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Faulking Opinions - Mar 26, 2009 - Printable Version
- Open for Questions: Americans Want an End to the Prohibition of Marijuana and Industrial Hemp
by Mark Faulk
On March 26, 2009, President Barack Obama declared the White House "Open for Questions". Asking for questions from internet contributors in an attempt to include the average American in the political process, President Obama held a historic online forum where he responded to the concerns of the very people who elected him in the first place. So what topic is the number one issue people "outside of Washington" want our President to address? The legalization (and taxation) of marijuana. Seventy years after our government kowtowed to big business and began one of the most egregious and effective propaganda campaigns in history, seventy years after the age of "Reefer Madness", Americans want to know why our government still hasn't addressed either the prohibition of marijuana or the legalization of industrial hemp as a cash crop.
92,000 different people submitted over 104,000 questions, and 3.6 million people voted on those questions so that Obama could respond to the will of the people. A quick search of the questions using the term "marijuana" brought up 2,139 matches.
The topic dominated seven of the eleven topics, and was the most popular question in four categories:
Green Jobs and Energy:
1) ""Will you consider decriminalizing the recreational/medical use of marijuana(hemp) so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and a multi-billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?”"
Green Machine, Winchester,Va
2) "Has your administration given any serious thought to how legalizing marijuana could help solve the economic crisis? We could tax this green product and create an influx of cash while reducing violence created by the war of drugs & illegal trafficking"
Ashley, Brooklyn, NY
Financial Stability
1) "Would you support the bill currently going through the California legislation to legalize and tax marijuana, boosting the economy and reducing drug cartel related violence?"
Anthony, Warrington, PA
2) "Has the administration given any thought to legalizing marijuana, as a cash crop to fuel the economy? Why not make available, regulate, and tax something that that about 10 million Americans use regularly and is less harmful than tobacco or alcohol."
Sarah, Atlanta, GA
3) "Growing up I have noticed many around me always talk about legalization of marijuana, and I always thought, why not put a tax stamp on it. If marijuana was legalized it could really change a lot of things. America had the same problem with Alcohol."
Peter McNamara, Minneapolis, MN
4) "Could legalizing marijuana and laying a tax on it, given restriction allow the government make back some of the glaring debt considering it's inelasticity and the history of economics of prohibition?"
Andy Drake, New Brunswick, NJ
Jobs:
1) "What are your plans for the failing, "War on Drugs", that's sucking money from tax payers and putting non-violent people in prison longer than the violent criminals?"
Matt B, West Bend, WI
3) "President Obama, Do you plan on letting Science end the failed "War" on Marijuana for personal and medical use thus taking the strain of our prisons and police forces so that we no longer have to arrest over 800,000 non violent drug offenders?"
Phill, Georgetown,MA
Health care reform:
2) "Why is marijuana still illegal? Cigarettes and alcohol are far more harmful, and with the taxes put on the legal distribution of marijuana the US could make millions"
Ben R, Washington, DC
9) As a person with Multiple Sclerosis, I have many other MS friends who use marijuana just to feel some relief from their bodies. When can pressure be placed to reclassify Cannabis from a Schedule 1 drug (no medical benefit) to Schedule 5?"
Marcia, Texas
And then there was the category headed "Budget", where the top seven most popular questions had to do with either recreational marijuana or industrial hemp, including:
1) "With over 1 out of 30 Americans controlled by the penal system, why not legalize, control, and tax marijuana to change the failed war on drugs into a money making, money saving boost to the economy? Do we really need that many victimless criminals?"
Ryan Palmer, Dallas, TX
2) "Mr. Obama, Thank you for allowing us to ask our questions to you, unfiltered. What is your stance on legalizing marijuana federally, taxing it and regulating much like alcohol and tobacco? I believe that the Drug War has failed, and needs overhaul."
Brian, Minneapolis, MN
3) "I am not a marijuana user, but I do believe that making marijuana legal could provide some relief as to it could be heavily taxed and regulated. Legalization of marijuana will also be a detriment to the drug cartels in Latin America."
Ryan McLaughlin, Rindge, NH / Quakertown, PA
4) "Have you considered legalizing marijuana and taxing/regulating it like alcohol? Marijuana is America's largest cash crop. The tax revenue from marijuana sales would provide a massive source of new revenue and cut the insane costs of the "Drug War.""
Matt S, Huntsville, AL
5) "Mr. President, we the people continue to ask you this general question, please do not fail to respond: Will you allow science and common sense to reign and end this failed WAR ON DRUGS starting with the legalization and taxation of Marijuana?"
Mark B, Sterling,VA
And a particularly effective way of phrasing to bring home the point of how much harm the archaic laws effectively pacing marijuana in the same category as hardcore narcotics such as heroin and cocaine:
"Our marijuana laws destroy peoples lives. Had you been arrested, you couldn't be our President. Legalizing marijuana and hemp (Washington grew hemp) would create many jobs, help the environment, and the sick. Would you consider legalizing Marijuana?"
