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 ...
Yes, from criminals to law-abiding businesspeople.
The price might actually go up
Government has managed not to tax into existence any significant black market in alcohol - nor, except for a few liberal east coast cities, in tobacco.
Besides if its legal and everybody has it there will be even more break-ins by the self-entitled freeloaders...
Why would they be doing more breaking in then than they do now? Sounds like it requires more effort and focus that someone who's high would want to exert.
Wow, that was feeble.
You certainly support alcohol and tobacco as well as Marxist principles, if not their literature.
You are constantly boosting drugs.
Before I catch flak as well...I’d like to point out, there is a HUGE difference in legalization, decriminalization, and or restructuring penal codes.
Legalization is absolutely not the answer. Legalize drugs and people get really really stupid...look at the debacle in CO. for example.
Pants are not Policy. Idiot.
Have any evidence for this claim? Seems to me that many legal things are rarely done.
Hay, Them poor blacks must spend their welfare, and food stamp money on something. They sure in hell wont spend the money on getting ready for work!!!
What "debacle"?
You certainly support alcohol and tobacco
Only according to your personal definition.
Yes, treating crimes like they are criminal is bad.
Someone earlier had asserted that the "War on Drugs" was a "cure worse than the disease." I immediately corrected this misinformed notion. It isn't a "cure" it is a "treatment." (and No, the disease is far worse than the "treatment.") America has no stomach for a "cure" as you so aptly point out.
Do you support or oppose Obama's policy of terminating the Justice Departments "Equitable Sharing" civil asset forfeiture program?
Yeah, so?
Colorado is the beneficiary of a mass exodus from California. Those people are bringing their money and their businesses to Colorado, along with a lot of the ideas that wrecked California. They are now soiling their new nest.
“Seriously speaking, the drugs that need government involvement are heroin and other opiates, methamphetamine, pharmaceutical abuse, alcohol abuse, and some other drugs of lower priority, like cocaine, synthetics, etc.
Perhaps the majority of heroin abuse began with pharmaceutical abuse, and it needs to be addressed medically, not just exchanging methadone addiction for heroin addiction. It is likely that a private organization could set up a one-week program to clean up junkies, followed by outpatient therapy. Mostly drugs that block heroins action in the body.”
As a recovered alcoholic, I say that the physical aspects of addiction are relatively simple, compared to the more challenging psychological aspects.
If somebody claims to have a simple solution, chances are good they really do not.
Yeah, the state is just falling apart. From Business Insider, Aug 2014 =>
_________________________________________________________________
Heres How All 50 State Economies Are Doing, Ranked From Slowest To Fastest
-snip-
All in all, Colorados economy is broadly growing at a healthy clip, and so it comes in as the overall winner.
http://www.businessinsider.com/state-economic-growth-rankings-2014-8
I like the addition.
Absolutely - Alcohol intoxication (to impairment) while operating machinery or a motor vehicle would definitely remain illegal.
The Civil war left the nation with 400,000 opium and cocaine addicts which jump started narcotic addiction in this country. The incorporation of opiates and cocainoids in popular patent medicines and beverages spurred even further addiction. This is *WHY* they passed the pure food and drug act in 1906. It was because they were noticing a lot of people getting stuck on dope.
I have evidence, you have claims. I'm not interested in whether that interests you - just pointing it out for sane, honest readers.
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