I found this part of a recent San Francisco Chronicle article particularly contemptuous:

Nationwide, support to legalize marijuana reached a record 50 percent in a Gallup Poll last month – including 62 percent support in the 18- to 29-year-old demographic, which Obama needs to help secure his re-election.

But political analysts say it is unlikely that medical marijuana advocates can do much to dent Obama’s strong support in California.

“Who are they going to vote for, Romney?” asked Mark Kleiman, a professor of public policy at UCLA who is a former Justice Department analyst and prolific author on marijuana issues.

Yeah, who knows what might happen with a Republican in office instead of President Obama?  Why, DEA raids on medical cannabis, revocation of gun rights for patients, suspension of commerce and punitive taxation for medical marijuana businesses, threats to seize dispensary properties from landlords, refusal to act on scientific requests for and actively blocking research on cannabis, paving the way for cannabinoid pharmaceuticalization monopoly, and complete disdain for legalization petitions?  Really, unless the eventual GOP nominee is promoting the death penalty for two ounces of pot, I don’t see how it can get much worse.

In fact, when it comes to marijuana-using voters and presidential candidates, Rep. Ron Paul has been a better advocate for that issue than almost any Democrat, and Gov. Gary Johnson is actively courting marijuana-using voters at hempfests and expos.  Though they lack a serious shot at the nomination according to most political observers, they do harness a lot of youthful energy and enthusiasm that once was Obama’s 2008 bread-and-butter.  Kleiman’s false “Obama or Romney” choice ignores the third option, “None of the Above”, that many marijuana supporters will be choosing.

But among the 16 other states where medical cannabis is legal are swing states such as Michigan and Colorado.

“The medical cannabis community everywhere is outraged, and I plan to be in Colorado to campaign against” Obama, said Steve DeAngelo, executive director of Oakland’s Harborside Health Center, the state’s largest dispensary, with 95,000 patients and 120 employees. DeAngelo was an Obama supporter and contributor in 2008.

Not just medical swing states, but also states pushing for medical, like Wisconsin, Florida, and Ohio, that will not be pleased by Mr. Obama’s recent crackdown in California.  Many of these Obama 2008 voters were buoyed by what they interpreted from campaign remarks to be his understanding of the medical cannabis issue and reticence at committing federal resources to combating it.  Now they feel betrayed.

I would not underestimate the GOP desire to recapture the White House.  I would not be surprised at an eventual GOP nominee whose political team calculates that the marijuana vote could be enough to swing a close state or two and advises a friendlier medical marijuana position than Obama’s.  (Mitt Romney is just the kind of guy to make such a 180, too.)  Paint it as a “get tough on those abusing medical marijuana” plan by institution strict guidelines and federal regs that would actually clear up the picture and end federal raids.  Play the “states rights” and “limited government” cards by crafting those regs to defer to the states on the issue.

Stranger things have happened.  A GOP tied to an increasingly older and decreasingly-majority white base will be desperate for young, minority, and affluent moderate voters.  Done correctly, they can even play “compassionate conservative” and “pro health care”.

If Obama's mom tried to get medical marijuana for her cancer today, her son would imprison the co-op that provided it to her.

On Friday, October 7, Deputy Attorney General James Cole, along with the four US Attorneys from California, announced plans for a coordinated effort against operations in California that provide safe access to marijuana for those patients qualified to use it in accordance with state law.

These actions are incompatible with the Administration’s pledge to respect the decisions of voters and lawmakers in states that recognize the medical efficacy of marijuana. They will result in limiting patients’ regulated access to medicine and they will also cost California necessary jobs and needed tax revenue.

Legislating medical marijuana operations and prosecuting those who act in a manner that is inconsistent with California law and voters’ sentiment should be a responsibility left up to the individual states, not the federal government. It is time for this administration to fulfill the promises and assurances it gave to the medical marijuana community, not to reject them. Please contact the White House and urge President Obama to abandon the administration’s escalating war on cannabis consumers.

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Tell The Obama Administration to Halt Its Attack on Medical Marijuana

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3. Clark County, Washington, votes to extend ban on collective medical marijuana grows
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Tuesday Toker Topics with Todd Armstrong

• Potheads vs. Stoners

I was a progressive talk radio host during the Bush Administration.  One of the most frustrating issues I had to comment on dealt with embryonic stem cell research.  These proto-cells are the blank slate from which bone, muscle, nerve, and other cells are formed in our body.  They hold amazing promise in the treatment of injuries and illness.  You may remember the late Christopher Reeve fighting for stem cell research to help those paralyzed by spinal injury like he was.

