Thursday, January 27, 2011

President Obama’s Response To YouTube Drug War Questions

http://blog.norml.org/2011/01/27/president-obamas-response-to-youtube-drug-war-questions/

January 27th, 2011 By: Russ Belville, NORML Outreach Coordinator

$15.5 billion this year alone, 2/3rds for ineffective law enforcement.

 

President Obama responded to the most popular question (or, the eighty most popular questions) on YouTube.com’s “Ask Obama” forum regarding the debate on drug legalization in America.  Despite being the most popular question and gaining four times the support of any other non-drug war question, the YouTube moderator didn’t ask the question until #15.  The President’sresponse is a lot of platitudes about treatment, reducing demand, and reallocating resources, despite the Obama administration’s budget that puts twice the resources toward law enforcement than to treatment. At its core, however, it retains the premise that responsible adult marijuana consumers must be persuaded by our government, through drug tests, drug courts, forced rehab, and incarceration, into not consuming cannabis.

President Obama’s Drug War Answer

Mr. President, we’re never going to stop smoking marijuana. Never. American demand for cannabis is here to stay. You can let criminals control that market or you can do the sensible thing and begin regulating it.

 



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