Cannabis Issues Dominate Obama's "Open for Questions" Website

There were 10,000 people, and 7,300 questions. Each question could be voted on once (up or down). These weren't 'stoners' (that sad invention of hollywood), these were concerned citizens fed up with a war that has gone on for 70 years, which targets the poor, the sick and minorities, and which benefits only the drug pushers, cartels, breweries, the prison industry and manufactures of drug test kits..

Sputnic, you have a position, and I respect that, however, your facts are slightly skewed.

1. When the UK lowered the classification of cannabis from B to C, use went down.

2. Superskunk may be stronger, but when cannabis is stronger, people use less.

3. When the Dutch decriminalized cannabis, crime rates did not go up. The quasi-legal coffee shops have worked quite well in Dutch society, and there is a movement now to legalize and regulate the supplyside (which til now, had not been addressed).

4. It is the continued prohibition of cannabis in Europe that is the cause of the growth of drug cartels there, just as alcohol prohibition was the cause of the spread of speakeasies and reign of bootleggers in the United States.

5. Cannabis is not a gateway drug. If it was you would have millions of hard drug users, which is simply not the case. While some hard drug users may have started with weed, they also drank and smoked cigarettes, as does much of the population.

6. You implied that slave owners were on drugs, and that is why they were greedy. I disagreed.

By the way, I love your avatar. I believe it is a picture of a fellow from Egremont (where my granddad came from) one of the "ugly mug" winners.

Sputnic, I am not your enemy. I agree with you that there are many problems surrounding drugs. It's just that 40 years of the War on Drugs (at least in the US) has done nothing to combat the problem, and only forced the sale and distribution into the hands of the underworld. I believe drugs should be highly regulated and taxed, which would take the profit out of the hands of criminals.

I also do not believe that cannabis is a drug. It is an herb that produces a mild euphoric effect, and which has huge potential as a medicine. Treating it as a hard drug brings those who use it into the sphere of the underworld. Imagine if alcohol was prohibited, and you had to go to a local pusher to get a pint?

In any case, I am glad that you are interested in this subject, and willing to speak up on it. The question of morality is an interesting one. I personally believe that meditation, and education is the answer.

How about an end to ALL "Morality-Based" Criminal Laws. Let's, instead, make the streets and Public areas of our cities and town places of non-confrontation of Moral Viewpoints. I call on the World's Religions (and OTHER Moral Imperialists) to LEAD by Example. Passing laws with totalitarian practises to enforce them costs the planet TRILLIONS of dollars needed to create sustainable development and resources for BILLIONS doing without.  If you require TERROR to promote your little "Ism", it was probably Bankrupt to begin with.

Just put a circle R (registered trademark) after Marijuana and it will be legal in two seconds flat.

Same with Cocaine, Heroin, and any other drug of choice. America is so consumed with capitalism, the governments (federal, state, local) will legalize anything if they can profit from it (and profit handsomely indeed).

The "war on drugs" (publicized by a Nancy Ray-gun who couldn't even stop her own kids from taking drugs) led to the erosion of our civil rights in the United States of America.  It fostered the idea of "random drug testing" and other illegal  invasions of privacy.  Then came the "war on terror" and the so-called Patriot Act which further reduced one's civil and constitutional rights.  

What a sad state we are in.  It makes me want to down to the local bar and order myself a stiff one.  That's legal, after all!

65% of people living in my state, Massachusetts, voted yes on ballot question 2, which calls for the decriminalization of Marijuana possession. I hardly believe the majority of these people are stoners. More likey, they have common sense.

I wish more people held your viewpoint. Even things like speeding laws don't work; People still speed. Marijuana laws don't work. People still smoke marijuana and the criminalization has caused more problems than the drug itself. The proper route to deter people from doing dangerous things is to educate them, not criminalize their actions.

Just because you believe marijuana is immoral doesn't mean that everyone thinks so. People should be free to do what they want.

Every major problem "caused" by drugs is actually caused by prohitibion. Lets review:

First, understand that drugs have been used for thousands of years and that demand for drugs will never go down. The war on drugs cannot be won.

