Pubdate: Thu, 03 May 2012
Source: Tucson Weekly (AZ)
Copyright: 2012 Tucson Weekly
Contact:  http://www.tucsonweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/462
Author: J. M. Smith

POT AND POTUS

Crackdowns on Large-Scale Marijuana Purveyors May Indeed Be Warranted

The people close to me-and maybe some folks a few tables away at the 
bar-know what I think about politicians.

I've spent a lot of time over the years following our esteemed 
leaders around with microphones, and some of the things I recorded 
disgusted me and pissed me off-and generally made me think less of 
politicians as a subset of humanity. I always start with the 
assumption that whatever a politician says into my recorder is 
carefully crafted bullshit aimed at deceiving.

I don't take it personally. They aren't trying to deceive me. They're 
deceiving you.

Anyway, sometimes I agree with a politician, and that happened 
recently when President Barack Obama talked with Jann Wenner of 
Rolling Stone about medical marijuana. In an interview conducted the 
day after Easter, the president said his administration will crack 
down on large-scale operations, which it has done, but leave MMJ 
patients alone.

"The only tension that's come up-and this gets hyped up a lot-is a 
murky area where you have large-scale, commercial operations that may 
supply medical-marijuana users, but in some cases may also be 
supplying recreational users," the leader of the free world told the 
icon of the free press.

People have attacked the Obama administration for cracking down 
harder than the Bush Jr. administration on medical marijuana, for 
thrusting a Plexiglas shield between us and our meds-and closing the 
store. Threatening letters and raids have shut down hundreds of shops 
in California, Washington and Colorado. The MMJ activists and 
advocates have cried foul, squawking at length about the president 
denying patients of their right to God-given medication.

Not so, IMHO.

"What I specifically said was that we were not going to prioritize 
prosecutions of persons who are using medical marijuana," The Man 
told Wenner. "I never made a commitment that somehow we were going to 
give carte blanche to large-scale producers and operators of marijuana."

So, before you freak out and wave your arms around and shout about 
the Obama administration stepping all up in your shit to keep you 
from your meds, consider the message very carefully: I don't see any 
conflict between what the feds are doing to dispensaries and my 
access to meds. It seems to me the president is telling us he's 
willing to let us eat the cake voters gave us in the Arizona Medical 
Marijuana Act-he just wants it tightly controlled and not mass-produced.

If you don't think large-scale grow operations are diverting MMJ to 
the gen pop, then you're stupid or lying. It's happening, especially 
in California, where they have fewer dispensary regulations. 
Marijuana is leaking out of the medical system at the seams, and I 
don't really see a problem with patching a few leaks. In the end, I 
think the president is doing the right thing. I've said this before, 
and I'll say it again and again and again: In a perfect world, my 
herbal remedy would be legal. Completely legal, and regulated a la 
alcohol. But the president and I live in this world, the real one. So 
we have to make do.

I think the next-best thing is to grow your own, without any threat 
of federal raids or boot heels or weapons drawn in the name of 
democracy. I wouldn't lose much sleep if Gov. Jan jabbed her finger 
in the president's face and told him to come on in and throw locks on 
every dispensary in Arizona. I probably wouldn't lose any sleep at all.

I'd just head down to Sea of Green and get myself some lights.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom