Pubdate: Thu, 28 Mar 2013
Source: Dayton Daily News (OH)
Copyright: 2013 Chicago Tribune
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/7JXk4H3l
Website: http://www.daytondailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/120
Author: Clarence Page
Page: A10

OBAMA SHOULD SUPPORT LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA

As the nation's capital prepares to open its first legal medicinal 
marijuana dispensary and Sen. Rand Paul's call for legalization basks 
in bipartisan praise, it's time for President Barack Obama to clear 
the air around his own passive-aggressive position on pot.

Four years after his Justice Department announced that the feds will 
no longer crack down on medicinal marijuana sellers who follow state 
laws, the president's pot position continues to be dangerously vague 
and confusing.

In California, where voters approved medicinal use back in 1996, the 
law was so vaguely worded that about 1,000 dispensaries mushroomed up 
in Los Angeles County alone. Yet busts continued, partly over 
disputes as to whether the law allowed only nonprofit businesses.

At the other extreme, November ballots in Colorado and Washington 
State legalized marijuana for recreational use, and the District of 
Columbia's first dispensary, Capital City Care, has its website up 
and plans to open in April.

And, on another front, Sen. Paul, a famously libertarian Kentucky 
Republican, has introduced a bill with Vermont Democratic Sen. 
Patrick Leahy to restore greater flexibility to judges than currently 
is allowed by mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes.

In a recent interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace that even Think 
Progress praised as "uncharacteristically sensible," the 
left-progressive website's equivalent of a four-star review, Paul got 
to the heart of the current tragedy: ruined lives.

"Our prisons are full of nonviolent criminals," Paul said. "I don't 
want to encourage people to do it. I think even marijuana is a bad 
thing to do. ... But I also don't want to put people in jail who make 
a mistake."

He spoke forcefully of the many young nonviolent offenders like 
President Obama, who has written about his teen drug indiscretions, 
and possibly former President George W. Bush, who has politely 
refused to confirm or deny what manner of drug use might have 
accompanied alcohol during the years before he found sobriety.

"Look, the last two presidents could conceivably have been put in 
jail for their drug use and I really think, you know, look what would 
have happened," he said. "They got lucky, but a lot of poor kids, 
particularly in the inner city, they don't get lucky, they don't have 
good attorneys, and they go to jail for these things, and I think 
it's a big mistake."

On that note regarding nonviolent drug offenders, Paul strikes a 
nerve with me and numerous other African-Americans and civil rights advocates.

And the financial cost on top of the social cost of the failed "war 
on drugs" has caused such big conservative names as anti-tax lobbyist 
Grover Norquist, former Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Attorney 
General Edwin Meese to join others in Right On Crime. That 
nonpartisan effort is aimed at promoting less costly and more 
productive alternatives to incarceration, such as drug treatment and 
community service for nonviolent offenders.

With the trends moving in such a productive direction, I'm hardly 
alone in wondering what President Obama is waiting for. As with the 
issue of same-sex marriage, his support could get ahead of the trend 
and help move it along. He can even claim it was his idea all along.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom