Hillary and Obama, Ignore the Sleazy Pollsters Who Want You to Cave on Drug Reform

this is the question I'd like answered.

According to this video is doesn't look good:
linked http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udEp1rOJHU8

I'd like them to detail and support other progressive items, but this is central.

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Cui Bono?

Government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Direct Democracy

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don't bother counting on them either. Ron Paul would be a much better candidate on this issue altogether.

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Who refuses to give the U.S. public the facts about drug policy in the U.S.? Who refuses to discuss the roles that the tobacco, alcohol, and pharmaceutical companies play in lobbying for drug Prohibition? Who refuses to cover the booming private prison industry and their slave labor programs?

Why are the candidates reluctant to honestly address the drug policy issue? The main reason is fear of how the corporate press would respond.

The fact is that if all drugs were legalized, taxed and regulated, than a lot of people might give up alcohol and tobacco and pharmaceuticals in favor of more innocuous substances - ones that you can't accidentally overdose on (as a recently deceased popular actor did).

Honest drug conversation in the U.S.? When the same financial interests that rake in the profits from drug sales to the U.S. public also control the corporate press?

We use more drugs and substances than anyone else on the planet - Ritalin and Adderall for kids (meth, in other words), booze and tobacco for adults, plus a whole host of "anxiety-reducing" medications, uppers, downers, opiate painkillers, etc. - all legal with prescription. Drug policy in the U.S. isn't about public health - it's about making sure that the "correct drugs" are purchased from corporate interests.

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"And the only presidential candidates in this year's crop to endorse making it legal like liquor have been Kucinich and Paul"

What about Mike Gravel? Why does Alternet have as little respect for this man as the MSM? Is it because Mike Gravel is a democrat from a time when being a democrat might have been worth admiring, instead holding our noses to avoid the stench of these corporate whores that call themselves democrats. Is it because Mike Gravel actually did something kind, decent, and tangible to end an illegal and immoral war unlike the two puppets we're presented with now?

If these present democrats were more like Gravel, RFK, and even Jimmy Carter, we might not have this nazi drug war and an imperialist subjugation of Iraq.

I tuned into CNN last night just see if Gravel would be present at last night's "debate." Once again the democrats failed to include the only real democrat left.

Are democrats worse than republicans? The republicans still have Ron Paul present for most of their debates. And if you saw Ron Paul at their last "debate" call out romney and mccain for war mongering nazis that they really are, a peaceful person might want to turn to the republicans and Ron Paul. Ron Paul's latest denunciation of imperialism was a thing of beauty and made me admire him . If all republicans were like him, I'd seriously contemplate voting for a republican.

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...that's apparent from the primary season. Edwards was modestly successful at getting the other two overly cautious front runners to risk taking some bold, non-rhetorical steps on health care and a few other issues, but drug policy reform will need to take a back seat again. Yes, Paul and Kucinich tried to raise it and thereby proved its non-viability for a major candidate, as well as on the other side of the aisle, Republicans (Guliani & AG Mukasey) ringing the alarum bells that a bunch of drug convicts were going to have a few years released off their sentences because of court decisions on sentencing guidelines/crack penalty reduction.

As I said on Paul Armentano's similar posting on this site the other day, this election cycle is no more propitious to raising this issue and avoiding a "soft on crime" swiftboating than any election since Nixon has been. And the last time it WAS an issue, GWB-43 told us compassionate conservative promises to let medical mj patients avoid federal prosecution, and then broke them.

And as we were told at the Drug Policy Alliance conference last November, the House dems have blacklisted even modest drug reform efforts from the agenda and have told activists, the SSDP kidz in particular, to cool it with the agitation around the student loan drug conviction ban (the infamous Question 35 on the FAFSA form "have you ever..."), but that, PRESUMING Democrats win the Presidency in 2008, we'll try to take care of your concerns ~2010 (e.g., in their second or third wave of legislation), especially if you can roll them into some health care reform rationale.

So maybe we'll see some movement then if Hillary or Obama wins (I don't see this myself, although I will dutifully vote for the Democratic candidate and live in a blue state). I expect that election would produce a rough replay of 2000 and 2004 with the big red square states in flyover country electing a white conservative christian male. And all of this discussion might therefore be moot really, despite our fervent hopes and wishes.

We've all been there many times this generation from Hubert Humphrey to John Kerry. And even with a Dem president, I'm still scratching my head on how much rot they'd have to clear away at ONDCP, DEA, FDA, NIDA, SAMSHA etc. to ever say get mj rescheduled or grant Lyle Craker's research permit or do any of the heavy lifting that needs to be done to reframe militarized drug prohibition from today's coercive "criminal justice" paradigm to a touchy-feely "health care" paradigm.

