Times Of No Dope- Open Thread

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I seem to remember that shortly after the President took office in 2009 he directed the federal government not to interfere with state sanctioned medical marijuana laws and for a while they didn't. 
 

Then in 2011 that changed. A memo was drafted and policy was changed, dispensaries became fair game and the raids began. The president reasoned that he hadn't really broken his promise as they weren't going after or prosecuting patients, but where are the patients going to get their medicine Mr. president? And why? 

 

Why do this?

 

 

Marriage equality is a states rights issue, but this isn't? 

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Good morning.

Glinda's picture

So many people are being hurt by the holier than thou in the Obama Administration/DOJ.  It truly is heartbreaking.

Why are they doing this?  Drug companies aren't making enough money so they're demanding the DOJ take these actions? 

And wtf is up with this?  It's just not fair.

At his trial, Williams was prevented from invoking his compliance with state law as a defense against the federal charges. As a result, the jury heard a partial, and profoundly distorted version of Chris' story -- and on this basis convicted him on eight counts, which carry a mandatory minimum of more than 80 years in prison.

Not able to invoke compliance with state law?  Again, wtf? If it weren't for the state law, he wouldn't have been growing medical marijuana like that in the first place.

His treatment was outrageous.  And all the people now suffering because they can't get access to the very thing they need to make them feel better.

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And so--by extension they ARE going after

triv33's picture

the patients. Have you ever noticed that when the President is questioned on this he'll start out by saying something like--well, look...--that's to cue you that what follows is going to be him kind of leveling with you and hey, let's be reasonable here. Then he says something like- we're not going after the patients, which isn't very reasonable at all because it leaves unsaid--we're just depriving them of access to their medicine and punishing their supplier to put the fera of God into anybody else thinking of supplying them, no worries.

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These aren't criminals

triv33's picture

These are people who are following the laws their state enacted and their lives are being destoyed. They're now fodder for the prison industrial complex. I guess Unicor needed another 23 cent an hour worker. Fuck this noise.

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Kickstarter Project

Glinda's picture

We need your help to update CODE OF THE WEST and bring these stories to a national audience.

Kickstarter:  CODE OF THE WEST documentary about medical marijuana

 

We’re raising more than $30,000 on Kickstarter to help us build on this omentum and use the film to fight for sensible drug policy reform so that medical marijuana growers like Chris Williams never have to face an 80+ year prison sentence again.

 

We hope you’ll consider making a pledge!

 

Whether it’s $5, $25, $100, $1000 or more, your contribution will help us update CODE OF THE WEST and bring these stories to the nation’s attention.
How the Money Will Be Spent

 

If we reach our goal of $30,000 by December 5, we’ll be able to reach two major objectives for the project:

 

1. Hire an award-winning editor to update the film with new scenes. If we're successful, the new cut will be ready by Spring 2013!

 

2. Work with our current partner organizations, as well as engage additional organizations and influencers, in order to build the grassroots campaign to reform these failed drug policies and bring the film to cities and towns across America in 2013.

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Going way off topic here, I find this to be Highlarious

Glinda's picture

The 7 strangest details of the David Petraeus affair

I'm guessing Jill is now sorry she contacted her friend who's an FBI agent who sent her shirtless pictures of himself.
 

4. The Kelleys bankrupted their sketchy cancer charity Jill Kelley and her cancer-surgeon husband, Scott, spent their way into Tampa society by throwing lavish parties for military leaders and visiting with dignitaries at their mansion on swanky Bayshore Boulevard. That house was also the listed headquarters for the Doctor Kelley Cancer Foundation, an apparently short-lived charity they founded in 2007 "exclusively to conduct cancer research and to grant wishes to terminally ill adult cancer patients." To put it mildly, "it appears that the charity fell far short of ts mission," say Jason Cherkis and Christina Wilkie at The Huffington Post. "By the end of 2007, the charity had gone bankrupt, having conveniently spent exactly the same amount of money, $157,284, as it started with — not a dollar more" — on such things as "meals and entertainment" ($43,317), "travel" ($38,610), legal fees ($25,013), office expenses and supplies ($12,807), "automotive expenses" ($8,822), and utilities and telephones ($7,854). The couple also faces millions in lawsuits from banks for not paying mortgages on property they own and credit card debt.

 

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This is scary, and I blame the Democrats for this, too.

Glinda's picture

 

Most Americans voted for Democratic representation in the House. The votes re still being counted, but as of now it looks as if Democrats have a slight edge in the popular vote for House seats, 49%-48.2%, according to an analysis by  the Washington Post. Still, as the Post's Aaron Blake notes, the 233-195 seat majority the GOP will likely end up with represents the GOP's "second-biggest House majority in 60 years and their third-biggest since the Great Depression."

 

So how did Republicans keep their House majority despite more Americans voting for the other party—something that has only happened three times in the last hundred years, according to political analyst Richard Winger? Because they drew the lines.

Now That's What I Call Gerrymandering!

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The Ohio anti-gerrymander proposition ...

BruceMcF's picture

... was supported by the state party (of course, since fair lines would be the second best thing for them after the Democrats gerrymandering the lines), but the President was largely silent, and it wasn't on the canvass list of questions for the Obama for America volunteers.

We Buckeye saw a majority of votes cast for Democrats for the Ohio House of Representatives, with Democrats winning 39, Republicans 58, and 2 (drawn to be Republican) still to be decided. The supermajority for waving past regular rules is 60% in the Ohio House of Representatives, so unless one of those two undecideds fall to a Democrat, the Republicans can run their next batch of reproductive slavery laws and voter suppression lines through the House on a zipline.

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David Sirota's White House petition passed the 25K mark

Glinda's picture

since Monday.
 

We petition the obama administration to:

 
Support a law protecting states' rights to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana like alcohol.

 

Citizens in Colorado and Washington overwhelmingly voted to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana in similar fashion as the more hazardous substance, alcohol, is already legalized, regulated and taxed. We request the president support a federal law requiring the federal government to protect - rather than undermine or overturn - these state laws and similar laws that other states pass in the future. Specifically, we request the president to support a pending congressional proposal that would amend the federal pre-emption section of the Controlled Substances Act (section 903) to exempt from the act any state provisions "relating to marijuana."

 

On Monday, KHOW talk-show host and syndicated columnist David Sirota created a WhiteHouse.gov petition calling on the Obama administration to back a law protecting the right of states to establish their own marijuana policies, as the voters of Colorado did by passing Amendment 64. Such petitions must garner 25,000 signatures within thirty days to prompt an official response -- but 48 hours or so appears to be enough. At this writing, the petition is on the cusp of passing the threshold.[...]

 

"I didn't expect it to get 25,000 signatures so fast," notes Sirota, corresponding via e-mail.

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