Federal authorities with the US Attorney’s Los Angeles office issued official warning letters to 68 Los Angeles medical cannabis dispensaries today, initiated forfeiture lawsuits against three properties that did business with dispensaries, and served search warrants on three further locations.
In an official statement on today’s action, US Attorney André Birotte Jr.stated:
“Over the past several years, we have seen an explosion of commercial marijuana stores -– an explosion that is being driven by the massive profits associated with marijuana distribution. As today’s operations make clear, the sale and distribution of marijuana violates federal law, and we intend to enforce the law. Even those stores not targeted today should understand that they cannot continue to profit in violation of the law.”
The LA Weekly is reporting that the list of targets included every single dispensary in the Downtown, Huntington, and Eagle Rock areas of the city. You can read more media coverage here and here. We will keep you updated as the situation develops.
André Birotte, please follow the law and get the fuck out what is none of your business!
Federal goverment has no authority over marijuana grown in state for distribution within said state. Follow the law assholes, and go away!
So when, exactly, can these dispensaries expect to operate within compliance of the law? That’s the only legitimate response to that statement. When will the feds realize that cannabis is a miracle substance and stop trying to prohibit its use? When will our government stop pandering to the special interests and legalized cannabis productions, sale, distribution, and use? At exactly what point do the feds realize that the general public supports cannabis legalization and stops arresting people for meeting the demand for it? The answer is: when it’s more profitable to support than to prohibit…
If L.A and the rest of Calif. don’t like the Canibus Stores “making a profit” off the Sales of Canibus then maybe they should get their heads out of their asses and legalize it on a Fedral level as well. Tax it like “THEY” do EVERYTHING else we Purchase, earn, and own! maybe this Country WE AMERICANS live could 1.PAY OFF National Debt. 2. Become an Independent Nation, Self Sustaining, through the products made from Hemp. The Farming Industry would flourish. 3.Take the “PRODUCT” of the Mexican Cartel away, it WOULD and SHOULD STOP THE DEMAND, And they COULD and SHOULD TARGET
THE HEROIN AND HUMAN TRAFFICING, instead of wasting everyone’s time. Whatever happened to “WE THE PEOPLE” NOT “WE THE GOVERNMENT” We elect the people who run this Country and if they arn’t doing the job that we hired them to do “SERVE THE PEOPLE OF THESE UNITED STATES”, then it’s up to US the PEOPLE to VOTE THEM OUT! If every Canibus user or Family Member of an ill loved one. Voted for GARY JOHNSON the Libitarian Candidate,(that WE NEVER get to hear or see on TV. Because of the”TWO CANDIDATES” they keep SHOVING down our throats. We could WIN this ELECTION!!! Go to Gary Johnson on Facebook and check him out. Thank You
I thought Obama was not going to prosecute people in states where medical pot was legal? Yet his thug goons at the DEA are still brutalizing citizens. It is directly Obama’s fault. He is the cheif executive officer. All he has to do is “call off the dogs”. But he’s just like every other lying POS democRAT president that has promised to do this. I say ABO 2012….anybody but Obama 2012. At least the other guy will tell you he’s gonna kick your door in…instead of lying like the current commander in thief!
Do these dispensaries not pay tax? Did the FEDS forget about prop215 ?
Ok so lets profit from Medical Marijuana by decriminalizing it and regulating it! Bring a surge of money to this shittered U.S Economy and give out jobs all over the country!
This country NEEDS a fresh dose of free market capitalism to lift itself out of the economic slog. Instead, we have a government monopoly placing the ultimate regulation on our most lucrative market, ensuring that only outlaws can stay in business and our own workers struggle with pain without their medicine.
My hopes for the three state initiatives ride high this November. To borrow the words of one of our opponents, we must tear down this wall!
Next marshal law along Texas boarder. Mass invasion in our homes. This cop told me that they have a long list of pot heads. All they need is the go a head from our government to go in our homes and bust us. With the build up of the right wing government in our country they are all most there. U have a lot of tea party”s that endorse the mass home pot bust. Dont believe they want state right . That only applies to what they want.
US Attorney André Birotte Jr. has made it very clear that he believes marijuana should remain firmly in the hands of the criminal drug gangs. He does not want the “massive profits” going to benefit American society through sales and taxes.
