Will an Obama administration support or oppose Marijuana Decriminalization?

[Leo 9]

From stopthedrugwar.org...


Nevermind, Barack Obama Wants to Arrest Marijuana Users After All

Article Posted in Chronicle Blog by Scott Morgan on Fri, 02/01/2008 - 10:19pm


For one brief glorious moment, we thought Barack Obama supported marijuana decriminalization. He said so in 2004 and his campaign reiterated it yesterday, only to subsequently retreat and pledge support for current marijuana laws.

At first, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said that the candidate had "always" supported decriminalizing marijuana, suggesting his 2004 statement was correct. Then after the Times posted copies of the video on its Web site today, his campaign reversed course and declared he does not support eliminating criminal penalties for marijuana possession and use.

"If you're convicted of a crime, you should be punished, but that we are sending far too many first-time, non-violent drug users to prison for very long periods of time, and that we should rethink those laws," Vietor said. The spokesman blamed confusion over the meaning of decriminalization for the conflicting answers.

Indeed, as Pete Guither notes, no one is really sure what "decriminalization" actually means, which likely explains the Obama campaign's ultimate unwillingness to be associated with the term.

And that tells you everything you need to know about why meaningful debate of our marijuana laws is continuously excluded from mainstream politics. Since the relevant vocabulary words have no universally accepted definition, candidates attempting to discuss marijuana would be forced to use entire sentences or even paragraphs to express their opinions. This is not something they will do voluntarily.

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http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle_blog/2008/feb/01/nevermind_barack_obama_wants_to_


From suntimes.com...


Obama drug use raised

TOWN HALL MEETING | Ignores reference, calls for focus on treatment, not arrest

January 17, 2008

LYNN SWEET blogs.suntimes.com/sweet


LOS ANGELES --A man told Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama on Wednesday -- while he campaigned in Henderson, Nev. -- that Obama was fortunate he was never busted for using illegal drugs.

Obama's youthful drug experimentation, known because he wrote about it in his memoir, is popping up in the campaign. On Wednesday, Obama used his answer to call for more emphasis on treatment and less on prison time for first-time nonviolent offenders who only get advanced degrees in "criminality" while incarcerated.

At a town hall meeting on a day that took Obama from Nevada to Los Angeles, a man who said he did not use illegal drugs wanted to know if Obama would end the "drug wars."

"You've had experience yourself, where if you were arrested when you were a teenager, you would never be elected to the presidency," the man said.

Obama did not acknowledge the personal reference. "I am not interested in legalizing drugs," he said.

"What I am interested in is putting more of an emphasis on the public health approach to drugs and less on ... incarceration." He said too many "first-time nonviolent drug offenders" were locked up "instead of diverting them into programs where they can get treatment, and all we do is give them a master's degree in criminality."

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http://www.suntimes.com/news/sweet/745243,CST-NWS-sweet17.article



And from an admittedly right wing website...


Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Obama on Drugs
by Jacob Sullum

Last week, voters in Massachusetts approved a ballot initiative that eliminates criminal penalties for possessing up to an ounce of marijuana, replacing them with a $100 civil fine. Michigan, meanwhile, became the 13th state to allow the medical use of cannabis.

As Bruce Mirken of the Marijuana Policy Project noted, the percentage of voters approving those initiatives (65 and 63, respectively) exceeded Barack Obama's share of the vote in each state. Furthermore, the results in Massachusetts and Michigan seem to reflect national opinion. For years polls have indicated that a large majority of Americans think that people should not go to jail for smoking pot and that patients who can benefit from marijuana should be able to obtain it legally.

Yet President-elect Barack Obama has retreated from his support for marijuana decriminalization, and his position on medical marijuana remains ambiguous. His reticence on these issues suggests he may disappoint those who hope the Obama administration will move drug policy in a less punitive, more tolerant direction.

One cause for that hope: Obama has been more candid about his own youthful drug use than any president in U.S. history. Although he portrays his pot smoking and cocaine snorting as behavior he regrets, it would be hard for him to justify harsh treatment of drug users when he himself escaped punishment for the same actions and clearly is better off than he would have been had he been arrested.

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http://townhall.com/columnists/JacobSullum/2008/11/12/obama_on_drugs&Comments=true

[RedCappedBandit]

1. Disgustingly hypocritical

[droidamus2]

2. The point is...

I think the point is that with President Obama and his administration you are more likely to at least have them listen to some reasonable arguments on how to change the status quo of the 'Drug War' to better help the addicted and lower the amount of drug related violence. Will that lead to decriminalized pot like it should? Don't know but I think you may see much less absolute bullshit propaganda than you have from previous administrations.

[Leo 9]

3. I happily vote for those less rabid about prosecuting the drug war

though (like many) I'd rather see it brought to an end.


Bummed out pot activists have higher hopes for Obama

Nick Juliano
Published: Tuesday December 16, 2008



Drug war reform advocates are organizing online to ask President-elect Barack Obama to legalize marijuana, reversing a policy that has put thousands of non-violent offenders in jail while doing little to curb prevalence of the drug.

Obama reiterated that he does not favor full legalization in response to a question on his transition Web site.

Q: "Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?" S. Man, Denton

A: President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana.
A Facebook petition from Students for Sensible Drug Policy has been signed by nearly 37,000 users, and the legalization question shot to the top of Obama's Change.gov user forum.

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http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Propot_plea_tops_online_petitions_to_1216.html