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I just ran across this, real interesting.
Lanny Asks why the Feds Are Mute on Election Eve
Posted on November 5, 2012 by hempinc
We Love Lanny Swerdlow’s Work. The following excerpt from his latest newsletter is right on point – as usual!
Eric Holder. the Obama Administration’s Attorney General, has been surprisingly silent on the marijuana legalization measures in Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Even though nine (yes 9!) former heads of the Drug Enforcement Administration have signed a letter asking him to intervene in these legalization initiatives in the same way he intervened in California’s Prop. 19, he has yet to do so.
On October 15, 2010, AG Holder released a letter threatening the citizens of California in support of Prop. 19 by stating that the Dept. of Justice “will vigorously enforce the Controlled Substance Act against those individuals and organizations that possess, manufacture or distribute marijuana for recreational use, even if such activities are permitted under state law.”Many people feel that it was Holder’s threats that turned the tide against Prop. 19 which had been leading in the polls with about a 52% approval rating but ended up narrowly losing receiving a respectable but still losing 47.5% of the vote. Since neither side had spent significant money to run ads, most people in California, although aware of the Proposition, had not heard much of the way of arguments on either side. Holder’s statement picked up by all media and given prominent play is credited with causing a small but very significant switch in voter support.
That’s why the 9 former DEA heads want Holder to do it again, but here it is November 4, just two days before the election and except for a single letter written by a considerably lower level Dept. of Justice employee, nothing has been said. Why did Holder threaten fire and brimstone in 2010 and in 2012 utters not a word?
Two theories are floating around in the political ether.
Theory One:
Colorado is one of the nine fabled swing states that will decide who becomes President in 2013. Amendment 64, Colorado’s marijuana legalization initiative is currently leading 52% to 43% whereas President Obama leads Mitt Romney by only 47% to 45%. Clearly voters in Colorado favor marijuana more than they do either Presidential candidate.
It is that bizarre distinction that raises red flags for the Obama re-election team. One of Obama’s largest base of supporters are young people – the 18-34 year olds that are so sought after by advertisers. By a huge 30 point margin (61% to 31%), this demographic overwhelmingly favors the legalization of marijuana.
What the Obama team rightfully fears is that if AG Holder comes storming into the fray threatening to “vigorously enforce the Controlled Substance Act against those individuals and organizations that possess, manufacture or distribute marijuana for recreational use, even if such activities are permitted under state law,” then a small but significant percentage of those young people will be sufficiently turned off by Obama and vote for either Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson or Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein. Both of these candidates strongly support Amendment 64.
In Colorado the Green and Libertarian parties are stressing their support with the Libertarian Party expending significant (at least significant for the Libertarians) monetary and campaign resources into reaching out to these younger voters specifically with the message that Gary Johnston supports ending marijuana prohibition.
It wouldn’t take very many of these voters switching their vote to either Johnson or Stein for Obama to come up on the short end of the stick and wind up losing Colorado to Romney and possibly the election. Holder wants to keep his job and keeping his mouth shut on this issue improves his chances.
Theory Two:Then there are those with a less cynical and more Pollyanna attitude which is Holder’s silence foreshadows a potential change in the Obama administration’s stance on marijuana.
President Obama has real word experiences with the War on Drugs. As a community organizer in Chicago, he no doubt witnessed the horrors caused by the drug war and its overt racist enforcement. In the not so distant past he has called the War on Drugs a failure and has supported marijuana decriminalization. In the more distant past, he knows from his own extremely extensive use of marijuana in high school and college, that marijuana prohibition is far more destructive to our nation’s youth than marijuana ever could be.
Could Eric Holder’s silence manifest a change in Obama’s policy during a second term? There have been all kinds of scuttlebutt emanating from Washington that reforming the War on Drugs will be an important Obama administration program if he is elected to a second term. I will believe that when I see it, but such a sea change is not unheard of in the Obama administration. He changed his mind on gay marriage (or at least got the courage of his convictions on this flaming subject) and doing the same on marijuana is not that far of a stretch.