So, taxpayers are paying to fund an unending war on a product that will always be in demand. Criminals supply the product through a black market that is not taxed, monitored or regulated. The profits from this trade go to criminals and partly prop up the black markets for other things (guns, slaves, ivory, etc). A lot of Organized crime is funded largely by drugs. Drug crime, drug violence and so on all exist because normal people cannot supply the drug (it's criminalized!) and so violent organized criminal gangs do. Drugs are often laced and of poor quality. Drug dealers don't check ID.

All of that is because of prohibition. The same things happened during alcohol prohibition with criminals like Al Capone supplying the now MORE in demand drug.

It's all about harm reduction. Let people purchase drugs in pure, unadulterated form in an open, regulated, taxed market. Impose an age limit and use the billions of dollars in savings and taxes to go to rehabilitation programs.

The use of science when making laws would be very helpful. Marijuana was originally criminalized under Herbert Hoover with legislation pushed through by the Duponts, mainly because hemp oil was competing with new synthetic oils. Also, hemp was in direct competition with the cotton and paper industries. The purpose of out-lawing cannabis was to prevent the growing of hemp.

The legislation was enacted based on  testimony from a French scientist who claimed he had injected the brains of dogs with the active ingredient in  marijuana and some of them had died, even though TCH had not yet been isolated, as well as testimony from a man who claimed that after taking a hit off a marijuana joint he turned into a bat. Yes I've read the transcript.

There was a representative of the AMA at those hearings. When they asked his opinion, he said that marijuana was not dangerous, and he was then asked to either be helpful or leave.

Sputnic

I don't know what planet you're from but most of what you said is complete nonsense, so much so I barely know where to start.

Let's begin with your assertion that "God created the law against drugs for our own benefit". Examining this statement I can see nothing of the truth in it. Firstly, it depends on the existence of God, something we're not going to find agreement on here. Secondly, the drug laws were created by politicians and beaurocrats. The law making marijuana illegal was passed in 1928 when the 1925 Dangerous Drugs Act came into effect, itself an offshoot of the 1925 Geneva International Convention on Narcotics Control. Marijuana was added to the list of drugs by Turkey and Egypt whos' representatives claimed all sorts of "reefer madness" style ailments caused by marijuana - none of which were ever proven, and in fact the League of Nations only started investigating these claims ten years later and abandoned the research when it became glaringly clear that it was untrue.

In the US the prohibition against marijuana was led by Harry Anslinger who saw an opportunity to use the created problem to expand his power base and consolidate his agency, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Anslingers department went to work, linking marijuana with race murders, rape of white women by black men and the drug of choice for "evil jazz players". The paper industry in America backed him financially and through power brokering as the hemp industry in America looked like it might overtake the more expensive and environmentally unfriendly paper.

In the 1970s the CIA comissioned a report to show that marijuana should be in the same class as heroin and cocaine. What the suppressed report actually said was that the pesticides used to grow American potatoes were a bigger health risk than cannabis use. Of course, that report never made it far past the authors. The drug was not reclassified and potatoes remain off the proscribed list.

Marijuana is simply not a gateway drug, any more than any other drug. There is actually one way it can be a gateway drug and that is because pseudo moralists like yourself and criminals who benefit from it remaining illegal like to sell other drugs to new users. If the buyer did not have to go to the the illegal seller in the first place then they would never encounter those other drugs. It's a vicious circle perpetrated by those who seek to keep it illegal.

As to your claims of marijuana making you stupid - well, I have been using for more than 20 yesrs, I'm now in my forties and I am in the middle of studying a degree (passed the first year with a score which puts me on course for a 1-1). I haven't been made into an idiot that I can tell. Most of the people I know who smoke hold down full time jobs, run houses, have families etc. Just like any other normal person. Smoking marijuana does not seem to have dulled their senses at all. Having worked in social work and been a Youth Worker I can tell you that alcohol does far more damage in a single night in any town or city anywhere in the world than marijuana does in a month.

I could go on for ever but I just realised there is no point - you espouse God as an argument instead of facts, evidence and plain old common sense so you clearly are not interested in opening your mind to the actual facts of the matter. As with large numbers of believers I have met throughout my life you are inflexible, ignorant of the facts, unwilling to actually look at the truth and will simply continue to spout your "drugs are bad, m'kay" message despite the evidence until the Last Trumpet.