You may also remember Al Gore during that era, warning the world of the Inconvenient Truth of global climate change.  Since the beginning of the industrial era, the pollution we’ve created has led to a global rise in average temperature.  We face a man-made crisis that could threaten our existence on earth.

In each of these cases the Bush Administration opposed moving forward on the research of these issues.  The pressure of religious organizations led Bush to stifle all federal research on stem cells.  The pressure of energy industries led Bush to withhold and censor information on global climate change.  And a majority of Americans, like myself, could not believe we’d be so superstitious and short-sighted as to reject the science that could help us heal our bodies and our planet.

We rejoiced when Barack Obama was elected and early in his administration, issued the following proclamation:

Science and the scientific process must inform and guide decisions of my Administration on a wide range of issues, including improvement of public health, protection of the environment, increased efficiency in the use of energy and other resources, mitigation of the threat of climate change, and protection of national security.

The public must be able to trust the science and scientific process informing public policy decisions.  Political officials should not suppress or alter scientific or technological findings and conclusions.  If scientific and technological information is developed and used by the Federal Government, it should ordinarily be made available to the public.

Indeed, Mr. Obama’s commitment to science has been felt on most scientific issues.  He overturned Bush’s ban on funding stem cell research.  He has strongly addressed the issues of global climate change.  However, on one issue of scientific  integrity, Mr. Obama has been no different than his predecessor.  In fact, when it comes to marijuana policy, Mr. Obama may be worse than Mr. Bush.

There are 25 million American adults who will use cannabis this year, 15 million this month, and an estimated 1.5 million Americans using medical marijuana legally under state law.  The federal government even delivers over a half pound of marijuana every month to four Americans who still remain on a 33-year-old federal medical marijuana program.  Nevertheless, as far as the Obama Administration is concerned, marijuana has “no accepted medical value in the United States”.  They admit there are only fourteen researchers approved by the federal government to study cannabis’ effect on humans and the government, to date, has never once surveyed or studied the federal medical marijuana patients.

It’s not as if we don’t have plenty of science to show marijuana’s medicinal effect.  As far back as 1974 the government has known that THC applied to cancer cells in the lab kills them and not the surrounding healthy cells  It’s the “magic bullet” type of cancer treatment that we’ve been looking for!  The government itself has even patented the medicinal effects of cannabinoids.  Despite all this and more, just this year Obama’s DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart (a Bush hold-over) denied yet another petition by legitimate researchers to study the medicinal effects of marijuana, saying, “[T]here are no adequate and well-controlled studies proving efficacy.”

There are no studies according to Leonhart, so then why stop research that would provide those studies?  The government isn’t even coy about the political reasons they use to justify rejecting the science of marijuana.  The National Institutes on Drug Abuse told the New York Times that “[O]ur focus is primarily on the negative consequences of marijuana use. We generally do not fund research focused on the potential beneficial medical effects of marijuana.”  So what exactly are those fourteen approved researchers trying to learn about marijuana?  It’s not that the science has no good news about marijuana, it’s that our government doesn’t want you to hear it.

This isn’t just an issue concerning the narrow medical uses of cannabis.  Every government that has ever studied the social ramifications of marijuana prohibition has agreed that the prohibition does more harm to the user and to society than the marijuana does.  Every study has recommended decriminalization and regulation… and every president since Richard Nixon (except Jimmy Carter) has ignored those recommendations.

Even when real world results show our policies to be ineffective, Mr. Obama continues to uphold the prohibition status quo.  Adults and teens in the Netherlands, where adult use of cannabis is tolerated, have half the use rates of marijuana and other drugs as Americans.  Dutch 15-year-olds are one third as likely to have tried marijuana compared to Americans.  Portugal, which has decriminalized all drugs since 2001, has seen dramatic declines in use, abuse, overdose, and crime.

Yet when asked this week by a student whether he’d look into a policy of decriminalization like Portugal, Mr. Obama flat refused to even consider the possibility, instead retreating into platitudes about “reducing demand” through “treatment and prevention”.  Not much of a reassurance for medical marijuana patients who can’t “reduce demand” and responsible adult users who don’t need “treatment and prevention”.  Since “reduce demand” is not “eliminate demand”, it appears Mr. Obama is content to continue to imprison those who demand drugs (well, drugs without bar codes, that is).

