Obama
May 26, 2009
Should I Still Be On House Arrest?
Would I even be on house arrest if this memo were issued in 2007 instead of 2009? Does this mean the DEA should truly leave medical cannabis to the States to decide? Can we see this implemented on a real and meaningful level or is this just more pretty words that mean little with no action to back them up? We shall see. Waiting patiently for clemency.
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release May 20, 2009
May 20, 2009
MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES
From our Nation's founding, the American constitutional order has been a Federal system, ensuring a strong role for both the national Government and the States. The Federal Government's role in promoting the general welfare and guarding individual liberties is critical, but State law and national law often operate concurrently to provide independent safeguards for the public. Throughout our history, State and local governments have frequently protected health, safety, and the environment more aggressively than has the national Government.
An understanding of the important role of State governments in our Federal system is reflected in longstanding practices by executive departments and agencies, which have shown respect for the traditional prerogatives of the States. In recent years, however, notwithstanding Executive Order 13132 of August 4, 1999 (Federalism), executive departments and agencies have sometimes announced that their regulations preempt State law, including State common law, without explicit preemption by the Congress or an otherwise sufficient basis under applicable legal principles.
The purpose of this memorandum is to state the general policy of my Administration that preemption of State law by executive departments and agencies should be undertaken only with full consideration of the legitimate prerogatives of the States and with a sufficient legal basis for preemption. Executive departments and agencies should be mindful that in our Federal system, the citizens of the several States have distinctive circumstances and values, and that in many instances it is appropriate for them to apply to themselves rules and principles that reflect these circumstances and values. As Justice Brandeis explained more than 70 years ago, "[i]t is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country."
To ensure that executive departments and agencies include statements of preemption in regulations only when such statements have a sufficient legal basis:
2. Heads of departments and agencies should not include preemption provisions in codified regulations except where such provisions would be justified under legal principles governing preemption, including the principles outlined in Executive Order 13132.
3. Heads of departments and agencies should review regulations issued within the past 10 years that contain statements in regulatory preambles or codified provisions intended by the department or agency to preempt State law, in order to decide whether such statements or provisions are justified under applicable legal principles governing preemption. Where the head of a department or agency determines that a regulatory statement of preemption or codified regulatory provision cannot be so justified, the head of that department or agency should initiate appropriate action, which may include amendment of the relevant regulation.
This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
The Director of the Office of Management and Budget is authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.
BARACK OBAMA
May 19, 2009
My Letter to the President
After seeing a friend get 10 years for medicinal cannabis today I figured it was time to sit down and right a letter to the man in charge of this bullshit. Here is that letter:
President Barack Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear President Obama,
My name is Michael Martin and I am a huge supporter of yours. I was inspired throughout your campaign and was very proud to be an American the night you were elected. I wept for the change and hope that your candidacy and election stood for.
I am currently a prisoner of your “War on Drugs,” as I am a medical cannabis patient that is a victim of the Drug Enforcement Agency’s actions in California. In 2007, my home and businesses were violently raided by DEA agents for providing food-based cannabis medicines to the sick and dying patients of California in conjunction with state law. I accepted a plea deal to avoid the draconian sentencing of the current laws and I am now a convicted felon serving a sentence of community confinement for my actions. I saw a picture of you attending your daughter’s soccer games the other day and just wanted you to know that the injustice and immorality of my situation does not allow me to be at my five-year-old son’s baseball games regularly and cheer him on as you did your children. I have lost my freedoms and civil liberties for choosing to use cannabis as a safer alternative to prescription drugs. This is unacceptable by any standard.
At the age of 12 I was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward outside of St. Louis and diagnosed with ADHD. I was given Ritalin which over time did much more harm than good to my adolescent psyche. Through self experimentation I found cannabis to be more effective for my needs. Over the years many doctor’s have agreed that this was a better alternative to the chemical concoctions available. I also have 7 screws and a steel plate in my left heel that cannabis helps me to deal with more regularly.
Now under government supervision I take a myriad of poisonous and dangerous drugs to supplement my use of cannabis. A combination of Wellbutrin, Marinol, Vicodin and Vallium are required to replace the benefits I found from one natural plant. Please understand that the policies of the United States are literally killing me and I ask that you expedite clemency for myself and the many others in prison and confined for our choice to use cannabis with the consent of our physician. I ask that you would allow for this drug to be studied more closely to understand why it benefits so many of our citizens and quit allowing lobbyist to stifle these efforts.
I currently have a standing request with the US Pardon Attorney for a commutation of my sentence. I am one of the lucky ones though. Many of my fellow patients and providers are behind bars and in need of your help. It has been well over 100 days and you have yet to issue any pardons. Please consider righting the injustices in the medical cannabis community and grant clemency to the many people caught between state and federal law on this issue. We are the ones we have been waiting for and we have been doing our part. Now we ask you to do yours. John Conyers has a good list of people to start with (attached). Thank you for your time.
