If Prop 19 passes, the Feds will come down on California:
So much for Obama being your buddy, 'eh?
We will see after the election. That stance must have polled well.
Coming out flat and unequivocal in favor of legalizing marijuana may be ethically clean but politics-wise, they might as well shove a hand grenade up their Nixon and pull the pin. The right would go absolutely ape shit, and not even that much of the left would be pleased.
And what does he mean “enforce”? Were jackboots and helicopter assaults promised? Is giggle weed to take priority over heroin and meth? Just what sort of “enforcement” has been threatened here?
Relax, its posturing. Thank Og they are not that fucking stupid.
If you don’t want the federal marijuana law enforced, you should repeal it. I don’t like the idea of the President deciding unilaterally what laws he will and won’t enforce.
It makes me so angry that the Federal government wont even look into decriminalization or legalization of marijuana for adults, especially pain patients. Why?
If marijuana was legalized, and the concentration of the police was on crystal meth, cocaine, heroin and other drugs who actually do harm to people. If American troops were in the United States on the border instead of in the Middle East fighting senseless wars, there would be little cocaine/heroin in the United States.
The USA government themselves are drug dealers, with the CIA selling heroin for shipment to fund their little wars in Vietnam and southeast Asia. The Taliban government in Afghanistan stopped poppy cultivation. Now that they are gone, the poppies are back, with the proceeds of the sale to the puppet government there, and yes, the American government. But this same American government still…still wants to make smoking a joint in your home a crime. Outrageous.
What about controls on the pharmaceutical industries? How many of their drugs have killed patients? How many of their drugs have caused addiction and overdose? Oxycotin is more or less chemical heroin. That’s legal with a prescription. How many people have died OD’ing on that shit? (Heath Ledger anyone?)
The most dangerous drug out there is alcohol. It’s addictive, horrible for the body and leaves people under its influence vunerable to accidents and crime. But the product is legal. Tobacco is legal, a substance that is also extremely addictive which kills about 400,000 people a year. Legal.
If you want to know what a real dickhead looks like, open the link. The first old sagging fascist prick is Richard Bonner. The thug standing behind him in the Sheriff of Los Angeles County who wants to put your ass in jail and earn you a criminal record, not to mention fines and shit to keep his troops stocked with donuts, fast police cars and mustache combs. The prisons of the United States are vastly overpopulated, especially with pot dealers and non violent drug users. Doesn’t matter to these two pricks. This is how they make their money.
Be happy. Smoke a joint today!
Because retards on both the left and the right would lose their shit. An attempt to legalize marijuana will be interpreted and spun as and attempt to promote drug use. Never mind that alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana, drugs are bad (never mind that alcohol is a drug, too)!
WTF does that have to do with anything? Did he campaign on a promise to not enforce federal drug laws if states didn’t want him to?
Sorry, there’s no “gotcha” here.
I would be pretty pissed if this was not their position, and I’m in favor of Prop. 19.
Not only is selective political enforcement a bad precedent to set (see also DADT), the ensuing shitstorm would probably cause South Carolina to secede again. No one wants that.
As I’ve said in other threads, I’m waiting for the conservatives to start protesting this on the grounds of states’ rights.
Wait, now I think of it, that argument only seems to come up on a regular basis when the subject is guns…
Didn’t Holder also promise to go after Medical Marijuana before he was reigned in by Obama?
Relax. Holder is in the Law Enforcement Community, and that’s his audience. Expecting him not to say this shit is like expecting North Korea to stop threatening the rest of the world. You’re damned skippy the LE community is eating this up, as they’d like nothing better than to ENFORCE MORE LAWS. That’s what they do.
Honestly, I expect he’ll do his best to push DEA and FBI into Cali to bust as many larger growers and distributors as he can, and as many smaller people as he can to get to the larger distributors and build cases. The Federal Courts in the region will be overwhelmed with pot cases. At which point the State of California will be filing complaints, their media will make the Feds out to be “Jack booted thugs” and worst of all, all non-marijuana related federal court related activity will be slowed to a crawl. Which will then lead to Federal judges deciding to throw out the Marijuana cases by whatever means necessary so that they can handle real crime. Eventually they’ll probably settle on deciding that internal-only cases (grown, distributed, sold, used in CA only) cases are NOT under Federal jurisdiction, leaving only Interstate cases to the Feds, and even for those, many will be pushed off on the surrounding states for prosecution until THEY decide that it is a bother or legalize it themselves.
I don’t think the federal courts will be overwhelmed - the feds will have to decide how to allocate scarce resources. Going after pot or after terrorists or smugglers or banks? How to choose?
Even if they do, some, it will save a load of state money which can be used for cops and prisons to hold real offenders.
It seems rather unlikely that the DEA is going to say “Well, we will never get them into court, so let’s stop arresting them”.
cite?
I’ve actually wondered if this could be a sneaky end-around play to open the national dialogue on decriminalization. Prop 19 passes, the DEA moves in and fails spectacularly to stop the marijuana business in California. Suddenly, it’s “Look, we tried. It’s futile, and incredibly expensive. Let’s talk decriminalization.”
Naive?
Yes, because that’s been happening for 30 years anyway. There are vested interests which support keeping current drug laws on the book, regardless of their societal costs. Those are just externalities.
Idunno.
Low-hanging fruit?
If we can pass 19, I will be one conservative who will enjoy looking my brethren in the eye and asking them to support states’ rights. This will be a great test of the states’ rights right wingers, and I hope it can work to bring more of them over to the more libertarian mindset. This could be our “defend the rights of Illinois nazis* to march” test of true believers.
This is one of many reasons I support Prop 19.
*I, of course, hate Illinois nazis.
If it came up during another investigation, I’m sure they would add pot charges. But the Feds don’t make traffic stops, and don’t walk beats.
Now, I’m talking about this administration. I’ll certainly agree that some other one might decide to prioritize attacking the reefer menace.
It plays to the base, which is so old they still hate hippies.
Don’t forget that it’s also a big money maker for many, many people.
-Joe, not a toker