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Obama Says Treating Drug Use As a Criminal Problem Is "Counterproductive"
Huffington Post ^ | jan 22, 2015 | Tony Newman

Posted on 01/28/2015 10:52:45 AM PST by balch3

President Barack Obama continues to speak out against mass incarceration, the devastating impact of our drug policies on communities of color and his expectation that marijuana legalization will continue to spread.

Obama's comments came today during his YouTube interviews with YouTube bloggers, Bethany Mota, GloZell Green and Hank Green.

Some Obama nuggets from today's interview include this on marijuana:

"What you're seeing now is Colorado, Washington through state referenda, they're experimenting with legal marijuana," the president said in response to a question from host Hank Green.

"The position of my administration has been that we still have federal laws that classify marijuana as an illegal substance, but we're not going to spend a lot of resources trying to turn back decisions that have been made at the state level on this issue. My suspicion is that you're gonna see other states start looking at this."

Obama also addressed how we should treat people who are not violent drug offenders.

"What I am doing at the federal level," Obama responded, "is asking my Department of Justice just to examine generally how we are treating nonviolent drug offenders, because I think you're right."

"What we have done is instead of focusing on treatment -- the same way we focused, say, with tobacco or drunk driving or other problems where we treat it as public health problem -- we've treated this exclusively as a criminal problem," the president said. "I think that it's been counterproductive, and it's been devastating in a lot of minority communities. It presents the possibility at least of unequal application of the law, and that has to be changed."

(Excerpt) Read more at huffingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: counterproductive; criminal; drugs; libertarianagenda; libertarians; medicalmarijuana; obama; obamaagenda; wod
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The retreat from law and order is in full flight.
1 posted on 01/28/2015 10:52:45 AM PST by balch3
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To: balch3

Obama speaking from personal experience......


2 posted on 01/28/2015 10:55:02 AM PST by stephenjohnbanker (My Batting Average( 1,000) (GOPe is that easy to read))
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To: balch3

The drug laws have given us a major portion of the Obama Civilian Defense Force brown shirts with DEA and much of ATF and SWAT teams.


3 posted on 01/28/2015 10:55:41 AM PST by arthurus (It's true!)
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To: balch3

Repeal the drug use laws, but make being under the influence of a controlled substance (or whatever the new name for them becomes) an aggravating factor in the commission of any other crime (violent or property crime alike).

Explicitly disallow drug use as a mitigating factor in other offenses.

Then enforce the laws on other crimes.


4 posted on 01/28/2015 10:58:36 AM PST by MortMan (All those in favor of gun control raise both hands!)
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To: stephenjohnbanker

Well when they come to steal your $hip to sell it for drugs IT’s a problem. It’s a criminal act for a reason. Now stop trying to decriminalize it for your own personal use and your buddies.


5 posted on 01/28/2015 10:58:55 AM PST by jsanders2001
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To: balch3

Isn’t this Obama clown the same jackass who said this if you liked your health plan, you could keep your health plan and that if you like your doctor, you could keep your doctor? Don’t believe him! He’s a liar!


6 posted on 01/28/2015 10:59:00 AM PST by FlingWingFlyer (When the hell do I get MY white privilege? I'm tired of busting my @$$ for a living.)
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To: balch3

Treating Democrats like Americans is counterproductive.


7 posted on 01/28/2015 10:59:27 AM PST by G Larry (Obama may not be "THE" Antichrist, but he is certainly America's Antichrist.)
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To: balch3

Let’s see if I get this straight…..so…
• Someone broke the law and obtained an illegal commodity
• Someone SOLD the illegal (and dangerous) commodity to you or to your child
• You pay for it (or the child paid for it … SOMEHOW)
• You consume it (or the child consumes it)

But NO criminal activity has taken place in this scenario?


8 posted on 01/28/2015 11:00:19 AM PST by SMARTY ("When you blame others, you give up your power to change." Robert Anthony)
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To: balch3

...says the founding member of the Choom Gang.


9 posted on 01/28/2015 11:00:30 AM PST by afsnco
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To: balch3

Enforcing immigration law is counterproductive.
Funding a strong military is counterproductive.


10 posted on 01/28/2015 11:00:44 AM PST by Tenacious 1 (POPOF. President Of Pants On Fire.)
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To: balch3

Prediction: a mass pardon for lower-level drug offenders on the last day of Zero’s presidency


11 posted on 01/28/2015 11:00:51 AM PST by omega4412
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To: balch3
the devastating impact of our drug policies on communities of color and his expectation that marijuana legalization will continue to spread.

"Communities of color" sounds totally racist to me. Plenty of white people are in jail on drug charges. So does he propose to "help" black folk and leave the white guys in jail?

12 posted on 01/28/2015 11:02:39 AM PST by Veto! (Opinions freely dispensed as advice)
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To: balch3

drunk driving or other problems where we treat it as public health problem
...........................................................
In my neck of the woods, they don’t send you to a Doctor for a DWI, they arrest you and put you on trial for a criminal offense and put you in jail.


13 posted on 01/28/2015 11:04:15 AM PST by redcatcherb412
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To: jsanders2001

We never had a “war on drugs”. When somebody can deal in narcotics, and get caught several times without going to prison, that ain’t a war, it’s a joke.


14 posted on 01/28/2015 11:06:58 AM PST by stephenjohnbanker (My Batting Average( 1,000) (GOPe is that easy to read))
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To: balch3

It’s actually a trick opinion. Obama has perfected the method being a community organizer and all. Illicit drug use per-se only hurts the user in a rarefied hypothetical world, but we all know it’s the related criminal activity and other social fallout that makes it a legal/social concern. Few people are doing hard time for a baggie of weed. Barry just wants to stir it up.


15 posted on 01/28/2015 11:08:50 AM PST by SpaceBar
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To: jsanders2001
It’s a criminal act for a reason.

Care to point out to me the part of the Constitution you think empowers the federal government to make possession of a plant a crime?

I prefer limited government over a police state. The War on Drugs was the go to means of circumventing our 4th amendment rights until the War on Terror.

16 posted on 01/28/2015 11:09:26 AM PST by Gunslingr3
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To: Veto!
"Communities of color" sounds totally racist to me.

The People of Pallor must stop, STOP I say, forcing Melanics to take drugs, shooting each other, and singing rap songs that are hostile to women! NOW!

17 posted on 01/28/2015 11:09:48 AM PST by Kenny Bunk
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To: balch3
"Obama Says Treating Drug Use As a Criminal Problem Is "Counterproductive""

So is putting pot-heads in the White House.
18 posted on 01/28/2015 11:10:07 AM PST by clearcarbon
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To: Tenacious 1

” Enforcing immigration law is counterproductive.
Funding a strong military is counterproductive.”

And prosecuting people who sell drugs is counterproductive.

For Obama, anything which is evil is productive, and anything
which promotes goodness, and decency is counterproductive.


19 posted on 01/28/2015 11:14:26 AM PST by stephenjohnbanker (My Batting Average( 1,000) (GOPe is that easy to read))
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To: balch3

Mr. “Choom-Wagon”speaks from EXPERIENCE!!!


20 posted on 01/28/2015 11:14:33 AM PST by bandleader
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