News and Politics | January 11, 2009 | 124 comments

Obama team again responds to the pot question. "NO"

source: http://change.gov/newsroom/entry/open_for_questions_round_2_response/

Image
cabinettags
"When we closed out the first round of Open for Questions with around 20,000 people participating, 10,000 questions submitted, and 1,000,000 votes on which we should answer, we were thrilled. But we were also concerned that the splash of unveiling this new tool meant that would be the high-water mark.

During this second round, we decided to leave the voting open significantly longer, but even with that extra time we were surprised to see the final totals: 103,512 people submitted 76,031 questions and cast 4,713,083 votes. We can now be confident that the success of the first round was not just about a new trick, but just a hint of the willingness of the public to permanently change the way they interact with their government. There’s plenty of room to grow.

For this round we refined the process to make it more user-friendly, and broke out the questions into categories. We think this made for a more interesting experience, and ensured that a broader array of questions could get exposure. But we also wanted to try a new way of responding to the questions, so this time instead of text answers, we asked incoming White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to sit down with us. Since there were so many popular questions in so many categories, we tried to pull out some of them that had been addressed previously by the President-elect or Vice President-elect in order to focus the video portion on questions that haven’t been as specifically addressed during the Transition ...

“Will you consider legalizing cannabis/marijuana/hemp so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a multi-billion dollar industry right here in the US?”—DJ C, Chicago, IL

Open for Questions Response, 12/15/08: “President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana".”

The explanation of why we got that the first time was the main question this time; or among the most asked group. Why do they refuse to explain this no? Surely there's a reason. Apparently it's such a secret why it remains illegal they're refusing to even talk about it. I have to admit that this is a smart political move if you want the prohibition to remain in place. A lot of folks know very little about marijuana, and the transition team is making sure they stay that way. Evil doesn't like the light.
  1. groups:
    News and Politics,   Politics,   Current News US,   Law
  2. tags:
    News and Politics,  Politics,  Barack Obama,  US,  4 more
  3.     
    |

124 comments // Obama team again responds to the pot question. "NO"

  • lifestudentno83
    • 0
      lifestudentno83  
    • cheetum:

      I'm not trying to make this a religious thing, but the morality police(i.e. the religious right) will make a big deal about it because they are still led to believe it is a dangerous drug that leads to other drug use. If he legalized it, they would tear him up like a cannabis pinata.

      The drug companies and prison industrial complex aspects have way more to do with why it will stay illegal than religion, and I apologize if it sounded like that's what I was getting at.

    • 3 years ago
  • CreditFigaro
    • 0
      CreditFigaro  

    • Where the hell are these people who are against marijuana?

      I just don't get the opposition, in fact, it seems like there IS no opposition.

    • 3 years ago
  • cheetum
    • 0
      cheetum  
    • CreditFigaro:

      There is plenty of opposistion. Which people have already stated in these posts as well. It is large coporations and industries who have billions of dollars at stake who are the opposition. They don't want marijuana legalized because it would make many of their patented drugs, household products, fuels, textiles, etc... OBSOLETE.

    • 3 years ago
  • CreditFigaro
  • CreditFigaro
    • 0
      CreditFigaro  
    • CreditFigaro:

      Which reminds me, why isn't the construction industry, pizza industry, bio diesel industry, movie industry, agriculture industry, and clothing industry all over this in support??

      There are plenty of industries that would benefit from having weed be pervasive in our economy.

    • 3 years ago
  • rjupiter
  • pissedoffinarkansas
  • rjupiter
  • netstorm2k8
  • lifestudentno83
    • 0
      lifestudentno83  
    • Image

    • Maybe this has something to do with why Obama doesn't want to legalize it...

      That, and the "Religious Right" would crucify him for legalizing weed... Because they still think it's evil.

    • 3 years ago
  • pissedoffinarkansas
  • jomahu
    • 0
      jomahu  

    • cheezy is right on. if enough people organize and work the necessary channels (contacting your local representatives, educating your communities, etc.), it can be a reality.
      at the end of the day, gov't works for YOU. hmm, wasn't obama a community organizer himself?

    • 3 years ago
  • cheezynuts
  • akamaial
  • cabinettags
    • 0
      cabinettags  
    • cheezynuts:

      cheezy, I couldn't agree more. There were 10's of thousands of us that participated the 1st round. We've tried twice in a public forum with large numbers and they refuse to talk about it. So much for the easy way.

