I know this wouldn't happen, but could he make it legal immedietely with an executive order or a blanket pardon. A pardon with something like Anyone who has been caught or may be caught in the future is hereby pardoned, rendering all prosecutions useless? He has actually been no help, even going back on his promise to end medical marijuana raids, but he is the president, we would have to conivince him anyway, is it possible to focus on one person?
Nope the president just doesn't have enough power to make it fully legal all on his own. It would take both houses of congress to really make it legal (and make sure it stays that way). The one thing obama can do is tell the Death Enforcement Agency (DEA) to stop arresting people because the executive branch is in charge of law enforcement and the president is the top dog in the executive branch. Really it doesn't matter what the president thinks because if we can get the legislative branch behind the legalize cannabis issue then we are home free because the legislative branch is the one with the power to amend the constitution hell the president couldn't order a roll of toilet paper for the whitehouse without congress approving funding for it. All 3 branches were put in place to keep each other in check and they each have their roles if we can get congress to legalize it and the supreme court to confirm it doesn't violate the constitution then obama will have no choice but to accept it.
Yes, he can write a Executive Order if he wanted to. All it theoretically would take is a stroke of a pen and it is so. The way an Executive Order can be challenged is by the Supreme Court, when it comes to constitutionality, or by Congress with a 2/3 majority.
This is something I have given some thought to in the last few days. The repeal of alcohol prohibition took a constitutional amendment to overturn the amendment that made alcohol illegal, correct? There is no such amendment that makes cannabis illegal. We instead have the Controlled Substances Act, which is essentially a mandate that is mired in bureaucracy as best I can understand it. (I wish I knew Constitutional Law.) The DEA (a bureaucracy) is in charge of the CSA's scheduling. The DEA looks to the FDA (another bureaucracy) to approve or deny "medical" use. Another bureaucracy is in charge of allowing research. Etc., etc. In other words, it seems that a multitude of bureaucracies are in charge of the illegality of marijuana. There does not seem to be any Constitutional backing. Am I interpreting this as others are? It seems that it comes down to a seemingly endless legal battle. These bureaucracies, I would imagine, have enough cumulative funding to pretty well squash the legal efforts any one person or entity could attempt to mount against them (George Soros seems to be enemy #1 in the eyes of the DEA for example.) There seems to be no Constitutional viability to our current laws. No where in the Constitution does it state that the government has the right to mandate what a man puts in his body as far as I can tell. They are in legal no-man's land, but have built layer upon layer in defense of this. In any event, it seems pretty obvious to me that placing our hopes in elected officials to "see the light" is tantamount to pissing into the wind thanks to special interests. Launching media campaigns to sway public opinion, thereby pressuring elected officials to turn their backs on special interests and bow to the will of the public seems an ineffective approach. Mounting all efforts into a LEGAL affront against the unjust, UNCONSTITUTIONAL prohibition of substances is the way I see it.
Sorry, my good friend, but it isn't that easy. Executive Orders do not overturn legislation by congress, they cannot make or change laws in any way, they can only act to enforce them. Cannabis is a prohibited substance according to Federal law.
True, I was wrong. Guess I better take a Constitutional Law class sometime soon, it's too damn complex.
I don't think it will be legal for atleast 20 more years nationally. The politicians are to old right now, in 20 years when the oldest ones die off the young blood shall make things right. We will probably see national decrim/medical sooner tho.
I think Obama should give daily pardons to people who get caught with pot. One every morning, that lasts for 24 hours. Sometimes he'll fuck with us and not do it immediately and make us wait for 2 hours. During this period, the cops are just fucking driving around nuts trying to make as many arrests as they possibly can.
Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves he's not for it. Although if Obama was for it, everyone in the government would buy into it. Well Obama doesn't want to legalize it, I'm wondering does he still favor at least Decriminalization of it. Which said all the way back in 2004. It's one thing to say it won't help the economy,but many innocent law abiding citizens are going jail over smoking a plant. Is the shitty economy the only reason people are talking about this, it makes sick. Marijuana can help the economy, sure it can a lot. Why is that only thing that matters to the government ,haven't they seen all the wasteful spending over these years and all the violence associated with prohibition. I think war on drugs has had very negative impact on the economy and the good people of this nation. He never was for legalizing, I hope he at least keeps his word on decrimanalizing it. I hope he agrees at least it is wrong to send people in jail over this. I don't how he could be not for "growing" the economy. I believe that is the point of trying to get of this recession.
Nope still needs approval from Congress, either half of them or more don't smoke or need to roll over and retire anyway. Keep pushing your state reps for legalization and push them to introduce bills to the house for legalization in representation of taxation, the war has failed, it was designed to fail anyway, more money for the CIA's Zionist multifamily inbreeding kooks. either rate the public is tired of fighting wars, if we can find money to hurt people we can find money to help people that is the great thing about democracy, we hope!
Obama can't do ANYTHING that would rewrite State laws, so your state's laws would need to be changed locally as well. So, the answer is No. But go ahead, smoke anyway, I'm gonna And I got pop tarts somewhere too...I need to find them