Obama is a fraud (drug policy)

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Even though I am an economic conservative, I started to buy-in to the idea that Obama would implement real change.

I was incredibly optimistic to see the rise in support for the legalization of marijuana from a plethora of people from all walks of life. This represented real change, an HONEST, UNBIASED look at our drug policy and it's effects. To me, this is common sense. Prohibition doesn't work. Never has, never will. All drugs should be legalized, regulated and taxed.

Then, Obama, who had created a website specifically to reach out to Americans to get their views on positive changes to be made, holds a town forum to answer the questions raised on this website. One of the top questions across a number of topics was the legalization of marijuana.

Then, not only does he flippantly dismiss this common sense approach to economic and drug policy, he INSULTS the very people that have taken the time to try and enlighten him on this topic.

I had my reservations regarding the man prior to this, but this just takes the cake. Obama does not represent real change, and the tone of his response shows he is not nearly as open-minded as I had once hoped. Obama is a fraud.

Prohibition is some BS, especially when it comes to the dankity dank. But I don't remember Obama saying he'd legalize it. I heard of decriminalization, but not legalization. The dude's just another pawn...

He didn't say he'd legalize it, he said he was going to implement "real change". Maybe to him that means "doing the same stuff slightly differently", but to me it meant he was going to be open to these sort of radical (but obvious) changes.

If he had a reasonable answer to that question that arrived at the "not now" conclusion, I wouldn't be so up in arms over this. But he dismissed the idea as laughable, and that pisses me off.

I was very put-off by his comments myself, but I did stop to think that maybe he doesn't want to outright support the legalization of marijuana where millions of people will hear him and suddenly decide "oh Obama likes drugs so I don't like him anymore."

I've had a number of people say something similar in conversation. "He's a politician, he's gotta play the game". The thing is, he already won, now he has 4 years to do some good. If his goal is re-election, and appealing to the ignorant "middle" (represented by the schmucks in attendance that laughed and clapped at his comments), we have some serious problems ahead of us.

There's also the idea that he was asked about the legalization of marijuana and not the decriminalization..but that's just semantics and me just hoping Obama is what I thought he would be. Honestly I'd have to agree with now, no matter how much it hurts me to say it.

I wasn't impressed with his sense of humor.

Aside from the enormous amounts of taxpayer's money being spent to accomplish absolutely nothing, how many people are sitting in prison right now for doing something that does no harm to anybody else?

Is that why we have a justice system? To put hundreds of thousands of innocent people in prison?

And that as*hole thinks it's funny.

The problem is the thefts, robberies, DWIs, disputes, wreckless behavior, a drain on emergency services, and general stupidity that others have to put up with.

I hope your knowledge of gun safety exceeds your knowledge about the effects of marijuana.

The thefts, robberies, and disputes would be more a side effect of the buying and selling of marijuana than it's use. It's a problem with other drugs too.

That's one of the biggest arguments for ending prohibition. By making it legal, you remove the criminal element.

And then you have more people acting wreckless/negligent, overdosing, having DWIs, causing industrial accidents, and still taxing emergency services.

This is simply untrue, unfounded fear-mongering. Beyond that, if you're so concerned about these things, I imagine you're on the bandwagon to make all alcohol illegal? Amirite?

People will act in a reckless/negligent manner with or without any particular substance in their system. If anything, people that smoke weed are less likely to ever get in any sort of confrontation (that might require the police to get involved).

You can't overdose on marijuana, it's impossible. If you're referring to other drugs, you have it absolutely backwards. Providing a safe, clean environment to use, along with providing a regulated product to use will result in far LESS overdoses.

Maybe you shouldn't smoke weed and drive, but by that argument, you shouldn't be allowed to talk on the phone while you drive, eat or drink anything while you drive, and anyone convicted of any sort of road rage incident ever should be permanently denied the right to drive. You should have to take a driver's test every 5 years, and the driving age should be raised to 26 (and cut off at age 60). If this is your concern, you must support all of these other things as well (or it's a double-standard).

Just because marijuana is legalized does not make piss-testing at work illegal. Industrial jobs could piss test their workers as often as they wanted. That's an issue for business to deal with, not government.

"Taxing the emergency services". This is the part that REALLY pisses me off. You could not hold a more backwards opinion. If you're coming from a fiscal conservative position, you have to understand the ridiculous amount of money spent on the (completely ineffective) drug war, along with the enormous revenue stream to be had by regulating and taxing these products. We're not talking billions, we're talking TRILLIONS.

those problems, as well as others, exist with alcohol as well

Ending prohibition does not de facto end crime or criminal involvement. Alcohol based and induced crime is as great as it ever was. If Marijuana became legal, it would become a taxed medium, like alcohol and cigarettes. People would inevitably complain about that taxation, and try to evade it. Marijuana would become much the same as any other "vice". Legalisation would probably have little impact in the great scheme of things, except for the fact that possession-based arrests would obviously cease.

Consider also: would the criminal fraternity really welcome legalisation, or attempt to circumvent some aspect of it in order to retain their profit margins?

If we're talking just about marijuana, I have to disagree. With other drugs there are some arguments to be made (although I would argue those points as well).



I agree with alcohol-induced, but not alcohol-based. However, this is different from marijuana, because marijuana users are not going to get in a fight. The drug pacifies people. This should show the absurdity of prohibition, in that we allow a dangerous substance like alcohol, but disallow something that makes people mellow.

Also, I have not seen a speakeasy in.......forever.



I think this is the crux of the misunderstanding. Nobody would complain about the taxation because the drug would cost a fraction of what it does now. The reason the cost of the drug is so high is because of the large number of middlemen and the criminality of it all. If you were to get the drug directly from the source, not only would you greatly reduce the price (even with >100% taxation), you legitimize the main export crop of some Central and South American countries, and we could use some friends down there.



If you disregard the billions upon billions in tax revenue, combined with the billions upon billions you spend on the drug war, then this would be true. As is, legalization would have a huge impact. It could get our economy back on track.



This is a bit more complicated. In conjunction with legalization, we would have to significantly change the way we do business with Mexico and other Central/South American countries. Right now we are basically king exploiter #1 of Mexico, which has contributed to the degradation of their country, to the point where drug gangs are the guys in charge. Yes, they would not be happy, but who cares what they think? If some heads need to roll, so be it, in the end Mexico would be far better for it.

As for within the US, if we only legalized marijuana, leaving other drugs illegal, there would still be plenty of money to be made in the black market. I really don't think it would be an issue to be honest.