Blogs and Stories
Obama's Marijuana Buzz Kill
Dan Callister / Getty Images
The formerly cool president could have given a reasoned response to a question about legalizing pot. Instead, he was dismissive and insulted his stoner constituency.
Barack Obama’s first online town-hall meeting may have been a new media success, but he lost the stoner vote.
Asked whether he would seek to legalize marijuana as a strategy to boost the economy, the usually long-winded president—who famously admitted to his own youthful inhalations—answered with little more than a dismissive “No.”
Whereupon America’s laid-back lobby recoiled in, well, withdrawal. Where was the love?
Obama may rue his decision to offend America’s no-longer-so-mellow cannabis consumers.
More than 64,000 viewers posted about 104,000 questions online for the virtual meeting, the topic of which was the president’s budget. Of those questions, Obama answered seven that were preselected based on interest as measured by online votes.
Apparently, a significant portion of those casting 3.6 million votes wanted to talk pot.
Obama joked that he wasn’t sure what the question’s popularity said about his online audience (snarf, snarf), but said he doesn’t think legalization is a good strategy to grow our economy.
Dude.
While a live audience applauded approvingly, Obama’s virtual audience sank into despair. Internet threads in the days since have reflected disappointment and disillusionment. What happened to the president they thought they knew? You know, the cool one who once said that inhaling was “the whole point”? What happened to the guy who loves online audiences? You know, the ones who put Obama in office?
The pot questions—there were variations on a tax-and-regulate theme—had been stoked by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Within hours of the president’s rebuff, NORML got to work organizing reform-minded Americans in a letter-writing campaign. Obama may rue his decision to offend America’s no-longer-so-mellow cannabis consumers.
Just what’s so funny about marijuana-law reform, asks Paul Armentano, NORML’s deputy director. An American is arrested for pot every 38 seconds, he says. Since 1965, more than 20 million Americans have been arrested for marijuana offenses, 90 percent of them for simple possession.
And despite baby boomers being in charge in recent years—the relevance of which can be enumerated as 1-9-6-8, otherwise known as the year America turned on—annual pot busts have tripled since the non-inhaling Bill Clinton took office.
It isn’t only marijuana consumers who want to see weed legalized. (None other than William F. Buckley was for it.) Ending prohibition is also a popular cause for at least 10,000 cops, narcs, judges, and others who make up the membership of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
From LEAP’s down-and-dirty perspective, prohibition exacerbates rather than ameliorates America’s drug problem. Prohibition not only diverts resources from the pursuit of more-serious crimes, it empowers criminals and enhances black-market incentives. Money spent fighting what adults seem to want could be better allocated toward education and rehab.
The Right Dumps Carrie
Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
Sarah Drops the Act
Tina Brown is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast. She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller The Diana Chronicles. Brown is the former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk magazines and host of CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown.
Palin's Gold Mine
Duff McDonald is a contributing editor at New York magazine and a former contributing editor at Condé Nast Portfolio. His book, Last Man Standing, about Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, was published by Simon & Schuster in October.
'Mom, Dad—I Need $96K'
Kathleen Parker is a syndicated columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group and author of Save the Males.
The Passion of Mark Sanford
Kathleen Parker is a syndicated columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group and author of Save the Males.
Sanford May Have to Take a Hike, After All
Kathleen Parker is a syndicated columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group and author of Save the Males.
It's not just tokers who want cannabis legalized. It's anyone with a modicum of common sense and a disdain for the criminal justice bureaucracy. Thank you for pointing out the fallacy of the "gateway" drug myth. There is no bigger gateway drug than alcohol.
The Obama pattern:
1. Spread a rumor that Obama is going to do something liberal (decriminalize marijuama, end don't ask don't tell, etc.).
2. Obama supporters use this as prove that Obama is indeed a democrat.
3. Obama then ignores the rumor or comes out against the idea all together.
Result: Obama thinks he is scoring points with "centerists" while true democrats end up paying the price.
Just whose interests is Obama trying to address here anyway?
Not only will the economy be helped by the possibility of taxation of the product, the savings in court costs for possession cases, but also the $40,000 per year costs of housing another inmate in an overcrowded, underfunded prison system.
This alone, let's do the math $40,000 X 20,000,000 (number incarcerated referenced in article) = $800,000,000,000
If the author's numbers are correct, and I can read all the zeroes correctly, this is eight hundred BILLION dollars. And this in only the incarceration portion, not including all the other ancillary court costs.
Then, of course, how do we put a dollar cost on the lives ruined by the harsh Nancy Reagan laws. These are the lives of people we knew as gentle souls, who liked getting high, sitting around contemplating their existences, or navels, or tiny bugs, or whatevers.
Whatever happened to that kid you knew in college, who later got his life slammed into a slammer for smoking what everybody seemed to be smoking back then?
So, yes it is time to change our laws concerning cannibas.
If we fail to do so, it will simply be another sign that our 'democracy' is that in name only. It will support the hypothesis of our founding father's dream becoming a big machine that runs on money, special interests, and corruption, instead of individual liberty, majority rule, and freedom.
The Obama pattern:
1. Spread a rumor that Obama is going to do something liberal (decriminalize marijuama, end don't ask don't tell, etc.).
2. Obama supporters use this as prove that Obama is indeed a democrat.
3. Obama then ignores the rumor or comes out against the idea all together.
Result: Obama thinks he is scoring points with "centerists" while true democrats end up paying the price.
sorry for the duplicate but only the first comment was being shown
"Everyone would have gone home reasonably satisfied, if not quite ready to celebrate."
This is false. Seconds after he uttered such an answer, I would have an email from Michael Steele in my inbox with boldface letters stating that Obama wanted to legalize heroin.
Just legalize it already.
