Posted on 02/06/2016 9:51:27 AM PST by grundle
Campaign promises
In May 2008, Obama campaign spokesperson Ben LaBolt said that Obama would end DEA raids on medical marijuana in states where it's legal.
Also in 2008, Obama said that he supported the "basic concept of using medical marijuana for the same purposes and with the same controls as other drugs" and that he was "not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws."
Federal raids against medical marijuana in states where it's legal
Despite Obama’s campaign promise, in February 2010, DEA agents raided a medical marijuana grower in Highlands Ranch in Colorado, a state where medical marijuana is legal.
Also in February 2010, DEA agents raided a medical marijuana dispensary in Culver City in California, a state where medical marijuana is legal.
In July 2010, the DEA raided at least four medical marijuana growers in San Diego, California.
Also in July 2010, the DEA raided a medical marijuana facility in Covelo, California.
Then in September 2010, the DEA conducted raids on at least five medical marijuana dispensaries in Las Vegas, Nevada, where medical marijuana is legal.
In 2011, the DEA conducted raids on medical marijuana in Seattle, Washington, West Hollywood, California, and Helena, Montana, all places where it is legal.
In April 2012, the DEA carried out several raids on medical marijuana in Oakland, California.
Also in April 2012, federal agents raided Oaksterdam University, an educational institution in Oakland, CA, which teaches people about medical marijuana.
Furthermore in April 2012, federal agents raided a medical marijuana facility which had been serving 1,500 patients near Lake Elsinore, CA.
In July 2012, federal prosecutors filed civil forfeiture actions against Harborside Health Center, a medical marijuana dispensary in Oakland, CA, which claims to be the world's largest, and which claims to serve more than 100,000 medical marijuana patients.
During the first seven months of 2012, the DEA shut down 40 medical marijuana dispensaries in Colorado, all of which had been operating in compliance with state and local law.
In April 2013, the DEA raided four medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, California.
Also in April 2013, the DEA raided a medical marijuana dispensary in San Diego, California.
In July 2013, the DEA conducted multiple medical marijuana raids in Washington state, including the cities of Olympia, Tacoma, and Seattle.
In August 2013, the DEA raided People's Choice Alternative Medicine, a medical marijuana facility in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
In October 2013, the DEA raided 28 medical marijuana facilities in Michigan. In November 2013, the DEA raided 12 medical marijuana facilities in Denver, Colorado.
In April 2014, the DEA raided four medical marijuana dispensaries in Denver, Colorado.
In October 2014, the DEA raided two medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, California.
Threats against doctors
In June 2014, DEA agents visited the homes and offices of doctors in Massachusetts who had written prescriptions for medical marijuana, and threatened to confiscate their federal licenses to prescribe certain medications if they did not stop writing prescriptions for medical marijuana.
Threats against landlords
In June 2012, the Obama administration filed asset-forfeiture lawsuits against two landlords who rented their buildings to medical marijuana stores in Santa Fe Springs, CA. At the same time, the Obama administration also sent warning letters which threatened similar legal action to dozens of other, nearby landlords.
Criticism from the political left
In February 2012, Rolling Stone magazine wrote that Obama's war against medical marijuana went "far beyond anything undertaken by George W. Bush."
In April 2012, Mother Jones magazine wrote: "The president campaigned on the promise that he'd stop federal raids on medical marijuana operations that were in compliance with state laws, a vow that Attorney General Eric Holder repeated after the election. But then the Obama administration raided more than 100 dispensaries in its first three years and is now poised to outpace the Bush administration's crackdown record."
In a May 2012 opinion column published by the Washington Post, Rob Kampia, the executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, wrote, "Obama has become more hostile to medical marijuana patients than any president in U.S. history."
In May 2012, U.S. Congressperson Nancy Pelosi (D-California) said she had "strong concerns" about Obama's forced closure of five medical marijuana facilities in Pelosi's congressional district.
In April 2012, commenting on Obama's crackdown on medical marijuana, U.S. Congressman Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) said, "I'm very disappointed... They look more like the Bush administration than the Clinton administration."
Obama's own illegal use of recreational marijuana has never been prosecuted
In May 2012, ABC News reported that during Obama's youth, he often smoked large quantities of recreational marijuana. Obama's marijuana smoking wasn't even medical - it was recreational. And yet now, he is taking large scale, widespread action to prevent people with AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, and other illnesses, who have prescriptions from their doctors, from using their prescription medicine. How cold hearted, as well as hypocritical, can a person be?
So why the concern about letting the medical community 'prescribe another gateway drug'? Who's doing the letting? That sounds like you accept fedgov legitimacy in the area.
As far as folks who get caught and charged with possession of marijuana? Is that really the only offensive thing they're doing if they're cited?
I don't know. What has that got to do with federalism and supporting the Constitution?
Because heroin has become an epidemic, and over use of pain killers often leads there. My concern is the same as I'd have about the spread of any epidemic that's killing people and is preventable.
Ah, that's different. Forget the Tenth Amendment and the rest of the Constitution. We've got a drug problem. Please save us, fedgov!
You’re wrong. New studies show a qtr of all new psychotics are the result of heavy use of skunk weed
I have a better question.
How does the President expect to win the war over Marijuana, if he’s going to leave the border wide open to drug traffickers ..??
Are all the raids really for some other purpose ..??
Where did I say ANYWHERE that the feds should save us??? I said get both federal and state govs out of people’s lives!
Do you believe that is his goal?
I can't square that with this =>
I have a serious worry about medical marijuana with the pharmaceutical and medical communities being trusted with prescribing it.
Then who do you trust to decide?
“New studies show a qtr of all new psychotics are the result of heavy use of skunk weed”
Debunked here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3257928/posts?page=84#84
and here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3365682/posts?page=48#48
Another good link: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3257928/posts?page=13#13
Why not just leave it alone and work for lesser penalties for marijuana use? I just don't get it that people want something regulated and controlled that the gov wasn't already regulating and controlling.
Because it is not being left alone by fedgov. They are the ones setting the rules and trampling the Tenth Amendment. Why not make obedience to the Tenth Amendment and the rest of the Constitution the top priority?
I just don't get it that people want something regulated and controlled that the gov wasn't already regulating and controlling.
You don't get it because your premise is false. Prohibition is a regulatory scheme. It is the most heavy handed and intrusive form of it, and it is being done by fedgov with no constitutional legitimacy.
So the answer to stopping prohibition is to let state government tax, control the content and sources, and prescribe it so the feds can’t?
Yes. That is what the Tenth Amendment says.
so the feds can’t?
Nope. You let the states regulate it because that is what the Constitution says. If you disagree, then where does the Constitution put that authority, in your opinion?
How do your posts debunk?
1) Medical reports of people going pyscho are supported by the everyday experience of everyone here.
2) Your citations consist of your posts and the posts of others who make unfounded claims
3) Do you seriously suggest that skunk does not change the brain? http://www.techtimes.com/articles/111214/20151127/skunk-weed-cannabis-can-seriously-damage-vital-nerve-fibers-in-the-brain.htm
NO
Debunked here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3257928/posts?page=84#84
and here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3365682/posts?page=48#48
Another good link: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3257928/posts?page=13#13
How do your posts debunk?
1) Medical reports of people going pyscho are supported by the everyday experience of everyone here.
Everyone here sees people going pyscho every day? LMAO! If anyone here has ever seen it, they weren't in a position to know that the person was under the influence of skunk, much less that it was the skunk rather than a pre-existing mental condition that caused the "going pyscho".
2) Your citations consist of your posts and the posts of others who make unfounded claims
No, statements well founded in facts from the study itself and in logic:
"it's the old correlation-is-the-causation-we-want-to-find nonsense that's been peddled for decades; the fact is that the reported results could be explained every bit as well by a predisposition (possibly genetic: http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3171782/posts) to psychosis causing an increased likelihood of using cannabis."
"The second group, the control group, is being asked to self-diagnose psychosis (or being judged for psychosis through self reported data), while the first group was medically diagnosed properly. Therefore, the data about the incidence of psychosis in the second group is not comparable to the first."
3) Do you seriously suggest that skunk does not change the brain? http://www.techtimes.com/articles/111214/20151127/skunk-weed-cannabis-can-seriously-damage-vital-nerve-fibers-in-the-brain.htm
That's a different claim than skunk-causes-psychosis - and your new claim is rebutted by facts from the study itself at my second link:
"Even the authors admit the same effect was not seen in smokers of Hashish.
"Additionally, under 50 people were studied and no controls set for what their brains were like before they smoked all this "skunk"."
"All but three were taking antipsychotic medicine and it's marijuana that caused the results they garnered?!"
So what - I am talking about skunk and not hash. Your “debunking” is deflecting tautologies
Duh - of course people that develop cannabis psychosis are going to take antipsychotics
Hash is an extract of pot and is more potent than pot.
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