YEAH! The white house responds tothe petition........

WITH BULLSHIT! have you ever argued with an idiot that just keeps stating the same made up facts at you until you've lost all self-control and start just freaking out on them? I have, and that idiot was my government. Just got this, and I'm sure most of you will get yours soon, from the white house petition I signed to legalize marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol:


What We Have to Say About Legalizing Marijuana
By Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy
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.

It was hard not to feel like a kid who asked for candy before dinner except the "mommy" in this case didn't say no because it would ruin my apatite for dinner but more like if mom said: "you can't have candy because candy will make your dick and ears fall off and turn you gay and Jimmy down the street will die if you eat candy". I'm too sick to post anythng more-I responded some angry stuff about voting the responsible party out of offce but t felt more like wah wah, again as if I was a child and not an adult with children. I'm going to wal-street to protest or somethng I'm so pist! (wal-street not a misspelling by the way)

Although the "no" response doesn't surprise me, I would agree that the way it's presented is kinda "bullshit".

bob harris said:

Although the "no" response doesn't surprise me, I would agree that the way it's presented is kinda "bullshit".

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Kind of bullshit? They used the name of science as some bastard tool of propaganda! Nothing makes me more sick to my guts then that. Seriously, "visits to emergency rooms"? I heard this crap in third grade at the damn DARE meetings and in THIRD GRADE I knew it was BS but they keeping shoveling down my throat like the taste will change if I'm force fed enough of it. Why not just reply with a free copy of reefer madness or some racist shit about how it fuels the dark-skinned people to rape the eanocent white women of the world? "Simply put, it is not a benign drug." how can we let this kind of junk keep spewing from our elected officials and their charges? I offer this, oxycotin would fit this description but not cannabis.

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.

Submitted to the academy for consideraton in the catagory of Most lies told in a single sentence.

Read the thing before you reply white house-in a manner similar to alcohol: you don't get to say how bad alcohol is for babies as your main point when the whole idea was to keep iit out of the hands of children LIKE ALCOHOL. GD-I need a J.....no wait according to the white house I need valium and oxy instead.

Easy big fella, I was agreeing with you.

They key in winning this battle is to keep trying. The "no" response had to be expected. Keep petitioning, keep moving forward. I know it's not what you want to hear, but this battle will take years, probably decades.

Sickening, but anyone that expected any different kind of reply from them had really high hopes...

so, what made them change the prohibition laws then? they eventually learned from that mistake, why is it taking so long for them to learn from this one?

unohu69 said:

so, what made them change the prohibition laws then? they eventually learned from that mistake, why is it taking so long for them to learn from this one?

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Prohibition can't really be compared to this. Cannabis is a super complex issue. Even if the Government decided to allow it's use similar to alcohol use, The regulations and control needed are HUGE, costly nightmares from a law writer perspective.

Who gets to grow it? How is it distributed? Not to mention the global economic impact.

I'm not saying I like the answer they gave. The government has loosened over the last decade or so, medical laws are an example. But decriminalization is a long ways off.

Keep fighting the good fight, we'll get there.

I dont see those as huge government involved issues. we have alcohol and tobacco companies that are more than capable of providing us with a model.
major companies will grow it as well as the individual, just like beer. I am free to cook my own beer at home, and its not that hard to get licensed to sell it if I want to.

If you wish to grow your own tobacco, there isnt a damn thing stopping you, but yet most people still choose to pay 6 bucks a pack instead of growing a few plants for their own use. The market place will determine all the details. The government just has to get out of its way, not unlike most everything the government tries to control.

Just the fact that anyone in DC read the petition is a good thing. Although most of us would agree that politicians are idiots, they actually are not. They LOVE their jobs and want to continue doing it. They also watch CNN and use all the other outlets we use. They know just like us, that 50% of Americans agree that MM laws need to be looked at and reformed. It may only be their minions reading petitions like ours, but those minions report back to their bosses. The point is getting out there and if these politicians want to keep their awesome jobs, they will have to listen up. We need to band together and discuss which politicians want the jobs and which ones dont. At the sametime, we need to be sure that all of us "in danger" (from our use of MM), are REGISTERED TO VOTE!! We have huge elections coming up, so lets figure out WHO we want and HOW to get them into office. We need numbers, lots of voices and lots of numbers. Its gotten us this far.

