Mayors ask Obama for flexibility on marijuana

[Mud Boy]

The United States Conference of Mayors unanimously passed a historic, bipartisan resolution Monday calling on the Obama administration to stop interfering with state and local efforts to deal with the problems caused by marijuana prohibition.

“This resolution will amplify the voices of local officials and voters who are sick and tired of President Obama’s administration doing the exact opposite of what candidate Obama said he was going to do, which was respect state marijuana laws,” Tom Angell, spokesperson for drug reform advocacy group Marijuana Majority, told Raw Story in an email.

The resolution (PDF), co-sponsored by mayors from 18 cities including Oakland, San Diego, Tacoma, Alexandria and Las Vegas, lays out a long list of grievances against marijuana prohibition. The resolution’s primary sponsor was San Diego Mayor Bob Filner (D), pictured above.

It specifically focuses on the dominance of organized crime in the black market, racial disparities in arrest statistics, state laws that clearly express an unwillingness to continue marijuana prohibition and recent polling that favors letting states decide the matter.

The resolution adds that the mayors wish marijuana were reclassified under the schedule of controlled substances, which would allow more medical research into drugs based on marijuana and permit more finely tailored laws regulating production and sales. It also calls for the Controlled Substances Act to be amended so as to allow “states and localities” the autonomy to “set their own marijuana policies without federal interference.”

“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the United States Conference of Mayors recognizes that its members have differing views on how to treat marijuana in their cities, and believes that states and localities should be able to set whatever marijuana policies work best to improve the public safety and health of their communities,” they conclude.

Mason Tvert, communications director for The Marijuana Policy Project, praised the resolution, calling it a rhetorical stand in defense of the millions of voters who believe drug laws should be reformed and marijuana should be regulated.

“We commend the U.S. Conference of Mayors for taking action in defense of state and local efforts to move beyond the failed policy of marijuana prohibition,” he said in an advisory. “Our nation’s marijuana policy should reflect the facts about marijuana. If our federal government is unwilling to adopt evidence-based marijuana laws, it is up to states and localities to pick up the slack.”

Marijuana Majority’s Tom Angell echoed that sentiment, saying: “I sincerely hope and believe that when mayors across the country speak with one unanimous voice and demand that the feds give them the opportunity to implement their cities’ forward-thinking marijuana laws that it’ll finally give the president the encouragement he needs to sit down and seriously reconsider his administration’s approach to this issue.”

[A Bloke Down The Pub]

I wonder what the response will be?

[Jesús Malverde]

Cannabis hasn't had a mortal enemy in the WH of such vehemence since Nixon. Obama is in essence a right wing Republican who can convince dimbulb Democrats he's one of them. There are many, many dimbulb Democrats. Many, almost all of them in fact.

[Earl]

Cannabis hasn't had a mortal enemy in the WH of such vehemence since Nixon. Obama is in essence a right wing Republican who can convince dimbulb Democrats he's one of them. There are many, many dimbulb Democrats. Many, almost all of them in fact.

He does seem to say one thing and do another.

[Mud Boy]

I think it's mostly Holder doing this shit, but Obama is ultimately responsible for policy. I really don't understand their resistance, but I still see it as the last dying gasp of the failed war on cannabis. I predict that the feds won't make a move until Holder is gone. Momentum is building and resistance is futile.

[Butcher Bob]

I think it's mostly Holder doing this shit...

Think again...

Who the #*@% put these people in charge?!


No excuses fer the lyin prick.

[Mud Boy]

I'm starting to think you're right Bob. I think I've been in denial about Obama because I wanted him to succeed so badly and overlooked some of the evil shit he's done. Not that I've gone to the other side, those idiots are even worse, but I'm coming to the conclusion that Obama is just another lying cocksucker. It's a dirty shame too, because I had high hopes that he really meant it about about hope and change. Hope in one hand and shit in the other and see which one weighs more.

[A Bloke Down The Pub]

I'm starting to think you're right Bob. I think I've been in denial about Obama because I wanted him to succeed so badly and overlooked some of the evil shit he's done.

We had the same thing over here with Tony Cunt Blair.

There's not one fucker out of the current crop of politicians I could say "I want to vote for him/her" of.

[Jesús Malverde]

The Blair/Obama comparison seems pretty spot on to me. Takes a/the putatively left party and shamelessly steers it into the waiting arms of the neoliberal corporatists and neocon war mongers. Like they were both reading off the same script.

[A Bloke Down The Pub]

The Blair/Obama comparison seems pretty spot on to me. Takes a/the putatively left party and shamelessly steers it into the waiting arms of the neoliberal corporatists and neocon war mongers.

AND GETS AWAY WITH IT

Power over principles, every time.