Obama really could magically make the medical marijuana issue disappear...

[RainDog]

66. we are arguing for the same thing

but you are ignoring the issue of state-level political change as the impetus to force the federal govt to confront bad law - THAT is what has been effective - not any action at the federal level - since the 1990s - and before.

We have no candidate who will support the issue of medical marijuana or the end of prohibition in general at the Federal level. That's the reality.

The action is at the state and local level - and those actions, and those people are creating change. When 32 states have medical marijuana laws - is the federal govt going to continue to waste money to oppose something that those states support?

After a while, this tactic will become unsupportable - and this is the reality - those things have happened and will continue to happen no matter which party is in power at the federal level. Clinton opposed medical marijuana when the law was passed in CA and created whole new levels of bullshit to try to stop the law. The same has happened with Bush Jr. and Obama - tho Bush Jr. spent more time finding ways to torture people for terrorism than for medical marijuana.

You can try to argue this any way you like, but the truth is that change is happening whether the national Democratic party wants it or not and it will continue to happen and the best we can do is to contact people like Conyers to get H.B. 2306 out of committee and to support organizations that petition for rescheduling - and to tell the truth that neither party at the national level supports the will of the American people on this issue.

I would hope that Democrats would stop their ongoing lurch to the radical right and do the right thing - but I don't expect they will b/c history does not lead me to think that they will. Nevertheless, progress continues without them.

This is why I am not gung-ho about politics at the level of party. I care about issues. I vote for the party or candidate that will be more likely to create an atmosphere, if not the actual laws, that make other actions more likely. The talibornagains, who have control of the Republican party at this time, are not going to do anything to make this issue go forward and are far more likely to be worse for this issue based upon their stated beliefs.