I wonder if he has any private prison investments or if he has direct connections to the Mexican cartels… Hmmm…
what about the referendum?
I have been going to clinics in LA for over 3 years now and this is just something that happens often. I sadly never find myself going to the same clinic for more than 6 months because they always get shut down.
Respect for the law works both ways. Carcinogenic tobacco is perfectly legal. Marijuana with anti-tumor properties is illegal. I have no respect for laws without some basis in science and reason.
Cali should have legalized in 2008 and Feds would have there hands much more full today trying to stop peaceful marijuana smokers.
Shoulda, woulda, coulda.
Wow, Colorado, Washington and even possibly Oregon are on track to legalize this fall and poor little California is still struggling with medical marijuana. Maybe California stoners won’t be so quick to dismiss legalization efforts like they did with prop 19, next time around. But until then, other states will leave California behind. Serves you right, California.
another lie told by obama. he promised to have an open mind and listen to what the people had to say, but when the majority wanted a debate on legalization he brushed it aside jokingly. write in who you want, vote for your self, but dont vote for four more years of lies!
DEA.Cut a hole in the sheet,turn out the light and LEAVE ME ALONE.
If all those potheads on the feds’ “long list” would all decide to gather on a set day in WDC and light up a huge fattie we’d have all this crap overturned in a day. What would they do? Arrest 100 million people?
In that case, why do the dispensary owners not sue the US government for accepting drug money? The owners have been paying taxes to the Federal government for years, which the federal government has accepted willingly. By accepting tax money, the government has given it’s approval to the licensed sale of cannabis.
Our government can’t have it both ways. It is either guilty of conspiring to accept drug money, or the taxes they have received and accepted are from legal sources.
Very simple solution. Legalize it. It seems like they are trying to crack down right before people vote on the issue.
At least 2 of the states voting to fully legalize this year are looking very promising. Oregon may have to wait until the Federal government is forced after the vote.
75 years of treason and what about 37 years of known genocide. The competition get’s thug’s busting it up. Is this the attack? When do we win?
Sounds like Obama is sick of being president. God help us if Romney wins. But like Avery Mac said at least you know they will be kicking your door in and shooting your dogs sooner or later.
Why does’nt Bill Maher have Gary Johnson on his show. Give the people a choice, but then Bill did piss off a million dollars.
This is all about money, the other commercial entities (Alcohol Distributors, Pharmaceutics companies, etc.) are paying the Federal Government. These corporations are the root cause. The only way this is going to stop is people banding together and demanding that the DEA budget be cut!
(@ Cat Cassie very well said.) It is true one day they will be kicking down our doors and killing our pets. There will be a civil war. First only small pockets of freedom fighter will do the fighting then it will grow to a full mass war. U will see cop being kill to take there guns and radio.s from them. Food will be ration streets will be close Marshall law will be here among us till our Government is over thrown. Think Iam just dreaming a night mare think again.
Pass it around: http://km7.us/1 Get out the VOTE: http://HDCOLORS.COM. Copy and share these videos for FREE. I think you’ll find that we have a little extra help in high places.
He’s doing that because he knows he is going to win the election without California.The people in California need to get their heads out of their asses as well and join Washington,Colorado and Oregon and totally legalize it making the feds shit on themselves.When the people said and voted to put Obama in office ,he took office.Now they have said relegalize cannabis and have voted on relegalizing cannabis but it’s being ignored.Well I’m going to ignore Obama and dodge Mitt’s name on the ballot.Gary Johnson/Jim Gray 2012
So now we can really give the feds credit for adding to the unemployment rate in California, where it’s state employees were giving I.O.U.’s as pay for their services. And schools continue to close hmmmmmm.
brian cole—-
i like your point. very thought provoking…..i bet if one were to search hard enough we could find a lawyer to go for it. what’s the harm in trying? at least it brings more of the issues to press.
i’m also curious….if one or two or all 3 states passed, will the feds interfere? right now law has it that fed trumps state. can they file an injunction or call an emergency vote or whatever to keep the law going into effect until a court can make a ruling on it?
i’m less concerned that any of them will pass, and more so about what happens when it does. we have a 1 in 3 chance at least and would put money on 2 of them going thru. but what happens when it does from a federal point of view? what actions can they take? what grounds do they have to stand on? this would be something of a serious thorn in their side and it will go all the way to the top. best we are prepared for the aftermath because i garauntee you they already have a plan. what is ours?