This is why the Brownie Mary Democratic Club is so important and will become even more important if President Obama is re-elected. For more information on the Brownie Mary Democratic Club, CLICK HERE
AG Holder could still jump in at the very last moment (with the election just two days away, you can’t get much more last moment) and thunder fire and brimstone, but it’s awful late in the game to have much of an effect.
Of course there is no reason that it can’t be both crass politics and a good sign – just because it’s crass doesn’t mean it’s bad.
California is not a swing state – Obama is all but certain to carry the state. If you are aghast at Obama’s failure to follow through on his mmj statements during the 2008 campaign, voting for one of the three 3rd party candidates on the ballot is not going to endanger Obama’s candidacy – there are just not enough of us out there to make that big a difference – I sure wish there were and maybe one day there will be, but that day is not Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012.
All the 3rd Party candidates on California’s ballot support ending marijuana prohibition. Judge Jim Gray is the vice-presidential candidate on the Libertarian ticket with Gary Johnson. He is a long-time friend of the Inland Empire marijuana community having spoken at many of our meetings and advocated on behalf of our issues. Now that he has retired, he has made ending the War on Drugs a prime focus in his life and certainly deserves our thanks and support.
The Green Party has always been strongly in favor of ending marijuana prohibition and the War on Drugs and their candidate, Dr. Jill Stein has spoken forcefully on the subject. And then there is Roseanne Barr of the Peace and Freedom Party – I know that sounds like a joke but that’s what people thought of that second rate actor Ronald Reagan.
It’s the swing states that are going to decide who is President and it may be that the young voters in Colorado turning out en masse to vote for marijuana may be casting the deciding votes.
At 7:30 p.m on Wednesday, Nov. 7 at the RiversideMAPP meeting we will either be celebrating the victory or commiserating the loss of the marijuana legalization measures. Those ballot measures along with the Presidential race and many of the statewide and local races will be analyzed and our prospects for success in protecting and expanding medical marijuana laws and marijuana law reform will be discussed.
Lanny Asks why the Feds Are Mute on Election Eve
Posted on November 5, 2012 by hempinc
We Love Lanny Swerdlow’s Work. The following excerpt from his latest newsletter is right on point – as usual!
Eric Holder. the Obama Administration’s Attorney General, has been surprisingly silent on the marijuana legalization measures in Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Even though nine (yes 9!) former heads of the Drug Enforcement Administration have signed a letter asking him to intervene in these legalization initiatives in the same way he intervened in California’s Prop. 19, he has yet to do so.
On October 15, 2010, AG Holder released a letter threatening the citizens of California in support of Prop. 19 by stating that the Dept. of Justice “will vigorously enforce the Controlled Substance Act against those individuals and organizations that possess, manufacture or distribute marijuana for recreational use, even if such activities are permitted under state law.”Many people feel that it was Holder’s threats that turned the tide against Prop. 19 which had been leading in the polls with about a 52% approval rating but ended up narrowly losing receiving a respectable but still losing 47.5% of the vote. Since neither side had spent significant money to run ads, most people in California, although aware of the Proposition, had not heard much of the way of arguments on either side. Holder’s statement picked up by all media and given prominent play is credited with causing a small but very significant switch in voter support.
That’s why the 9 former DEA heads want Holder to do it again, but here it is November 4, just two days before the election and except for a single letter written by a considerably lower level Dept. of Justice employee, nothing has been said. Why did Holder threaten fire and brimstone in 2010 and in 2012 utters not a word?
Two theories are floating around in the political ether.
Theory One:
Colorado is one of the nine fabled swing states that will decide who becomes President in 2013. Amendment 64, Colorado’s marijuana legalization initiative is currently leading 52% to 43% whereas President Obama leads Mitt Romney by only 47% to 45%. Clearly voters in Colorado favor marijuana more than they do either Presidential candidate.