Sounds like "harm reduction" and "legalization" and there's still no good framing for those issues that doesn't immediately get idiots frothing at the mouth about the return of hippies and the summer of love, "needle park" in Switzerland etc., all of the old memes and fears.

Sorry to be pessimistic about this, but a more realistic political strategy to move this thing forward during unpropitious times is still needed. Asking for this to be an issue in the 2008 presidential campaign is unrealistic.

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How are we supposed to keep those privately owned prisons profitable?

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Our lives are going by and elections bring us nothing, new laws make matters worse, petitions fail to deliver. Without a major political shake up and realignment in the US, the entire human race may fail to survive through the next century.

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If people only knew the truth that cannabis prohibition is the sole reason we are slowly being destroyed by petrochemicals, deforestation, and lack of life saving medicines they would scream bloody murder. This Nation has simply been censored of the long history of hemp and it's many uses for food, fuel, shelter, medicine, pleasure, and spirituality.
In 1974 at the University of Virginia it was discovered that THC destroyed tumors. In 2000, the anti-tumoral effects of THC were rediscovered in Madrid Spain. This all remains censored. In 2006 at the Memorial University of Newfoundland it was discovered that unlike heroin, cocaine, alcohol, nicotene, etc., that destroy brain tissue, cannabis promotes the growth of new brain cells. They are also finding evidence that it prevents Alzheimers. In fact it's being used to treat Alzheimers, MS, epilepsy, autism, diabetes, nausea, chronic pain, migraine, arthritis, obesity, glaucoma, asthma, emphysema, cystic fibrosis, alcoholism, herpes, skin and eating disorders, Parkinsons, Huntingtons, Tourettes, Crohns disease, and more in Europe and Canada. Yet our FDA still refuses to allow testing here at home and only continue to demonize it. Think about it, in the year 2007 the most powerful and supposedly knowledgable Nation on the planet is afraid to test a plant? Snail urine yes, cannabis no. Doctors will prescribe opiates and amphetamines to our kids, yet demonize cannabis because they say it could be a gateway to the drugs they already prescribe. What kind of logic is this? Cannabis is the safest medicine on the planet! Archaeological evidence proves that it has been used by man from the very beginning of civilization. In the entire history of mankind not one death can be attributed to it. All mammals, fish, birds, and reptiles have cannabinoid receptors throughout their body that work independent of those that govern the heart and breathing. There is no detox for cannabis! Medicinal cannabis will revolutionize medicine and make health care affordable to everyone! Sorry big Pharma!
Anything made from oil, coal, timber, or cotton can be made with cannabis hemp. Canvas is Dutch for cannabis. All paper, plastics, packaging, paints, varnishes, fuels, lubricants, textiles, plywood, structural components, many cosmetics and health foods, can all be made with hemp. In 1938 we knew of over 25,000 uses for it. Henry Ford built and fueled a car primarily with it. Synthetic plastics were developed using cellulose technology. Who knows what we can do with modern technology? One acre of it equals four for pulp and you harvest it every year, tree's take a lifetime. Do the math. It is ten times more efficient than corn for for fuel and requires little or no fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides to foul the soil and water, and grows in climates and conditions other crops won't. Almost everywhere from the Equator to the Arctic Circle. Every Nation can benefit.
Its seed is the single most nutritious thing you can eat. Our Government stockpiles it as a strategic food source yet deny it to us today, unless you buy it sterile. Not only is it good for us but it could replace the need for hormones and remants in our feedstock which is why American beef is banned in Europe. It will help to end world hunger.
Currently the United States is the only major Nation that does not grow industrial hemp. China provides the world with 40% of this resource and they are developing new technology for fuels, lubricants, plywood, textiles that will keep the United States at an economic and strategic deficit for years, while here at home we continue to strip our land of tree's and poison ourselves with petro till the barrel runs dry and our fields and forests are barren.
Hemp industrialization will create millions of Earth friendly jobs from the farm to the laboratory, begin a redistribution of wealth, and create social harmony.
If we can only get past the curse!

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Hillary promises to return America to the halcyon days of Bubba Bill's world record prison population.

Barack Obama brags about co-sponsoring drug laws that are text book examples of the ballooning effect that causes drugs to proliferate more whenever government puts pressure on the market.

I've a number of essays at the bottom of: Barack Obama....Getting Smaller

The only leverage we have with politicians is our ability to deny them our vote. I have not voted for drug war pandering national politicians since 1996. BOYCOTT DRUG WARRIOR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES!

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refuses to allow American Farmers grow the agricultural crop that is legal in many countries of the world. Americans CAN buy HEMP products from OTHER countries but NOT grow it for profit!!!!!
On the Nightly News several days ago, Brian Williams was So.... excited talking about a new industry...BAMBOO...right out of China..competes with cotton...soft beautiful clothing, wood products, 300 new clothing stores selling the items bla bla bla.... Only problem BAMBOO is only grown in China and then shipped to USA.

