The Field: Round one of Obama's "open for questions" reveals clamor for drug policy reform

Its not just pot, people who seek illicit substances are going to get them, nothing will stop that. Should these purchases go on in a completely uncontrolled market, allowing Mexico's drug czar to make $ 0.5 mil per month from some cartel, and the incentive for a 5,000+ death toll this year to continue...or should we radically change this strategy that achieves nothing positive, and create a market similar to alcohol and tobacco?

This War on Drugs is the clearest Fat to cut out of the budget as far as I'm concerned...and we've got to start somewhere... might as well be the safest recreational drug we know. Marijuana accounts for over half of all drug arrests... and there are more drug arrests than for violent crime. Where are the victims? Why are we wasting time and money?

Legalizing marijuana is a no brainer - just go for it already - like we have in Mass. Next, hemp cultivation needs to be examined for it's thousands of uses provided by each crop while benefiting the environment. Either medicinally or functionally, ganja has been grown for millennia by a variety of civilizations. Why must we always wait for advancements that can’t be monopolized, end up far cheaper to the consumer & should be more easily accessible by the masses? This once great country needs to get its priorities straight.

Legalizing pot is just the first step down a long uphill path called change. Hope the wars will be the next step.

I’m sorry but I still have not heard a convincing argument as to why America should not be embarrassed right now.

Knotwurk I agree with you. Smoking marijuana is a victimless crime. Do you know what else is a victimless crime; how about living in Afghanistan, Pakistan, or soon to be Iran? Don’t you think we’d get a lot more bang for our buck if we sent a clear message to the president to stop this endless war on terror? Sure smoking pot is just swell, then again I personally get a nice buzz when I know my country is not bombing innocent civilians.

How about we repeal FISA and the patriot act? Last time I checked talking on a cell phone or surfing the internet was a victimless crime too.

Call me crazy but I think if Americans want legal pot they should do what everyone does, get your initiative on a ballet, campaign for it and get it signed into law. Running to the president and begging for him to wave his magic federal wand is hardly a worthwhile effort. Even if the president did decriminalize pot at the federal level, marijuana would still be illegal in all states.

Conniepie here’s another real fact for you. The term “drug czar” was coined by Joe Biden. So what does that tell you about Obama’s feelings toward drugs? Oh wait Obama picked Joe Biden because he has a lot of foreign policy experience (expect for that whole Iraq war thing). I’m sure both of those guys will put their heads together and reconsider this whole issue though (just like they did with FISA, the Patriot act, the war on terror, clean coal, the death penalty, the bailout, the stimulus package and the funding of the Iraq war).

I swear this is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Obama’s entire campaign revolved around fixing Bush’ screw ups and now America asks for Obama to “give me liberty or give me pot!”

Recently an Amsterdam official spoke of how their legalization of drugs has worked in this way, half the per capita of people in jail as compared to the United States leading the world in per capita prison population.
At a price tag of 50,000 dollars a year per person to keep incarcerated how much more proof do you need to realize the war on drugs is just an unjust business and is costing us dearly in treasure and ruined lives. Who the hell is in charge of our democracy, it's us the people tear down the prisons.

Welcome to the war against drugs scam ! The criminalization of pot is simply needed to fill the prisons & rationalize the private incarceration system… & they get to destroy the black community as a bonus… Business as usual !

In the USA, the prison system is owned by private corporations (i), meaning that companies make money from putting people in jail. This explains why America has the largest absolute prison population in the world (ii). Not just relative to its 300m population, but relative to the world. Even communist China, with 1.3 billion people, has less people in prison than America. US police officers are fired or given demotions if they do not meet a certain quota of people put in jail (iii).

It’s called the prison-industrial complex (iv), and is just one example of how capitalism is yielding negative effects in America. So how are so many people being put in prison? Welcome to the drug war. The CIA ships in cocaine to the United States in mass (v), and then uses the corrupt police force to deal these illegal drugs to the American public (vi). Naturally, having dealt the drugs, the police then know who is in possession of cocaine, so later bust them for it. Not only is the drug-industrial complex served, but so is the prison-industrial complex.

Classic corporatism all made possible through the corrupt police force of bully-mentality. And if by now you’re saying, “well, just because people are selling drugs, doesn’t mean the kids are forced to buy them”, consider the glorification of drugs in movies and television. Young kids love listening to Amy Winehouse and others (vii) (viii), but there is no age limit on how old you have to be to watch her on the news, boxed into the classic drug nightmare of so many poor victims of the entertainment industry. The average lifespan in the United States is currently 78 (ix) and expected to be commonly as high as 100 in the coming generations (x), yet in the entertainment industry was just over 60 in 1999 and was as low as 48 in 1950 (xi). Also consider the abomination that is America’s education system (xii), and its up-to and in some cases above 50% high school dropout rates (xiii).

Footnotes
i http://www.correctionsproject.com/corrections/pris_priv.htm
ii http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/2925973.stm
iii http://www.emissourian.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19506987&BRD=1409&PAG=46...
iv http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199812/prisons
v http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1998_cr/980507-l.htm
vi http://www.serendipity.li/cia/fifty.html vii http://danasdirt.com/2007/11/27/amy-winehouse-meets-a-young-fan/
viii http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_to_black#Charts
ix http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy
x http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1977733.stm
xi http://www.ancestry.com/facts/HOLLYWOOD-life-expectancy.ashx
xii http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx4pN-aiofw
xiii http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,344190,00.html
PS : Back then pot prohibition was but an excuse to wipe out the hemp industry … http://piratebook.com/chapter_17.htm

I think being able to do what I want to my self is my right, as is our rights to say what we want. Saying is the first step to doing.

Ricky84, I want an honest discussion, using "real facts". I want people to know the truth. Distorted facts and fixed facts are not the truth. Ordinary Americans make judegment using fixed facts which have been used in the war on drugs.

A "Czar" was created to silence the conversation. Drug tests were implemented to stop the conversation. Talk about cannabis/hemp, be labeled a druggie? Nothing else needs to be said! The discussion of cannabis/hemp should not be characterized as druggie conversation. Hemp is not even a drug? I relate "Drug Czar" in America as "silenced in America by an American Czar". It's time for change. Americans who want to discuss a “real” plant should not be labeled! That’s an “Assault on Reason”!

Yeah I love how people are more interested in legalizing pot rather than restoring civil liberties. Sometimes I truly think we as Americans get what we deserve.

Legalize pot. Thank you.

Barack Obama possibly picking a Republican to lead the War on Drugs has really been a disappointment for me. I have not agreed with the title "Drug Czar", since it's introduction into American politics.

I am old enough to remember history. When I was in school "Czar" was characterized as tyrants, and despots from other countries. America started using the title “Czar” and we now have more people in prison than any other country in the world. Apparently, it still means tyrant and despot, just Americanized.

“Fixed facts” are used in the War on Drugs. They don’t tell ordinary Americans the facts about cannabis/hemp. Ordinary Americans think marijuana (cannabis) is something new. They don’t know “cannabis/hemp” has history, the facts have been removed from American history. They can remove the facts, but they can’t change history.

It’s time for change. It’s time to stop hiding history. “Real discussions”, “using real facts”, would lead to “Real Change”.

excellent question........Legalize it.....at least lets start by leaving the medical marijuana patients alone