Anti-Marijuana Officials Attempt to Block Marijuana Legalization Laws

[traveler]

Reverting to their tired old tactics and policies, former heads of the
Drug Enforcement Administration are lobbying to block or repeal the
recent historic initiatives that legalized recreationa marijuana use
for adults in Colorado and Washington. This is something these
people, who command a virtual army of agents, with families grown fat
and dependent on their continued salaries fighting the discredited
"drug war," are having a difficult time dealing with. The fact that
there are still illegal and dangerous drugs for them to interdict
seems not to phase these fanatics because the majority of their
business has been with the relatively benign drug, cannabis. What
they don't seem to realize is that they are in for the fight of their
life. Americans are sick and tired of this bunch of parasites
pretending to protect us from that which we don't want or need
protecting. The Obama Administration, if it draws a line in the sand
on this issue when it needs more Americans to support it's policies,
will be making a major political error, because it is not just
Democrats who think it is long past time that pot were accorded full
legal status, just like alcohol and tobacco, both of which have killed
millions of people over the years whereas there are no documented
cases of death from cannabis use over its long and storied history
around the world. The worst that ever was "proven" about excessive
use of cannabis drugs are that it can cause bronchitis when the
strongest preparations are abused over a protracted period, and the
resulting respiratory symptoms disappear after cessation of use (The
Indian Hemp Drugs Commission Report of 1895).




David Sirota Petitions President Obama To Support A Federal Law To
Protect States' Marijuana Legalization Laws
The Huffington Post | By Matt Ferner
Posted: 11/13/2012
On Monday, politics columnist and KHOW talk-show host David Sirota,
filed a petition through the Obama administration's "We the People"
program on the White House website requesting the president support a
federal law to protect marijuana legalization in Colorado and
Washington and any other states that decide to pass similar laws in
the future.

Sirota's petition reads:

Citizens in Colorado and Washington overwhelmingly voted to legalize,
regulate and tax marijuana in similar fashion as the more hazardous
substance, alcohol, is already legalized, regulated and taxed. We
request the president support a federal law requiring the federal
government to protect - rather than undermine or overturn - these
state laws and similar laws that other states pass in the future.
Specifically, we request the president to support a pending
congressional proposal that would amend the federal pre-emption
section of the Controlled Substances Act (section 903) to exempt from
the act any state provisions "relating to marijuana."
Less than 24 hours since Sirota started the petition it has nearly
10,000 signatures, but the petition needs a total 25,000 to reach its
goal. Read the full petition here.

The congressional proposal that Sirota references is regarding the
proposed legislation that Colorado Reps Diana DeGette (CD1), Ed
Perlmutter (CD7) and Jared Polis (CD2) are working on independently
and together that would exempt states that pass marijuana legalization
legislation from the federal Controlled Substances Act, The Colorado
Independent reported over the weekend.

Sirota, who has frequently reported on the drug war, is a vocal
supporter of marijuana legalization. On the Young Turks, Sirota
recently discussed why marijuana legalization is actually a centrist
point of view in America, not extremist. “People in Washington would
have you believe that those who support legalization are the
extremists," Sirota said on the Young Turks (watch that clip below).
"When you look at where people are on legalizing marijuana -- full
legalization, treat it like alcohol -- Gallup's poll just a few weeks
ago found record high support for legalizing marijuana. 50 percent of
Americans now say they want to legalize marijuana. If you look at
those numbers, what you see is the mainstream, centrist position is to
support legalizing marijuana and the extremists are those who say we
should continue to fight the drug war.”

The federal government's enforcement intent on marijuana law remains
unclear, now a week since Amendment 64 passed in Colorado and
Initiative 502 passed in Washington. U.S. Attorney John Walsh's office
said about A64's passage, "We are reviewing the ballot initiative and
have no additional comment at this time." But Walsh's office is no
friend to marijuana. Walsh has been at the top of an unprecedented
crackdown on medical marijuana businesses in Colorado since the
beginning of 2012 that has resulted in the forced shut-down of 57
dispensaries within 1,000 feet of schools.

Last week, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, also a vocal critic
of marijuana legalization, made a strong statement about his position
on the matter, one that was not optimistic. However it was revealing
for at least the fact that Suthers appears to be confounded by the
passage of A64 and is asking for the DOJ to step up and make its
intentions clearly known so he knows how to proceed in the state:

Despite my strongly held belief that the ‘legalization’ of marijuana
on a state level is very bad public policy, voters can be assured that
the Attorney General’s Office will move forward in assisting the
pertinent executive branch agencies to implement this new provision in
the Colorado Constitution.
Coloradans should be cognizant of two caveats, however. First the
ability of the federal government to criminally sanction possession,
use and distribution of marijuana, even if grown, distributed and used
in a single state, was recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court in
Gonzales v. Raich (545 US.1,2005). Therefore, absent action by
Congress, Coloradans should not expect to see successful legal
challenges to the ability of the federal government to enforce its
marijuana laws in Colorado. Accordingly, I call upon the United States
Department of Justice to make known its intentions regarding
prosecution of activities sanctioned by Amendment 64 (particularly
large wholesale grow operations) as soon as possible in order to
assist state regulators and the citizens of Colorado in making
decisions about the implementation of Amendment 64.

Two former U.S drug officials also weighed in telling Reuters that the
marijuana initiatives that passed in Colorado, as well as in
Washington state, could be short-lived victories for pot advocates.
"This is a symbolic victory for (legalization) advocates," Kevin
Sabet, former advisor to the Obama administration's drug czar, said.
The former drug officials said the federal government could sue to
block the measures or threaten the shops with shut-down letters
similar to what Walsh has already been doing in Colorado this year.

AG Holder, who was a vocal opponent of California's legalization
initiative in 2010 saying he would "vigorously enforce" federal
marijuana prohibition, has continued to remain silent on the issue
during the election cycle and has continued to remain silent now that
Colorado and Washington have passed their measures.

In September, Holder was urged by nine former heads of the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration to take a stand against marijuana
legalization again. "To continue to remain silent conveys to the
American public and the global community a tacit acceptance of these
dangerous initiatives," the nine said in the letter to Holder obtained
by Reuters.

A month later, those same drug warriors put added pressure on Holder
saying that states that legalize marijuana for recreational use will
trigger a "Constitutional showdown" with the federal government.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, who has been a vocal opponent of
Amendment 64 but has since said that he intends to respect the wishes
of the voters, did have a phone call with U.S. Attorney General Eric
Holder on Friday to discuss Colorado's legalizing of marijuana and how
the feds might respond, but the results of that call gave no clue as
to whether or not the Department of Justice will sue to block the
marijuana measures in Colorado and Washington, according to The
Associated Press.

If the Obama administration does decide to crackdown on legalized
marijuana in Colorado -- where more people voted for marijuana
legalization than for the president's reelection -- the administration
could face some serious political fallout with much of the same
population of the Centennial State that handed him Colorado on
election night, namely: the left-leaning and youth voters who support
pot's legalization.

However many proponents of legalization say they don't foresee federal
agents interfering in states that have legalized cannabis, NBC News
reported, citing the federal government's silence on the issue this
election cycle.

[Rich]

Dope users should be exterminated. 80% of California's "legal" medical
marijuana is used by recreational users pretending to need it for
illnesses.