Yesterday while I was sitting in my cubicle at work looking at social media, a huge buzz was going around the interwebs talking about the upcoming episode of ‘Weed3’ with Sanjay Gupta on CNN. Apparently on the episode President Barack Obama is going to be interviewed and the interview will have him expressing strong support for medical marijuana, and alternative treatments for drug addiction. Below is a graphic that the Drug Policy Alliance put out:
A bipartisan Senate bill that would do amazing things for medical marijuana at the federal level was discussed in the interview as well, with Obama saying that he would have to ‘look at the details.’ That line to me pretty much sums up what is really going on. President Obama is throwing around rhetoric, but at the end of the day, doesn’t plan on doing much. If he did, he would already be familiar with the CARERS Act. But instead, he has to ‘look into the details’ of it, which is a line I expect to hear over and over.
Barack Obama doesn’t really support medical marijuana. If he did, he would back up those words with actions. He would have done so a long time ago. But raids are still occurring, people are still being prosecuted by the feds in states where medical marijuana is legal, and President Obama has done nothing to try to reschedule marijuana and instead acts like only Congress can do it, despite the fact that he can actually do something about rescheduling. Below is a quote from Tom Angell from the Marijuana Majority, via the Daily Caller:
“If the president means what he says about following science, then there’s no question he should support legislation to move marijuana out of Schedule I, a category that’s supposed to be reserved for substances with no medical value,” Tom Angell, chairman of the Marijuana Majority, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“And, since it’s so hard to get anything through Congress these days, he should even do more than that. He should exercise his power under the Controlled Substances Act to administratively reschedule marijuana right away,” Angell added. “The only thing stopping him from doing that is his own reluctance to follow through on his stated principle of letting science dictate policy.”
When it comes to President Obama and his comments about medical marijuana, take it from Flavor Flav, “Don’t believe the hype!” Every time Obama or someone from his administration makes comments like this, a lot of people get excited and get their hopes up, just for the Obama Administration to go about ‘business as usual’ and nothing significant ever happens. If and when something actually does happen, that’s when it’s time to rejoice. Until then, hold off on any celebrations.