I am a Canadian who is a cancer survivor and a "smoker". I am a working mom of  4, in a committed relationship and hold down good Job. I take good care of my family and their needs and health and their everything is my utmost priority all of the time. During my chemotherapy, I would not have survived, I wasn't making it until, I started smoking THC!! It enabled me to eat due to it increasing my appetite (this helped keep me healthier) and getting rid of the constant gut wrenching nausea I lived with, it relieved me of the pain I was enduring constantly. I only started smoking at the recommendation of a friend who said it was the strongest anti-nauseant on the planet. I was, at the time, on the strongest that the DR. could prescribe and it did not work, I remained nauseated 24/7. Within 5 minutes of my first "Smoke" of weed I was no longer nauseated or in pain and I was hungry! How is that a bad or negative thing?? How is that immoral?? How is that not my right to have whatever meds. it took to help me??? <b>All plants were placed on this earth by GOD, for our use, including marijuana!! </b> I continue to smoke daily, it doesn't make me selfish, I do not and have never done any "harder" drugs as suggested by some idiot above. Yes I do know it seems that some people are looking to oliminate their consious lives and use much harder, very destructive drugs. That is SAD, they are addicts who require treatment to save their lives. I am consistently frustrated by the idiots who have never tried it and yet judge those who do it. Who have the odasicty to try and tell me it is immoral and wrong, it saved my life!! My children would be motherless otherwise, it is immoral to deny any person the right to have something that will help them!! I got better and moved on to live my life after the Cancer and I'm damned lucky to be here. Sputnik you are judging and clearly ignorant of the actual facts, go educate yourself and open your closed mind. Think for yourself and not what the F'd up goverment or zealots tells you is right or wrong. It is not factual that people who smoke dope do harder drugs, some maybe yes, not all! Also it frustrates me that weed continually gets lumped in with other drugs like crack and meth and exstacy etc, that actually cause physical, mental and emotional damage and often death! Weed and those drugs are so vastly different that to lump them together is just plain rediculous! Those other drugs can kill you and or ruin life as you know it, weed doesn't do anything even close. Has anyone in this forum ever heard or seen or experienced anyone high on weed get violent, beat their families, left their family, become violent or destructive or "selfsih" or even died while on weed??? I haven't. A bit lazy, yes, big deal at least they aren't out stealing cars and vandalizing, raping or killing anyone! Pot smokers are usually peaceful and happy to be at home doing their thing. I have seen people die, get violent, cheat, abuse,  get violently ill, etc while drunk on alcohol, how come that is not illegal and immoral??? It is to me. Locomotive said "A person does not need a substance to act in horrible ways, and I think it is dangerous to make an inpenetrable link between substance and the corrosion of morality." No kidding!! Thanks for that Locomotive. I have seen people do horrible things totally straight, not on anything and I have seen the ones who drink alot and do horrible things yet alcohol (which is also a drug) is legal. Morality or lack thereof in these times has nothing to do with use of weed. I think it is a disgrace to deny a sick person anything that will help ease their suffering or cure them. That is immoral!! Hit the link I inserted in "Cure them" to read article about THC and  <b>^  </b>  curing cancer if you are interested.

Alcohol kills, weed chills

Since Marijuana and Hemp prohibition in the U.S. have racist roots (wasn't it also phased out because of the plastics industry?) it would sure be meaningful for it to fall under a black president. 

There's 10,000 people and 600,000 votes. Stoners spent the afternoon voting again and again, because they had nothing better to do.

or each person ranking 60 issues

Yes We Can!

Really Dr. Truth?  Perhaps "truthiness"? Apparently your PhD, Doctorate, or any other terminal degree that you earned from Jerry Falwell's "Liberty University" didnt allow you think critically enough to realize that:

A.  This is a concern for many individuals (apparent by the voting block)

B.  Not all people who voted more than once are "stoners".  That is a false ass-umption.  You would probably realize that if you went to a school not dominated by ignorance.  