Our politics is infected by a terrible strain of Reefer Madness.  Republicans who shout about states rights, limited government, and individual responsibility seem to have no problem superseding state law, fostering massive bureaucracy, and intruding on the individual if he smokes a joint.  Democrats who shout about government surveillance, racial justice, and environmental protection seem to have no problem spying on people, locking up blacks disproportionately, and rejecting an alternative to trees and oil in order to stop an individual from smoking a joint.  And the president who is a Constitutional law professor, who reveres scientific inquiry, and has some personal experience on the issue seems to have no problem perverting the Bill of Rights, rejecting science, and locking up or forcing into rehab people just like him who smoked a joint.

Apparently there is only one cure: leaving office.

(Phoenix NewTimes) Federal agents may bust anyone participating in a “large” pot-growing operation, despite Arizona’s voter-approved medical marijuana law, says Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke in a letter to the state.

In a recent letter to Will Humble, the director of the state Department of Health Services, Burke reiterates that the feds will look the other way when truly sick people use marijuana — but that the patients’ suppliers might be inviting trouble.

Burke compounds the schizophrenic stance by stating that federal law “may be vigorously enforced against those individuals and entities who operate large marijuana production facilities. Individuals and organizations — including property owners, landlords and financiers” face legal problems including seizure of their property and other assets.

Problem is, Burke gives no definition of “large.”

From coast (Washington) to coast (Rhode Island), President Obama’s US Attorneys are sending out these threatening letters to squash all attempts at providing safe regulated access to cannabis for medically qualified individuals under state law.  The DEA has conducted raids in California, Washington, Nevada, Montana, and Michigan.  The IRS is investigating the largest, most successful, best run medical cannabis dispensaries in California

(Is anyone still convinced that Mr. Obama is a friend to medical cannabis?  Are there still some “just you wait ’til second term!” true believers out there?)

President Obama said he would not waste scarce federal resources going after sick people and their caregivers.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Obama’s Justice Department said it would not target providers in “clear and unambiguous compliance” with state law.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Raids in Spokane might be slip through that “unambiguous” loophole, as Washington’s law does not specifically authorize dispensaries.  Threatening letters to Oakland regarding “megagrow” facilities might address the fact that authorization for such facilities isn’t “clear” under California law.

However, Mr. Obama reveals the true intention is to stifle the development of any viable legal cannabis distribution industry.  By sending threat letters to Rhode Island and Arizona, states that have created clear and unambiguous laws for medical cannabis providers to follow, it is obvious that Mr. Obama isn’t opposed to medical cannabis, per se, but terribly opposed to medical cannabusiness.

Politicians (and Mr. Obama is the consummate politician) realize the argument over medical marijuana is over.  Polls have consistently shown for over a decade now that there is at least 2-to-1 support for medical marijuana across the country and 3-to-1 support on the coasts.  Mr. Obama made a point in his campaign to refer to his mother’s battle with cancer and the dysfunctional US health care system.  So he must reiterate that the feds are looking the other way in the cases of sick grandmas smoking a doob to relieve nausea from chemo.

But where would Sasha and Malia’s grandma get that cannabis?  From a well-run, safe, secure, adults-only facility that verifies medical cards and IDs, provides a gamut of strain and preparation choices that are inspected and tested, and complies with state law?  No, that’s exactly the kind of places Mr. Obama’s US Attorneys are threatening to prosecute.

Instead, grandma has to troll Craigslist, alt-weeklies, or visit activist meetings, hope she can find a kind grower, hope that he grows a strain that works for her, and hope this guy will provide clean safe medicine reliably and consistently.  She has to hope the guy doesn’t offer “an ounce a month for $300″ deal that she has to take because she has no other choice.  She has to hope she has a way to get to this guy’s house because she’s not too sure she should let him know where she lives.  If she needs a tincture or edible preparation she has to know how to make that for herself if she can’t find a grower who can.

Is this the change grandma can believe in?

The opposition to “large” cannabusiness is understandable if you can put aside your compassion for grandma and think like a prohibitionist who believes marijuana is a deadly dangerous Schedule I drug that leads to cocaine, meth, heroin, and the end of Western Civilization.  If “large” cannabiz establishes itself, people will become accustomed to safe, secure, well-run businesses that deliver consistent, reliable, tested cannabis products.  They’ll appreciate the way these places revitalize sagging economies, provide jobs, and contribute taxes to budget-starved localities.  They’ll realize all the scaremongering by the government about what would happen if marijuana was legal, even for sick people, was hysterical propaganda.  They’ll begin to wonder why we don’t just legalize cannabis for everyone, create more jobs, raise more revenue, and use these established businesses as the distribution points.  Most concerning for a politician, these cannabusinesses will form PACs and start delivering support and financing to pro-legalization candidates in primary elections.

