Posted on 02/27/2009 6:18:36 PM PST by Big_Monkey
Supporters of programs to provide legal marijuana to patients with painful medical conditions are celebrating Attorney General Eric Holder’s statement this week that the Drug Enforcement Administration would end its raids on state-approved marijuana dispensaries.
Federal raids on medical marijuana distributors continued at least into the second week of Barack Obama’s presidency, when federal agents shut down at least two dispensaries in California on Feb. 3.
Holder was asked about those raids Wednesday in Santa Ana, Calif., at a news conference that was called to announce the arrests of 755 people in a nationwide crackdown on the U.S. operations of Mexican drug cartels. He said such operations would no longer be conducted.
“What the president said during the campaign ... will be consistent with what we will be doing here in law enforcement,” he said. “What (Obama) said during the campaign ... is now American policy.”
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Drugging the population makes stripping their liberty's all the easier.
Munchies!!!!! 8P
Makes sense.
A large libertarian voter bloc has just been absorbed.
Here's my only problem with legalized drugs - Government Welfare.
If you want to smoke ganga, snort cocaine, shoot heroine or do whatever it is you do with meth, more power to you, with one little caveat: If you receive public assistance OF ANY KIND, then you have to pass a drug test.
Other than that, numb yourselves to death - literally.
Actually, I would like to see the DEA stop their *war on pain meds* where doctors are afraid to prescribe those meds for conditions that need pain treatment — because the DEA will sue the doctors.
Now, these are medical doctors, doing their practice with their patients and not dealing illegal drugs, but treating the condition of the patient. It’s been a problem for a while, with many doctors. I’ve dealt with it with my dad on some of pain meds with his doctor, too, before he died.
The doctors can’t treat because of insurance companies and because of the government and because of the DEA (at various times and for various things).
I would add alcohol to the list as well.
That's certainly an example of a relative minuscule number of people abusing the system and causing tremendous aggravation to the innocent and sick.
It should be addressed.
Before they halt the raids they might try the White House and some of the Congressional offices.
Post #6
I am not a pot smoker...however, I know a cancer patient that smoking pot really helps.
I am tossed up with this but am thinking, make it legal and take some tax money from the people that want to smoke it (not the cancer patients) -— it is such a cash crop in the states, people will always smoke it... use this as a offset revenue ...
Hell, not sure...
So let's see...you would therefore protect liberty by waging an unconstitutional all-out Drug War? How Orwellian van you get?
No, but that doesn't change the fact that throughout recorded history, the ruling class has always employed drugs and alcoholic as a way of soothing the great unwashed.
I was in Somalia in '92. The first thing the warlords worried about was making sure the kot (a weed that grows naturally that has a narcotic-like effect) was delivered, in a timely manner, to the population to make them easier to manage.
How Orwellian do I want to be? I don't put anything past the guys that are in charge today.
Could you please tell me what part of the Constitution says that the fedgov has the power to provide public assistance in the 1st place?
I'm glad that you said "more power to you", but if you would read the 10th Amendment again, you would realize that intra-state drug policies & the Welfare State are to be handled by the States respectively in any which way they & the people choose.
It's not. Just promote the welfare, not provide it. But, that war's been lost long ago. Whether you or I or 57 million people don't want welfare of any kind, isn't quite enough to stop it.
So, if the government is going to liberate me from my hard-earned money, I don't think it's too much to ask that the people they feel need it more than I do, aren't spending 20 of 24 hours a day, stoned, baked, tripped or drunk.
Cops need criminals. If the war on drugs is over, all those overpaid federal parasites are out of jobs and have to find honestjobs... If they can.
I damn sure wouldn’t hire one.
While I’m thrilled to see Mr. Holder say that he might actually respect the rights of the States on this one issue, I surely wish he would be a lil more consistent, ya know?
What about abortion? Education? Helping the poor & disabled (which includes me)? Health care? & on & on & on.......
The Constitution to Mr. Holder and his ilk is seen only as an impediment to the massive social reorganization that they covet.
This is a rare exception to their M.O. But, that's all it is; a rare exception.
I wonder if Joe Biden is pissed about this....after all, I’ve heard hat he was one of the main architects of the Drug War when it started back in ‘73 or so.
I don't think Biden's brain allows him to remember what he had for lunch today, let alone what he did in 1973. So long as Joe's got his home at the Naval Observatory and a front row seat to the State of the Union, he's peachy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.