Guys, calm down. It's a process, it isn't going to be legal tomorrow, or in 2012, or 2016. Someday, but not this day.

unohu69 said:

so, what made them change the prohibition laws then? they eventually learned from that mistake, why is it taking so long for them to learn from this one?

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Because the drug war has grown and morphed into a massively convenient money machine for the government and they love the power and money that prohibition affords them. Them cops sure do like their steak, taters, and property forfeiture laws On top of that, they have perpetuated the lie of cannabis prohibition for so long that there is no convenient 'out' for the government to say, "oops, we screwed up.....please forgive us?".

The tide is slowly changing and the reversal will be state by state which is already happening. This is quite the opposite process of how we actually got into prohibition which was the federal government (i.e. Harry Anslinger) coercing the individual states to enact their own prohibition laws because the feds did not have the power in and of their own capacity to enforce federal marijuana prohibition in all of the states without the assistance of local police doing the job for them. So state by state, god 'ol harry got all the minions to fall in line and here we are today with blanket state and federal drug prohibitions so if one can't get ya, the other can.

Now this turn around, it's the states and the people that are saying, "we no longer want to take part in your insanity of prohibition and we are changing the laws of OUR state on our own WITH or WITHOUT you. Eventually when enough states change their laws and eliminate prohibition via decriminalization or outright legalization, the feds will no longer have the numbers on their side to continue doing what they're doing.

Nothing will change until our voting demographic becomes a united force.
Unlike the Tea Party we could be a real grass roots movement.

Any group of organized and dedicated people will be recognized, and we could start with out local and state seats and offices.

So who's up for the job of booting people out of office and electing our own public officials, and who just wants to sit around here and piss and moan like helpless little bitch's about the issues and just hope shit changes for the better ?

See people, a real intelligent answer to a question. +rep for you man.

More people should follow your example sir....

People need to vote for a new president, Ron Paul to be exact. If there is another candidate who is marijuana friendly please inform us. I didn't expect a positive reply from the Obama administration, we already seen how he lied to us to get our votes then deceivingly went after us.

I'm not being negative, I'm just saying I knew that the petition was going to fall on deaf ears.

Petitions aren't going to help, votes are.

Petitions do help in that they shine a light on the topic. The facts are out there just waiting for people to look at them and form an educated opinion. I think we need to encourage people to go on their own fact finding missions starting with google-ing "why should marijuana be legalized?".

By "people" I mean the elderly and women. The Gallup poll showed that the elderly and women represent most of the opposition.

Ok so everyone vote Ron Paul for president. That is if he makes the ballot I penciled him in last time. I guess you can vote for mickey mouse if you want to pencil it in. Hopefully he'll make the ballot this time. The media doesn't cover him even though hes a big dog. That the mans way of keeping the land of the free in slavery.

What did you expect? Yes, the on-line petition allowed for easier use of our first amendment rights to speak out, but a large majority of on-line users would never of stumbled on it unless they are actively seeking cannabis information. Not to mention a lot of the older folks who are in pain and slaves to big pharmacy for their drugs are not exactly computer using people.
Imagine if they had TV spots about it with a phone number to vote yes or no like Dancing with the Stars. I think the positive numbers would be staggering...But that would also bring attention to it. Strictly web based, only a select number of web users would know about it and vote.

The govt. made it seem easier for us to exercise our freedom of speech, but no where in the constitution does it say we have the right to be listened to.
We can talk, preach, protest till we are blue in the face and they can still say, "nope, didn't hear you."

I think I tried to sign that petition but for some reason I couldn't that part wouldn't load.