Oh well, a new corporate industry, cheap labor....why give USA citizens a CHANCE????

http://drugnews.org/

If Uncle Sam will not let the citizens clothe themselves with HEMP do you really think HE will allow Hemp's cousin, a God given medicinal plant to become legal????

Do not give up the fight though, our elected officials need to be continuously prodded to do the right thing for the PEOPLE.

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I didn't even bother to watch that load of crap phony debate.

I am trying to empower a movement for change of the drug laws. You are content with the status quo. Voting for drug warriors like Clinton and Obama will not end the Jim Crow drug war.

Your saying that this is not a "black white" issue just shows your ignorance. The war on drugs is ALL about race. Your denial is the problem not the solution.

I have proudly boycotted drug warrior candidates since 1996. Thanks to efforts like by people like me the major candidates are now talking about and defending themselves regarding the drug war. That was not the case ten years ago. Politicians are on the defensive about the drug war. No thanks to folks like you who set aside your values and vote for drug warrior Democrats who are happy to then shit in your face.

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At their annual conference last summer the United States Conference of Mayors passed a resolution denouncing the war on drugs. The Conference is the largest group of elected local executives in America who are on the front line of the war on drugs mopping up the blood in our streets thanks to drug war violence.

"NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the United States Conference of Mayors believes the war on drugs has failed and calls for a New Bottom Line in U.S. drug policy, a public health approach that concentrates more fully on reducing the negative consequences associated with drug abuse, while ensuring that our policies do not exacerbate these problems or create new social problems of their own; establishes quantifiable, short- and long-term objectives for drug policy; saves taxpayer money; and holds state and federal agencies accountable..."

U.S. mayors call for end to drug war

I want to know how many presidential candidates agree with our mayors.

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Make all drugs legal!!! Natural substances like hemp,that promote a pacified nature, and other's by perscription. Hemp can be legal for those of legal age,which would result in a great decrease in domestic violence calls to police. Their #1 assistance call. In the 1920's The Women's temperance League was quite successful in getting drunken abusive husbands ordered by judges at the city,county and state level,to hashish therapy,with made them more peaceable.
The fact that drugs are illegal is that our government makes a boatload of money importing,distributing,then busting and reselling those same drugs. They make too much money off drugs for their black pprojects and illegal military operations. Iran/Contra comes to mind and look what the CIA did with crack.
Under a doctor's care,these people would not be such a drain on society because use would be regulated,controled,and given a kinder view by the publis at large because everyone knows someone who's on perscription drugs. Drugs that,by the way, often have side effects far worse than the symptoms they are meant to treat and much worse than 'street drugs'. FYI...in the 5,000 years of written history there has never been a single death reported by overdosing on cannibas hemp. Asprin,on the other hand, kills more than 1000 people each year,and any one of any age can buy it.
Draft Jeffrey7 for Prez '08
www.youtube.com/RevJeffrey7

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In the past dozen years there have been a dozen states and the District of Colombia that have passed reform related laws, initiatives and referenda.

There are now dozens of elected officials across the nation who oppose the drug war. More every year.

The National Conference of Mayors last year passed a resolution condemning the war on drugs as "FAILED". The Conference is the largest group of local elected executives in America.

All because people like me have put pressure on politicians by our support of alternative politicians who oppose the Jim Crow drug warriors.

In this years elections all of the candidates have been forced to defend their drug war positions. Groups like Law Enforcement Against Prohibition have confronted, face to face, drug warrior politicians on the campaign trail.

All of the Democratic candidates have, this year, softened their stance on pot and medical pot BECAUSE they see that their drug war positions are becoming a liability for them politically.

So, yes, there are changes. Big changes. And those changes have come about BECAUSE people like me have refused to blindly give our electoral blessing to drug warriors these past dozen years.

Its a tough love thing. I will refuse to give the embrace of my vote to any candidate who does not get right and start to oppose the crime fostering, terrorist funding and anti-democracy Jim Crow drug war.

I REFUSE to vote for drug warrior politicians who I know will then spit in my face.

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In fact a lot of laws have been changed and politicians have come over to the drug policy reform agenda in the past dozen years BECAUSE the drug reform community has stood up and vocally opposed drug war politicians enough in the past dozen years that they are coming to see their drug war positions as liabilities. The Green Party and Libertarians owe a lot of their growth in the past dozen years to drug law reformers who feel abandoned by the Democratic Party.

In the past dozen years there have been a dozen states and the District of Colombia that have passed reform related laws, initiatives and referenda.

There are now dozens, maybe hundreds, of elected officials across the nation who oppose the drug war. More every year.

The National Conference of Mayors last year passed a resolution condemning the war on drugs as "FAILED". The Conference is the largest group of local elected executives in America.

