This week President Obama had another one of his online forums, folks spend a few days voting up questions for him to answer before these events. This time, like every time, questions about marijuana and the war on drugs filled up most of the top 20 questions. Much like before, they were ignored.

NORML Spokesman Erik Altieri hit the nail on the head in an email to the Huffington Post saying,

“It is disappointing that, yet again, the administration has declined the opportunity to discuss the very serious issue of ending marijuana prohibition. For the ninth time, the White House has solicited the American people for direct input on the issues they cared about and then, when the resulting answers called overwhelmingly for marijuana law reform, President Obama ignores the will of the American people on this burning issue.”

The second most popular question of all came from Stephen Downing, Former Deputy Chief of LAPD and board member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. Downing reflected on his decades in law enforcement and went on to ask the president what he would say to the majority of americans who now support the legalization of marijuana.

Another interesting part of this article was a quote from Harborside Health Center Executive Director Steve DeAngelo. Like many California patients who backed Obama in 2008, he is thoroughly unsatisfied with Obama failing to keep his campaign trail promises. He said,

“I will be voting in the Republican primary in California, and I will be voting for one of the candidates who supports our position on medical cannabis. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of other medical cannabis patients join me. There’s a real opening here for Republicans.”

When the man who has provided safe access to more patients in North America than anyone says he is voting Republican, it really makes you wonder what happened to promises we heard in New Hampshire.

Eight years after patients in Vermont won the battle for the right to use medical marijuana, the Department of Public Safety is finally releasing the guidelines surrounding dispensaries. 

Vermont has some of the strictest guidelines in the county when it comes to medical cannabis. The state is only allowing four dispensaries total. They will only be able to see one patient at a time, and even crazier is the fact that the patient must make an appointment to get their meds. You probably won’t have to worry about time slots though, because the state is cutting off the number of patients at 1000!

The list of qualifying conditions in Vermont is,

• cancer
• HIV/ AIDS
• multiple sclerosis (MS)
• cachexia or wasting syndrome
• severe pain
• severe nausea
• seizures

For a state with over a half million people setting such a low number for the amount of patients is sure to become a problem, right now there is only room in the program for one in every 632 residents. Presumably the state will fix this as 1,000 approaches. Just because a person in number 1001 in the program doesn’t mean the medicine is any less valuable to them.

Activists and lawmakers think the strict regulations will keep the federal government from interfering with the program. Virginia Renfrew, a spokeswoman for the Vermont People with AIDS Coalition said,

“I think that hopefully for the federal government when they look at Vermont they look at Vermont as being a model.”

Patients will also need to fork over fifty bucks for a State ID card in order to have access to the four dispensaries, and  in signing up to use dispensaries they will be forking over the right to grow their own medicine. For many low income folks this could be a true hardship, many patients who grow use dispensaries to supplement their medicine supply between harvests.

Over a week ago the White House kicked off their “Your Interview with the President” campaign, the most recent in a string of initiatives that hopes to stir support of our current president in preparation of the upcoming election. The campaign implied that any person can ask a question and once the question receives a certain amount of “up” votes from the audience it will then qualify to have Obama answer it.

Erik Altieri, a NORML Communications Coordinator attempted to participate in the discussion by adding the following question to the stream.

“With over 850,000 Americans arrested in 2010, on marijuana charges alone, and tens of billions of tax dollars being spent locking up marijuana users, isn’t it time to regulate and tax marijuana?”

This simple and relevant question was then promptly removed after having been up voted to the tune of 4,000+ votes. Altieri reports that of the top 150 questions posed to POTUS 105 of those questions were marijuana related.

Clearly, NORML and other marijuana and civil rights advocates didn’t take this slight by the White House lightly. They informed their readers of the internet censorship trickery going on with the campaign. Marijuana advocates are using this as an opportunity to draw a line in the sand.

Considering this is the same individual who previously stated that, “we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws” and that legalization is a “perfectly legitimate topic for debate,” maybe he will take this opportunity to address the issue seriously for once.

So, will Obama address the issues raised before him by his constitutes or will we continue to see more double talk by our elected officials, aggression by the Federal government and social discordance?

Your Interview With the President is schedule to go down today, January 30th and I say we hold the feet of  POTUS and the administration over the fire by posing our issues regarding marijuana rights intelligently and civilly as we watch what happens next.

