| The Op-Toons Review |
| Obama’s response to calls from the public for marijuana legalization |
​Petitions relating to the legalization of marijuana far exceed those on any other subject posted to a U.S. government website designed to garner citizen feedback described as “an experiment in democracy.”
During the first two months since the Obama Administration launched the We The People petition website, 119 active petitions were posted on November 14; petitions that fail to meet the 25,000-signature threshold after 30 days are removed from the site and archived, reports Joseph Marks at Nextgov.
As of Nov. 14, cannabis-related petitions made up 13 percent of all those on the site, with 16 total petitions. The Administration had already “answered” — well, at least kind of “non-responded to” — another seven such petitions in October with one blanket response entitled “What We Have To Say About Legalizing Marijuana.”
| Mike Siegel/The Seattle Times |
| Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske — required by law to oppose marijuana legalization — was put in charge of the Administration’s “response” to calls for, you guessed it, marijuana legalization |
​Surprise, surprise! That “response” — from Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske, who is required by law to oppose marijuana legalization — were frustrating, unenlightening exercises in political doublespeak. The Drug Czar’s response failed to address any of the valid and pressing questions raised in the petitions, instead sticking with the same old line of nonsense and outright lies which the U.S. government calls a “drug policy.”
Many of the current marijuana petitions attack that response as unacceptable and demand the firing of Kerlikowske from his official position as director of the infamous Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).
“This is hardly unexpected,” Nextgov wrote of the dominance of cannabis issues. “Marijuana legalization advocates have played a dominant role in nearly every online interaction between the White House and the public.”
However, all that concern on the part of the public, unfortunately, hasn’t elicited much more than yawns and giggles from the Administration.