Barack Obama has lost some friends today, Cheech and Chong specifically, announcing a firm stance that legalizing then taxing marijuana sales will not help fix the teetering U.S. economy.
At an online townhall meeting, President Obama revealed that the idea was a favorite among the 100,000 questions submitted on the White House website.
“I have to say that there was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high, and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation,” he said. “And I don’t know what this says about the online audience. This was a fairly popular question. We want to make sure that it was answered.”
Recently, a California congressman has been pusing a bill, AB 390, which would regulate marijuana like alcohol, with people over 21 years old allowed to grow, buy, sell and possess it. Congressman Ammiano argued that by legalizing and taxing the recreational use of marijuana, the move could pump more than a billion dollars a year into the state.
Obama admitted in his autobiography to experimenting with drugs in his heyday. However, when reporters asked White House press secretary Robert Gibbs as to whether the administration might one day decide to legalize marijuana, Gibbs was firm about the issue.
“The president opposes the legalization of marijuana,” Gibbs said. “He doesn’t think that’s the right plan for America.”
March 26th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
as the saying goes, “f**k all yall”
March 26th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Boooooooooooooooo
March 27th, 2009 at 10:14 am
“The old way of thinking isn’t working”
As The States saw back in the 30′s criminalizing something that the people want just creates more crime and murder. Drugs are not the best thing for one’s health, but shouldn’t the government let the people have the freedom to decide for themselves? With all the gangs and crime organizations killing people just to control who sells the drugs, wouldn’t it be better if the citizens just killed themselves from using? Not to say all users are going to die from drug use, but the world could be a safer place if you could get heroin at WalMart instead of on the streets. The quality of drugs could be regulated so you would have a better idea of how much you need, instead of guessing if it’s pure drugs, or mixed with something else to make more money off of a cheaper product. Some people are concerned about citizens going around under the influence of drugs, and that somehow being a danger to them. Citizens of The States have been using drugs for decades. Making a legal means of using them, if an individual decides he or she wants to will open the doors for better treatment of abuse. Also without the stigma of doing something ‘bad’ we can teach the public a better way of moderation and being responsible with their health. Not to mention ease should give our jails and prisons.
There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why… I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?
-Robert Kennedy
Change we can believe in
March 29th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
I don’t know I saw a video where obama was just talking a mess of shit on the drug war and how he felt that everything we’ve been doing about drugs is backwards and screwing us up
October 19th, 2009 at 9:14 am
this is the kind of stuff that makes you think people voted for the wrong guy! I was all for obama until this.