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Using cannabis legalization as a platform to popularity is all the rage for this latest round of Democratic presidential candidates. Nearly every candidate in the blue party has endorsed some form of cannabis-policy reform, ranging from full-scale legalization at the federal level to letting states decide on their own.

Former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper, who announced his run for the White House on March 4, arguably has more experience with the issue than any other candidate in this primary race: He presided over the state’s implementation of recreational cannabis from the vote for Amendment 64 in November 2012 through early 2019, when he was term-limited out of the governor’s slot. Under Hickenlooper, Colorado has earned more tax revenue from legal pot than any other state so far and boasts one of the most advanced medical marijuana programs in the nation.

Has the Trump administration secretly organized a committee of federal agencies to “combat public support for marijuana,” as Buzzfeed reported on August 29? The article describes White House memos and emails instructing fourteen federal agencies and the Drug Enforcement Administration to submit “data demonstrating the most significant negative trends” about marijuana to the Marijuana Policy Coordination Committee.

According to an unclassified summary obtained by Buzzfeed, committee notes are not to be distributed externally and require a close hold. Among other things, “departments should provide…the most significant data demonstrating negative trends, with a statement describing the implications of such trends.”

The White House is open to changing marijuana from a Schedule 1 controlled substance, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Friday, but any change would have to come from the U.S. House. The move wouldn’t necessarily legalize cannabis, but it would make it easier for medical studies of the plant to be conducted as well as give state-legal pot businesses the ability to take federal tax deductions they currently are not allowed to take.

President Barack Obama made waves in an interview with the New Yorker magazine a couple weeks ago, in which he finally stated the plain and simple truth that no American president up until now has had the guts to tell, that marijuana use is no more dangerous than alcohol use. Pro-cannabis advocates took the statement as a cautious grain of optimism, while the DEA and sheriffs across the country crapped their cages.
The question though, whether or not marijuana is just as safe as alcohol, is an important one, as it casts a very real shadow of doubt over the retention of cannabis on Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. In a House Oversight Committee hearing yesterday on Capitol Hill, the White House’s Deputy Drug Czar was grilled on this very same topic, and like the president, he finally gave in to reality.

WhiteHouse.gov
Deputy Drug Czar Michael Botticelli

Smoked marijuana/became President.

The Obama administration is taking a shift (albeit not a very drastic one) towards treating drug problems as a health issue and not as a criminal issue. On Wednesday the White House released their 2013 National drug Control Strategy, a 104-page document that outlines how treatment should become a focus for the nation’s drug control policy.
But at the same time, it doesn’t really tell the police and DEA to stop arresting anybody either and continues a prohibition and war against marijuana (both recreational and medical).

The Raw Story
Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske is the wrong place to go for the truth about marijuana

The Obama Administration has just released a new response to three WhiteHouse.gov petitions on marijuana legalization. Perhaps significantly, for the first time Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske is now saying “it is clear that we’re in the midst of a serious national conversation about marijuana.”

“I guess it makes a difference when marijuana legalization gets more votes than your boss does in an important swing state, as happened in Colorado this last election,” Tom Angell, chairman of the Marijuana Majority, told Toke of the Town Tuesday night. “From ‘legalization is not in my vocabulary and it’s not in the president’s,’ as Gil Kerlikowske often used to say, to ‘it is clear that we’re in the midst of a serious national conversation about marijuana’ is a pretty stark shift.
“Of course, what really matters is to what extent the administration actually shifts enforcement priorities and budgets, but I sure do like hearing the U.S. drug czar acknowledge the fact that marijuana legalization is a mainstream discussion that is happening whether he likes it or not,” Angell told us.

Anastacia Cosner
The One Hitters were already kicking the Drug War’s ass — now they kicked the White House softball team’s butts, too.

The White House softball team was unceremoniously smoked by the One Hitters, a team of pro-marijuana activists, in softball last week by a humiliating score of 25 to 3.

The Softball Team of the U.S., its official name, didn’t do so well against the cannabis reformers, but at least the White House team showed up for the game. Last year, the Czardinals, from the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP, the Drug Czar’s office), cancelled on the One Hitters, claiming they had a scheduling conflict.

AllGov

“First, President Obama’s administration ejected medical marijuana patients from the workplace then he threw them out of public housing then took away their ability to buy a gun then closed down their dispensaries and now he has apparently set his sights on veterans,” said Michael Krawitz, executive director of Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access (VMCA).

Thousands of veterans asked the Obama Administration to at look into the science showing how cannabis works to alleviate suffering and save lives of veterans with brain injuries such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and to then make appropriate changes in policy. “Allow United States Disabled Military veterans access to medical marijuana to treat their PTSD,” the petition simply requested.

But the White House response to the veterans’ petition was very disappointing. “We asked for a change in policy,” Krawitz said. “To have our petition answered by the drug czar, an ex policeman, is most inappropriate given the drug czar is bound by law to ONLY discuss current law and has no power to discuss policy change with the public.

Yahoo! News
“What is with the marijuana crackdown?” Kimmel asked, looking directly at President Obama.
 

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel addressed the issue of marijuana legalization while delivering his remarks at the 2012 White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night.

“What is with the marijuana crackdown?” Kimmel asked, looking directly at President Obama, reports Paige Lavender at the Huffington Post“Seriously, what is the concern? We will deplete the nation’s Funyon supply?” A slightly uncomfortable-looking Obama smiled broadly at this.
“Pot smokers vote, too,” Kimmel continued. “Sometimes a week after the election, but they vote.”
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