The state laws are not going to work. Go for a constitutional amendment.
The Corrections Corporation of America spent 14.8 million dollars lobbying congress from 2008 to 2010. They want us in their jails so they can make more money. This issue of prohibition has always been about corporate greed. It started with DuPont and Hearst and continues with CCA. They have more money to buy politicians then we do. Our only hope is to elect more people like Mr. Polished of Colorado.
Mr. Polis of Colorado.
Gary is a good guy, but before voting for him and electing Romney (first priority should have been abolishing corrupt Electoral College crap and instituting open primary with top-two runoff) bear in mind that according to websites today Romney has received $75,560 from Big 2WackGo compared to Obama $17,487. Doesn’t look like much money compared to total campaign expenditures but it buys access for smooth well-dressed lobbyists (lawbuyists), on whose salaries the corps probably spend many times that much money, to schmooze with the elected guy’s staff and write proposed anti-cannabis legislation.
Don’t count Oregon out until they count the ballots!
The owners of these dispensaries have been begging the city council for a few years now to “Please Legislate” the industry and lay down some ground rules. The city council sends out closure notices and bungles it the first time out as some of the higher profile clinics hire lawyers – which begets “the moratorium” and opened up the flood gates for a few hundred more dispensaries to take root and further exacerbate the City Counsel’s problem. Then the L.A. City Counsel wants to circumvent State law. Dispensaries, through a grass roots effort, drum up enough signatures for a referendum vote on the ballot in March. L.A. City Counsel then requests the assistance of the Feds to handle the dirty work their second closure ordinance could not. As a concerned, tax-paying, law abiding citizen who loves to toke up, I don’t know what scares me more? My city council conceding it’s power to the government or trying to use the Feds to flex their muscle on an agenda that their chaffed egos are too ineffectual to enforce themselves. Either way you slice it- We residents in Los Angeles need to get out and vote for more competent representation. If the L.A. City Council cannot control affairs under their jurisdiction for any reason without calling in the Federal government then how much faith can I have in them to enforce the truly pressing matters our city needs tending to. Ban it, Don’t ban it. Who cares! Just don’t threaten the majority of dispensary owners who are hard working Americans with federal prison.
The current definition of marijuana doesn’t show respect for our Constitution. It is an abstruse, racist 104 word tautology.
These raids would not be happening if we the people demanded our representatives to define marijuana with this simple definition which actually showed respect for our Constitution:
16. The term ‘marijuana’ means all parts
of the smoke produced by the combustion
of the plant Cannabis sativa L.
What would happen if California enacted this definition?
For more information, google Talking Points for the Peloton.
Here’s a question that came to me a few nights ago, and it’s driving me bonkers. We all know about the dispensaries being raided and whatnot. But what about patients in MMJ states that purely grow their own medication? How many arrests and home invasions have been done on them? I know about all the raids on houses over growing/possessing/selling weed, but I’m talking purely 100% MMJ patients who grow all their own. Can anyone fill me in here?
Why do our elected officials side with Federal law? I guess they will not get reelected. Since when is it the job of the State law enforcement to uphold federal law? Our state tax dollars do not support retarded federal law. I wonder if the federal government some how offers pay off incentives to these rogue state agencies?
The federal government should be held accountable for violating state’s laws. Next time there is an illegal raid… the participants in the illegal search and seizure (whomever they may be) should be shot and killed in the name of trespassing and self defense. If more cops and DEA were shot in self defense and killed they would back down.
i dont really feel sorry for the shops, if they hadnt been so greedy and voted against prop 19, they wouldnt be facing this problem if they had legalized they would at least have the state behind them now
THUD,,UN Told to find alternative to war on drugs.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/t/story/mexican-president-calls-drug-debate-17332146?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter#.UGQVbLJmR9s
Shutting down prohibition from all sides is speeding up our effort to take our right to the pursuit of happiness from the monsters stealing it.
if the meical marajuana shops hadnt voted prop19 down because of thier greed they wouldnt be facing this problem
And Obama has a microbrewery in the WhiteHouse! Such super hypocrites !
