It's going to make the news, right before the elections, and it will be interesting to see how the candidates react. My prediction: Romney: "Ummm, pot is bad, mmkay?" Ryan: "It's an issue for the states, and marijuana should never be legal. I have a great power point about the economy, can we talk about that now?" Biden: "I think this is a very complicated question about public health and safety that requires a lot of careful analysis. At this point, the courts are looking into it." (Right answer, both politically and as a human being who cares about other human beings.) Obama: "I'm not in favor of legalizing marijuana. Can we talk about football and beer, now?"
I find Obama's stance on pot... frustrating, to say the least. This is the same guy who gave us a priceless moment of actual honesty from a politician. It was stunning. It was beautiful. It confused me and made me want to vote for him.
"When I was a kid, I inhaled, frequently. That was the point." -- Not-the-President Obama, October 2006It might not have been the best message to send to the kids at home, but hopefully their parents were wise enough to point out that he didn't do so hot in college while he was toking it up. Good discussion topic.
Six years later, and a bit wiser, Obama is pretty much silent on the issue now. On the rare occasion that he does say something, it's a much less carefree guy who responds with things like this:
"What I specifically said was that we were not going to prioritize prosecutions of persons who are using medical marijuana," the president said. "I never made a commitment that somehow we were going to give carte blanche to large-scale producers and operators of marijuana." -- President Obama, March 2012The problem, of course, is that marijuana is often used as self-medication to treat for depression, anxiety, chronic pain, insomnia... you name it. These are common illnesses, which means there's a very high demand for a safe and effective treatment. Make medical marijuana legal, and you get the not terribly surprising result that many, many people would rather smoke a joint than pop four or five pills every day. This means a lot of revenue in the big cities, which means a higher quality product in the businesses that are run well by people who care about their jobs. Not surprisingly, they make a lot of money, and then invest that money in delivering a better product more efficiently. They get taxed, schools get books, teachers get paid. It's pretty much the definition of a win-win scenario for everyone involved.
Except, of course, for when it isn't. The political reality of marijuana makes it a very risky business to be involved with.
For more than a year, the Obama Justice Department has been escalating its attacks in medical marijuana states, including dozens of new federal indictments and prosecutions. Though U.S. Attorneys often claim that the accused have violated state law in some way, defendants are prevented from using any medical evidence or a state law defense in federal court. If the rescheduling lawsuit is successful and marijuana is reclassified, federal defendants will then gain the basis for a medical necessity defense.
Our President (who, let's get very real here, would not be our President if his youthful dalliances with "pot, and maybe a little blow" had landed him in jail) has basically left it to the courts, and so far the courts still see marijuana as a Schedule 1 substance, on par with heroin. That may be changing, though. There's an awful lot of research out there, and it's getting harder to ignore. Put simply, "Reefer Madness" is not a documentary.*
*although it does make an excellent drinking game
This October will see some arguments that actually have the potential to do some measurable good for people who are suffering. It's about damn time.
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