It is an election year, but lets not be fooled into thinking that marijuana rights and access is a SOLE reason to vote in another president. On the other hand, if Obama continued to ignore marijuana advocacy and progress does that mean he is not a worthwhile president otherwise?

I would really hate to see all the politicians playing us out so easily because ,if so, we risk living in a society that’s even worse than the one we currently have.

If you thought you NEEDED weed to cope with life before…. imagine if we get Ron Paul or Newt Gingrich as president!

The thought just might make you reach for your bong, as you look out the window for the police bust that may be coming to a door near you, because we’re still treated as criminals. Let’s not forget.

But imagine a world with not a pot to piss in…or a window to throw it out of.

The top police officer in the country of Belize, Minister of Police and Public Safety Doug Singh, has said he will be asking the cabinet to remove criminal penalties for the possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Singh’s ministry is working with some help from outside folks to prepare the final document that will be sent to the cabinet. Currently it is undecided if they will push for the for decriminalization of five grams or seven.

The main concerns for Singh is giving first time offenders and young people a chance to get through life and not have it ruined be a small time marijuana possesion offense. Singh said,

“…after a certain period of time, persons who are charged criminally for marijuana will have their record wiped clean. It makes no sense for a young person who made the mistake of being caught with a small amount of marijuana to have to go through life with a criminal record.”

Currently a marijuana offense in Belize can be very costly. No matter how small the quantity, if you are caught you can expect to be arrested, brought to court, and fined. If the fine is not paid you end up in prison, a tough deal in a country where one in five are unemployed and one in three live below the poverty line.

Depending on where you are from and the quality of the neighborhood in which you were accustomed you may be familiar with the penal charge of ‘conspiracy to commit’. People of color and other not so lucky individuals get to know the meaning behind this vague term often when they are in loose relationships with people, places and things deemed illegal.

Sometimes, the charge of ‘conspiracy to commit’ can even be applied to those whom are are absolutely innocent.

You see, ‘conspiracy to commit’ is a catch all criminal justice fishing net used to snatch up nearly anybody and everybody if the law chooses to see manufacture an illegal association.

Recently, Montana resident Diane Sands learned of her name coming up during a DEA investigation.

What was her part in the big Labowski, you ask?

She is an independent political seat holder and is currently part of the Montana Legislative body that has been reviewing and drafting medical marijuana laws in consideration of voting before the state.

“So now, if you’re a state legislator who has been working on medical marijuana laws, you are somehow part of a conspiracy,” said Sands, who represents House District 95 in Missoula and works as development director for the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula. “It’s ridiculous, of course, but it’s also threatening to think that the federal government is willing to use its influence and try to chill discussion about this subject.”

So you can see how the DEA plans to attempt to treat anyone having any involvement in the legalization of, the discussion of, and the defense of or the implementation of marijuana as an authentic criminal.

They’re placing drug cartels, money launderers and the American Civil Liberties Union in the same grimy basket. In essence, the Feds want to put a halt to our freedom to consider and shape our own laws.

They are STILL trying to take our civil liberties away from us.

“It is true that we’ve got competing laws in place here with states with medical marijuana laws, but federal law is clear,” he said. “Marijuana is illegal under federal law. If you are involved in selling marijuana, trafficking marijuana, profiting from marijuana, you are in jeopardy. We get questions about what we’ll investigate and what we won’t, and we can’t give that answer. But if you’re involved with profiting from marijuana, you’re in jeopardy.”

Diane Sands doesn’t buy the bullshit, and neither do I and nor should you. It seems like way more than a coincidence when the Feds release official notices regarding their intent to investigate and prosecute marijuana related businesses only days before the state is schedule to consider voting on new marijuana legislation.

“The bottom line is, there’s no reason for my name to come up,” she said. “So they can say what they want about who they are going to prosecute, but when a state has an ongoing discussion about its laws, and its lawmakers’ names are being brought up by federal agents, I will be hard to convince that there’s any other reason than to send a message.”

The DEA is sending the message that its just safer for people to back away. That is very much a bully move that we’ve all become accustomed too from our government. Are you gonna willing to walk away from the fight? Would you if your name came up in some secret DEA investigation….we all should ask ourselves this question. Me included.