@Luke, It will all go undeground and then the Home invasions, survelliance, and debauchery will happen to the people who are already fighting afflictions, it is a major transgression against the children of God !
Luke u are very intuitive !
It’s bs. Why don’t they take down CVS/Walgreens? I was fully evaluated for bi-polar, I had to drop two hundred dollars on 60 depakote pills that have no good side effects, all because marijuana is not legal in my state of Indiana, in which, marijuana has been very hard to get too cannot get, so I had to submit myself to a hospital for suicide. It’s all fucking bullshit. I guess the big pharmaceutical companys won my money. I been taking these pills for 4 days now and still don’t feel any difference, I can take a puff off a joint and get results right away. I’ll prob be dead either by natural or unnatural causes before indiana legalizes. I hope ppl out there can feel my pain and stick this in the front pages of the news paper cuz quite frankly I am so sick of the us govt bs and their money buddies [big pharmaceutical companys]. I even told the psychiatrists that marijuana helps so much and he just ignored the fact, I am now on depakote.
Makes all you guys want to keep Obama in the Wh huh!?
The Quote of the Decade
“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America ‘s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government can not pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America ‘s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that, “the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.”
— Senator Barack H. Obama, March 2006
And I completely agree! I will not vote for this man again, Sadly now my vote goes to Romney, who will do no better…
Considering the costs involved with policing the issue and it’s lack of relative success I think it’s pretty important the country start to have a serious discussion about the merits of continuing the policy as is.
We have several hurdles to overcome here.
1~ Only congress can move cannabis from being a schedule one narcotic (along with heroin) to schedule 2 and the DEA takes it’s cue from congress. Schedule 2 would allow unobstructed studies to be carried out and than the fed’s would have to pay attention and they know it too.
2~ Congressional leaders (I laugh….leaders?…I wish) receive hundreds of thousands of dollars from pharmaceutical companies, alcohol purveyors, private prison owners, paper/lumber companies and big oil as well as other industries that wish to keep cannabis illegal. If you have questions regarding what each of these companies gain from prohibition you need to do better research.
3~ If cannabis is legalized at the state level it will set up a showdown between the fed’s and the states leading to constitutional rights and who has the final say. We are a republic with fifty seperate states with fifty seperate governing bodies and different sets of laws, many of which wildly vary. The fed’s are technically a secondary governing body, it’s just that they’ve forgotten this little known fact. How convenient.
This is not going to be a walk n the park. We have to start somewhere and until we have set some legal precedent at the state level nothing will change. The fed’s hope against hope that no state will legalize cannabis for the simple reason that there will have to be a showdown and a lengthy legal battle. Without a team of very talented lawyers ready to take on this battle for the state(s) nothing will change.
As for the conspiracy theorists who think we’re headed for some kind of police state I suggest you take a few deep breaths, cut back on your cannabis intake (or switch to a nice mild indica in the evening) and read up on cannabis laws. Here in California, anything less than 28.5 grams is an infraction with a $100 fine, no lawyers or judges intro’s and no jail time. Not perfect but a step in the right direction and a states rights that the fed’s cannot touch. Write letters to your state representative’s if you want to see similar laws in your state. Yes, you’ll have to actually do something. Oh well.
Legalize cannabis? Absolutely! Soon? The sooner the better. Do we have a long way to go? Probably, yes.
What can we do? Plow ahead.
Meanwhile, use cannabis responsibly. Don’t flaunt your use, have some class for god’s sake. If you use it don’t hide in the shadows either, let people know that you can hold down your job, pay your bills, raise your family and have an otherwise healthy lifestyle. Take care of yourself. Don’t do stupid stoner shit and act like this is normal cannabis behavior, it isn’t, it’s just the normal stupid shit you would have done
anyway whether you used cannabis or not. And as for you documentary makers, stop interviewing very stoned party-animals and interview some citizens that look like average business types with average lives for a change…y’know…the vast majority of people that actually use cannabis regularly. After all, whom do you all think is using the ten’s of thousand’s of pounds of cannabis that is grown here in the states, that never leaves the states? EVERYONE! Get a friggin clue! Educate yourself and sound like you know what you’re talking about when discussing the issue so you can educate others. Shut down bullshit when someone opens their mouth and spreads it concerning cannabis.
We’re in this together. Be a positive influence. Knowledge is Power.
Keep the faith.
Peace.
to many law enforcement jobs would be lost. TruthHurtsCorporations.org
@Ray DiPasquale,
I don’t agree his having a microbrewery is hypocritical, it’s not the same as having a relationship with some big corporate brewery (John McCain’s wife/Coors). An argument can be made that the dispensaries were too greedy (their pricing wasn’t any more generous than the black market, right?), they were “exploiting” the “recreational users” they sold too etc. whereas the “microgrowhouse” user who raises a couple of plants indoors will gain points for emulating the President.
Disappointment with Obama– lest we forget that the first Chicago President was disappointing many as he dawdled over the Emancipation Proclamation (finally issued, histoerians say, when he felt some battlefield victories had solidified his position)– the question might be what victory does Obama need to issue a cannabis emancipation proclamation? (In fact, it might result in suddenly freeing millions of nicotine slaves so Barry will have to get together with “Low Tar Smokin'” Johnny and BAIL OUT PHILIP MORRIS.)
1. Get a modest amount of lighting and rise one or two high-thc indoor plants. Use a 5.5-mm diameter screened crater Choomette to serve 25-mg sifted-herb vapetokes for utmost efficiency.
2. Do a favor for the pro-hemp movement by using the Brownspliff method to plant hempseeds around town. Roll up high quality POTting soil in a sycamore leaf or brown paper towel, use a dibble stick to make a deep hole among the roots of some bush or hedgerow, stand the brownspliff in it, then bike down the road and plant another one. Those plants will grow next year in protective shade, receive water drippings, hidden by the shrubbery until they go to seed– the second year weed is everywhere and the prohibs are swamped and give up.
OMG!!! Why the hell do people keep saying the police need to be locking up potheads in order to justify having them on the payroll. This is crazy talk folks. The police’s job has nothing to do with marijuana and our system is overburdened with false arrests for pot. That means arresting potheads is wasting the police officers’ time and our court systems–we paying for something (protection from criminals) and getting abused by heavy handed law enforcement instead. However we pay the police to do their jobs, which is go after criminals? We don’t have to let them go, they just get directed to go after real criminals, not scape goats. I bet plenty of police want to smoke.
Robert, I like your post, but I do believe we are headed straight for a police state. The government has two goals for us.
#1) Institutionalize everyone. Some would argue that we’re already there.
#2) RFID CHIP IMPLANTS for everyone.
They are using narcotic substance abuse (AKA smoking marijuana) as a form of terrorism. Yes, if you smoke cannabis, or grow this plant, you are now a terrorist in the eyes of the feds. They want that nice list of medical marijuana users the states have and to start rounding up innocent people. They want any excuse they can to lock people away. Their reasons are becoming more and more ridiculous (some people are being arrested for collecting small amounts of rain water), but the American people don’t seem to mind that much. But I think all laws are stupid, we don’t need them, never have, that’s why we made the constitution, to give we the people rights. The police are nothing more than really good janitors. They don’t prevent ANY crimes, they come and mop up after the damage is done. Laws don’t prevent anyone from doing anything. If Laws worked, crime would not exist.
I was playing poker at a casino recently and the topic of police officers came up. I blurted out straight away “every cop is a criminal”. Seated to my left was a cop. They other players started saying Uh oh and I said “I realy dont give a fuck. Every cop is a criminal.” The cop called me ignorant and asked me why I felt that way. I said “if you knew where I came from, you’de know where I’m coming from.” The black guy at the table nodded in agreement. “I continued: every cop takes an unwritten oath to never rat out another cop. Thats ‘conspiracy to with hold info’, a crime.”
So they make a lot of money. Isin’t that the american dream? This country loves to shoot itself in the foot!