Kindest Regards,
Feb 27, 2009
Article On New "AMERICAN POLICY"
This article details our collective victory in the war on medical cannabis. Who knows what the next hurdle may bring, but it is pretty damn nice to finally have a President whom means what he says and say what he means. I am finding my love for being American again everyday and not a moment too soon. I am pleased to be able to look my two sons in the eye and tell them that not ALL politicians are fabricators of truth in the campaign and that sometimes hope and change can be very real. O-BA-MA. Please write a quick letter to the White House thanking them for their change in policy. Let them know we appreciate the work they are doing and the way it affects the lives of the many patients and providers who have spent TOO many years living in fear. God Bless America.
Friday, February 27, 2009 (02-26) 20:00 PST San Francisco -- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is sending strong signals that President Obama - who as a candidate said states should be allowed to make their own rules on medical marijuana - will end raids on pot dispensaries in California. IMAGES Asked at a Washington news conference Wednesday about Drug Enforcement Administration raids in California since Obama took office last month, Holder said the administration has changed its policy. "What the president said during the campaign, you'll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we'll be doing here in law enforcement," he said. "What he said during the campaign is now American policy." Bill Piper, national affairs director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a marijuana advocacy group, said the statement is encouraging. "I think it definitely signals that Obama is moving in a new direction, that it means what he said on the campaign trail that marijuana should be treated as a health issue rather than a criminal justice issue," he said. Piper said Obama has also indicated he will drop the federal government's long-standing opposition to health officials' needle-exchange programs for drug users. During one campaign appearance, Obama recalled that his mother had died of cancer and said he saw no difference between doctor-prescribed morphine and marijuana as pain relievers. He told an interviewer in March that it was "entirely appropriate" for a state to legalize the medical use of marijuana "with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors." After the federal Drug Enforcement Agency raided a marijuana dispensary at South Lake Tahoe on Jan. 22, two days after Obama's inauguration, and four others in the Los Angeles area on Feb. 2, White House spokesman Nick Schapiro responded to advocacy groups' protests by noting that Obama had not yet appointed his drug policy team. "The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws" and expects his appointees to follow that policy, Schapiro said. The federal government has fought state medicinal pot laws since Californians voted in 1996 to repeal criminal penalties for medical use of marijuana. President Bill Clinton's administration won a Supreme Court case, originating in Oakland, that allowed federal authorities to shut down nonprofit organizations that supplied medical marijuana to their members. Clinton's Justice Department was thwarted by federal courts in an attempt to punish California doctors who recommended marijuana to their patients. President George W. Bush's administration went further, raiding medical marijuana growers and clinics, prosecuting suppliers under federal drug laws after winning another Supreme Court case and pressuring commercial property owners to evict marijuana dispensaries by threatening legal action. The Bush administration also blocked a University of Massachusetts researcher's attempt to grow marijuana for studies of its medical properties. Piper, of the Drug Policy Alliance, said he hopes Obama will reverse that position. "If you removed the obstacles to research," he said, "in 10 to 15 years, marijuana will be available in pharmacies."U.S. to yield marijuana jurisdiction to states
Jan 21, 2009
My Hope for Obama's America
It is a new day and it seems as if America is feeling a sense of renewal with the election of Barack Obama. This is a transformational moment in our history, as America looks to a black man to pull us out of one of the nation's most trying moments. Way to drive the car into a wall and throw the brother the keys. But if any man can pull this country out of the tailspin resulting from years of Republican oppression and mismanagement, it is Obama. Never before have I seen a nation so excited about their new leader and willing to do their part to rebuild and renew our promise. Watching two million people on the mall yesterday, screaming, crying, and waving American flags was extremely inspiring. I think even the oldest, whitest, most conservative Republican deep down wanted to be a part of the incredible display of history that we saw yesterday. It was contagious.
There are many things that Barack Obama can do to heal this nation, but the most important thing he has already done was of no power of his own. He was born half-black by a white woman from Kansas, and an African man from Kenya. His improbable election to Head of State has left this country forced to deal with the reality of major cultural issues and years of racism. We have turned a page. Yes. There are still racist people, racist areas, and some parts of deeply rooted American culture who will refuse to recognize the history of this moment, but it is impossible to ignore.
My two sons will grow up with the image of a strong and confident black man as their leader and will be none the wiser about the significance of it all. They will assume it is natural for people of all races and stature to be capable of becoming President and they will know not the bigotry and hatred that consumed this nation for hundreds of years. They will look to their leader not as a white American or a black American, but a strong American in whom we entrust our country to lead us to a better place. My five-year-old son loves to watch Obama speak, probably because his daddy loves to hear Obama speak, but none-the-less he stares at the television in awe of this black man, with no idea of the struggles our country has overcome to get here. It is refreshing. My one-year-old son sees a picture of him or sees him on TV and says O-BA-BA. So cute. Yes. In their eyes I see the change in culture that this country needs. The generational split from all of the old baggage of the sixties and racist tones of the past. They cannot fathom that world.
We move on to a new chapter in American history with a pocket full of hope and an appetite for change. We have set the bar incredibly high for Obama and he is sure to stumble a bit a long the way, but the country is longing for this underdog to succeed and to prove to the world that anything is possible. We must come together as a country and move forward in our quest to form a more perfect union. There are few moments in history where we can look back and remember exactly when things changed so drastically. The stock market crash in '27, Pearl harbor, V-Day, Kennedy's election, King's Dream, The Berlin Wall, 9/11, and so forth. Believe this is one of those moments when America stood up and said, ENOUGH. We put our issues of race aside and chose the best man for the job. It is refreshing and I am proud of this nation today. I have always been proud to be an American, but was often embarrassed by our inability to move past petty issues of race and social barriers that have inhibited progress for too long.
Of course racism is not dead, nor is the hatred that fuels it, but it is dying. I imagine when my son runs for president that there will be little talk of whether he is white or not. I just do not think future generations will be able to see that as a real issue. It is a non-sensical argument it would seem. A tired, old, passe argument that is no longer relevant in our current world, and for that I am glad. May the younger generation grow up and laugh at our nation's history of intolerance and look at racial bigotry like the dinosaur that it is.
Obama has a lot of work ahead and may we all do our part to rebuild this nation. My hope is that his integrity and honesty will be viral and we will continue to see a nation that is full of hope and inspiration. I hope he can begin to repair the damage done by the Bush administration and put out country back on a path of respect and dignity. I will hope that he ends some of the tyrannical policies of the government, embraces truth, and begins to mange our resources more wisely. I hope that his moment in history becomes on we can all look back on with pride and say that we made the right choice for ourselves, for our country, and for the world. Walk tall America. Walk tall. We are all walking next to Barack.
God Bless America (And no one else).
Jan 16, 2009
My Submission to Change.gov
I wrote this on the transition site for the Obama administration. Maybe they will check it out. We can only hope.
As a victim of this failed policy on cannabis medicines, I strongly encourage the President Elect to uphold his campaign promises to end DEA raids of patients and providers. I am currently a convicted felon and have lost my civil rights for providing food-based cannabis medicines to the sick and dying in California. The government spends $25,000 per year to monitor my activities for this "crime" and I am forced to wear the scarlet letter of a federal felony.
This senseless action has left me in financial ruin, over $150,000 in debt, where I was a contributing member of society that employed many people. I am now a drain on the economy, a father who has a difficult time providing for his two young sons, and a person who believes his federal government is public enemy number one. What will you do to change my jaded outlook and transform our government back into the just and moral body it should be?
Science and medical professionals continue to support overwhelmingly the use of cannabis for medicinal purpose, yet the federal government continues to stifle real research efforts by maintaining a monopoly on the supply of cannabis for research purposes. Why? What are they afraid to find out?
Understand that there are many innocent and honest people such as myself in harm's way, as federal and state law continue to clash and the Drug Enforcement Agency continues to use criminal justice to ruin the lives of those who sincerely believe in the benefits of cannabis medicines. This incredible waste of resources in this time of economic despair continues to puzzle me. How can we not afford books for children in Oakland schools, yet we can spend millions enforcing laws that were created to protect the community from criminals, but are being used to shut down legitimate providers of cannabis to patients in conjunction with a recommendation from their physician?
Please begin to address this needless waste and order the justice department to allow the States to regulate this matter in conjunction with the will of their citizenry. It is not the nanny state's job to play scientist, doctor, and babysitter to people trying to find relief through the natural therapeutic properties of cannabis. It is unacceptable and we demand that your administration take a more sensible approach to accepting, regulating, and implementing the will of the citizens of the United States. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Mickey Martin
Director, Compassion Medicinal Edibles
Oakland, CA
Jan 15, 2009
my obamicon
Cool site that makes any picture into an obamalike poster. Cherck it out at: http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/
Dec 23, 2008
Article On Obama and Cannabis Reform
Found this article on the lists and thought it was worthy of a read for everyone. At some point reason has to begin to outweigh irrationality. The War on Drugs is a complete failure and we must begin to rethink our policies. I am interested to see what progress is made on this front.