It is that bizarre distinction that raises red flags for the Obama re-election team. One of Obama’s largest base of supporters are young people – the 18-34 year olds that are so sought after by advertisers. By a huge 30 point margin (61% to 31%), this demographic overwhelmingly favors the legalization of marijuana.
What the Obama team rightfully fears is that if AG Holder comes storming into the fray threatening to “vigorously enforce the Controlled Substance Act against those individuals and organizations that possess, manufacture or distribute marijuana for recreational use, even if such activities are permitted under state law,” then a small but significant percentage of those young people will be sufficiently turned off by Obama and vote for either Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson or Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein. Both of these candidates strongly support Amendment 64.
In Colorado the Green and Libertarian parties are stressing their support with the Libertarian Party expending significant (at least significant for the Libertarians) monetary and campaign resources into reaching out to these younger voters specifically with the message that Gary Johnston supports ending marijuana prohibition.
It wouldn’t take very many of these voters switching their vote to either Johnson or Stein for Obama to come up on the short end of the stick and wind up losing Colorado to Romney and possibly the election. Holder wants to keep his job and keeping his mouth shut on this issue improves his chances.
Theory Two:Then there are those with a less cynical and more Pollyanna attitude which is Holder’s silence foreshadows a potential change in the Obama administration’s stance on marijuana.
President Obama has real word experiences with the War on Drugs. As a community organizer in Chicago, he no doubt witnessed the horrors caused by the drug war and its overt racist enforcement. In the not so distant past he has called the War on Drugs a failure and has supported marijuana decriminalization. In the more distant past, he knows from his own extremely extensive use of marijuana in high school and college, that marijuana prohibition is far more destructive to our nation’s youth than marijuana ever could be.
Could Eric Holder’s silence manifest a change in Obama’s policy during a second term? There have been all kinds of scuttlebutt emanating from Washington that reforming the War on Drugs will be an important Obama administration program if he is elected to a second term. I will believe that when I see it, but such a sea change is not unheard of in the Obama administration. He changed his mind on gay marriage (or at least got the courage of his convictions on this flaming subject) and doing the same on marijuana is not that far of a stretch.
This is why the Brownie Mary Democratic Club is so important and will become even more important if President Obama is re-elected. For more information on the Brownie Mary Democratic Club, CLICK HERE
AG Holder could still jump in at the very last moment (with the election just two days away, you can’t get much more last moment) and thunder fire and brimstone, but it’s awful late in the game to have much of an effect.
Of course there is no reason that it can’t be both crass politics and a good sign – just because it’s crass doesn’t mean it’s bad.
California is not a swing state – Obama is all but certain to carry the state. If you are aghast at Obama’s failure to follow through on his mmj statements during the 2008 campaign, voting for one of the three 3rd party candidates on the ballot is not going to endanger Obama’s candidacy – there are just not enough of us out there to make that big a difference – I sure wish there were and maybe one day there will be, but that day is not Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012.
All the 3rd Party candidates on California’s ballot support ending marijuana prohibition. Judge Jim Gray is the vice-presidential candidate on the Libertarian ticket with Gary Johnson. He is a long-time friend of the Inland Empire marijuana community having spoken at many of our meetings and advocated on behalf of our issues. Now that he has retired, he has made ending the War on Drugs a prime focus in his life and certainly deserves our thanks and support.
The Green Party has always been strongly in favor of ending marijuana prohibition and the War on Drugs and their candidate, Dr. Jill Stein has spoken forcefully on the subject. And then there is Roseanne Barr of the Peace and Freedom Party – I know that sounds like a joke but that’s what people thought of that second rate actor Ronald Reagan.
It’s the swing states that are going to decide who is President and it may be that the young voters in Colorado turning out en masse to vote for marijuana may be casting the deciding votes.
At 7:30 p.m on Wednesday, Nov. 7 at the RiversideMAPP meeting we will either be celebrating the victory or commiserating the loss of the marijuana legalization measures. Those ballot measures along with the Presidential race and many of the statewide and local races will be analyzed and our prospects for success in protecting and expanding medical marijuana laws and marijuana law reform will be discussed.
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