White House Admits Marijuana Is Not A Gateway Drug
It’s been tough to keep up with the stream of misinformed statements from Obama on marijuana lately.
Back in April, I reported on Obama’s 2012 Drug Control Strategy, and its implications for the marijuana movement. Later that month, Obama clarified his stance on marijuana in Rolling Stone, claiming he lacks the power to direct the Department of Justice to ignore the Controlled Substance Act. After tossing sand in our collective eyes, it seemed Obama had spoken his final word on cannabis.
Enter Jimmy Kimmel and Eric Holder at the 2012 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. As Jimmy jabbed Obama onstage, a HuffPost reporter got Holder to admit Obama’s Rolling Stone remarks were misleading—either Obama or Holder can remove marijuana from the Controlled Substance Act drug schedules at any time.
Let’s recap Obama’s many stances on marijuana point-by-point:
Obama’s Claim: He can’t tell the Justice Department to stop the war on medical marijuana.
The Truth: Obama could direct Attorney General Eric Holder to remove marijuana from the CSA drug schedules, or to reclassify it, ending the war on medical marijuana at any time.
Obama’s Claim: No patients have been prosecuted for the medical use of marijuana.
The Truth: Millions of patients across the country have lost safe access to medical cannabis after the federal raids. Dozens of caregivers have been sentenced to federal prison. Cops have run roughshod over the medical marijuana industry in many states, basically smashing and grabbing at their leisure. There are thousands of people living in fear each day over their involvement in the marijuana industry.
Obama’s Claim: His 2012 Drug Control Strategy states, “While the Administration supports ongoing research into determining what components of the marijuana plant can be used as medicine, to date, neither the FDA nor the Institute of Medicine has found the marijuana plant itself to meet the modern standard for safe or effective medicine for any condition.”
The Truth:
According to the Institute of Medicine 1999 report: “[E]xcept for the harms associated with smoking, the adverse effects of marijuana use are within the range of effects tolerated for other medications.” And, “There is no evidence that marijuana serves as a stepping stone on the basis of its particular physiological effect…instead, the legal status of marijuana makes it a gateway drug.”
It seems none of Obama’s statements jive with reality. As we continue to pull at the threads of Obama’s poorly woven fiction, he loses room to hide his true agenda. Obama, as many of you know, has accepted huge stacks of cash from people, groups, and companies that make billions off alternatives to hemp and cannabis. They will fight hard to: (1) keep the President from allowing reclassification, (2) to keep the FDA from admitting that if marijuana were removed from the CSA it would have to be treated like an herb (the FDA has limited jurisdiction to regulate plants and herbal supplements), and (3) to keep our elderly folks believing marijuana is dangerous. If we can bring these facts to light for all Americans to see, we can end the absurd war on marijuana, and the mass imprisonment of cannabis users.
Spread the word: President Obama could order Attorney General Eric Holder to remove marijuana from the CSA Drug Schedules, and the jurisdiction of the FDA, like any other herb. At that point, our right to privacy would allow us to buy, sell, cultivate, use, and transport marijuana freely, just like St. John’s Wort or any other dietary supplement.
Posted by TJ Green at 2:08 PM on May 8, 2012 Ending Marijuana Prohibition, Global Drug War, Medical Marijuana Policy