2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumObama just won Colorado again. Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act Qualifies for 2012 Ballot:
Backers of the initiative had previously turned in over 160,000 signatures. However, the Secretary of States office on February 3 responded that petitioners still needed an additional 2,500 valid signatures from registered voters to place the initiative on the ballot. On February 17th, the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol submitted an additional 14,000 signatures, well in excess of what was required to meet that threshold. Todays approval from the state cements their placement on this falls ballot.
The Colorado initiative seeks to allow for the limited possession and cultivation of cannabis by adults age 21 and over. The measure would further amend state law to establish regulations governing the commercial production and distribution of marijuana by licensed retailers.
The measure is supported by a broad coalition of reform organizations, including NORML, the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, SAFER, Sensible Colorado, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), the Drug Policy Alliance, and the Marijuana Policy Project.
http://blog.norml.org/2012/02/27/breaking-news-colorados-regulate-marijuana-like-alcohol-act-qualifies-for-2012-ballot/
All he has to do is make meager overtures and it will be pretty epic.
bluestateguy
(44,173 posts)The law and order types and the suburban mommies with little kids ("Oh, won't someone please think of the children!!!" will be out in force too with their big government agenda.
joshcryer
(62,276 posts)...every few blocks. This is not an exaggeration. I can see one from my window, at this very moment!
The fact that the fundamentalists failed so hard to deny medical marijuana dispensaries under the Medical Marijuana Laws here, it shows that their overall presence isn't that powerful.
Colorado's demographics have changed for the better, imo.
cojoel
(957 posts)in-person and mail-in ballots too. They would just have to get it together one day, not one particular day.
villager
(26,001 posts)n/t
villager
(26,001 posts)If so, you'll get wind of this administration's policies on marijuana.
joshcryer
(62,276 posts)...but by and large the lions share of medical marijuana dispensaries have remain untouched.
We even have these cute girls on TV dancing around talking about their organic store (they don't explicitly mention marijuana).
villager
(26,001 posts)However one might minimize it, it tells us what this administration's policies are.
joshcryer
(62,276 posts)...selling to minors, or doing anything illegal, you shouldn't be operating.
Siding with those who were shut down for operating outside of the confines of the laws of those states is simply a very poor way to show your solidarity with the legalization of marijuana.
villager
(26,001 posts)etc...
joshcryer
(62,276 posts)I'm only glad that the Obama administration isn't cracking down on all medical marijuana and chooses those that are violating other laws. I am particularly happy when tax evaders are caught. Obama is minimizing the contradiction in the law, and until the contradiction is resolved (ie, marijuana is legal, medically and recreationally), that is the most just way to go about it.
villager
(26,001 posts)on edit:
..you've actually given reasonably thoughtful replies, even though I disagree with you about what this administration is up to, so figured I should reply as well, and not just trade ripostes in headlines.
In my view, they repeatedly abandon the bully pulpit, so as not to offend the status quo.
As for tax evaders, when they start cracking down on corporations with equal vigor, maybe I'll have a little more faith in them.
joshcryer
(62,276 posts)villager
(26,001 posts)n/t
joshcryer
(62,276 posts)People really revise history when it comes to Obama's lackluster 'support' for marijuana.
The administration sends some letters to dispensaries near schools because of federal guidelines and he's taking drugs from everyone.
Over 30 dispensaries here in Colorado Springs. Ads on TV about them. We've never had a President so friendly to marijuana.
villager
(26,001 posts)...who the hell needs "hostile," eh!?
duhneece
(4,118 posts)Obama inherited a right-wing agency that will take years to balance again.
Renew Deal
(81,871 posts)Are there that many people that support legalization?
joshcryer
(62,276 posts)Last edited Tue Feb 28, 2012, 02:00 AM - Edit history (1)
There was a massive legalization ad campaign that they had to get the signatures, and I know that if they put those ads back on it'll go very nicely, they were very good ads:
Another one:
As I said, these were all over the news. It was shocking, to be honest.
musiclawyer
(2,335 posts)IN any event, I think one of them will pass. Other states are close to getting the signatures too. Once one legal cannabis measure passes, the drug war is basically dead man walking, eclipsed by the march of time and progress.
Fly by night
(5,265 posts)... his out-of-control USDOJ continues prosecuting lawfully established mmj dispensaries, producers and providers in Colorado and elsewhere.
There are likely to be at least two minor-party, pro-pot Presidential candidates (Anderson and Johnson) that those disgruntled voters can support. My guess is that whoever the Greens nominate will support pro-pot and pro-mmj policies also.
The frustration among pro-pot voters, particularly the young and the sick, is already showing up in Presidential preference polls. No surprise here. It is not too late for Obama to honor his 2008 campaign mmj pledges and to clean the oppositional Bushistas out of the USDOJ. But it will be too late very soon.
Now back to the Garden.
BigDemVoter
(4,157 posts)Obama's DOJ has been shitting all over the cannabis dispensaries in CA. I don't trust HIM or his DOJ in this particular area.
joshcryer
(62,276 posts)As I said, all he has to do is make overtures and people will eat it up.
marlakay
(11,491 posts)He will back off especially if one of the states passes it.
RZM
(8,556 posts)I would like to think so but . . . I'm not so sure.
Drug policy is probably my single biggest problem with Obama, followed closely by immigration. Other than those two I'm pretty much cool with him. But he needs to get his shit together on drug policy right now.
joshcryer
(62,276 posts)The question is, will he give the same kind of nuanced, pitiful support to it as he did in 2008?
I don't know.
RZM
(8,556 posts)And even then I'm skeptical. Before November he'll avoid the issue.
ellisonz
(27,711 posts)But yeah I'm pretty much cool with him too except for those issues, and some of his staff choices.