Sunday, January 19, 2014

Encouraging Words From Obama On Marijuana

Obama Says All the Right Things About Weed in New Interview
Just the fact that Obama is not repeating spurious, obvious insulting bullshit is a huge step.  I think we just might see an end to the baseless policy of criminalization in the next decade.
"As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life," Obama told Remnick, as pointed out by The Hill. "I don't think it is more dangerous than alcohol." Bringing the conversation back to policy, he acknowledged that "middle-class kids don't get locked up for smoking pot, and poor kids do. And African-American kids and Latino kids are more likely to be poor and less likely to have the resources and the support to avoid unduly harsh penalties." This is a fact that long ago moved away from being a secret.
In fact marijuana is considerably less dangerous than alcohol.  Which, to be clear, I do not advocate banning, despite the significant social ills that go along with alcohol.  The point is there is no rational basis for the continued criminalization of marijuana.

Legalize, regulate and tax the herb in the same fashion as the more harmful vices that we already regulate.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

He's not saying anything that isn't obvious to anyone with a head on their shoulders, rich, poor, white, black, asian, latina, whatever... We're all Americans. It just seems like that particular quote is aimed at gaining the trust back of all those who see him as just another political face and not a real person as he seemed when running for office in 2008. A lot has gone on (and hasn't gone on) since then and it's clear that while people may not have sworn off the Democratic party, a lot of people that voted for him in 2008 do seem pretty jaded. Having Mitt Romney as president would've been a disaster but the margin was so close...

Dr. Steve said...

He shouldn't be saying things about the safety of pot compared to alcohol because he doesn't know, no one does.
Whether to use this stuff should be a matter of individual choice but the harm or lack thereof is still a very open question. It's not 'settled science.' Few things are.
www.ThPointingFinger.blogspot.com

Gary said...

"He shouldn't be saying things about the safety of pot compared to alcohol because he doesn't know, no one does."

Where did you get your medical degree, from a Cracker-Jack box?

http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/alcohol-use.htm

Dr. Steve said...

Don't be a jerk, Gary. This is from Medical News Today and may be only the tip of the iceberg. Do a search for possible problems from pot. Might surprise you:

"The use of marijuana has been linked to the development of many health conditions. But now, researchers say heavy use of the drug could lead to poor memory and abnormal changes in brain function that resemble changes found in schizophrenic individuals.

This is according to a study published in the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin."

Gary said...

Let's cut to the chase. Given that tobacco and alcohol are legal, do you believe there are there sound medical grounds for the continued prohibition of marijuana?

Dr. Steve said...

Why didn't you read the whole comment? I'm a libertarian. I believe that the govt has no business outlawing drugs or any other private behavior practiced by adults. I just think you should know the risks of what you're doing and then it's up to you.
It's unfortunate that we have a scientifically illiterate president who thinks he knows everything. Maybe, if he had released his college records the way Bush and Gore and Kerry did, we could have had a better idea of what we were getting.