Not only will it help the Federal State's Budget, it was also help "producer states" such as CA whose economy is in shambles as we speak. Most of us can agree it's a win-win for state and federal budgets. why wait to help both economies grow (no pun intended)?
I agree, a more thoughtful, diplomatic answer would have greatly reassured me that this is indeed the man I voted for. I have come to expect a thoughtful respect in his address of all subjects, and his brush-off on this subject was surprising.
So long as marijuana stays illegal, we know that our political leaders don't have a modicum of reasoning between them.
i tried to read this article, but a serious point was SO waylaid but these tired, silly (heehee) little pot-smoking puns that i wonder if they were the whole point to writing the article in the first place. give it another shot when you come down, Ms. Parker.
the most important consumers of the cannabis users are the medicinal ones, like myself (i'm epileptic, not taking it for seizures but to counteract side-effects of medication) aren't out there staring at sunsets or begging for chocolate cookie crumbs. some of us need this funny little weed to get through the day without vomiting... no mention of us in your knee-slappin' essay.
this is absolute crap. until people like this journalist start taking this issue even a little bit seriously this is going nowhere. despite what any of you believe, many people actually DO use this as medicine... and i know from personal experience that THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE. and many of us are sick of being lumped with "stoners". forget the money lost or saved, THIS IS MEDICINE for god's sake. isn't that reason enough?
consider: this journalist's use of puns comes from the same point-and-giggle discomfort that many children express toward pudenda. it's a way to shield oneself from the embarrassment of dealing with something one doesn't feel comfortable with, something one has no experience with and finds a bit naughty. it's an immature, silly attitude toward a serious matter, and it's a common reaction to this issue.
certain individuals needs are thwarted by this attitude. it's a serious issue and it's very much tied up with the reasons behind obama's disrespect for the drug. it's all part-and-parcel with the same silly attitude shown here.
obama's cute little "that's the whole point" comment was NOT a serious statement of his attitude toward this drug. he was his attempt to seize an opportunity to further his 'cool' image, and to take an obvious shot at bill clinton in the process.
my previous post seems to have been removed, so i have attempted to rephrase this point in a more temperate manner.
if you look at the stance holder from justice is taking towards (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/opinion/26thu4.html) the issue, maybe this is more of a calcuated decision to let the states decide and not bear the brunt of being the pres who legalizes grass.
Yo stoners no one is going to come out for pot-- cuz it's a career killer and if some one does big business will only step on it crack it up with all kinds of s--t and charges 40 bucks for 10
The issue of marijuana legalization deserves an honest public debate. I too was disappointed in the President's response to the question during his online townhall meeting; however, I understand where it comes from. Since that day this issue has been white hot in online forums and has prompted myself and others to send letters and emails to the White House. The problem for both the President and the legalization advocates is support dies out almost as quickly as it ignited. People get angry and then they get distracted and drop the subject. I am glad to see that it has stayed in the news even this long. Before any President is going to seriously tackle this issue He/She is going to need unyielding public support. That must start at the state level. When enough states decriminalize marijuana, the federal government will listen.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
I think there's a bit too much backlash going on the president on this issue. He answered it as an economics question and not on an opinionated question. Essentially the question was asking if he was going to use pot to save the economy to which he answered no. That doesn't necessarily mean that he wouldn't decriminalize marijuana.Let us all not forget that he's only been in office for just over 2 months now and I believe in 4 years this countries' marijuana laws will get changed to more properly reflect its actual attitude toward it
Perhaps legalized marijuana would indeed assist the country financially. It might even reduce the numbers of people trying harder illegal drugs. In Europe, where many countried do not have drinking ages, but have severe penalties for driving under the influence, the incidence of alcoholism is considerably lower than here in the US, where underage drinking laws are myriad. Perhaps the same would be true of legalized marijuana.
So why aren't we having this discussion?
Look what happened with tobacco. Lots of laws about tobacco sales and use, but nobody ever smoked up a carton of cigs and went out and robbed a 7-11. Nobody ever got so drunk on cigarettes alone that he crashed his car into a family of seven, killing them all. But smoking is more socially heinous than drinking, which kills or injures millions every year.
If we legalized marijuana, taxed it, and demonized it with the same sorts of public campaigns that have so successfully demonized smoking, we might be onto something.
Sure, you can smoke pot, but who would want to do something so uncool.
Worked against tobacco. Might work against marijuana.
Why don't we legalize? The benefits GREATLY outweigh the detriments.
-Less money to organized crime
-Fewer "criminals" in jail
-New business opportunities
-More money to state governments
-More money for the federal government
-Fewer incidents of overdose (read "The Effect of Marijuana Decriminalization on Hospital Emergency Room Drug Episodes: 1975-1978." Journal of the American Statistical Association 99 (1993) for proof).
I have no reasons why we shouldn't legalize it, and I challenge anyone to provide fact-based, logical reasons why it should remain illegal.
I'd like marijuana to be legal for several reasons. Prohibition leading to criminal involvement, the untapped tax revenue, and the simple fact that marijuana is far safer than alcohol as a mood altering substance.
But my biggest reason for wanting it legalized is that it would limit its availability to my own children. Pot is far easier for a teenager to get than alcohol. And any substance like that, used by an immature person (perhaps trying to avoid facing their problems) is a recipe for non-productivity, pain, and addiction. Make it legal. Regulate it. Price it under the scope of the criminal market. And only sell it to people over 21.
But whatever views Obama has, for or against, moderate or not, his disrespectful response to the same community that helped get him elected is very disappointing to me.
I was really annoyed by Obama's dismissive answer to what is probably one of the most serious questions to be asked right now. Commonse sense would dictate legalizing marijuana now and dealing with like we deal with cigarettes and alcohol. But of course, when is America ever about common sense?
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.
Please log in to leave comments.