Wow. What a cop-out. Thanks for the update Jon. I hadn’t seen the response.

These days, Jon, “small silver linings” is about all.we got.

As someone said yesterday, the site seems more like an email gathering operation.

I’d say that this administration is pretty damned proficient (“pragmatic expediency”, they call it) at ignoring a lot of things, wouldn’t you?

An administration of pusillanimous fabulists, lacking principle, empathy, and conscience. But always looking to make a buck for themselves and their true constituency.

Call it pot luck, shall we?

Considering what most people regard as the only rational “choices” in the political arena.

Thank you for the “higher-up” update, Jon.

Looking forward to see what might be ignored next.

The next “non-response” …

DW

I don’t understand Obama’s actions on this. He never has to run for office again and could make lots of points with voters, especially young voters.

Looks like that, doesn’t it?

Doesn’t make any sense to me either.

jeez, when will people realize what o says isn’t as important as what he doesn’t say.
his “It does not make sense from a prioritization point of view for us to focus on recreational drug users” translates into “I’ll keep on doing what I’ve been doing, which is going after the dispensaries and their owners. ” Marijuana legalization ain’t happening until big pharma has secured their position at head of line.

“At President Obama’s request, the Justice Department is reviewing the legalization initiatives passed in Colorado and Washington, given differences between state and federal law. ”

Pretty ominous. I’m sure Eric Holder will jump right on this after he is done sending all those bankers to jail on criminal charges

Marijuana legalization ain’t happening until big pharma has secured their position at head of line

Ding, Ding, Ding! The money quote.

That’s been one of my contentions all along.

CA was doing quite nicely with taxes from pot sold in dispensaries. Then Obomba had his lackey, Holder, go after them & many closed down. There was a quote in Sunday’s Sacramento Bee that highlighted the huge drop in tax revenue that has happened over the past year or two.

Sure, Obomba says the Wall St did nothing illegal, and he’s not going after them, NO SIR!! Never happen.

But pot dispensaries in CA, which are providing MUCH NEEDED revenue in a cash-strapped state? Here come the Feds coming get you, bro.

Sucks. My loathing of Obomba knows no bounds.

Obama ain’t supporting pot legalization bc of MONEY… BigPharma’s most likely pulling Obomba’s marionette strings on this issue. ptoui!

Obama is a myopic twit.

For the uninitiated, after you sign a petition, they send you a copy of the “response” and THEN, (get this!) they send you to a short survey where you can let them know your reaction to the “response”.

I let them know. In fact, I wish I had kept a copy of my comments, so I could share them.

On second thought, perhaps it’s best I did not. I’d hate to sully a respectable forum such as this with some of the language I used.

Have you noticed, as have I, that with every silver lining there a huge, black cloud????

Eric Holder?????? Who the hell is he?????

Sucks. My loathing of Obomba knows no bounds.

I’m catching up with you. Worst democratic president ever.

I’m not ready to rank Obama below Franklin Pierce or James Buchanan. Not yet, at least.

I think Pharma can muscle in on the distrbution rather quickly. My guess is Monsanto is holding things up while they propriatize the seed stock. Hippies swapping seeds will hardly stoke the engines of the economy.

Biden is a committed drug warrior as well.

I thought I saw Holder and Sec. of Labor Hilda Solis sharing a Missing Person panel on the back of the milk aisle at my local 7-11

He’s got four more years. Lotsa time. :-)

THAT Eric Holder??????

Thanks!!!

Not that I am a marijuana user. I tried but eveybody said I got the doobie too wet.

But, the preamble to the Constitition DOES say something about “…life, liberty and the pursuit of happpiness.”.

Or was that the Declarastion of Independence????

Whichever, I think THIS falls under that.

You know, I’m just spitbaling here, legalized grass, taxed moderately, could that help out the $13 trillion debt??????

His body of work includes the RAVE Act.

Possibly. As I mentioned, there was an article (too lazy to look for it) in the Sunday Sacramento Bee that quoted the tax revenue figures from when the pot dispensaries were in “full swing” and selling a lotta pot (and not many citizens really cared… they got it that CA was reaping tax benies). There has been a significant drop in tax revenues since Obama went after the dispensaries and most of them closed.

It’s b.s. At a time when states & the fed need all the taxes they can get, Obama, per usual, kowtows to BigCorp – whether it’s Monsanto (quite possible) or BigPharma or BigCockKoch – the citizens are screwed in various ways, and what WE, the people want, is not just ignored but we’re screwed over for it.

If Biden’s a big old Drug Warrior, then he’s also been bought off by the PTB, which comes as no surprise.