A tree grows in Washington? Writer-at-large John H. Richardson's column, "The Richardson Report," runsright here each Tuesday. Famously, Franklin Delano Roosevelt saved the United States banking system during the first seven days of his first term. And what did he do on the eighth day? "I think this would be a good time for beer," he said. Congress had already repealed Prohibition, pending ratification from the states. But the people needed a lift, and legalizing beer would create a million jobs. And lo, booze was back. Two days after the bill passed, Milwaukee brewers hired six hundred people and paid their first $10 million in taxes. Soon the auto industry was tooling up the first $12 million worth of delivery trucks, and brewers were pouring tens of millions into new plants. "Roosevelt's move to legalize beer had the effect he intended," says Adam Cohen, author of Nothing To Fear, a thrilling new history of FDR's first hundred days. "It was, one journalist observed, 'like a stick of dynamite into a log jam.'" Many in the marijuana world are now hoping for something similar from Barack Obama. After all, the president-elect said in 2004 that the war on drugs had been "an utter failure" and that America should decriminalize pot: In July, Obama told Rolling Stone that he believed in "shifting the paradigm" to a public-health approach: "I would start with nonviolent, first-time drug offenders. The notion that we are imposing felonies on them or sending them to prison, where they are getting advanced degrees in criminality, instead of thinking about ways like drug courts that can get them back on track in their lives -- it's expensive, it's counterproductive, and it doesn't make sense." Meanwhile, economists have been making the beer argument. In a papertitled "Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition," Dr. Jeffrey Miron of Harvard argues that legalized marijuana would generate between $10 and $14 billion in savings and taxes every year -- conclusions endorsed by 300 top economists, including Milton "Free Market" Friedman himself. And two weeks ago, when the Obama team asked the public to vote on the top problems facing America, this was the public's No. 1 question: "Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?" But alas, the answer from Camp Obama was -- as it has been for years -- a flat one-liner: "President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana." And at least two of Obama's top people are drug-war supporters: Rahm Emanuel has been a long-time enemy of reform, and Joe Biden is a drug-war mainstay who helped create the position of "drug czar." Meanwhile, in 2007, the last year for which statistics are available, 782,000 Americans were arrested for marijuana-related crimes (90 percent of them for possession), with approximately 60,000 to 85,000 of them serving sentences in jail or prison. It's the continuation of an unnecessary stream of suffering that now has taught generations of Americans just how capricious their government can be. The irony is that the preference for "decriminalization" over legalization actually supports the continued existence of criminal drug mafias. Nevertheless, the marijuana community is guardedly optimistic. "Reformers will probably be disappointed that Obama is not going to go as far as they want, but we're probably not going to continue this mindless path of prohibition," NORML executive director Allen St. Pierre tells me. Some of Obama's biggest financial donors are friends of the legalization movement, St. Pierre notes. "Frankly, George Soros, Peter Lewis, and John Sperling -- this triumvirate of billionaires -- if those three men, who put up $50 to $60 million to get Democrats and Obama elected, can't pick up the phone and actually get a one-to-one meeting on where this drug policy is going, then maybe it's true that when you give money, you don't expect favors." Another member of that moneyed group: Marsha Rosenbaum, the former head of the San Francisco office of the Drug Policy Alliance, who quit last year to become a fundraiser for Obama and "bundled" an impressive $204,000 for his campaign. She said that based on what she hears from inside the transition team, she expects Obama to play it very safe. "He said at one point that he's not going to use any political capital with this -- that's a concern," Rosenbaum tells me. And the Path to Change will probably have to pass through the Valley of Studies and Reports. "I'm hoping that what the administration will do," she says, "is something this country hasn't done since 1971, which is to undertake a presidential commission to look at drug policy, convene a group of blue-ribbon experts to look at the issue, and make recommendations." But ultimately, Rosenbaum remains confident that those recommendations would call for an end to the drug war. "Once everything settles down in the second term, we have a shot at seeing some real reform." Still, a certain paranoia prevails. Rumors about Obama's choice for drug czar have lingered on Republican Congressman Jim Ramstad. "He's been a standard anti-drug warrior for the whole time he's been in Congress," says St. Pierre. Another possibility is Atlanta police chief Richard Pennington, who raises fears in the legalization community of more of the same law-enforcement model. Another prospect stirring the pothead waters is Dr. Don Vereen, the chief drug policy thinker on the transition team. "He's really a believer in prohibition and he can excite an audience," says Rosenbaum, who says a friend on the transition team refused to hint at final contenders for the drug czar pick. "I'm joking with him, 'I'm going to have to open up the New York Times for this, aren't I?'" His answer: "We're going to send out smoke signals."
May 26, 2008
Great Obama Quote
“It’s because you have an obligation to yourself,” Obama said. “Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs, betrays a poverty of ambition. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role you’ll play in writing the next great chapter in America’s story.”
Feb 05, 2008
A Tainted Endorsement. Obama 08'
We join the ranks of millions of Americans who have decided to support Barak Obama. The courage and strength that this man show is unheard of in today's society, and I believe that this special person has the ability to lead this nation in a positive direction.
