Basically, the president is saying that totally revamping the laws surrounding marijuana - is simply out of his hands currently. I can’t ask the Justice Department to say, ‘Ignore completely a federal law that’s on the books.’ What I can say is, ‘Use your prosecutorial discretion and properly prioritize your resources to go after things that are really doing folks damage.’ As a consequence, there haven’t been prosecutions of users of marijuana for medical purposes, Obama said.
This, is a very good sign. I think the president is being really honest, and is addressing the people asking questions. It is a very difficult issue that we are dealing with here - many years of law making, jailing citizens, fines, etc. are hard to revoke. If all of the sudden marijuana gets decriminalized, or even legalized - all of the people who have been imprisoned for anything marijuana related would be free to go. How can you say to an inmate, "Sorry about the past 20 years, but now weed is OK and you can go home now." and expect everything to be cool? This is just one little aspect of what would happen.
Change is happening, slowly but surely, but I think it is still a day on the far horizon that we see anything dramatic happening. We will most likely see more and more state law being changed, like New Jersey recently. These are all small steps that are going to make amazing footprints to look at later on.
That's all for now, thanks for reading. Follow this blog if you've enjoyed or learned something!
-BLL. Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/is-president-obama-evolving-on-medical-marijuana.html#ixzz213Gng4dn
Photo: Donna Lambert
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