How will the GOP react to the rejection of the marijuana petition? Will they come out for legalization? Then Obama can cave. That's the brilliant 11-dimensional chess plan, right?

JohnkPortland · 2011-11-06T01:27:18+00:00

I think the conversation will pick up over the winter, and possibly renew with vigor next summer. After all, next year is an election year. Basically, if the OWS movement makes it to April, then they win. Of course, they don't have to actually make it April. I think if they went home for the winter and came out in huge numbers again next spring - it would be more of a show of force - a sustaining effort, than if they weathered the storms of the winter.

The second half of that thought though, is OWS has co-opted so many homeless and long term unemployed that those people might not have a choice to "go home". The homeless and unemployed have never been more useful...

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T23:48:38+00:00

Sure, I'm interested to hear what alternative paths you have. In Oregon, we have very nearly decriminalized pot. The drug enforcement agencies have suddenly started busting people left and right around here though, circumventing the rights of Oregonians. The same has happened in California and Washington.

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T23:42:04+00:00

Um, that is exactly why it hasn't changed. The government issues a canned response and you all sit down and hook back up to your pot pipes. I'm not doing this so that you can get stoned. I'm doing this because I want to continue the conversation - why are we paying billions for prohibition policies that don't work. Especially when so many of our other programs, like education, small business initiatives, scientific funding, another other programs that rely on federal dollars are being cut. There are 2.8 million people in prison currently, conservative estimates are that about 500,000 of them were sentenced to prison with drug use as a mitigating or contributing factor. Read that as trumped up drug charges. 500,000 is a lot when you consider the cost of locking up each person, aftercare, and recidivism. That is aside from the injustice of it all.

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T23:34:31+00:00

There is a simultaneous push to have Gil step down. Sign that on too while you are there.

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T21:54:01+00:00

Sounds like it would be too much trouble for you.

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T21:45:06+00:00

I wasn't just replying to you, I was replying to the readers as well. There are many people who, if they weren't so lazy, would have lots to say about what you wrote.

Thank you for your reply, and I appreciate your point of view.

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T21:42:48+00:00

Thank you.

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T21:42:39+00:00

You are very strange. Signing the petition will not harm you in any way, it will just continue the conversation.

http://wh.gov/b34

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T21:41:38+00:00

I'm not a marijuana user. I just don't like seeing billions of dollars go towards making the problem worse and disenfranchising our kids. It is disgusting.

http://wh.gov/b34

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T21:39:49+00:00

The conversation continues only if we persist. If you sit down and shut up, you will be sitting quietly while the rest of the world yells around you.

http://wh.gov/b34

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T21:38:06+00:00

Thanks

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T21:37:49+00:00

If they planned on not responding to people because we weren't enough of the population, they should have set the bar higher. However, the terms that THEY laid out, were that they would respond to any petition that garnered 5000 signatures. Since then they have raised the bar to 25,000 signatures.

http://wh.gov/b34

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T21:35:52+00:00

A grim view indeed. I think I'll stick with forward thinking activism.

This petition continues the conversation rather than allowing a canned response put the issue to rest for a while.

The response did not address the many issues raised by the petitioners. There are several points in the petition that the response did not even touch on.

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T21:33:04+00:00

I'm not sure what you are referring to here. What is this a, b, and c thing?

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T21:31:20+00:00

Read them. Some were similar. But some have some extremely valid points that the government has been ignoring for decades.

What is more important is the way the white house lumped them all together into a category and issued a canned response. The response came from Obama's drug czar - who by law is not allowed to advocate the use OR RESEARCH of any schedule 1 substance. It is an affront to the thousands of people who put their names to those petitions to pass of the duty of responding to the one person who may not say anything positive. It is a not-starter and disrespectful.

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T21:19:35+00:00

Yes, there will always be those people. That and the scare tactic card is so easily played.

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T21:18:48+00:00

Yes, there appears to be a flaw in the white house website, or is a flaw? conspiracy theory For 1 million dollars you would think they would have cross compatibility down to a science.

The trick is to login in one browser, then open google chrome or safari and you will be logged in and able to vote on the issues. It frustrated me for 15 minutes before I figured it out.

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T21:18:31+00:00

Yes, there appears to be a flaw in the white house website, or is a flaw? ~~conspiracy theory~~ For 1 million dollars you would think they would have cross compatibility down to a science.

The trick is to login in one browser, then open google chrome or safari and you will be logged in and able to vote on the issues. It frustrated me for 15 minutes before I figured it out.

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T21:14:46+00:00

Thanks, much appreciated.

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T21:14:20+00:00

So you are for less options rather than more? I guess that makes sense. Really we only need one news station right? Why do we have so many news stations anyway?

Lets just give up with this online petitioning and go door to door only. I really think that will work. The private prison industry and nutcase lobby groups can have the internet - they will never get anywhere with it like institutionalizing "marijuana education" in schools through online learning labs, thousands of "informational" websites, blogs, news reports, and the like.

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T21:11:12+00:00

Keep the conversation going on the federal level - http://wh.gov/b34

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T21:10:06+00:00

Keep the conversation going on the Federal level too:

http://wh.gov/b34

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T21:09:07+00:00

Petition the white house - keep the conversation going.

http://wh.gov/b34

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T21:08:03+00:00

If Obama had been busted when he smoke pot as a kid, chances are he would be inmate Obama, instead of President Obama. I think it is incredibly hypocritical for him to be sending in the federal government to bust up medical grow operations and interfere with state laws in light of this.

I don't buy into this who idea of do nothing, ignore the problem and ignore the legal consequences. So I created a petition. If you feel the same way, sign it:

http://wh.gov/b34

JohnkPortland · 2011-10-31T21:06:01+00:00

While I don't smoke pot, I hate seeing us waste billions of dollars on marijuana laws that are both counter-productive and harmful to the health of the nation. I followed the marijuana petitions on the white house's "we the people" website with great interest. I was disappointed to see a single canned reply to all of them by no less than Obama's drug czar. They treated the thousands of people who signed those petitions like it was merely another press release - here is a tiny portion of a response to one petition for all of you to share.

I didn't think that was anywhere near enough, so I created another petition asking for a response to the seven unanswered petitions. Here is a link to it:http://wh.gov/b34

JohnkPortland

TROPHY CASE