All because people like me have put pressure on politicians by our support of alternative politicians who oppose the Jim Crow drug warriors.

In this years elections all of the candidates have been forced to defend their drug war positions. Groups like Law Enforcement Against Prohibition have confronted, face to face, drug warrior politicians on the campaign trail.

All of the Democratic candidates have, this year, softened their stance on pot and medical pot BECAUSE they see that their drug war positions are becoming a liability for them politically.

So, yes, there are changes. Big changes. And those changes have come about BECAUSE people like me have refused to blindly give our electoral blessing to drug warriors these past dozen years.

Its a tough love thing. I will refuse to give the embrace of my vote to any candidate who does not get right and start to oppose the crime fostering, terrorist funding and anti-democracy Jim Crow drug war.

I REFUSE to vote for drug warrior politicians who I know will then spit in my face.

Ralph Nader for President in 2008 Unlike the Jim Crow Democrats Ralph opposes the Jim Crow drug war.

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It's time for one of the "frontrunners" to take a real stand on the issue of marijuana use. To read that "Obama said he was open to legalizing medical marijuana if scientific evidence showed it was a valid painkiller" makes one wonder where he has been for the past decades.

Over and over, real people with real pain report that the only medication that relieves their suffering is marijuana. Studies from many countries, including Canada, have strongly indicated that cannibis does, in fact, have medicinal value. Scientific evidence often comes from evaluating actual people, and this evidence is readily available for anyone who is in the least bit interested in finding out.

Aside from the medicinal benefits, cannibis has been shown to be much less harmful than a multitude of other, legal, substances including tobacco, alcohol, pain killers, and mood altering drugs. There is no valid reason for it to be illegal.

The question of whether the world would be a better place if Clinton or Obama had been arrested for pot use in their youth is a good one. In spite of my dislike of Hillary Clinton and my ambivalence about Obama, the answer is still, for me, "no." (The question of whether the world would be a better place if Bush had been incarcerated for his drug use is more open to debate. At least he wouldn't have been very likely to become president. I suspect the neo-con machine would have found another equally despicable puppet.)

In any case, the reasons for the continued war on marijuana, aside from the general War on Drugs, seem to me to be very complex and stemming from a multitude of sources. The fact that hemp might threaten the paper, cloth, and plastic industries probably has something to do with it. The Christian right's moral objection is another. I worked with a man who still believes that prohibition worked and should have been continued. The tobacco, alcohol, and pharmaceutical companies no doubt play a large role, as well as the prison industry.

In the meantime, a large percentage of the population will smoke and ingest cannibis in all its forms, hoping they can pass the invasive (and should be illegal) testing they have to undergo at work, trying not to get caught in a variety of situations, and continuing to perform quite well as contributing members of society in spite of all the anti-pot hype.

I recently read a quote - but I don't know who said it - to the effect that when a consequence causes more damage than the original crime, there's something wrong with the system. Sounds right to me.

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DAVID KOCH - INDPENDENT OF UTAH FORESIDENT in 2008

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Prohibition beings about a black market. Black market activity leads to calls for stricter prohibition with more severe penalties. Stricter prohibition and more sever penalties causes more black market activity. And so it goes.

Who benefits? Big Pharma, CIA, politicians, police, the prison business all benefit. The society at large is the victim of the irrational policy of prohibition.

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Oh for crying out loud some people just watched reefer madness too many times. Hemp is cannabis ruteralis not cannabis sativa and does not contain intoxicating levels of THC. It is an all-purpose plant that can provide biofuel, fiber and food from not-so great land and not much water. It is nuts not to allow it to be grown, but then when was the last time our government was rational? As for the smokable sativa, THC doesn't agree with me but I have NO PROBLEM with others using it,especially as a medication. Frankly, give me a pothead any day over a surly drooling drunk chain smoking cigarettes. Methamphetamine isn't even pursued the way pot use and cultivation is, and meth is a horror in every way. The US drug policy is just insane.

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Obama more than Hillary, but both candidates are making the right noises about sentencing reform and decriminalization. Neither of them want to give ammunition to the enemy by explicitly stating it. That's the stuff on which elections are lost--big time.

I've got new confidence that no dummies were raised in Barack's or Hillary's families.

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Man, how can you even mention cannabis in the same article with crack, cocaine and needles?
That's like comparing a firecracker to a thermonuclear weapon! This makes cannabis the 'gateway' drug all so-called educated idiots in
America think it is, including the idiots that are making the laws! These folks on crack, crank, coke, smack and all the other enormously destructive drugs need TREATMENT, not a freaking War on their problems! And to lock up this many people for cannabis means just one thing and that is that prisons are an economy in this country, the War on Drugs are a windfall profit for thousands of local law enforcement agencies and we are the idiots for electing ANYONE who supports it! Democracy? Be nice if we really had one but I'll never see it in my lifetime!

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