Obama received a lot of criticism for ignoring federal drug laws, including from Romney. So it’d be hypocritical for them to do the same just because it’s inconvenient to enforce law and order. But when has that ever stopped anyone?
Would the feds even have jurisdiction to enforce the federal drug laws in states that have legalized it? I was under the impression that if it didn’t cross state lines, it was a state matter, unless the constitution specifically makes it a federal matter. The 10th Amendment hasn’t been repealed, has it?
By the time a Republican is president, we’ll be pretty well into stage 3, even if that’s only 2016. It’d be like someone suggesting we undo civil rights in the 1970’s - sure, George Wallace ran for president as a crackpot, but was never in a position to do damage. Or gay marriage. Somebody might try to undo that now, because they don’t realize that ship has sailed, but they’ll at best be a tea-partying teeth-gnasher who will win a congressional seat, but nothing higher.
Same with marijuana soon. Some crazies will be standing in the corner raving about the end of society, but that will solidify marijuana all the more as an acceptable recreational drug.
Even forgetting proud old Drug War Joe, Mr. Obama has been pretty ferocious himself, weed-whacking. The kooks at Reason assess, Judging From Prosecutions, Obama Is 80 Percent Worse Than Bush on Medical Marijuana ( 2013 ); Rolling Stone has:
But over the past year, the Obama administration has quietly unleashed a multiagency crackdown on medical cannabis that goes far beyond anything undertaken by George W. Bush. The feds are busting growers who operate in full compliance with state laws, vowing to seize the property of anyone who dares to even rent to legal pot dispensaries, and threatening to imprison state employees responsible for regulating medical marijuana. With more than 100 raids on pot dispensaries during his first three years, Obama is now on pace to exceed Bush’s record for medical-marijuana busts.
( 2012 )
Which suggests the $25 Billion he devotes yearly to The War On Drugs isn’t in danger of diminishing any time soon.
Vice-President Biden believes marijuana is a gateway drug.
Then again, he believes in abstinence-only sex education as the way forward.
They will get anough flak for abolishing medicare and Obamacare that I suspect they will leave drug enforcement to the states.
Once on these boards I raised the question of what clause of the consitution authorizes the feds to interfere with pot grown and consumed within a state, never leaving that state. I got the answer from someone that the commerce clause has been held to apply since it will be smuggled out of state. And I don’t expect the nine old farts to disagree with that.
The Republicans are not going to crack down on the emerging marijuana industry because the whole idea is basically a core Republican philosophy. Republican motivations are poorly understood on this board because they are “the evil” and only a few token ‘Pubs’ even bother to post. It ends up like pissing into the wind, but I will try this time.
Republicans like the idea of personal entrepreneurship, that people can succeed in developing new industries if only the government would get out of the way. They are the pro-business minded party. Hard work, prosperous industry, will employ people and increase both personal revenue and thus tax revenue. Libertarians and Republicans value personal freedom and like to see that rewarded. The open market, with its failures and successes is the model.
Making it on your own without government interference, pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps and succeeding on personal initiative, that the solution to creating new jobs will come from allowing new business to prosper, this is all basic Republican stuff.
There is no way that the Republican party is going to interfere with this emerging new industry and freedom.
There is a much smaller part of the party that worships law enforcement that will initially be against this new industry. This is an aberration that developed due Nancy Reagan’s War on Drugs that resulted in the 1988 Drug Free Workplace Act that lead to everyone having to pee into a cup to get hired.
The War on Drugs also put confiscation powers into the hand of law enforcement and became a money making stream for police departments. This new found money stream perverted the original intent and turned law enforcement agencies into a Mafia like entity that now needs this ‘cut’ of the business. It is unnatural, immoral and often illegal and needs to end.
Republicans will find no support to fight this new industry. And doing so is to abandon some of their basic tenets. It isn’t going to happen.
My view as a pot smoking Republican.
But it’s also the party of the moral right, which very much are anti-drug. And marijuana is viewed as a drug that makes people lazy so they never will actually do any work.
It isn’t just this board. The GOP position is against marijuana. Mitt Romney, the leader of the party in 2012, was against it. If you google “republican position on marijuana,” (without the quotes), you will find that every article is about how they are against it.
The Republican Party is not pure libertarian. They have the anti-abortion aspect, the anti-homosexual aspect, and, yes, an anti-drug aspect. (Plus a pro-Christian aspect, where a libertarian would be neutral.)
I am reading about how out in California with its drought their is a big concern about marijuana growers using so much of the states remaining water. I’ve read stories about streams being dammed up, about lakes and ponds being suctioned off, and of course in the cities where its illegal to wash your car or water your lawn - people using alot of water to grow pot.
So I do see a backlash against people growing marijuana in way that uses too much water.
Right now, if you are a fed (civilian or military) or you have a fed contract, the various state laws and initiatives are meaningless. A Republican president won’t change that, unless Congress votes to change it and has enough votes to override a veto.
Common sense, logic, and the English language would all suggest that you are right. But never underestimate the deviousness of someone who wants to expand the reach of government.
What Republicans claim to support, and what they actually do are worlds apart. Actions speak louder than words.
This has been a problem for decades. The ‘Moral Majority’ is neither. And the very idea of that slogan is an affront to people that can think.