It appears we jumped the gun on this one anyway it brings me great sadness to update this.
Nevermind, Barack Obama Wants to Arrest Marijuana Users After All
For one brief glorious moment, we thought Barack Obama supported marijuana decriminalization. He said so in 2004 and his campaign reiterated it yesterday, only to subsequently retreat and pledge support for current marijuana laws.
At first, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said that the candidate had "always" supported decriminalizing marijuana, suggesting his 2004 statement was correct. Then after the Times posted copies of the video on its Web site today, his campaign reversed course and declared he does not support eliminating criminal penalties for marijuana possession and use.
"If you're convicted of a crime, you should be punished, but that we are sending far too many first-time, non-violent drug users to prison for very long periods of time, and that we should rethink those laws," Vietor said. The spokesman blamed confusion over the meaning of decriminalization for the conflicting answers. [Washington Times]
Last fall during a nationally televised presidential debate, Sen. Barack Obama hesitantly raised his hand and joined with most of his Democratic rivals to declare that he opposed decriminalizing marijuana.
Barack Obama Comes Out in Favor of Marijuana Decriminalization
For the first time since his presidential bid began, the Obama Campaign has clarified the Senator's position on marijuana: stop arresting people for it.
The announcement comes as a bit of a surprise after Obama recently raised his hand in opposition to marijuana decrim at a recent democratic debate. Seeking to paint him as a flip-flopper, The Washington Times dug up footage of a 2004 appearance in which Obama said this:
"I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws," Mr. Obama told an audience during a debate at Northwestern University in 2004.
Obama's campaign is now standing by this earlier statement, claiming that the Senator has "always" supported marijuana decriminalization. This actually makes sense, because Obama's apparent opposition to decrim during the debate was triggered by a badly worded question from Tim Russert. As I said at the time, this all goes to show how a cheap soundbite approach to the marijuana discussion trivializes the issue and obscures any real difference of opinion.
Fortunately, now that Obama's position has been made perfectly clear, we face the possibility of a full-on marijuana debate between front-running presidential candidates. It could begin as soon as this evening during Obama's long-anticipated one-on-one face off with Hillary Clinton. Absent that, an Obama nomination would guarantee republican attacks on the marijuana issue, inevitably sucking this discussion into the political mainstream where it belongs.
Finally some common sense after over a century of lies , propaganda , misery , corruption , and failure our government should be desperately searching for an alternative approach in regards to it's so called war on drugs. Yet this has not been the case as most still cling to a doomed policy that has not only failed but has cost the taxpayers trillions of dollars and destroyed countless lives. It's quite obvious since there is no longer any responsibility or accountability the solution has became the problem. Something is clearly wrong with a policy that spends $70 billion a year to produce a record of nothing but failed misery dating all the back to 1867.
SEZWIG, a Chinese Opium Dealer has been arrested on the charge of smuggling thirty thousand dollars worth of opium. The prisoner was turned over to the US authorities.
Bangor Daily Whig and Courier
January 11 , 1867
Bangor , Maine
Aggressive government programs, tough policing, propaganda, and prisons has never & will never put a dent in narcotics. Unfortunately this is the same failed formula our government has insisted upon even after 150 years of failure. Think Drugs in Hollywood is new not so this Newspaper clip is from 1923.
The harder they fought to outlaw drugs, the worse the problem became. The more money they spent on the drug war, the worse the problem became. The reason why I refer to the failed War on Drugs in the past tense is because it's beyond lost it's hopeless. How much more evidence do they need before they realize that America has lost the unsuccessful War on Drugs? Hopefully this may soon change if Obama gets nominated.