Medical mar1juana: GOP Attacks Obama for Suggesting He Would End Raids

The GOP proves yet again that they are oblivious when it comes to aligning themselves with mainstream Americans.
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http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/536/gop_attacks_obama_over_medical_marijuana

With Sen. Barack Obama now the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, the Republican Party is looking for potential weaknesses and thinks it has found one in his relatively progressive stance on medical mar1juana. On Wednesday, the Republican National Committee issued a press release saying Obama's position on medical mar1juana and the DEA raids on patients and providers "raises serious doubts" about an Obama candidacy.

The attack came after the San Francisco Chronicle published an article Monday detailing Obama's position on medical mar1juana, from comments he made in November to a response he more recently provided to the paper's candidate questionnaire. In responding to the Chronicle's medical mar1juana question, the Obama campaign said he endorsed a hands-off federal policy:
"Voters and legislators in the states -- from California to Nevada to Maine -- have decided to provide their residents suffering from chronic diseases and serious illnesses like AIDS and cancer with medical mar1juana to relieve their pain and suffering," said campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt. "Obama supports the rights of states and local governments to make this choice -- though he believes medical mar1juana should be subject to (US Food and Drug Administration) regulation like other drugs," LaBolt said. He added that Obama would end DEA raids on medical mar1juana providers.

Sen. Hillary Clinton has also suggested she would end the raids, according to Granite Staters for Medical mar1juana, a New Hampshire-based activist group that specializes in trying to get candidates on the record on medical mar1juana. Republican nominee Sen. John McCain has waffled on the issue, according to Granite Staters, which has him saying he would end the raids at one point, but saying he would not end them a few weeks later.

But in was Obama who was in the GOP bull's-eye over medical mar1juana this week. "Barack Obama's pledge to stop Executive agencies from implementing laws passed by Congress raises serious doubts about his understanding of what the job of the President of the United States actually is," said RNC communications director Danny Diaz in the press release. "His refusal to enforce the law reveals that Barack Obama doesn't have the experience necessary to do the job of president, or that he fundamentally lacks the judgment to carry out the most basic functions of the executive Branch. What other laws would Barack Obama direct federal agents not to enforce?" Diaz asked.

Obama's refusal to countenance continued DEA raids would mean he would violate his oath of office by not protecting and defending the Constitution, the RNC charged. The Supreme Court has upheld the authority of Congress to regulate the use of mar1juana, it noted.

Whether the Republican Party can gain advantage by attacking Obama on the medical mar1juana issue remains to be seen. In poll after poll, American voters have said they support access to medical mar1juana for sick people. It is currently legal in 12 states and under serious consideration in several more this year.

 

Actually, "Eighty percent of Americans support the legal use of medicinal mar1juana by patients" according to a Time/CNN poll.

http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5452

 

And that poll was in 2002, I suspect those numbers have gone nowhere but up.

 

Here is a good place to start...

http://dpffl.org/wodhistory.htm

 

Unfortunately, I won't have time today to summarize it, but I will try to get that done for you tonight.

The REALLY short story is that mar1juana prohibition was passed after an hour of "debate" behind closed doors after countless doctors weighed in against making it illegal.

To answer your other question, the Partnership for a Drug Free America was started by the alcohol lobby to keep competing recreational drugs out of the market.

 

It has become so common to hear those accusations that I don't even notice anymore. I just point out that I was a drug abuse counselor for years, have studied the issue for over two decades, and have personally helped hundreds of addicts to recover and rebuild their lives. That generally shuts them up.

 

No, it is not a contradiction. Any real conservative would be up in arms against a program that has wasted more than a trillion dollars, has had no measurable positive impact, and intrudes into the daily lives of the public like the drug war does. Here is a link to an article by one of the smartest conservatives I know of, William F. Buckley (RIP), from the National Review.

http://www.nationalreview.com/12feb96/drug.html

In the same Time/CNN poll I referenced earlier, 40% said that mar1juana should be regulated like alcohol and tobacco.

I tend to differ with you one this. There have been heroin prescription trials over the last 15 years that have shown that even heroin users can be productive, taxpaying, responsible members of society in the absence of prohibition.

That goes for either party.

Victimless crimes simply make victims out of otherwise law abiding citizens.