cannabisnews.com: Obama: Pot is Not More Dangerous Than Alcohol
function share_this(num) {
 tit=encodeURIComponent('Obama: Pot is Not More Dangerous Than Alcohol');
 url=encodeURIComponent('http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/27/thread27828.shtml');
 site = new Array(5);
 site[0]='http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[1]='http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit.php?url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[2]='http://digg.com/submit?topic=political_opinion&media=video&url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[3]='http://reddit.com/submit?url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[4]='http://del.icio.us/post?v=4&noui&jump=close&url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 window.open(site[num],'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=620,height=500');
 return false;
}






Obama: Pot is Not More Dangerous Than Alcohol
Posted by CN Staff on January 19, 2014 at 15:19:03 PT
By The Associated Press
Source: Associated Press
Washington, D.C. -- President Barack Obama said he doesn’t think marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol, ‘‘in terms of its impact on the individual consumer.’’‘‘As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol,’’ the president said an interview with ‘‘The New Yorker’’ magazine.
Smoking marijuana is ‘‘not something I encourage, and I've told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy,’’ Obama said.Obama’s administration has given states permission to experiment with marijuana regulation, and laws recently passed in Colorado and Washington legalizing marijuana recently went into effect. The president said it was important for the legalization of marijuana to go forward in those states to avoid a situation in which only a few are punished while a large portion of people have broken the law at one time or another.The president said he is troubled at the disproportionate number of arrests and imprisonments of minorities for marijuana use. ‘‘Middle-class kids don’t get locked up for smoking pot, and poor kids do,’’ he said. ‘‘And African-American kids and Latino kids are more likely to be poor and less likely to have the resources and the support to avoid unduly harsh penalties.’’He said in the interview that users shouldn’t be locked up for long stretches of time when people writing drug laws ‘‘have probably done the same thing.’’But Obama urged a cautious approach to changing marijuana laws, saying that people who think legalizing pot will solve social problems are ‘‘probably overstating the case.’’‘‘And the experiment that’s going to be taking place in Colorado and Washington is going to be, I think, a challenge,’’ the president said.Ethan Nadelmann, the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance praised Obama’s words, saying his use of the word ‘‘important’’ about the new Colorado and Washington laws ‘‘really puts the wind in the sails of the movement to end marijuana prohibition.Critics of the new laws raise concerns about public health and law enforcement, asking whether wide availability of the drug will lead to more underage drug use, more cases of driving while high and more crime.Source: Associated Press (Wire) Published:  January 19, 2014Copyright: 2014 The Associated PressCannabisNews  -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help 
     
     
     
     




Comment #6 posted by runruff on January 21, 2014 at 08:14:31 PT
re-Michele Leonhart.
Watch her Senate hearing on Youtube.She is calling the president a liar.She herself may be too dumb to lie. She may believe what she says. She sounds stupid enough to believe against the findings of science and thousands of years of anecdotal evidence? She just may be criminal enough to lie as she is told? Either way she is calling her boss a liar and this is a public display of how dysfunctional our government is.I was there, I heard everything!signed;
Wally Fly
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #5 posted by kaptinemo on January 20, 2014 at 08:29:01 PT:
Thanks for kicking us only 3 times instead of 5?
Keep in mind what his Justice Department has been doing in States with MMJ laws. He could call of his vicious, slavering, machine-gun-waving rabid dogs any time he wanted. He hasn't. He won't...until he's made to.. As he is right now. He's not doing this out of a sense of moral conscience. He's a 'moral calculator'; right and wrong are subjective, not something that hurts people. Mr. 'Eleven-dimensional Chess' has run the political calculus, and came up with the politically expedient maneuver. In short, he's doing this because he has NO EFFING CHOICE. The socio-political writing is on the wall; it's our turn now, and we will not be denied. Him stating an extraordinary grasp of the obvious is only acknowledging that his masters are losing control of the situation. Prohibition is socially, culturally and politically doomed, as are its' supporters. They can only fight a delaying, rearguard action now, and that is only for so long as we allow for pols to fund the anti-drug bureaucracies. Make those pols feel the heat, as some of them are beginning to, as he is, and tell them as the old folks die off, you have to shoulder the tax burden they once did, and make it plain you do NOT want vital money needed for more important things to be spent on the DrugWar...and will hold them accountable if they do not listen. The dumber ones that can't tell the wind has shifted will lose to those who have a better sense of political meteorology...as Obama does. He knows which way the wind is blowing now, from our quarter, and he's tacking his sails, but only just so much. But more pressure from below will cause that tack to catch more of our wind...which will achieve gale force as time goes by and more, younger voters enter the stage.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by John Tyler on January 20, 2014 at 07:24:04 PT
this is big
This is big. In the past the presidents would have said that cannabis was bad and prohibition should remain in place. Obama is now saying that cannabis is less harmful than legal alcoholic beverages, and way less harmful than tobacco products, and that the laws against cannabis have been and still are being disproportionately applied to minorities. (That is to say the laws against cannabis are unjust.) Plus, it changes the political perspective and it gives other political leaders an OK to proceed with changing current cannabis laws. Thank you President Obama.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by The GCW on January 19, 2014 at 16:49:20 PT
Huge and going national and probably international
This is showing up on many newspapers now and I suspect it will be international newspapers getting in on the news.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by FoM on January 19, 2014 at 16:31:22 PT
I liked Ethan Nadelmann's Words
Ethan Nadelmann, the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance praised Obama’s words, saying his use of the word ‘‘important’’ about the new Colorado and Washington laws ‘‘really puts the wind in the sails of the movement to end marijuana prohibition.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by HempWorld on January 19, 2014 at 16:28:16 PT
Hey Now
Ok, let's not get carried away here!While pot is no more dangerous than Alcohol, it is a whole lot safer...! And cannabis/marijuana is medicinal for your body as well, a little toke here and there prevents you from getting all-out cancer and/or many other diseases, such as MS, etc. etc.As, well as better weight management (more optimal body weight), cannabis is an anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory and an analgesic (pain suppressant).Ok? Thanks!Plus, every once and a while there are these claims: "Man Claims Hemp Oil Overcoming His Cancer"
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v14/n064/a05.html?1123
Man Claims Hemp Oil Overcoming His Cancer
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment