What's The Real Reason For Obama's Medical Marijuana Crackdown?

[AKenewell]

There's an interesting article at The Week looking at some different theories regarding the reasons behind Obama's medical marijuana crackdown. You can choose from one of more of the following:

1. He's trying to look tough because he believes – rightly or wrongly – that he could be vulnerable to being labeled "soft on crime" during the election.

 

2. He doesn't think the "marijuana vote" is strong enough to have a meaningful impact on him politically.

 

3. The medical marijuana industry got too big too fast, forcing the federal government to intervene.

 

Do we have our answer here somewhere? I wouldn't immediately dismiss any of this, although if the Obama Administration actually believes they're scoring political points with this madness, they are out of their minds. In any case, these ideas effectively sum up most of the speculation I've heard recently from serious observers.

 

But there's a larger point to made here: the reason we can only speculate as to the Obama Administration's motives is because they won't even admit that this crackdown is taking place, let alone explain the reasoning behind it. We shouldn't have to sit around guessing what this is about. The President, or the Attorney General, or someone with knowledge of the situation should tell us.

 

I'm serious. It sounds terribly naïve even to me as I write it, but there really is no logical reason why our government can’t simply tell us why they are doing these things that they've been doing. We can see them doing it. Just tell us what it's all about. Wouldn't it be easier that way?

 

Think about it. If state lawmakers, local law enforcement, medical marijuana providers, patients, advocates, and the media all understood what the Obama Administration's enforcement priorities and long-term goals regarding medical marijuana actually are, we could all make more informed decisions that make life a lot easier for everyone else. We've all become so accustomed to this being a big guessing game that nobody stops to point out how crazy that is.

 

The Obama Administration's continued insistence on discussing medical marijuana in the most brief and vague possible terms has created an enormous amount of confusion and wasted time on every side of this debate. Medical marijuana is a matter of public policy. Can we please just talk about it in public?

 

http://stopthedrugwa..._obamas_medical

 

Here's an Interesting reply to this article..

 

by Washpatriot (not verified), May 10, 2012, 02:22am

I don't think you have addressed any of the real reasons for the crackdown on medical marijuana. I would suggest the following as reasons:

 

1. The federal government wants to reaffirm their ultimate authority over states and the show that the 10th amendment to the constitution has no bearing....federal law always trumps state law. To not do this would give states and people the idea that they may have some control over their destiny.

 

2. Medical marijuana, with it's many uses and cures erodes the pharmaceutical industry profits, undermines the medical industry, and also places Obamacare in jeopardy. When people can grow and administer their own medicine without going through the "system", this is a threat to the control of the person. The government through the FDA is working on making any and all natural herbal/vitamin based treatments prescription only. This will match up with what Europe is already doing.

 

3. The federal government is looking to license the growing of marijuana and has awarded several pharmaceutical companies the rights to produce natural plant based marijuana compounds which will be introduced to treat specific issues. This will insure that the profits of the pharmaceutical industry are maintained and enhanced. I'm betting marijuana remains a Schedule 1 drug though.

 

4. The government hates competition....it's long been known that the US government is one, if not the largest supplier of illegal drugs in the world. Whether it's heroin, cocaine, or marijuana the government through one of it's alphabet agencies or black ops is involved in the production and distribution of illegal drugs. Marijuana is the largest moneymaker for the government/cartels and medical marijuana cuts into that money that's used for off the books "projects".

 

5. If the federal government were to acknowledge medical marijuana and the states rights to administer laws/regulations pertaining to the distribution and use what would happen if a state "legalized marijuana" .Hypothetically they would have no choice but to honor that states right to administer laws and regulations concerning legal marijuana. See points one through four as to why this wouldn't be good.

 

6. It's a slippery slope....once medical marijuana is ok and people see that it isn't the "Killer Weed" and doesn't create psychopaths, rampant crime, and the moral degradation of society, can the full legalization of marijuana and all the problems it creates for the federal government be far behind?

 

6. The need for a "Police State" is partially propped up by illegal drugs. What would happen to the prison industry if even marijuana was legalized. The prisons would lose thousands of prisoners and profits, it probably would be difficult to keep all jail cells full. What excuse would police departments have for their SWAT teams and armored vehicles, all of which are used to bust people for pot.

 

This is just a starter list for why the Feds are cracking down on medical marijuana....I'm certain we can come up with more.

[cristinew]

this sounds about right,

[Restorium2]

None of the above....

 

Money interests(including the cartels), are working in a way that is not in the best interests of who the laws are supposed to help, patients. If you are helping patients, and not just helping yourself, the feds don't bother you. That's the way it looks here in Michigan. I have seen many, many warnings and they all follow this theme. I think things are much clearer than some would have you believe.

[+washtenaut]

Peanutbutter mentioned to me many months ago that he thought that Obama may be holding this marijuana issue as sort of an ace in the hole.

 

If, say by October, it is not looking good for his re-election campaign, Obama will start talking about easing up on medical marijuana. He will start calling for a 'serious discussion' on marijuana. This will encourage people that he will fix this mess if only he can get re-elected. He will manufacture votes with this issue if he needs them.

 

He can't ride in on a white horse to fix things if they aren't sort of messed up to start. Made a lot of sense to me.

[Restorium2]

Since we live in a medical state we don't have to guess. Just compile a list of local federal actions and look at why they happened. It's not rocket science if you know the specifics. There is no 'wide' crackdown. It's specific and focused.

[jamieuke]

There is probably some truth to all of the possibilities posted by AK, and in the subsequent response. If not directly from Obama and his administration, certainly from others who wield influence on the issue.

 

This thread reminded me if an oped I read a few weeks ago after Oaksterdam was raided-

 

http://healthland.time.com/2012/04/06/are-medical-marijuana-raids-the-price-we-must-pay-for-national-health-care/

 

 

Are Medical Marijuana Raids the Price We Must Pay for National Health Care?

April 6, 2012 | By Maia Szalavitz | 79

While federal agents were raiding a medical marijuana dispensary and the nation’s first pot trade school in Oakland, run by one of California’s most prominent legalization advocates, less than a mile a way, a gunman was murdering seven people at a Christian nursing school. The feds couldn’t have predicted the rampage, but it’s hard to imagine a starker illustration of misplaced law enforcement priorities.

 

In an ironic twist, the legal precedent that allows federal raids on state-permitted medical marijuana providers may be the key ruling that will enable President Obama’s health care plan to survive the Supreme Court. The government has repeatedly cited the case in its briefs and in oral argument: Gonzales v. Raich, a 6-to-3 ruling in 2005 that resulted in some odd ideological pairings.

 

(MORE: Federal Agents Raid Oaksterdam Marijuana School)

 

The case began in the early 2000s, when Angel Raich, a medical marijuana patient — along with another patient and two marijuana growers who supplied them — sued the federal government for enforcing the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), which makes marijuana illegal. Raich claimed that since California had legalized the medical use of marijuana, enforcement of the CSA against patients and caregivers was unconstitutional.

 

The plaintiffs’ reasoning was that the federal government, under the Commerce Clause, is limited to regulating only activities that affect interstate commerce. Since Raich was using marijuana to treat her own medical condition and her grower was providing it to her and not selling it outside of California, her attorneys argued that this had no effect on interstate commerce.

 

The Court disagreed. Although some of the Justices recognized that there could be good scientific reasons to reconsider the federal ban on the medical use of cannabis, they ruled narrowly on the commerce question. Voting 6-to-3, the Court determined that enforcing a ban on medical marijuana was an appropriate use of federal power.

 

Justices William Rehnquist and Sandra Day O’Connor dissented, saying that the states have a right to experiment with different policies and that allowing personal medical marijuana use was an acceptable policy. Justice Clarence Thomas also dissented, though his opinion read like it could have been a ruling on Obamacare:

 

Certainly no evidence from the founding suggests that “commerce” included the mere possession of a good or some personal activity that did not involve trade or exchange for value.

 

Of course, Thomas is unlikely to support the Affordable Care Act for many reasons. But it’s hard to fathom how the rest of the Court will be able to make the case that it’s O.K. for the federal government to stop medical marijuana use within a state because the drug can easily be sold out of state, but not to require people to buy health insurance, which affects insurance markets and health care prices across the country.

 

There is a complication, however, when drug-related precedents are invoked. Americans have repeatedly accepted invasions of privacy, violations of dignity, and loss of rights and liberty on account of drugs — violations they don’t tolerate with other issues — in what Thurgood Marshall called the “drug war exception to the Constitution.” But it’s always tricky to predict to which circumstances this “exception” will apply.

 

(MORE: Blacks, Bias and Marijuana: Did Drug Stigma Contribute to Trayvon Martin’s Death?)

 

As the Court weighs the various legal issues around the Affordable Care Act, dispensary raids have stirred outrage among those who rely on marijuana for pain relief and other medical issues. Even politicians are speaking out against the senselessness of using limited law enforcement resources to raid businesses that are legal under state law — and are also a rare bright spot in a shaky economy — while cutting funding for schools and ignoring white collar crime.

 

Seven state legislators from five medical marijuana states, including two Republicans, signed a letter to the President opposing continued federal raids on their states.

 

The shame here is that a sane country would not find itself in the position of defending useless raids on harmless people in order to justify a complex compromise to provide universal healthcare.

 

 

 

 

[Restorium2]

The shame here is that a sane country would not find itself in the position of defending useless raids on harmless people in order to justify a complex compromise to provide universal healthcare.

 

Say what? There was so much spin on that one it nearly took my head off! Marijuana raids on dispensaries has something to do with Obamacare now? I've heard it all....

[greenbuddha]

I say, let ONE STATE legalize it and take it from there.

 

And it will be VERY interresting to see what would happen if the Michigan Legislature decides to pass some laws that say only those patients with LIFE THREATENING physical ailments, such as cancer, etc. can use MMJ, as has been done in Connecticut, or is it New Jersey?

 

Then watch the number of raids that occur, FEDERAL or otherwise.

 

Time to get out the crying towels?

[purple pimpernel]

No one really gets or understands the war on drugs...it's called Hegilian Principle...that is how our government works...study Hegal and you will understand . If you served in the military you surely have a clue.

 

Doesn't anyone remember the body bags filled with heroin from Vietnam? Read 'politics of heroin in south east asia.' Or the Iran contra affair that allowed CIA pilots to bring planes full of marijuana to Michigan to finance the contras? Look up 'micheal Palmer' grosse isle marijuana bust. Anyone know Micheal Vogel from Brighton? Google his name he can explain it to you..Why do you think there is an epidemic of heroin on the streets right now? Cause were in Afghanistan and there was the largest evr recorded opium crop since we've been there.

.The war on drugs is a ruse to control the situation . All you have to do is look at 'Mena' Arkansas and the CIA/military base the government uses to import the hard drugs. There is a lot of information out there. How about General Secord and his meg-ton pot dealing son and their huge pot ranch in Hawaii. The information is out there ...you just have to know where to look. The whole government format is based on Hegelian Philosophy. If you don't understand that you will keep swallowing the 'red' pill and stay asleep. Order out of chaos...thesis..anti-thesis...synthesis. King George the first established the American cartels. Look at 'desiree f. carones' deposition and her fathers role as bush senior 'bag-man'...or tyree vs. CIA/bush.

the lie is different at every level .if you don't understand the lie...you will never comprehend the truth

[purple pimpernel]

one other thing...why do you think they call it the 'federal' government now? instead of the United States Government? They work for the 'federal reserve' ...not us anymore. We are just liabilities of the corporation now. That's why they want to control our medications. If they can't make money off it....well?

[cristinew]

Purple you nailed it.. we have us troops guarding opium fields in Afghanistan for the profit of the world bankers , who profit off the heroin and the private prisons .. what a deal for the bankers