Obama: Pot laws 'important to society'

The Hill ^

[Sub-Driver]

January 19, 2014, 10:26 am Obama: Pot laws 'important to society'

By Justin Sink

President Obama said in an interview published Sunday he does not believe marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol and that it was “important” that the legalization of the drug in some states to “go forward” because it would prevent unfair penalties for some users.

"As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol,” Obama said in an interview with The New Yorker.

Pressed on whether marijuana was less dangerous than alcohol, Obama noted that it’s “not something I encourage, and I’ve told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy.”

But, Obama said, he did see pot as less dangerous “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer.”

Obama said he was particularly concerned by disproportionate arrests of and sentences for minorities possessing the drug.

“Middle-class kids don’t get locked up for smoking pot, and poor kids do,” he said. “And African-American kids and Latino kids are more likely to be poor and less likely to have the resources and the support to avoid unduly harsh penalties.”

The president said he believed it was unfair that the government was “locking up kids or individual users for long stretches of jail time when some of the folks who are writing those laws have probably done the same thing.”

That’s why, Obama said, he was generally supportive of experiments in Washington and Colorado to legalize the drug.

“It’s important for it to go forward because it’s important for society not to have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished.”

Last September, Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department would work with the states to implement the law, even though federal law continues to prohibit possession or use of the drug.

A Department of Justice memo said that the federal government would still prosecute those who distribute the drug to minors, buy from criminal enterprises, move marijuana to states where it is illegal, or drive drugged.

Legal pot went on sale for the first time at the beginning of the month in Colorado, raking in millions of dollars in early sales.

[Sub-Driver]

That made zero sense..........

[molson209]

marijuana makes you sit around and do nothing just like Obama

[allendale]

Obama is decadent and dangerous. Yet it is no accident he was elected. American culture is clearly in decline.

[grania]

That made zero sense...

It's disturbing because up until now the rhetoric has been that pot smoking laws should not be relaxed for youth.

I get very nervous about legalizing anything that's accepted by the risk takers in society, but not the more toe-the-line elements. Why? Because if it's legal, it no longer meets their need to stretch the boundaries. So, if everyone can smoke pot, those risk-takers that stretch the rules, but just enough to be outside the norm will have to do something worse to meet that personality need.

[James C. Bennett]

There are way too many people who don’t belong in prison, put there due to the nefarious collusion between lawmakers and lobbyists for prison operators, turning marijuana smokers into hardened criminals through their exposure to hardcore criminals in prison.

The “war on drugs” has done more damage to eliminating American freedoms than anything else, bar the “patriot act”.

[Don Corleone]

This from the “Choom Room Kid”. Populate America with “Stoners” and he can rule forever.

[mountainlion]

George Sorros pulling strings again, Tides foundation his tool.

[MeshugeMikey]

heres a GEM

“ot very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life”

up through a big chunk....

that must be community organizer speak...

[ilovesarah2012]

Populate congress with RINOs and he can rule forever.

[palmer]

It is odd that he smokes but his wife gets the munchies.

[EagleUSA]

Spoken like a true drugged-out pot head.

Be proud Congress. You let it continue to happen.

[kabar]

Selective enforcement of the laws.

[JPG]

[Cementjungle]

It's disturbing because up until now the rhetoric has been that pot smoking laws should not be relaxed for youth.

Alcohol laws should be adjusted to match pot laws since both substances are pretty equal in effects on the user.

A teen caught with one beer should get one year in prison. A six pack should guarantee 20 years in prison. A case of beer, or second offense with one beer should yield life in prison.

[andyk]

Selective enforcement of the laws.

Bada-bing.

[P.O.E.]

It is odd that he smokes but his wife gets the munchies.

LOL. You should apply for a grant to study the effects of second-hand pot smoke.

[Klaatu Barada Nikto]

I see he quickly went from “pot isn’t bad” to drug laws are racist.

[onedoug]

Man, I could be totally wasted beyond all proportion on whatever and I’d still never vote for that little islamist.

[Chode]

[OneWingedShark]

The “war on drugs” has done more damage to eliminating American freedoms than anything else, bar the “patriot act”.

I'd actually disagree with that; the War on Drugs has been the single biggest destroyer of liberties in America. Consider:

1. There is no constitutional authority for the federal regulation of drugs.
2. Because of #1, the authority must be derived from somewhere: this somewhere is the commerce clause
3. Because of #2, the power to regulate interstate commerce must be transformed into the power to regulate intrastate commerce.
4. From the need of #3, Wickard is flatly established as "settled law" and precedent.
5. #4 necessitates the elevation of precedent to the level of Constitutional Law (actually trumping it, when desired).
6. #4 also is reinforced by making non-commerce regulatable under the interstate commerce powers (see Raich).
7. The asset forfeiture laws make it profitable for police to make drug-related "busts".
8. #7 also pressures the Judiciary to sign off on warrantless searches.
9. #7 and #8 pressures the Judiciary to excuse violence done by the police on the people.
10. All of the above concentrate power into "the authorities" and allow them to excuse violations of the strictures imposed on them by the law.

I cannot think of a single policy that has done so much damage to liberty.