The issue of drugs and morality is indeed an interesting area of discussion.  Yes, Queen Victoria used many drugs, including cannabis for the alleviation of menstrual cramps, and I'm sure slave owners put many things into their bodies.  I believe it to be a horribly immoral act to possess another human being as property, but this clearly did not prevent people in the past.  Should slavery remain illegal?  Yes, but not because those who steak claim to other people lack the ability to employ judgment in accordance to what their neighbours believe to be "right", but because their actions have a directly negative impact on the lives of other people.  Slavery is not a moral crime as much as it is a crime against humanity.  Sputnic, if drug abuse was as rampant as you say it was (and I believe it was), then why did the Anerican north - who would have been consuming the same drugs from the same cartels - outlaw slavery before the south.  Social norms and the "moral centre" have more to do with culture and one's upbringing than a substance leading one's conscience to the brink of insanity.

A person does not need a substance to act in horrible ways, and I think it is dangerous to make an inpenetrable link between substance and the corrosion of morality.  Because someone acts in a way you disagree with does not mean they have a nasty drug habbit, just as having a nasty drug habbit does not mean they will act in ways you disagree with - with the exception of the use of the drug itself, assuming you disagree with that type of consumption.  Now, before I get into all the War on Drugs stuff, I don't mean to come across as pro-drug, especially with the harder stuff.  But what I mean to say is that it takes a lot more than drugs to corrode someone's morality.  Sputnic, you mentioned your drug dealer friend... There is a very big difference between a drug habbit, drug abuse, and drug dealing.  Someone taking a drug in a healthy manner because they are able to make that decision is very different from abusing a drug to the point of harming not only oneself, but those around them.  Enabling others to harm themselves and those around them through dealing drugs does not require the consumption of drugs, but it is probably the fastest way to corrode one's morality out of any of those options, just as being a slave owner would probably corrode one's morality faster than a drug habbit.

How is there justification in construction of a set of social standards - a set of morals - in law to which people must be in accordance?   Which substances are legal?  Those of choice for the "moral centre": those of the professional business classes, the police, politicians, etc.  Their drugs of choice, caffine, alcohol, tabbaco, etc., are not criminalized, and those who are seen as "morally susceptible" have their criminalized.  What we are really discussing is a "War on Ceremony".  Think about it... What's the difference between tap water and holy water?  Nothing.  There is no scientific evidence to suggest criminalized drugs are any more or less harmful than legal drugs.  As described by Dr. Ronald Siegel in "Intoxication: Life in Pursuit of Artificial Paradise", anthrolopoligists have yet to discover a society that has not featured the non-medical use of drugs.  The impulse to alter oneself is as natural as hunger, sex or thirst.  The War on Drugs is a war on the biological and social nature of our species, a civil war against those who do not use the "right" drugs.

With regards to the specifics of marijuana, I'm not too sure I can whole-heatedly comment on the situation of the United States, or make any solid reccomendations to Obama for how he should act.  Being a Canadian citizen, I can say that my country is in an unique situation with small marijuana possession (a situation not often spoken about, probably our best kept secret).  In 2000 the Ontario Court of Appeals ruled that barring the medical use of marijuana violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  The government was given a year by the courts to sort out the appropiate legisatlation to make it happen.  However, they only enacted policies permiting medical marijuana.  Now, since Canada has universal health care, all medical marijuana has to come from either the Canadian government or a personal supply.  Since the government only enacted medical marijuana policies and failed to pass any legistation making medical marijuana legal, the Ontario Court of Appeals ruled that Canada's current marijuana laws are invalid, therefore holding no power since the government is dealing marijuana in a dicsriminating manner.  That's not to say one cannot get arrested for posession, there is just a very solid defence and the case will be thrown out if it is seen as for personal use (though they still try trafficing cases). 

And with regards to the Dutch, they have half the per capita use of marijuana than both Canada and the US.  I believe they have a better approach to the area of drug abuse through designating it a health problem to be sorted out by those in public health, and not making it a responsibility of their criminal justice system.

