cannabisnews.com: Hopeless Causes Hopeless Causes Posted by CN Staff on May 27, 2008 at 05:28:39 PT By Jon Carroll Source: San Francisco Chronicle USA -- The incoming president will have about 1 million problems to solve. Some of them will require political courage; some of them will require creative thinking; some of them will require delicate diplomacy, and some of them will require strong-arm tactics. Knowing which problems require which solutions is what makes an effective executive.Of course, if said executive also agrees with me, clearly we're in the presence of greatness. But there are issues that are apparently utterly resistant to change because they have been demagogued to death, and there seems to be no way to undemagogue them. Polls indicate that the American people are way ahead of their legislators on these topics, but the perceived political risk of confronting them is just too great. So they languish, injustices continue to occur, and hopelessness descends.One good example is medical marijuana. Twelve states have laws permitting its use, and more would follow were it not for the ever-present threat of federal bullyboys coming and busting people who were conscientiously following state laws. Marijuana eases pain for people who suffer from chronic and terminal diseases. Of course, the possibility of abuse exists, but as long as doctors are allowed to dispense handfuls of far-more-addictive drugs such as Vicodin and OxyContin, it seems like a slim and shallow argument.In addition, in other places (like Oregon), the feds have overstepped the bounds of both the law and common decency by, for instance, denying organ transplants to people arrested for using medical marijuana. This outrageous de facto death penalty could be eliminated by presidential edict. Will it? Will a politician risk being called a pot-smoking hippie by paid political hit men? Not sure. Snipped Complete Article: http://tinyurl.com/4hwqct Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)Author: Jon CarrollPublished: Tuesday, May 27, 2008Copyright: 2008 San Francisco Chronicle Contact: letters sfchronicle.comWebsite: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/ CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #13 posted by Hope on May 27, 2008 at 20:29:26 PT Giving up any right... whether you care about it or not is a huge mistake. [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by FoM on May 27, 2008 at 16:04:40 PT mykeyb420 I don't know how many organizations would be interested in doing it. I think if we stay politically active in the new government we will have that might be the way we can fix it. I hope to be able to volunteer at our local country fairs this summer for the Obama campaign and I thought how nice it would be to have a pin that says something but not too much. What I mean is a pin that would have other volunteers asking what the pin means. I think very simply. [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by mykeyb420 on May 27, 2008 at 15:36:19 PT fom I meant the power of us(potheads) teaming up with a group like the NRA, or even better,,AARP,,the voting powers of those groups are strong like the force. We could rule the world with just our vote. [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by FoM on May 27, 2008 at 10:41:53 PT mykeyb420 What would happen to people like me who aren't into that issue? I'm not against guns but I don't pay any attention to guns. [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by mykeyb420 on May 27, 2008 at 10:36:30 PT new group IMHO,,I think that the NRA and NORML should team up in the political world. We can call it " The Pot an Pistols People." Toghther we can save the world. [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by FoM on May 27, 2008 at 09:47:49 PT Sam I agree with you. I didn't vote when I was a fundamentalist christian. I believed I was to go to a nursing home and help seniors and help the children and young teens in the church but nothing political. When Robertson entered the political realm I quit church. I knew I would never be a Republican because of it too. [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by Sam Adams on May 27, 2008 at 09:27:41 PT records One of the thing Bush/Cheney has done is refuse to obey the law that says they must provide records of all the people that visited the White House. The reason they did is because the records would show Evangelical Christian leaders coming & going too frequently.Remember how the Republicans spent much time trying to create scandals over who visited the Clinton White House. Bush/Cheney decided what was good for the goose wasn't good for the tyrannical gander apparently. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by FoM on May 27, 2008 at 09:09:05 PT OverwhelmSam I don't think much of anything can save the Republican Party until they stop catering to the Evangelicals. The Religious Right wants to make everyone the way they want them. They want people to go to church and march in step. They want laws to lock up people who don't agree with what they teach. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by OverwhelmSam on May 27, 2008 at 08:49:41 PT It's Over! We Won! FUTURE HEADLINES: "The War Against Marijuana Is Over", it's just a matter of time now.We've been instrumental in the presumptive death of the Republican party as it now stands. Only Ron Paul can save them now. And the credit is not ours alone, but we have steadfastly set forward the proper view points and corrected a multitude of fallacies along the way. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by FoM on May 27, 2008 at 08:27:24 PT Ekim Thank you. He is one of the top picks for Senator Obama to be Vice President. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by ekim on May 27, 2008 at 08:22:20 PT the Diane Rehm NPR show today-- on the Diane Rehm show Sen Webb was talking about his new book a Time To Fight and Diane asked if he is for the decrim of Marijuana and he said that he feels that we are locking up way to many for mere possision and that half of all adults have said they have comsumed marijuana to which Diane asked Mr Webb if he was one of those in the half that have comsumed marijuana and he said yes. Mr Webb went on to say that the use of drugs should be a med issue not a criminal one.the two went on to talk about how the drug war is affecting minorities. http://www.drshow.org [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by FoM on May 27, 2008 at 08:18:36 PT afterburner I hope so. It's time for politicians to wake up and understand how things are not how they want things to be.It's 2008!!!My goodness. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by afterburner on May 27, 2008 at 07:58:47 PT Yes! "This outrageous de facto death penalty could be eliminated by presidential edict. Will it?" [ Post Comment ] Post Comment