You just know Barack Obama and the $19.5 million in campaign cash from the health care industry he raised in 2008 can’t have that!

(Reuters) – Federal agents executed search warrants at several Detroit area locations on Tuesday including a medical marijuana facility owned by a businessman who also owns a long-closed auto plant that has become a symbol of Detroit’s decline.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, state and local law enforcement agencies conducted the searches at offices in northwest suburban Detroit, Andrew Eiseman, group supervisor for the DEA in Detroit, said.

California, check.  Nevada, check.  Montana, check.  Michigan, check.  Because, apparently, our federal law enforcement officials don’t have “violent crimes and potential terrorism… to deal with” anymore.

Barack Obama, 2008: “When it comes to medical marijuana, I have more of a practical view than anything else,” the Senator explained. “My attitude is that if it’s an issue of doctors prescribing medical marijuana as a treatment for glaucoma or as a cancer treatment, I think that should be appropriate because there really is no difference between that and a doctor prescribing morphine or anything else. …

“What I’m not going to be doing is using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue simply because I want folks to be investigating violent crimes and potential terrorism. We’ve got a lot of things for our law enforcement officers to deal with.”

The Pacific Northwest has been spared most federal interference in their medical marijuana programs as Washington and Oregon had not engaged in very much open medical marijuana distribution for compensation.  But now with “farmer’s markets” and “cannabis clubs” and “storefront caregivers” proliferating in these states and Mr. Obama’s acquiescence (approval?) of Ms. Leonhart’s raids in now four medical marijuana states, can DEA raids in the Pacific Northwest be far behind?

The evidence

HONOLULU - At a press conference today, Honolulu Police Chief Louis M. Kealoha revealed a warrant issued for the arrest of President Barack Obama on charges of cocaine and marijuana distribution.

Chief Kealoha stood with copies of Mr. Obama’s memoir, Dreams from my Father. Police spokesman Jeffrey Spicoli recited the passages where the president recounted his drug crimes as a teenager at the exclusive Punahou prep school in Honolulu:

I blew a few smoke rings, remembering those years. Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it.

I had discovered that it didn’t make any difference whether you smoked reefer in a white classmate’s sparkling new van, or in the dorm room of some brother you’d met down at the gym, or on the beach with a couple of Hawaiian kids.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney briefly dismissed news of the arrest warrant.  He told reporters that the president was forthright about his youthful indiscretions in interviews as well as his books, but that the statute of limitations on crimes of drug possession and distribution have since passed.

Chief Kealoha brushed aside Mr. Carney’s concerns about Mr. Obama’s youthful cocaine and marijuana use.  He noted the president’s continued rejection of drug legalization means Honolulu police officers are charged with arresting young people no different than a young Barry Obama.

The chief observed that since becoming president, Mr. Obama has not taken a drug test.  ”If we’re going to ask something from you,” Keahola told a young reporter, “we ourselves need to be ready to do it ourselves.”  Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing are available for many of Mr. Obama’s employees in the Executive Branch but no one has verified that Mr. Obama can pass a drug test, Kealoha explained.

The chief believes Mr. Obama’s admitted use and distribution of cocaine and marijuana to minors make him a prime suspect for continued drug abuse.  The chief pointed to Mr. Obama’s failure to accompany his family on a December trip to Oahu as evidence the president was aware of the forthcoming Hawaiian warrant and chose to avoid the bad publicity.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) reference for Hawaiian marijuana laws states that Mr. Obama’s distribution of marijuana, if it happened today, would be a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $2,000. Any amount of marijuana greater than one ounce is a felony punishable by up to 5 years in jail and a fine of up to $10,000.  The possession and distribution of any amount cocaine by Mr. Obama, according to CriminalDefenseLawyer.com, would be a felony with a possible 5 year prison term; for an eighth-ounce it’s 10 years and if Mr. Obama possessed an ounce or more of cocaine in Hawaii today, he could face 20 years in prison.

Even on April Fool’s Day.