I think alcohol is wrong too ! I am a muslim and quite a few people agree with me. A lot of Rasta's dont drink alcohol but they do smoke weed. The first drug I tried was alcohol it is true. Weed may not suppress appetite but it sure helped me sleep, and made me paranoid, moody, short tempered... Industrial hemp is a potentially brilliant industry, less water to grow than cotton better yields - no point smoking your own clothes either as that type of hemp contains 0 caniboid things

the idea that marijuana is 'immoral' has more religious roots, but has nothing to do with the open possibilities that 'pot', hemp, marijuana can pose for the open, 'free' world.  Not only can it be used medically, most importantly the use of THC and it's other chemical properties to stall or reverse the spread of cancer cells.  The properties in marijuana help reduce the side effects of some medicines.  It reduces cramping and nausea, and helps relieve some other aches and pains in muscles and bones.  The idea that Marijuana is 'immoral'  has deeper roots created more so by upper middle class people who tend to feel that their look to 'god' will solve their problems.  These people would rather go see a psychiatrist and get antidepressants and viagra.  Marijuana for now is relatively inexpensive, though there are many different kinds to purchase, and it's Natural.  It is also true that some of the less expensive types hold many extra chemicals.  If it were legalized, it would be more pure, easily accessible, and more or less affordable.  Some states offer open sales and growth of Marijuana for it's citizens.  Some offer or have offered useful items such as 'Blue Cards' which make it legal to purchase for medicinal purposes.  Marijuana aids with concentration.  When you're working on a project, you're more likely to continue with that project until you're done.  Driving while under the influence of marijuana keeps you more aware of your surroundings.  Now, I'm not saying being 'Stoned' while driving is a good thing.  If one wants to be 'stoned' it's best to stay inside at home, but a little high while driving relaxes the driver, there is less anger on the road, less 'road rage' and allows the driver and even passengers to pay more attention because of the current possible repercussions of getting caught.  Immorality has nothing to do with pot, but more to do with the ignorance it possesses.  Pot doesnt make you want to burn your stuff, or commit suicide.  It does though cause you to think, really think about what is going on.  I'll agree it does make someone somewhat lazy, but so does not having a job, no money, and no transportation. I agree it should be legalized, and taxed, it will at least have a more pure form.  It's mainly the THC that works with the brain and cell chemistry to produce a viable result.  Today there are different forms of medical aid using the more pure form of THC to aid in medical side effects from kemotherapy and other radiation therapy. 

I live with an individual who has gone through more than enough kemo and radiation in one lifetime, bone marrow transplants and other types of a multitude of blood tests.  she gets tired, nauseated, dizzy, crampy, physically unable to move, hungry- but not able to eat, as well as confused 4 out of 5 days a week.  The aid that she could get from the use of a 'blue card', medical marijuana, or the chemical THC, would be able to maximize her ability to recover from the many drugs they give her more swiftly and allow her to to be more productive.  When she smokes, she uses that 'buzzed' time to write, to work on her websites, to do laundry, and to read.  She constantly keeps her mind moving with thought and ideas, though the most of her body is incapable.   Without this help, she would be weak, sick and throwing up, doubled over with cramped pain, and not able to eat.  Living with a disabled person makes you  want to look for alternatives to help relieve the suffering they're going through. 

I personally don't care about 'immoral' views.  Personally, I believe everyone is entitled to their opinions.  Success can be made by man and woman alike, with or without the help of drugs.  In my opinion, success comes from your predisposition, the people you know, and how hard you work for it.  Being new to unemployment, i know that how hard you work for something doesn't account for anything when the owners want the business to get shut down anyway.  Firing me was a blessing, but success may also be attained by a person who dapples with the 'greener' things of life.  

and overtip a good waitress or waiter..in texas they get $2.15/hr plus tips, and you make them run around the restaurant.  yeah, good excercise, but not worth your sorry ass for a dollar tip.  waitstaff remembers that sort of thing. How many would like to buy groceries, pay their electric and water bills, feed their animals, and drive to and from work when on a random night your highest take home is $12.00.  Thanks guys.

I don't know where you got your facts Sputnic but it has been one doosy for you after another. Christ loved liquor, turning water to wine was his miracle (the books of matthew mark luke and john in the gospel in the Holy Bible). In fact you could almost say Christ was a "stoner", protesting against the establishment, not carrying any kind of job, and preaching radical ideas (for his time).

