Norml Opposes President Obama's Pick To Head The Drug Enforcement Administration

[Michael Komorn]

NORML Opposes President Obama's Pick To Head The Drug Enforcement Administration

 

 

From NORML.ORG:

NORML Opposes President Obama's Pick To Head The Drug Enforcement Administration

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- July 21, 2010

Following Recent Raids, Medical Marijuana Advocacy Groups Call on President Obama to Withdraw Nomination of Michele Leonhart to be DEA Administrator

Obama's DEA Head Must Follow Stated Medical Marijuana Policy, End Obstruction of Marijuana Research, and Base Marijuana Rescheduling on Science Rather than Ideology

CONTACT: Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director, 202-483-5500 or director@norml.org

WASHINGTON, DC -- Today, a coalition of organizations supportive of medical marijuana patients and providers (see list of organizations below) are calling on President Obama to withdraw his nomination of Michele Leonhart to serve as administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Ms. Leonhart, who is currently the DEA's acting-administrator, has not demonstrated that she is capable of leading the agency in a thoughtful manner at a time when fourteen states have enacted medical marijuana laws and science is increasingly confirming the therapeutic benefits of the substance.

 

"It is clearly time for President Obama to insist that his appointees adhere to current Justice Department guidelines regarding state laws regulating the medical use of marijuana, and that marijuana be fairly evaluated by all federal agencies, based on science, not ideology," said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), the nation's oldest marijuana legalization lobby. "The Obama administration should be working with us to eliminate criminal penalties for the responsible use of marijuana by adults, regardless of whether it is medical use or otherwise."

Under Leonhart's leadership, the DEA has staged medical marijuana raids in apparent disregard of Attorney General Eric Holder's directive to respect state medical marijuana laws. Most recently, DEA agents flouted a pioneering Mendocino County (CA) ordinance to regulate medical marijuana cultivation by raiding the very first grower to register with the sheriff. Joy Greenfield, 69, had paid more than $1,000 for a permit to cultivate 99 plants in a collective garden that had been inspected and approved by the local sheriff.

Informed that Ms. Greenfield had the support of the sheriff, the DEA agent in charge responded by saying, "I don't care what the sheriff says." The DEA's conduct is inconsistent with an October 2009 Department of Justice memo directing officials not to arrest individuals "whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana."

Ms. Leonhart has also demonstrated that she is unable to be objective in carrying out the duties of the administrator as it relates to medical marijuana research. In January 2009, she refused to issue a license to the University of Massachusetts to cultivate marijuana for FDA-approved research, despite a DEA administrative law judge's ruling that it would be "in the public interest" to issue the license. This single act has blocked privately-funded medical marijuana research in this country. The next DEA administrator will likely influence the outcome of a marijuana rescheduling petition currently before the agency. It is critical that an administrator with an open mind toward science and research is at the helm.

# # # # #

The following organizations are calling on President Obama to withdraw the nomination of Ms. Leonhart if she does not end the attacks on individuals acting in compliance with state medical marijuana laws and commit to making decisions related to medical marijuana based on science, not a personal anti-marijuana bias:

California NORML

Drug Policy Alliance (DPA)

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP)

Marijuana Policy Project (MPP)

Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)

National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)

Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP)

 

Michael A. Komorn

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PLANET GREENTREES NEW CALL IN NUMBER

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PLANET GREENTREES

w/ Attorney Michael Komorn

 

www.GreenTreesRadio.com is the most relevant radio talk show in the Michigan Medical Marijuana Community. PERIOD.

Date / Time: 7/21/2010 8:00 PM

Category: Legal

Call-in Number: (347) 326-9626

 

 

RADIO SHOW INFORMATION

 

 

NEW CALL IN NUMBER

Call-in Number: (347) 326-9626

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/greentreesradio

PLANET GREENTREES

w/ Attorney Michael Komorn

 

www.GreenTreesRadio.com is the most relevant radio talk show in the Michigan Medical Marijuana Community. PERIOD.

Date / Time: 7/21/2010 8:00 PM

Category: Legal

Call-in Number: (347) 326-9626

[Bisharoo]

Mr. Obama has stated that it is "ok to sacrifice some for what he perceives to be the good of the many", (see gulf coast states that he is sending all the oil jobs to foreign countries and he tells the Louisiana governor than all those many many thousands of American families "can get BP to reimburse them or go on unemployment"). So anyone that thinks that this administration or the previous several administrations is going to uphold your individual human rights is sorely mistaken. No matter who he appoints, his agenda is clear. He hates your free will and your individual human rights and will do anything in his power to achieve his view of utopia.

 

My wife assumes that a government agency (read criminal thugs) will be coming for me as I shine the light of truth on those who are destroying individuals for their idea of what is best for the many. These people (stateists) do not work well in the light of public scrutiny.

 

I guess this is the time to stand for our rights. If we don't, who will??

 

Of course, this always brings everything back to the question, "who owns you?". Do you think you are free? Do you think you own your own life? Many people in this world think that no person can own themselves. Too many of those people have places of influence and control over others.

 

I hope our president makes a mistake and selects an individual who has an innate sense that individual human rights are to be protected above all else, but somehow I doubt it. I pray that his heart will soften for the oppressed and sick and lowly individuals who he has been thus far ok with sacrificing for his greater good.

 

We need to ask him, and all others in positions of power, a few key questions that today's reporters do not know how to ask, for various reasons.

 

Why do you hate individual human rights?

Why do you continually break the oath you took to uphold the US Constitution?

How many thousands or millions of individual humans are ok to sacrifice (ruin, jail, death, etc) for your plan to ultimately work?

Why do you think it is ok to sacrifice even one individual?

You mean, a law abiding American human being that is not harming anyone else does not have the right to remain secure in their own person? In their own home? Is this the America that you want to create?

How can anyone justify enslaving future generations of yet unborn humans by imposing a burden of taxes that they can never possibly pay through their whole life?

Involuntary servitude should not be a part of America. What are you going to do to end it today?

 

The list could go on for days, but this would be a good start. Please Mr. Obama, have some compassion for us individual humans so we can be more free to take care of our own families and be more able to help others along our way!!