Three things Obama could immediately do at the federal level:

1. Stop federal raids on medical marijuana distribution centers and patients in states that have passed legislation supporting medical use of marijuana.

2. Remove DEA Schedule I (substances with no medical use and a high risk of abuse, e.g., marijuana, heroin, MDMA, etc.) in the DEA drug classification and move all the substances in this class to Schedule II or lower.

3. Establish a Presidential commission to review drugs policy in America. Staff it with public health experts rather than the usual drug warrior riffraff. My recommendation for chairperson would be Joycelyn Elders, Clinton's former Surgeon General. She wanted to do this fifteen years ago and Clinton didn't have the balls to back her up.

It's time for these changes.

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linked text

Drug Law Reform Project Fellowship-2009
Reference
Job Type Full-time
Job Status Interviewing
Date Posted Friday, 08 August 2008
Location Santa Cruz, CA

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email to my government employees:

"MIAMI — Public defenders’ offices in at least seven states are refusing to take on new cases or have sued to limit them, citing overwhelming workloads that they say undermine the constitutional right to counsel for the poor."

its time to follow barney franks, in the house, and legalize marijuana. its an unnecessary crippling of our courts and prisons. let alone that its immoral. the idea of sending people to jail for having some marijuana on them. sending someones child to jail for this reason, shame on the cowards that don't stand up and change this posturing to fools.

Sincerely

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In discussions with President Obama it is fundamentally important to be accurate in distinguishing between drugs and herbs. The fact is, drugs don't make seeds. Though typically over-looked, the distinction has practical and legal relevance. Celebrating our Constitutionally empowered right to "every herb bearing seed" is the shortest distance to Cannabis freedom.

It seems to me that the drug policy reform community has widely failed to argue this obvious legal distinction to its obvious conclusion, namely, the end of Cannabis prohibition and quite possibly the end of the hard drug trade as well.

For America to make the best of finally having an intelligent person as President, we must trust that he has the ability to understand "The Big Picture." In the past the drug policy reform issue has been divided into a number of conveniently (though unrealistically) defined areas. In truth, the medical, nutritional, spiritual, recreational, and industrial uses of Cannabis do not fit into distinct categories.

Many people in the drug policy reform community consistently understate our own argument by accepting artificial distinctions that do not present a well-rounded, cohesive rationale favoring total Cannabis freedom.

By failing to identify Cannabis for what it truly is: both unique and essential for food, biofuels, herbal therapeutics, biogenic pesticides, atmospheric aerosols, carbon sequestration, oxygen production, soil re-mineralization, expansion of the arable base etc. we are constricting the flow of critical information that would end prohibition.

Values that lead to sustainability must respect the Natural Order and be globally available. In the U.S. people are largely ignorant of the benefits of hemp agriculture, nutrition, economics, and ecology because it is being edited out of the community consciousness by prohibition.

Sadly, we have failed to stand up for fundamental freedoms that previous generations fought and died for. The responsibility rests with our generation to reclaim the freedoms that are critical for everyone's children's futures.

In many countries, Cannabis is being reintegrated into society, with rational tolerance. Industrial hemp is providing fuel, food, and fiber for more and more people every year. As people come to understand the enormous value of hemp as a proportionate response to climate change, Cannabis agriculture will be recognized as beyond merely "legal" -- it's essential, and urgently so.

Cannabis has been the measure of wealth and true value for the world's oldest global culture. In the U.S., people are finally coming to understand the unique and essential values of Cannabis. This is how we could end prohibition tomorrow.

An international commission to establish the value of Cannabis agriculture to society is what I believe is needed. The whole plant is unique and essential, therefore beyond the rightful jurisdiction of any court.

To have a truly free market, Canabis agricultrue must be allowed to compete. To eliminate the black market, and to effect climate mitigation, people must be allowed to grow Cannabis for any reason, in any amount that they choose.

Now that we have an intelligent human being in the Oval Office, perhaps America is ready to grow up, wake up or whatever it takes to recognize the essential value of Cannabis. Only through total freedom to farm can regional, organic agricultural abundance be realized.

I believe it is humankind's purpose within the Natural Order to effect the widespread distribution and propagation of beneficial plants. It is the surest way to stabilize "global broiling" that can only lead to synergistic collapse of environment, economics and mankind's social evolution.

Paul von Hartmann
http://californiacannabisministry.blogspot.com/

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Let's Demand Legal Marijuana Nationwide by May 1st, 2009.

As someone that has been involved in Drug Policy for over 20 years I've come to a conclusion: Re-Legalization of Marijuana will come from the grass roots. Though Nadleman (DPA) and Kampia (MPP) have done good things my belief is they both are more interested in having a job for life. Furthermore, there is no real reason that the American People could not demand the immediate end to Marijuana Prohibition by lets say May 1st, 2008.

Obama is in the pockets of the Lawyers Guild and the American Bar Association which "feed" on the unnecessary "busting" of over 470,000 American Citizens each year: for mere Marijuana possession. The War on Marijuana can end anytime we decide to get off our butts and demand it. Busting anyone for mere possession is like busting someone who is bringing a 6-pack of beer home from the local party store: unacceptable in a free society.

To learn more about my views on this subject check out "New Age Citizen" or the following link:

Marijuana: Past, Present and Future from Bruce Cain on Vimeo.
http://www.vimeo.com/2056650

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I'll be surprised if he even reconsiders switching back. Maybe Peak Oil will force a switchback.

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