Politicians in the 30's used the votes of easily persuaded religious people to gain power and money. Dupont was a big player in that battle, and it wasn't because of the "demon weed" and it's effects on peoples mental state, but rather HEMP and it's various different uses with being cheaper as opposed to synthetics.  I'm sure pharmaceutical companies also paid off politicians in this endeavor.

If you think for ONE minute the US govt. gives a good goddamn about your well being, I'd love to know what kind of drugs they've got you on.

To:Sputnic
From: Religious Judgmental

God created every one as unique individuals and to suggest that any one act, or drug, causes the user to gateway over to another is hypocritical. All people don't gateway. Their are other drug users, alcoholics, crack heads, heroin addicts, prescription drug abusers, etc, that never toughed marijuana before. So what was their gateway?  Choice?  Much respect to you not drinking alcohol, or using any so called drugs, but your only human (God says we are all Sinners). If not, life would be something like Heaven.

Addictions don't just run in the drug realm in Gods book. Sex, money, certain type of foods, environments, even bad or wrong thoughts can be addictive in the wrong way.  Yes, The real war is to follow the law of the lord, but People don't need comment preachers (Sputnic) to create religious subjective angels of their topics when the preacher isn't an angel himself. I would say its safe to say you sin in some kind of way annually moral or immoral. People go to church for spiritual cleansing, and forgiveness of their sins. Do you Sputnic? I hope you do!

You said that your "allowed to drink coffee (caffeine) and smoke cigarettes (nicotine), and they don't alter perception or intoxicate". A simple dream can alter your perception, and enough legal prescriptions can intoxicate, but do you consider that. Cigarettes can do both in some users (Hint: Chemicals effect people in different ways). Jesus said not to drink alcohol, but he did have some wine himself. Cigarettes (nicotine) and coffee (caffeine) are also poison just like marijuana but you justify coffee and cigarettes by saying your allowed to because it doesn't alter perception or intoxicate, in witch is not true in the first place because it does in some people. That shows your making the same excuse as drug users but with different poison substances.

You said that "It is one thing for suburban students thinking drugs are cool but another for inner city school kids". Their is no different. No kid should think that its cool no matter where their from, but not all choices are made because of the cool factor. That right their is 2 examples of your own comments, contradicting yourself. Like slavery, whites favored whites and hated and in slaved blacks but we are all Gods humans no matter where we grew up or what kind of drug your on. My point made!!!!

My Quote:    "Though who slang's mud, shall surly lose ground".

Legalize it!! Legalize it!! End the age of opression!

Very interesting read.

WELL DONE, on so many levels.

what if it was legal. my question is about the people who depended on the money from distribution of maryjane. how do they get the money now, since no one will buy from a dealer if its at the store? i dont think the most popular option will be get a job.

good stuff Brinna,  but better than your article is your commitment to educate on this important issue.  Well done.

Perhaps information about the formation of the laws against cannabis will begin to circulate as well.. it is literally illegal because some find it 'immoral'.  look into it..

The 'war on (some) drugs' is nothing more than a thinly veiled war on minorities. Follow with me:

1865: the north wins the civil war and outlaws slavery

1866-1900: corrupt, racist politicians pen 'grandfather clauses' (google or wiki it) which prevent the newly freed slaves from actually being able to vote.

1901: grandfather clauses struck down by the supreme court as unconstitutional

1904: ASIANS (and only asians) are barred from operating opium dens. (Because white people had no habit of smoking opium, there were no white-man operated opium dens.)

Hope you get the gist of it. it's not a war on (some) drugs, it's a war on minorities. Of course you have to lock up a few white folk so you don't appear racist, but I assure you, they are white people who don't matter. Even former Philadelphia Police Chief John Timmony's son was busted for driving a truckload of pot in NYC. You think he's serving time? Not on your life; he got 'treatment and probation.'

Read tinyurl.com/1mn and tinyurl.com/potconviction

written by two university law professors IN 1971 before their book 'the marijuana conviction' was published in 1974, and is available now on half.com, just search books for 'the marijuana conviction'