Rick, Tennessee - (Financial Stability)
Other questions focused on the legalization of growing industrial hemp as a potential cash crop, an issue that many advocates and Americans in general wrongly group into the same category as recreational and medical marijuana. A search using the word "hemp" brought up 377 total matches, including this question:
"Hemp is the only crop that is illegal to grow, but legal to import. It's proven to be excellent for conditioning soil, produces biomass for fuel, can be used to create textiles and food. When will you legalize industrial hemp for American farmers?"
Sophelia Sunshine, Buttercup Meadows - (Green Jobs and Energy)
It's not the first time the issue of legalizing marijuana and industrial hemp has dominated an online poll undertaken by the President. Submissions for the "Citizen's Briefing Book" on the official website of the President's Transition Team (www.change.gov), hundreds of thousands of voters selected ending the prohibition on adults using marijuana as their number one issue. A January 22, 2009 article on the NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) website said:
The public's demand to "stop imprisoning responsible adult citizens" who use marijuana received more votes than any other issue in the online poll.
A related question calling on the new administration to "stop using federal resources to undermine states' medicinal marijuana laws" finished in third place.
The Citizens' Briefing Book poll marks the third time the Obama Transition Team has asked for the public's input regarding what they perceive to be the most important public policy questions facing America. Questions pertaining to the legalization of marijuana have dominated online voting in each poll, and have twice finished in the #1 position.
A separate poll, conducted last week by Change.org and the Case Foundation, also reported that the legalization of cannabis for personal use is the most popular issue among online voters.
As the Open for Questions forum began this morning, advocates for the reform of our country's archaic hemp and marijuana laws had to be asking themselves: How would the President address what is still one of the most politically-charged issues of our generation? Would they even ask the questions at all, or would they do as other Presidents have done, and continue the policy of ignore and deny? If he did choose to ignore it, it would immediately destroy the credibility of the entire forum, it would undermine his stated pledge to include average Americans in the political process. Since they had promised to answer the most popular questions as submitted by online voters, it seemed unlikely that they could possibly dodge the issue altogether.
The first five questions chosen were fairly generic, repeats of the talking points of the Obama Administration. Job creation, modernizing the countries technologies, universal health care and health insurance. Was he choosing to ignore the issue altogether, or just saving it for the punch line? How could that even be possible? After all, this is the Peoples' President. He answers to US, not just big business. (I know, I know, some of of his policies have already reeked of the business as usual politics of the past that he decried during his historic campaigns, but I'm trying to hold him to his campaign promises, not some of his questionable post-election policies.)
Then, between questions number five and six, the topic came up, but not in the form of a direct inquiry as submitted by voters. Instead of the intelligent, spirited debate that Americans are used to hearing from Obama, he instead threw out the thousands of intelligent, thought provoking questions covering the full spectrum of industrialized hemp as a cash crop, the prohibition on recreational marijuana, the potential of medical marijuana, and our failed war on drugs, and reduced the issue to "whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation."
Here's how CNN described his one marijuana-related response:
Obama answered seven of the most popular questions, according to a CNN tally. That includes those from several people who asked if legalizing marijuana would improve the economy.
The president grinned through his answer: "I don't' know what this says about the online audience," he said, adding: "The answer is, 'No,' I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy."
Haha. You wacky, unemployed stoners. Break out your bongs and put on that old Cheech and Chong DVD again, and let us grownups worry about the budget, and healthcare, and saving our reeling economy.
Two more questions, one concerning veterans' benefits and another one about education, and then Obama began to take questions from the audience:
The first question: how do we fix the auto industry?
Next question: Small business.
Health care.
Small businesses being overtaxed.
Education...yet again. (By the way, this one was about teacher training and merit pay vs. tenure. Great question on an issue close to my heart.)
Health care.
And that was it. When it was all said and done, the Peoples' President all but ignored one of the most relevant issues of our time, really, two of the most relevant issues of our time: Industrial hemp, a plant that no one could get high on even if they wanted to, and that is legal to grow and becoming a thriving industry in every industrialized nation in the world....except the United States. And medical and recreational marijuana, the least harmful of all drugs (including alcohol and tobacco), and one that has huge potential in the medical arena. In the end, the President's one response to over 2,000 valid questions concerning the topic was to make light of the issue, to minimize the very real issue of reforming our laws on industrial hemp and medical and recreational marijuana.
Mark B from Sterling, Virginia might have summed up what so many Americans were feeling after the "Open for Questions" forum ended:
"Mr. President, we the people continue to ask you this general question, please do not fail to respond."
And that, my fellow Americans, is the Faulking Truth.
Mark Faulk’s first book is entitled The Naked Truth: Investing in the Stock Play of a Lifetime, and is now available at www.thenakedtruthbook.com
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