During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama raised hopes among those who support medical marijuana by pledging to respect state laws on the issue. But his administration has reversed course and massively escalated the federal government’s attacks on medical marijuana businesses, most of which are legal under their states’ laws.Another cite from Volokh Conspiracy (see also, Sentencing Law and Policy, which opposes current federal policy) of how horrible the Obama Administration is on this issue without much context or addressing key questions. A comment there (I don't comment any more, since I don't do facebook comments) highlights my main question -- why exactly was there a shift mid-term to a more hard core policy? The op-ed cited references it, but fails to explain why. I can guess -- pushback as state medicinal marijuana sales increased upward or change in political winds after the 2010 elections, but these citations never seem to say or even question.
Simply put, Obama has become more hostile to medical marijuana patients than any president in U.S. history.Medicinal marijuana was also not allowed by California et. al. until fairly recently, other states following their lead. A right to "apply" for federal waivers is really ridiculous. A marijuana activist more than anyone knows how useful that generally was. Now, states allow thousands of people (more like tens of thousands) to use medicinal marijuana per specific state laws. And, no way did marijuana research go "unhindered" until now. Cannot we rightly oppose use of federal resources against peaceful medicinal marijuana patients and dispensaries without going overboard?
As with other issues, this is a case where Obama's pre-election rhetoric was open enough that people could read into it what they wish to read into it. His recent statement against "legalization" and that he "never made a commitment that somehow we were going to give carte blanche to large-scale producers and operators of marijuana" is not some change of policy. And, it is laughable to put "Ron Paul, Gary Johnson, Ronald Reagan and even George W. Bush" in the same category, the first two libertarians on this issue, the third dealing with a whole different legal environment and even the last not dealing with the same thing such as perhaps conservative law officials wary of the "left leaning" President.
I am all for pressuring the Obama Administration to have a sane policy in this area, hopeful that he is more open than others are. As to the Gov. Perry quote, other than some book, where are all the Tea Party types pushing back on federal policy, perhaps Congress can pass an exception to federal law to allow use pursuant to state law? Or, is this all Daddy Obama's problem, perhaps under our "Obama Drug Laws." There does, though damn if the reasons are woefully unreported, seem to be some shift in the Administration's policy (with limited capital used elsewhere; as I noted in the past, some have noted there isn't "one" Administration but a bunch of groups under a head, and it seems -- a fruitful area for research -- this was allowed to shift right for various reasons).
A shift that should be addressed and opposed, just in a more accurate fashion.