      I guess you have to draw attention to yourself, hold rallies, marches & protests. Get on the 6 oclock news to get people to talk about what they don't want to talk about. I've never visualized myself as being one of those folks, but if they're leaving us a choice here I don't see it.

      They want us to give this up; but there's too much bad happening because of this prohibition for me to do that. Our kids need to be let out of prison; they're not criminals. We need to keep the literally billions of dollars per year this weed generates here in the US; not put in the hands of foreign drug rings. This law is creating a whole class of criminals that spans our entire social strata. It does not compute.

      I heard there was a demonstration in planning for Washington DC this year on the 4th of July.......

      Maybe we should throw another Boston Tea Party.

    • 3 years ago
  • Commentor
    • 0
      Commentor  
    • Image

    • well it seems that the information on this thread needs to be sent to them. No doubt they will ignore it but the more it arrives

      I wish I was clever enough to write a story about a wonderful plant without the name of it being told till the very end after the person is convinced its a good crop.

    • 3 years ago
  • boymanonahotplate
    • 0
      boymanonahotplate  

    • yes, our society is in fact that messed up. the populous is locked into the college/job/wife/kids/retirement/health care mentality that they don't care about nature or mother earth. harsh but true. the reason it will remain prohibited, besides all the companies it would put out of work, is because the advocates don't take the correct steps in legalizing it. I think the first thing that should be done is to take the funding of the drug war that comes from seized goods/propery/cash from drug bust away from law enforcement and place it all into areas of rehabilitation provided by independent centers. if they can't make money off of arresting these people they will inevitably stop enforcing these laws. they are a business, not a resource of the community. this will then allow people who were previously afraid to speak out about legalization more likely to participate in demonstrations. but until you get some of these crazed law enforcement officers to redirect their attention, they will never stop pulling over teens and early twenties for simple possession charges. with the current system the officers/station wins, the lawyers win, the courts win, the prisons win, the federal/local governments win....while the people lose. which is what they want because to them we are collateral damage, nothing more.

    • 3 years ago
  • bandmanproductions
    • 0
      bandmanproductions  

    • It's already known that several states have legalized it's use for medical purpose. I'm thinking if enough states legalize it then it might become an issue for the national government to think about. I also still don't get why it hasn't become legalized already. The only difference between a joint and a cigarette are the chemicals that "big tobacco"put in the cigarette. And yet cigarettes are legal. Is are society so messed up that we can't enjoy the gifts of mother earth?

    • 3 years ago
  • akamaial
  • cabinettags
    • 0
      cabinettags  
    • bandmanproductions:

      13 states so far have voted for at least medical marijuana. #14 in the process now. The DEA comes in and busts the distribution centers. The federal govt. is acting as if the states are their children. Your doctor can OK a shot of the most addicting drug in the world yet can't prescribe a terminal patient in pain what relief smoking pot would bring them. And for some of them, that's all there is.

    • 3 years ago
  • akamaial
    • 0
      akamaial [removed]  

    • The drug crazed lunacy myth of Mary Jane has been openly revealed and dispelled. I can only conclude that there are to many industries that have a vested interest in suppressing the development of this potential valuable resource. Alcohol, petroleum, pharmaceutical, and cotton quickly come to mind. Hmmm!

    • 3 years ago
  • cheetum
  • glabadabadoo
    • 0
      glabadabadoo  
    • akamaial:

      yes there are so many industries dependent on on keeping the use of hemp illegal. That is why we should have voted for a man of principle like Ron Paul who did not take any money from ,and would not be beholden to any of these industries.

    • 3 years ago
  • bamboodizzard
    • 0
      bamboodizzard  
    • akamaial:

      You guys are talking about this like it is a conspiracy?! It is basic capitalism. It happens all over the US all the time. If MJ were to get a lobby group, this would change, period. People who are for marijuana legalization for the most part are apathetic and not organized.

    • 3 years ago
  • crispyfritters
    • 0
      crispyfritters  
    • akamaial:

      Right, they'll need that. But also, another important part is running for office. If you don't like the law, and think you can run things better, run for mayor, run for council, run for congress even. The way to change the government is from the inside.

    • 3 years ago
  • unimatrix0
12
101 - 126 of 126
more from News and Politics:
from the community

top videos