Hey III%, if you’re serious about voting for Romney on this basis, then Thurston Howell has a sign for you: “useful idiot.” Do no better? Need I ask if you’re high? He would be infinitely worse, but yeah, let’s all vote for the Romney-bot. The guy actually appears more clueless than Dubya, M.D., and those of us who actually do pay attention know what a catastrophe that amoral shape-shifting plutocrat would be in the white house. So the Republicans would control the house, the White House, the Supreme Court, and they’ll use the arcane rules in the Senate to steamroll the largely spineless Democrats, so yeah, let’s put Republican at the head of the executive branch. What’s the worst thing that could happen? Catastrophic slashing of the social safety net, slashing of taxes on the wealthiest, another period of ballooning of the debt, and a war with Iran, and who knows where the Tea Party will steer the clowns from there. Get a clue, please.
Felix its comments like yours that hurt the cause.shhhh..
I really wish Obama would step up and be a leader already.I feel like he could be such a great president, but he is just to much of a puppet.
“Even those stores not targeted today should understand that they cannot continue to profit in violation of the law.”
Funny, that’s exactly what the government does.
Money is no problem when it is all done by the federal government.
Right now, LA is just a federal experiment on how the pubic would react and how a federal government can change a major city?
There is still plenty of evil magic in the Federal Reserve to be able to destroy the United States and the U.S. Consitution.
Save the United States
Audit the Feds!
Medical pot is out. Decriminalization and treatment is in. Smoking pot isn’t inherently medicinal, but marijuana could be one key to understanding our endocannabinoid system; eventually leading to new medicines. But people still should have the right to defend their health.
Robert M, New Jersey *is* a police state. No conspiracy theory needed, just facts: Medical Marijuana has been legal here for about 30 months, yet not a single qualified patient can legally buy or even possess any marijuana, they will be arrested! What does this sound like to you, but a corrupted police state? California might have some better laws, but many were enacted via Initiative and Referendum which is non-binding in New Jersey–there isn’t anything we can do as they already walled off the laws from the people. Every law they write for us screws us in some other way. 65 MPH is now legal in some areas, but the fines had to be doubled. People in jail over bullshit firearms violations–situations that never put anyone is danger or harms ways are given felony convictions. Notice how we’re leading the nation in unemployment and super-fund sites? Our “leadership” in Trenton hates us and surely is looking to victimize folks and/or pass the buck.
Chris Christie says we should expect him to lie, but it is so much worse when Democrats point out his short comings… So while they focus on lying to us, people continue to get fined and sent to jail for an endless list of frivolously “offenses”. Industries continue to poison us–this ain’t California folks. 🙁
“Even those stores not targeted today should understand that they cannot continue to profit in violation of the law.”
Stop opening small businesses! You’re ruining your economy and your country!
O
Can we fix it? Yes we can! Gary Johnson 2012!
By raising taxes on the rich we are not raising taxes on the rich. The rich can not be taxed because they do not have jobs. See Mitt Romney. So let raise taxes of the so called rich and wipe out the backbone of the economy. That is right! Wipe out small business. It is already a pain in the ass to run a small business with all of the red tape and tax. Let us make it impossible for small business to survive. somebody has to pay for washingtons lack of fiscal responsibility. I already pay 40% in taxes. Lets make it 50%.
Felix, its not so much they want a “police state”, the two parties just cannot write good laws, and so these crap laws violation the Constitution. It is the Constitution that places limits on the government’s authority. Then weak willed, bought out weasels write and pass an endless list of poorly engineered laws, designed to appear to be ineffectively fixing some problem but creating further problems down the line. Which is why laws need to bases on our Constitution; not the Bible, not the Koran, or some other liberal or conservative bullshit!
Hello??? Stop stepping all over the USA you fucking Romney/Obamas–they are all robots working against our common good.
Mitt Romney is one of the 47% percent he mocks. He’s never paid his fair share of taxes and so he has received millions in the form of a discounted tax rate. Basically, he’s stolen a large chunk of his wealth and he’s using it to put himself in an even higher position where he’ll do even more damage to the country with his utter lack of leadership and know how. Do we really want to put a welfare recipient in the White house? ‘Cause that is what Romney is.
Vote Gary Johnson!!! He is the only candidate on the ballot who would legalize marijuana, and end the wars!!!
Robert M. is on the right track. If you sound like you’re smart…. then people will think you are. All you need to do as a stoner is look sharp and be sharp.
The worst advertising pot can have is to depict the MJ user as a Jeff Spicoli character from Fast Times @ Ridgemont High.
And before you vote in November, wait until the last week before the Mail In Ballot deadline.