Our buddy, Barack, and his hit-man Eric Holder threw us a bone when they said, as long as you guys don’t break your state laws, we’ll leave your medical marijuana alone. Well, they better talk to the U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag who has said that her office will vigorously enforce federal anti-drug laws against illegal manufacturing and distribution of marijuana, “even if such activities are permitted under state law.”  Methinks Melinda better have a lunch meeting with Barack and Eric.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The warning in a letter from U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag offered the first clear signal that the Justice Department would not tolerate even city-sanctioned growing operations, despite the Obama administration’s hands-off approach to states that have legalized medical marijuana.

“The department is concerned about the Oakland ordinance’s creation of a licensing scheme that permits large-scale industrial marijuana cultivation and manufacturing as it authorizes conduct contrary to federal law,” Haag wrote in the letter to Oakland City Attorney John Russo dated Tuesday.

Haag’s letter acknowledges an October 2009 Justice Department memo instructing federal prosecutors to avoid going after patients complying with state laws regarding the medical use of marijuana.

But Haag wrote that her office will vigorously enforce federal anti-drug laws against illegal manufacturing and distribution of marijuana, “even if such activities are permitted under state law.“

One simple Executive Order is all it takes!

Dear President Obama,

Once again you have asked us about changing American policy and the direction this country should take.  Your “Ask Obama” forum sponsored by YouTube promises to take questions from the American people on the issues they find most important in terms of national policy.

When you did this in 2010 you heard from us loud and clear about marijuana law reform.  We asked about re-scheduling cannabis to allow medical marijuana to flourish, decriminalizing marijuana to end thousands of arrests, legalizing pot to raise tax revenue, ending prohibition to cripple Mexican drug traffickers, regulating cannabis to keep it out of kids’ hands, reforming drug laws to re-prioritize police resources, embracing industrial hemp as a truly green energy source, and using science, not politics, to dictate our drug policy.

And you flat-out ignored us, despite those questions dominating in both quantity and popularity.

When you did this in 2009 you got the same response from the public.  That time you didn’t ignore us; you just laughed at us.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We know you’re a busy man and there are many pressing issues facing this country.  So we took the time to review the Top 100 questions on the “Ask Obama” site just now and condense each one into a few words so you could get an idea what the country is voting on.

Understand that this is not the list that appears when one clicks on the site.  This list is compiled by choosing “All Questions” and then choosing “Sorted by popularity”.  When one first visits the site, one of seven random topics including Jobs & Economy, Foreign Policy & National Security, Health Care, Education, Immigration, Energy and Environment, and Other, is presented in “Sorted by what’s hot” order, so it isn’t as if a certain topic becomes popular and then gets more popular because more random visitors are exposed to it.

So here they are, out of 97,344 people who have submitted 77,551 questions and cast 826,973 votes, these are the Top 100 Questions (as of Tuesday, 10pm Pacific).  I’ve taken the liberty of color-coding questions about the Drug War in white, questions about you ignoring our questions about the Drug War in yellow, and questions that are not about the Drug War in red.

Wait, make that the Top 101 Questions, so I can have at least one red question… Click the graphics to read the full-sized version… 

Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake

Sometimes I just have to bring to you the brilliant words of other writers.  Jane Hamsher, instrumental in getting the popular progressive blog Firedoglake to take up the cause of marijuana legalization with the “Just Say Now” campaign, writes in Huffington Post about the lack of donations coming to Democrats from previous big money Democratic donors, billionaires George Soros and Peter Lewis:

(New York Times) Democratic donors like George Soros, the bête noire of the right, and his fellow billionaire Peter B. Lewis, who each gave more than $20 million to Democratic-oriented groups in the 2004 election, appear to be holding back so far.

For Mr. Soros, who was also a big donor in 2006 and 2008, it is a matter of being more focused on pushing to get the policy outcomes he wants than on the electoral process, Mr. Vachon said.

Two of George Soros’s biggest issues are torture and weed. He’s been called “the Daddy Warbucks of drug legalization,” and shortly after Obama took office his Open Society Institute started pushing for a commission to investigate America’s use of torture since 9/11. Obama and Harry Reid poured cold water on the idea of a torture commission, and the administration “firmly opposes marijuana legalization.”

The attention of Mr. Lewis, chairman of Progressive Insurance, also appears to be elsewhere this year. Jennifer Frutchy, who advises Mr. Lewis on his philanthropy, said he was focused at the moment on “building progressive infrastructure and marijuana reform.”

Two billionaires — and the majority of those under age 29 — enthusiastically support marijuana legalization. Maybe appointing former Clinton drug policy adviser Rahm Emanuel to be Chief of Staff, the guy who threatened doctors with jail time for prescribing marijuana to their patients, was not the swiftest move.