The so-called “War on Drugs” has been a complete & abject failure which has resulted in stupid imprisonments costing taxpayers gazillions, a huge War south of Border costing lives in both the USA & Mexico (and elsewhere), with very little evidence that drug use has abated AT. ALL.

Gimme a break. Someone’s making a LOT of ca$h outta illegal pot, and thy name be: CIA or similar. So there’s also that to throw into the mix. The secret snooper$$ need their ca$h to spy spy spy…

Economic arguments for legalizing pot have fallen on deaf ears because for decades, many, if not most Americans have viewed drug use as a moral issue*, and thus supported counter-productive measures such as our current strategy of prohibition and massive incarceration. Nearly all public officials, whether they believe the moral arguments or not, have fallen in line with what they perceive to be public opinion.

* This mentality also has given us abstinence-only sex education, which persists in spite of studies showing that it doesn’t work.

All of that. Another aspect, that doesn’t seem so far fetched to me is they probably have some drone operators saying they can take out the patches and “win this war”. All coming with a tidy profit of course.

I think it will be the tabacco companies instead of the drug companies. The tabacco companies have better infrastructure and distribution systems in place for mj than the drug companies do.

During the 1960s, it was rumored that the tobacco companies had trademarked common slang names for marijuana. I think MAD magazine did a piece about that, too.

To add insult to injury, that White House petition site is a pain in the *ss
to use (by design?). What a waste of time.

I remember that MAD magazine satire!

Yes, I do believe you are right about that, and I agree with Mary that BigTobacco will step up to the plate to take over sales of pot. They are better placed to do it that BigPharma. However, I do think BigPharma is working the means to get a piece of the pie vis the medicinal aspects of pot.

JMHO, of course.

IMO none of those petitions are worth it. I don’t bother anymore bc frankly I don’t have one glimmer of a “hope” that some pol will pay any attention to such polls.

A well-meaning friend really wanted me to sign whatever petition is there to better regulate guns bc she actually thinks that Obama is “concerned” about it and wants to “do the right thing.” Well good luck with that! I didn’t sign the petition, even though I agree with it.

Too cynical. My days of letters to congresscons & petitions are mostly over, sad to say. Don’t see it as worthwhile.

I created my own petition in response. If a couple readers would sign on, and forward it so I can get a few sigs, it’d be pretty awesome.
Here’s the url
http://wh.gov/PU5T

and the Headline…
we petition the obama administration to:

furnish a substantive, responsive, (as opposed to a regurgitation of previous talking points) ANSWER to any petition.

It’s pretty clear where this is headed if you read the Pat Kennedy story over the weekend: a big, fat NO on legalization, but let’s put marijuana smokers into a mandatory drug treatment program; that looks caring and compassionate, sort of, but allows the ridiculous drug war to continue. And I wouldn’t put it past the Obama administration to target “recreational drug users” in Colorado and Washington any more than I think a steamroller wouldn’t flatten me if I stood in its path. This is the guy who promised greater governmental transparency, after all. And campaigned in favor of a public health insurance option (and against the individual mandate). And granted himself the authority to assassinate U.S. citizens without due process. And who’s not just open to, but enthusiastic about, cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. He’s a dangerous, unprincipled liar and fraud.

@Jon73

“He’s a dangerous, unprincipled liar and fraud.”

What.You.Said!

Obama won’t be running again but the Dimocraps will be—and Obama is no one to leave his puerile party hanging in the breeze come next election as “the party that stoned America” (or some such garbage). That’s also why he isn’t going to do anything else, either, that might trouble Dubuque about, say, our psychotic militarism, or our shameful health care, or our disgraceful disregard for American ecology and its future.

I don’t understand why people continue to bother with petitions and the like. It should be patently clear by now, the only things government is responsive to is money and civil unrest. All the rest is wishful thinking.

Agreed.

If citizens wish to engage in signing petitions and/or sending letters to their congresscreeps or the nooz paper: fine. Go for it. If it makes you feel better, then do it.

I used to do those things a A LOT back in the day, and I feel that there was a time when letters, phone calls, petitions actually did have some effect on decisions in Wash DC or at the State level, etc. Not much, but some.

These days? Don’t make me laugh.

Money TALKS, everyone else walks…

I didn’t read the article you mention, but geez! Pot rehab programs? Ya gotta be kidding me! That would be a monumental WASTE of OUR tax dollars and no doubt meant solely to *stigmatize* the users. Oh my aching back. We desparately NEED so many other things, and all these losers focus on is bullshit hype to distract the rubes from how much we’re be ripped off by the MIC & various sorts of WAR, Inc.

And yeah: agreed that I can mos def see Obama going after recreational pot smokers in CO & WA. It was my FIRST thought as soon as I heard that those initiatives had passed. Caveat Emptor, for sure.