forbearance regarding medical marijuana, the respect for state policy choices signaled in that 2013 memo has visibly restrained the actions of U.S. attorneys and the Drug Enforcement Administration. “They’ve reversed course on marijuana after, I guess, previously reversing course on marijuana,” says Bill Piper, director of national affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance. “They’ve reverted back to their original position, before they launched the biggest crackdown on medical marijuana ever. They had to have put their foot down, because there’s been such a substantive change with respect to the raids. I think the politics shifted even further, to the point where some of the U.S. attorneys may have just given up.”
Federal Marijuana Ban. After Obama observed, in his interview with The New Yorker, that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol, CNN’s Jake Tapper asked him whether he was open to reclassifying marijuana. “What is and isn’t a Schedule I narcotic is a job for Congress,” Obama replied. “It’s not something by ourselves that we start changing. No, there are laws undergirding those determinations.”
CONT -
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsu...-finally-ready-to-dial-back-the-war-on-drugs/
In a 2011 Reason cover story, I explained why drug policy reformers had been bitterly disappointed by President Obama’s performance during his first few years in office. With the notable exception of his support for shorter crack sentences, which Congress approved almost unanimously in 2010, Obama had done very little to de-escalate the war on drugs, despite comments prior to his election that led people to believe his administration would be less repressive than his predecessor’s.
To the contrary, the feds cracked down on medical marijuana more aggressively under Obama than they had under George W. Bush, even though he and his attorney general, Eric Holder, repeatedly promised the opposite. The administration continued to defend marijuana’s status as a Schedule I drug, a category supposedly reserved for substances with a high potential for abuse that have no accepted medical applications and cannot be used safely, even under a doctor’s supervision. When the subject of marijuana legalization came up, Obama literally laughed at the idea. Finally empowered to release drug offenders serving sentences that he had said were too long, Obama issued only one commutation during his first term and was on track to leave behind the stingiest clemency record of any modern president.
Some critics of the war on drugs—a crusade that Obama had declared “an utter failure” in 2004—predicted that he would improve in his second term. Safely re-elected, he would not have to worry that looking soft on drugs would cost him votes, and he would finally act on his avowed belief that the war on drugs is unjust and ineffective. As Obama embarks on the third year of his second term, it looks like the optimists were partially right, although much hinges on what he does during the next two years. Here are some of the ways in which Obama has begun to deliver on his promises of a more rational, less punitive approach to psychoactive substances:
Marijuana Legalization. Although the federal government cannot stop states from legalizing marijuana, it can make trouble for the ones that do by targeting state-licensed growers and retailers. Under a policy announced in August 2013, the Justice Department has declined to do so, reserving its resources for cannabis operations that violate state law or implicate “federal law enforcement priorities.” The department also has refrained from challenging state marijuana regulations in court, a strategy that could have delayed the opening of cannabusinesses in Colorado and Washington even if it was ultimately unsuccessful. In a New Yorker interview last January, Obama said “it’s important for [legalization] to go forward” in those states. Speaking to reporters at the U.N. last October, William Brownfield, the assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, said international anti-drug treaties should be interpreted to allow such experiments.
Unlike earlier promises of forbearance regarding medical marijuana, the respect for state policy choices signaled in that 2013 memo has visibly restrained the actions of U.S. attorneys and the Drug Enforcement Administration. “They’ve reversed course on marijuana after, I guess, previously reversing course on marijuana,” says Bill Piper, director of national affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance. “They’ve reverted back to their original position, before they launched the biggest crackdown on medical marijuana ever. They had to have put their foot down, because there’s been such a substantive change with respect to the raids. I think the politics shifted even further, to the point where some of the U.S. attorneys may have just given up.”
Federal Marijuana Ban. After Obama observed, in his interview with The New Yorker, that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol, CNN’s Jake Tapper asked him whether he was open to reclassifying marijuana. “What is and isn’t a Schedule I narcotic is a job for Congress,” Obama replied. “It’s not something by ourselves that we start changing. No, there are laws undergirding those determinations.”
CONT -
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsu...-finally-ready-to-dial-back-the-war-on-drugs/
