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Weed Quotes

The District of Columbia’s long-awaited medical marijuana program took a big step forward this week when officials issued occupancy permits for DC’s first marijuana cultivation center and dispensary. Both locations are less than three miles from the J. Edgar Hoover Building, headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The step was widely viewed as one of the last hurdles to a working medical marijuana program that almost 70 percent of DC voters approved in a referendum 14 years ago, reports In The Capital. Congress spent years blocking funding for the program before finally getting out of the way after President Obama was elected. Then a tortuous three-year regulatory process began, which has only recently been completed.

How Long Does Marijuana Stay In Your System?

​The YouTube/White House “Your Interview with the President” just wrapped up, and unfortunately the web video giant didn’t find time to present President Obama with the marijuana legalization question from a retired police officer that received — by far — more votes than any other video in the contest.

“They did find time, however, to pick the President’s brain on pressing national issues like late night snacks, singing and dancing, celebrating wedding anniversaries and playing tennis,” said Tom Angell of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP).
“It’s worse than silly that YouTube and Google would waste the time of the president and the American people discussing things like midnight snacks and playing tennis when there is a much more pressing question on the minds of the people who took the time to participate in voting on submissions,” said Stephen Downing, the retired Los Angeles police officer and a board member of LEAP.
“A majority of Americans now support legalizing marijuana to defund cartels and gangs, lower incarceration and arrest rates and save scarce public resources, all while generating much-needed new tax revenue,” Downing said. “The time to discuss this issue is now. We’re tired of this serious public policy crisis being pushed aside or laughed off.”

Decent Community

President Obama to Answer Top-Voted YouTube Questions on Monday
A question advocating marijuana legalization from a retired Los Angeles Police Department deputy chief of police won twice as many votes as any other video question in the White House’s “Your Interview with the President” competition on YouTube this weekend. President Obama is slated to answer some of the top-voted questions on Monday. 
The marijuana question, submitted by retired LAPD officer Stephen Downing, a board member for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), is as follows: “Mr. President, my name is Stephen Downing, and I’m a retired deputy chief of police from the Los Angeles Police Department. From my 20 years of experience I have come to see our country’s drug policies as a failure and a complete waste of criminal justice resources. According to the Gallup Poll, the number of Americans who support legalizing and regulating marijuana now outnumbers those who support continuing prohibition. What do you say to this growing voter constituency that wants more changes to drug policy than you have delivered in your first term?”

THC Finder

​Late Friday night the White House issued a typical evasive rejection of eight marijuana legalization petitions that collected more signatures than any other issue on its “We the People” website. Even though recent polls show that more voters support marijuana legalization than approve of President Obama’s job performance, the White House categorically dismissed the notion of reforming any laws, focusing its response on the possible harms of marijuana use instead of addressing the many harms of prohibition detailed in the petitions.
One of the popular petitions, submitted by retired Baltimore narcotics cop Neill Franklin, called on the Obama Administration to simply stop interfering with states’ efforts to set their own marijuana laws.

East County Magazine

​A new FBI report released on Monday shows that there is a drug arrest every 19 seconds in the United States. That’s right, three people a minute, 180 people an hour, 4,320 people a day.

A group of police and judges who have been campaigning to legalize and regulate drugs pointed to the figures showing more than 1.6 million drug arrests in 2010 as evidence that the War On Drugs — really a war on U.S. citizens — is a failure that can never be won.
“Since the declaration of the ‘war on drugs’ 40 years ago we’ve arrested tens of millions of people in an effort to reduce drug use,” said Neill Franklin, a retired Baltimore narcotics cop who now heads the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). “The fact that cops had to spend time arresting another 1.6 million of our fellow citizens last year shows that it simply hasn’t worked.

A video question about legalizing drugs from a former deputy sheriff has come in first place in YouTube’s “Your Interview With the President” competition, where users submitted and voted on questions to be posed to President Barack Obama.
Obama is scheduled to answer the top-voted questions today, Thursday, January 27, at 2:30 pm EST in an interview that will be streamed live online at http://www.youtube.com/askobama.

Photo: Finding Dulcinea
A park ranger chops down marijuana plants inside Sequoia National Park

​Cops and Border Patrol Agents Say the Only Real Solution is Marijuana Legalization
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday directing the White House drug czar’s office to develop a plan for stopping Mexican drug cartels from growing marijuana in national parks.
But a group of police officers and judges who fought on the front lines of the “War On Drugs” is pointing out that the only way to actually end the violence and environmental destruction associated with these illicit grows is to legalize and regulate the marijuana trade.
“No matter how many grow operations are eradicated or cartel leaders are arrested, there will always be more people willing to take the risk to earn huge profits in the black market for marijuana,” said Terry Nelson, a former U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent who is now a speaker for the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP).

Photo: Philly NORML
Neill Franklin, LEAP: “…We can’t let them get away with claiming that they’ve ended the ‘War On Drugs’ while we continue to arrest 800,000 people a year on marijuana charges alone”

​The Obama Administration released its National Drug Control Strategy on Tuesday, claiming it represents a “balanced new approach” to drug policy that focuses on treatment over enforcement.

However, a group of police officers who support legalization is pointing out that despite the administration’s words, the drug budget dedicates nearly twice as much funding to policing and enforcement as it does to public health and prevention, virtually the same ratio as the previous budget under President Bush.

“The Drug Czar is saying all the right things about ending the ‘War On Drugs’ and enacting a long-overdue balanced strategy focused on a public health approach,” said Neill Franklin, a former Baltimore cop and incoming executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). “Unfortunately, the reality of the budget numbers don’t match up to the rhetoric.”