so the white house has this site where you can submit petitions, and if they get enough signatures, the white house will give an official response. when they first started, the threshold was 5,000 signatures. they then raised it to 25,000, and then the petition quoted below gathered almost 75,000:
Quote:
we petition the obama administration to:
Legalize and Regulate Marijuana in a Manner Similar to Alcohol.
We the people want to know when we can have our "perfectly legitimate" discussion on marijuana legalization. Marijuana prohibition has resulted in the arrest of over 20 million Americans since 1965, countless lives ruined and hundreds of billions of tax dollars squandered and yet this policy has still failed to achieve its stated goals of lowering use rates, limiting the drug's access, and creating safer communities.
Isn't it time to legalize and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol? If not, please explain why you feel that the continued criminalization of cannabis will achieve the results in the future that it has never achieved in the past?
Created: Sep 22, 2011
Issues: Civil Rights and Liberties, Economy, Government Reform
total signatures
74,169
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https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petition...cohol/y8l45gb1
so then they gave us this canned response that doesn't even address half the questions posed.
Quote:
Official White House Response to Legalize and Regulate Marijuana in a Manner Similar to Alcohol. and 7 other petitions
What We Have to Say About Legalizing Marijuana
By: Gil Kerlikowske
When the President took office, he directed all of his policymakers to develop policies based on science and research, not ideology or politics. So our concern about marijuana is based on what the science tells us about the drug's effects.
According to scientists at the National Institutes of Health- the world's largest source of drug abuse research - marijuana use is associated with addiction, respiratory disease, and cognitive impairment. We know from an array of treatment admission information and Federal data that marijuana use is a significant source for voluntary drug treatment admissions and visits to emergency rooms. Studies also reveal that marijuana potency has almost tripled over the past 20 years, raising serious concerns about what this means for public health – especially among young people who use the drug because research shows their brains continue to develop well into their 20's. Simply put, it is not a benign drug.
Like many, we are interested in the potential marijuana may have in providing relief to individuals diagnosed with certain serious illnesses. That is why we ardently support ongoing research into determining what components of the marijuana plant can be used as medicine. To date, however, neither the FDA nor the Institute of Medicine have found smoked marijuana to meet the modern standard for safe or effective medicine for any condition.
As a former police chief, I recognize we are not going to arrest our way out of the problem. We also recognize that legalizing marijuana would not provide the answer to any of the health, social, youth education, criminal justice, and community quality of life challenges associated with drug use.
That is why the President's National Drug Control Strategy is balanced and comprehensive, emphasizing prevention and treatment while at the same time supporting innovative law enforcement efforts that protect public safety and disrupt the supply of drugs entering our communities. Preventing drug use is the most cost-effective way to reduce drug use and its consequences in America. And, as we've seen in our work through community coalitions across the country, this approach works in making communities healthier and safer. We're also focused on expanding access to drug treatment for addicts. Treatment works. In fact, millions of Americans are in successful recovery for drug and alcoholism today. And through our work with innovative drug courts across the Nation, we are improving our criminal justice system to divert non-violent offenders into treatment.
Our commitment to a balanced approach to drug control is real. This last fiscal year alone, the Federal Government spent over $10 billion on drug education and treatment programs compared to just over $9 billion on drug related law enforcement in the U.S.
Thank you for making your voice heard. I encourage you to take a moment to read about the President's approach to drug control to learn more.
Resources:
Gil Kerlikowske is Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy
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https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petition...zing-marijuana
so i'm reading some comments on (fancy popular social news site), and come across this:
Quote:
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According to scientists at the National Institutes of Health- the world's largest source of drug abuse research - marijuana alcohol use is associated with addiction, respiratory liver disease, and cognitive impairment. We know from an array of treatment admission information and Federal data that marijuana use boozing is a significant source for voluntary drug treatment admissions and visits to emergency rooms and morgues. Studies also reveal that marijuana potency Bud Light drinkability has almost tripled over the past 20 years, raising serious concerns about what this means for public health – especially among young people who use the drug because research shows their brains continue to develop well into their 20's. Simply put, it is not a benign drug like marijuana.
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which has since been turned into a white house petition:
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petition...paign=shorturl
be sure to also check out NORML's response, which completely destroys the official response. it's a really good read and much too long to quote here.
White House response to NORML’s “We the People” marijuana legalization petition | NORML Blog, Marijuana Law Reform
a recent gallup poll showed Americans favor legalization. 50% of Americans support legalization, 46% oppose. when are we going to stand up and actively fight our government's draconian drug policy?
10-29-2011, 01:25 PM
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