I’ll see you on the other side, kids…

New York Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries used his state of the district speech to highlight a need to push marijuana decriminalization as a means of stopping entrapment tactics by the NYPD.

Jeffries has long been opposed to the famous NYPD stop and frisk program which led to it being the world’s leading jailer for marijuana offenses. With many supporters in the audience he said,

“It’s only happening in certain communities… It’s not happening in the Village. It’s not even happening in Williamsburg, despite the fact that marijuana use in those communities is equal if not greater than those in [Fort Greene and Clinton Hill].”

This call by Jeffries is needed.  NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly issued a memo in September telling the department hierarchy  not to arrest people for marijuana that was never in plain sight. It didn’t work, the marijuana arrest rate only dropped 13 percent in the first three months after the memo.

Removing all penalties for the possession of small amounts of marijuana is the only answer to solving the NYPD problem. Decriminalization would prevent 0ne in seven arrests in the city, instantly decrease the racial profile in arrests rates, and free up police and taxpayer resources to focus on real issues.

Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries has also announced that he will be running for congress.

Indiana State Senator Karen Tallian has submitted Senate Bill 347 to the Indiana Statehouse, the bill would remove criminal penalties for marijuana possession up to three ounces, and is proposing an addition to give medical users with a physicians recommendation a “Free Pass.”

The bill is basically the second step to a hard push to pass it in the next legislative session, it was presented to the Senate Committee on Corrections, Criminal and Civil Matters on Tuesday.  Tallian was already aware that the committee would not vote on it as that was the only way the bill would be heard at all. The committee listen to a lot of input from the public, much of it was in regards to industrial hemp. While no action was taken by the committee it could have been worse, they could have voted it down. So technically if they got a spurt of courage in an election year they could still push it to the floor.

Senator Tallian is not holding her breathe on that one. The Ogden Dunes Democrat told the Chesterton Tribune,

“This legislation is a work in progress…Due to it being an election year and with so many contentious issues at the Statehouse, we wanted to continue laying the groundwork for the bill this year. The result of today’s testimony was very encouraging for the future of this proposal.”

Progress is being made though, and with the amount of effort being put into writing the legislation properly, proponents should be very prepared by the time it hits the Senate floor after the election.

Littlebud on StonerForums.com was kind enough to post an update Tallian sent to her constituents about the legislation, one interesting piece not noted by the Chesterton Tribune is her plan to give medical users a “Free Pass” to use marijuana. Just click this link to read the letter over at StonerForums.

The Mendocino Board of Supervisors met Tuesday deciding in a 4-1 vote to cancel the county’s medical cannabis collective permitting system after receiving threats from the U.S. Attorney and having issues with the clarity of the law.

The groundbreaking permitting program allowed growers to have 99 plants registered with the Sheriff, 74 more plants than the standard 25 plant limit enforced county wide. The main reasons stated were lack of clarity in the law, and more importantly a direct threat of federal interference against the county and the supervisors themselves from Melinda Haag of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. This forced Mendocino County Counsel Jeanine Nadel to suggest the supervisors remove all language allowing growers to have 99 plants.

5th District Supervisor Dan Hamburg said,

“They were threatening to file an injunction against our ordinance and try to throw it out in court, and also threatening to individually go after county officials who were supporting these laws, which they believed to be in violation of federal law.”

Other fears of the supervisors included federal funding to assorted social services being cut off. For a county with an unemployment rate hovering over 10% for the last three years, that could be crippling.

Many Mendo growers came out in support of the law and the positive effects the revenue was having on the county. Other environmental issues came up as well, the supervisors decided to remove three provisions that banned the use of diesel generators, forced growers to inform their landlord about plants, and finally requiring growers to post a copy of their doctor’s recommendation at their garden site.

All in all this is just more clear evidence of the U.S. Justice Department threatening communities who are attempting to effectively regulate medical cannabis.

Another great video from the Turks. Keep up the good work guys.

Here is a video the our friends at SSDP put together featuring Ron Paul while on his campaign trail. In Manchester, NH some young members of the Students for Sensible Drug Policy asked Ron Paul a simple question:

Why aren’t other candidates talking about the drug laws???

The Presidential candidate once again had the problem of making too much sense. Unfortunately that will usually lose you an election in the United States. I still haven’t decided on who I am voting for yet but I am definitely taking marijuana legalization stances into account in my decision making process.