Oh for the love of God people seriously

[underpants]

How much weed do you have to smoke to not get that Obama gave the pot crowd a ;-) by even mentioning legalizing it

The guy has a complete governmental and economic culture to change and the very single last thing he needs is to give all his enemies a

POT
POT
POT

talking point. Do you REALLY think that would sell with Tyler and Carson's soccermom?

Even if he mentioned taxing the the largest cash crop in the country then the talking point would be

TAX
TAX
TAX
POT
POT
POT

He has the ooooold school DC establishment to not only fend off but freakin' slay and the very single last thing he needs to give them is POT ammunition

Take what you can when you can. Legalizing it ain't gonna happen anytime soon but hey keep the freedom torch lit just make sure you have plenty of "fuel" to keep that fire burning.

[babylonsister]

1. And after SoS Clinton just

discussed how drugs and guns were directly responsible for the problems in Mexico, with Americans' help?

I'm also thinking he didn't want to undermine her, but agree. Legalizing weed is going to have to wait.

[Dawgs]

2. You could say the same thing about LGBT rights.

:shrug:

[Traveling_Home]

4. Don't ya know ya must sacrifice til everybody else is ready for you to be free nt

[underpants]

5. Yes you could

but I think clubbing the establishment over the head so they get that PEOPLE need equal rights is not the same as legalization

not the same

Plus (putting on my cynical hat) the LGBT crowd has a lot more money to donate than the pot crowd...for obvious reasons

I am fully in support of being rude loud and unrelenting for the LGBT'ers (that is the only way the Civil Rights movement-the first one) got us where we are...fight on.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Starry Messenger]

31. Perhaps they have superabilities.

But Hell if I know.

[Two Americas]

32. this is bigoted

There is no "they" who all think or act alike. It is a bigoted statement to say that there is.

[Dawgs]

Bullshit. They are not the same, but many people are in jail for minor marijuana use.

I would argue that being in jail for something that's ridiculous is just as bad as not being able to get married.

It really has nothing to do with getting high.

[Dawgs]

48. Bullshit. They are not the same, but many people are in jail for minor marijuana use.

I would argue that being in jail for something that's ridiculous is just as bad as not being able to get married.

It really has nothing to do with getting high.

[tridim]

3. I'm fine with baby steps

He has already taken the first one.

[rhett o rick]

27. If the feds truly back off harassing medical mj patients, that is a huge step. nm

[Two Americas]

33. never happens

Social change never happens in baby steps. Historically it happens quickly or it doesn't happen at all.

"Baby steps" is the tine-honored excuse for those who oppose progress, but do not wish to admit it.

"Gradual emancipation" from the 1850's, used as an argument against the Abolitionists, is but one example of many from history.

"Go slow" always means "don't go."



....

[tridim]

37. That's true, but we probably have to take those larger steps without the President's help

At the very least Obama got the ball rolling for California.

[Two Americas]

44. he is a politician

He is a politician, and a brilliant and talented one. He may turn out to be a good president, maybe more.

But as a politician, he owes his career to wealthy and powerful interests - all politicians do, as that it the way the game is played. Also, without strong public support for moving to the Left, no politician can. No politician can be successful in the midst of this kind of crisis without moving to the Left. I assume that we are all leftists here, and that therefore this is self-evident. We support left wing politics not only because they are right, but because they work. We also know that the only reason they don't work is because the right wing controls public opinion, and confused and terrorizes the people.

If we do not promote left wing politics, who do we think will? If we do not do it now, while Democrats - who might listen - are in office, when do we imagine we would? If we promote some sort of "moderate" compromise with the right, we will wind up with something halfway between our compromised positions and the right, and then be forced to move further to the right, and that cycle repeats over and over again until the Democratic party is to the right from where the Republican party was 30 years ago.

Our job is to build that public support, or otherwise only the entrenched interests will have any influence over the administration, and no one will have the president's back should he try to buck those entrenched interests. THAT is how we "support the president."

Too many people here are going about this backward - attacking those who are tying to build public pressure for the interests of the people so that the president has cover and backing when he goes against the wealthy and powerful - these self-styled "supporters" are hearing that as "tearing down our president" and the like and are demanding that we all "give him a chance," as though he were a corporate CEO or a royal prince - and giving the president only the weakest sort of support - adulation and cheer leading and narrow partisan loyalty.

"Give him a chance" means "leave him in the lurch on his own." The hero worship, and unreasonable expectations, combined with the attacks on dissents, are the greatest threat to the potential success of the new administration.

Ironically, it is the hero worshipers - who are asking that Obama do it on his own while we take the relatively passive role of cheer leaders - are the ones with unreasonable expectations, but they project that onto the dissidents, saying things like "you are expecting him to solve everything in 60 days" in the absence of any evidence that anyone is doing that.


...

[Norrin Radd]

46. "Baby steps" is almost as bad as

"there are bigger/more serious problems to be dealt with, right now..." Those bigger problems never seem to get resolved so that the "lesser" ones have room for attention.

[redqueen]

7. Yeah...

*sigh*

[daninthemoon]

8. I dunno. he brought the question up himself, so i don't see it some

kind of smoke screen.:smoke: i don;'t know why he did this, but it bothers me that he so off handedly dismissed the idea of legalization, which is the only way to interpret his remark. given the prohibition financed drug cartel battles spilling from mexico to the us, given the huge cost on the country and on families to incarcerate potheads, given the possibility of tax revenue, i was very dissapointed. if Obama had been in a slightly different place and time back in the pot days that he has written about, he might be a felon and ineligible for office. i know he never said he would legalize, but i don't see how could so easily dismiss it.

[stillcool]

36. He was asked..

because there were oodles of questions about it on the site. In November we passed a De-criminalization law. I don't understand why more states don't do that.

[endarkenment]

9. yeah really, what's the big deal?

Between 1980 and 2000, the U.S. population increased 21.5%. Prisoners in state institutions incarcerated for drug-related crimes increased 988% when measured as inmates per 100,000 population. Inmates in Federal prison were up even more steeply on the same basis: 1,008%. All incarcerations had increased in this period as well, but nowhere near the level of drug-related confinements. In 1980, at the state level, 6.5% of prisoners were behind bars for drug-related offenses (19,000 people). In 2000, these prisoners, 251,100 in number, were 20.9% of all state prisoners.
http://social.jrank.org/pages/1242/Crime-Overview-Drug-Wars-Incarcerations.html

It is not like people's lives are being wrecked or anything, by an irrational fascistic fear-mongering policy that now has over almost 30 years of total failure and human carnage to show for the billions we pour into this mess every year.

[underpants]

15. It is a big deal

there's money in them thar prisons

and you know how them poor dope smokers* tend to vote















* not the rich dope smokers mind you ;-)

[tabasco]

42. Great post.

I am extremely disappointed with Obama's dismissal of the idea.

[Dawgs]

49. Thank you.

It's sad that so many HERE think this is just about smoking pot or getting high.

[Hello_Kitty]

10. I wish someone would explain to Tyler and Carson's mom and dad

That pot being illegal and on the black market makes it easier for them to get. It also exposes them to the so-called gateway effect because the black market pushes other drugs on them. I have yet to have the cashier at Safeway try to get me to try heroin while I'm buying a bottle of wine.

[Divine Discontent]

13. at 7-11 where I live, they OFTEN ask me why not get this or that to go with whatever I'm buying

it's so annoying - I said so of course, and they said mgmt makes them or they get in trouble. So, if stores sold pot, I have to question that they wouldn't try to sell you cheetos, pizza, whatever to get more $ out of ya.

[Hello_Kitty]

16. Yeah, but they don't try to sell you cigarettes while you're buying cheetos.

That would be weird.

[rasputin1952]

24. The cost of Twinkies would spiral out of control...

supply and demand...:D

[Divine Discontent]

28. You KNOW it, Rasputin! Madness I say, madness! hmmmm,

time to buy stock for down the road when it soars on news of open pot use! snack prices will go up 50% in weeks... ha

[underpants]

14. Too long

too many syllables

Tyler and Carson's mom is already too busy (she is told this daily) to deal with her government let alone a full complete explanation of a salient point like that.

:applause:

[rasputin1952]

23. Where do you shop?, I need to get over there...

"Bottle and a Bag please"..."D

[redqueen]

11. No, see... the issue isn't legalization... it's that he laughed.

He mocked, he ridiculed... that is the outrage.