Sometimes big changes happen late. As close as this presidential race is going to be….. look for Obama to make a last-minute indication of Marijuana Support to gain another chunk of the undecided-as-to-whether-they’re-even-going-to-waste-their-time-voting… block of people sitting on the fence. And a LOT of us are.
It’s a sure bet Romney will decimate every year of work that’s gone into airing the truth about Marijuana. He told us so…. “that he will fight any laxity in the current Marijuana Laws, tooth and nail”.
No my friends, if Obama doesn’t offer us support, then don’t vote at all. The country won’t suffer any worse under either, so why participate at all?
Now and again “We The People” are put in a situation that dictates to all free men that their Government has gotten to big. We wrote it into the most sacred documents that we posses, and put on display for all to see. The Founders of our Country fought and died to create a government away from the tyranny of the over taxing King. We must now come together and use LAW to fight this battle again. I love my country, its people and what it could stand for. Its only the those who have more that wish to keep what they have and lengths they will go to in order to keep it. This is about the loss of FREEDOM not Legalization of Marijuana. The Legalization of Marijuana is but one of the problems we face. Even George Washington enjoyed growing it and smoking it.
Sadly, no president can stop the war on marijuana. If it were done by presidential fiat, Jimmy Carter would have done it. Am I angry that Barack Obama is prosecuting the war on drugs with such vigor? Yes and no. I am so disappointed with him, and I am so angry that we are still at this ugly war as a Nation. But I believe Obama’s strategy is this: firm persecution of the war on marijuana forces us to step up the fight. And as the societal costs of the war go up and the evidence and recognition of marijuana’s benefit and relative lack of harm increase, so too do people’s willingness to “cross the line” to our side. So, my vote goes to Obama and (yuck) Biden, as the lesser evils. Romney and Ryan, regardless of their views personally (and don’t be surprised if Romney suddenly claims to support legalization just to get a vote) will have to work with their party, wherein the truest drug warriors (read racists, prison owners and guards, substance “abuse” providers, religious zealots,etc.) dwell. No, Obama will have a Damascus (you know, conversion) moment when the polls tip, and will lead the way, as he has on immigration and gay rights.
We all SHOULD pay for the world we live in, and the poor always pay the most–not absolutely, but relative to need and income. If the rich want to pay less than is right, let them earn it with job creation credits, that are directly tied to the total hours worked, not some idiot job creation metric that can be gamed. No, the wealth is OVERWHELMINGLY at the top, and so too MUST be the taxes. IS $250,000 the right cutoff? We should use a mathematical function to assign taxes, not artificial cutoffs, but such is the way of things. Small business won’t be wiped out! If raised to Obama’s proposal, taxes would be historically low compared to the greatest wealth generating times in our history. Spit out the kool-aid, think!
And to corporations holding cash overseas I say: Treason! We have 40+% of the world’s defense spending. Is it to protect your mother travelling in Europe that we have troops in 130+ countries? No! Its to protect corporate interests, largely multi-nationals. Let there be a progressive time-based tax put in place such that corporations pay more the longer they withhold payment.
I am not a single issue voter, and marijuana is one or two or three for me, but for almost all reasons, Obama is better, even–especially–the economy. Romney is the flip-floppingest father of lies, and promises no more or less than to bring us Bush 2.0. The wealthy get more, the rest gets less; pollution and corporate crime are unleashed while institutions of government that are our commons are destroyed. Remember that many republicans including Ryan have signed allegiance to the man who states he wishes to DESTROY the federal government (see Nordquist). No, it is sad, but Obama is better.
Its time to take it to the streets. This time, we need to occupy the courthouse, city hall, the statehouse and DC.
Yeah, I’m voting Obama again. Romney would be George W. Bush x 250 million and he WOULD’NT legalize. Best bet is Obama in second term. You’d have to be an idiot to vote for romney if you don’t make $1 million a year. Vote for need before greed like in World of Warcraft. I say, a vote for republicants is like a vote for destroying the country! Like treason.
Vote third party! There are more than just two parties and the two puppets to vote for. The 3rd parties had a debate, with two top people, Gary Johnson and Jill Stein; who will debate each other on Oct. 30. Online on CNN.. just not prime time against the other two. They debate our problems. vote