Pot Supporters Bang on Obama's Doors for Drug Reform

Posted by Paul Armentano, NORML at 1:43 PM on December 12, 2008.

Change.gov, the Web site of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, has now closed the Web page "Open for Questions."

After receiving nearly 100,000 total votes on more than 10,000 public policy issues, the most widely voted on question for Obama is:

"Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion-dollar industry right here in the U.S.?"

(Equally impressive, 16 of the top 50 overall questions posed to the new administration  pertained to drug-law reform. Now do we have your attention?)

According to the Change.gov site, "Over the next few days, some of the most popular questions selected by the Change.gov community will be answered by the Transition team, and their responses will be posted here on the site."

So does this mean that the Obama will post a response to the public's outcry for tangible marijuana-law reform? Or will the incoming administration choose to remain silent on the one progressive issue that the American public, but not their elected official, is "buzzing" about?

Meanwhile, over at the Web site Change.org (which is not affiliated with the Obama administration), your votes (nearly 2,500 of them as of this morning) have made the question, "Should we legalize the medicinal and recreational use of marijuana?" the top-rated idea on the Web site!

According to the site, there will be a second round of voting (this first round ends on Dec. 31) in January to determine which top 10 ideas are presented to the Obama administration on Inauguration Day.

Finally, over at the highly popular Web site Digg.com, more than 2,500 visitors have added their support for making marijuana-law reform a key platform of the incoming administration. You can join the discussion here.

It was just over a month ago when statewide marijuana-law reform initiatives in Massachusetts and Michigan prevailed with more votes than America's soon-to-be 44th president -- once again reaffirming the widespread popular support for changing our nation's antiquated and punitive pot laws. It wasn't clear that either the national media or the incoming administration was listening then. Are they listening now?

Tagged as: obama, drug reform, pot

Paul Armentano is the deputy director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).