Obama's Misguided Crackdown on Medical Marijuana

[LogicSoDeveloped]

Why is the government cracking down on medical marijuana, a $1.7 billion business in California alone — and one of the few that seems to be thriving in a moribund economy?

In early October, the Justice Department announced it would be targeting medical marijuana dispensaries in California. Calling large dispensaries "profiteers" that "hijacked" California's medical marijuana law and were "motivated not by compassion but by money," the state's four U.S. attorneys announced the arrests of two major dispensary owners and a lawyer they accused of making millions from growing the drug.

It was a reversal of President Obama's campaign promise to end the previous administration's legal pursuit of medical marijuana. Although Obama's justice department had previously abided by a memo, which said that prosecuting marijuana providers and patients who followed state law was not an "efficient use of federal resources," over the summer the administration changed tactics, expressing concern about "an increase in the scope of commercial cultivation, sale, distribution and use of marijuana for purported medical purposes." It began sending letters to dispensaries and their landlords threatening forfeiture of the property if marijuana sales did not stop.

The IRS has also begun its own crackdown on California dispensaries. It now claims that the dispensaries owe back taxes because all of their business deductions are illegal. In addition, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms recently warned gun dealers not to sell to users of medical marijuana.

MORE: More Evidence That Marijuana-Like Drugs May Help Prevent PTSD

Ironically, national support for medical marijuana is currently at a high, at about 70%, and more and more advocates are calling for total legalization of the drug. For the first time ever, Gallup found last week that more Americans support making marijuana use legal: 50% of Americans support legalization, with 46% opposed. That's up from just 12% in favor in 1969.

Support for legalization is even higher in younger age groups: 62% of those aged 18 to 29 want legal marijuana, while just 31% of those over 65 favor changing the current law. As boomers and even more weed-friendly Gen-Xers age, pro-legalization sentiment continues to grow.

Now add to that, support for legalization from the California Medical Association, the http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/#state's largest group representing doctors, with some 35,000 members. In this context, medical marijuana doesn't seem like a crime voters are clamoring to prosecute.

It's not likely that the federal crackdown will actually affect marijuana consumption, either. Studies repeatedly find little effect of law enforcement spending on demand for drugs. Indeed, a recent marijuana price analysis by a collective of geographers called The Floating Sheep (you can't make this stuff up!) — based on crowd-sourced data on the street value of marijuana by quantity, quality and location — found no correlation between the local cost of marijuana and the number of arrests for dealing or possession in the state.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/10/24/obamas-misguided-crackdown-on-medical-marijuana/#ixzz1boQR6f9d

TIME is getting on this, it seems like we're being taken more seriously as time progresses.

 

[EndlessSummer]

Well for Obama to so blatantly lie about it was just insulting to all of us. I mean how anyone can justify voting this man in for a second term is beyond me.

Ironically, he was a much better war-time president than Bush the Jingoist. But he seems to be just as bad on civil rights, liberties, and the economy (also asshat Republicans' fault).

 

[Attack Fader]

The president is nothing more a than a puppet placed to make it look like we as voters have say in things. The last president that tried to change things was JFK. And look what happened to him. Don't expect anything else but more of the same.

 

[BogusBill]

I find it amazing that nobody has attempted to rebuild the electoral college. If I remember correctly, we the general population cast our votes then the electoral college votes as a whole for that state based on what THEY believe the whole state would want. Im not 100% on this and I apologize if im incorrect about any of this, but hasnt there been numerous times that a president has won popular vote (the one that we as american citizens vote in) but lost the electoral vote therefore losing the entire election?