[smalll]

17. It's Laughgate II -- (after Laughgate I on 60 minutes.) /nt

[redqueen]

18. Yep. (nt)

[BeyondGeography]

12. All this talk just makes me wish my old connection were still around

[tosh]

21. LOL, that makes two of us.

[smalll]

19. I think you underestimate the cross-party possibilities of a legalization move.

For one thing, all the libertarian-leaning Repubs would support it. A lot of Repubs actually do, William F. Buckley of National Review was a strong supporter of pot legalization. It's an issue of freedom. Couched in the right terms, Obama could pull a lot of support for this. It's just the kind of "new thinking" that he seemed to offer during the campaign.

And of course, legalization is PARTICULARLY needed right at this moment because of 1)the Mexico situation and 2)the California situation: our biggest state is on the verge of bankrupcy, and marijuana is its largest cash crop.

I think Obama could have, instead of laughing, said something like, "the issue needs to be studied, I intend to appoint a blue-ribbon panel to consider the question." I bet you dollars to donuts that if he appointed such a panel, of Dems, Indies and Repubs, the majority report from that panel would ENDORSE legalization, opening up the door for it to happen.

(I'm of a similar mindset about nationalized health care -- what we have now is not nationalized, but it's not free-market capitalist either - it's worse than either of those options. In today's economy, nationalized health care could be sold to conservatives as an expansion of freedom -- freeing people to change jobs without fear, to go out on their own and become self-employed, and most attractively, freeing BUSINESS, especially SMALL business, from a crushing burden. Nationalized health care might be the absolute BEST thing the government could do to help small businesses (which, as the Republicans often tell us, are the "engines of the American economy.")

[underpants]

20. In a real world ..maybe. But there is no way anyone below 80% in polling

or with any aspirations of becoming Senator or President will come within a city block of this thing

[redqueen]

22. Fuck politics!!!

Why do people keep insisting that we have to consider politics or political consequences... just cause he's the presdient?

WTF?!

This is crazy!

[Adelante]

25. Heh

:D

[tridim]

38. When was the last comprehensive poll taken?

[cui bono]

26. I agree except for the part about fending off the old school DC establishment

He's appointed them to his cabinet.

He needs to get rid of all the Wall Streeters. And fast.

[yellerpup]

30. That's exactly what I got out of it.

We must have been watching the same program.

[underpants]

34. Thanks yellerpup

an option on any decision is "Do nothing"-something the former resident didn't even consider

[yellerpup]

40. Absolutely.

The former resident wasn't able to go smart on any decision and he didn't have anyone who could steer him in that direction either. Obama always goes toward the smart option, and in this case, "do nothing" works. Good enough for me.

[ms liberty]

35. It has to happen over time, in stages, in a lower profile way, IMO...

Begin with making it low priority for law enforcement, and stop harassing and prosecuting citizens and the medicinal marijuana clinics in states and municipalities that have legalized it. Don't fight it when other states legalize MM, and/or decriminalize it. I believe he has made a few moves in this direction already, so I'm not discouraged.

[fadedrose]

39. I never even saw "pot" much less used it..

but if they made it legal and federally taxed it, it would probably pay off the national debt.

But now's not the time, too many things on the plate and too many plates on the table....

[wackywaggin]

41. Agreed!!

I would not want somebody high on Dope operating a craneload of steel atop my head. Good call Obama, keep Dope illegal!! Until people can smoke Dope responsibly at/in their leisure time only, it should remain illegal.



:smoke:

[Cha]

43. I used it mightly during the

'60/'70's and I approve of medical marijuana but now's not the time for the Obama admin to be diving into that garden.

We just got ourselves an Organic Garden on the White HOuse lawn for the first time since FDR.

[vaberella]

45. You forgot he shat on single payer healthcare...^_^ n/t

[reggie the dog]

47. of course it would go over with soccer moms

"talking point. Do you REALLY think that would sell with Tyler and Carson's soccermom? "

of course it would

my mother was a soccer mom, I played a lot of soccer. When I got busted with cannabis while I was a university student she leant me ten THOUSAND dollars for my lawyer. My father insulted the cop that busted me. They told me I did nothing they hadn't or still did not do and that I did nothing wrong.

Soccer moms do not want their kids to go to jail. Most would favor legalization for those 18 and over. Look at the national polls. States that usually vote Democrat favor legalization. Fuck the states like Oklahoma.