Three out of four Americans want to end medical marijuana raids

Monday, May 21, 2012 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: medical marijuana, raids, prohibition

(NaturalNews) The federal government's continued "War on Drugs" is no longer getting a warm reception from the vast majority of Americans. A recent poll conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research (MDPR) reveals that three out of every four Americans now oppose needless federal prosecution of medical marijuana dispensaries, growers, sellers and users in states where medical marijuana has been legalized.

The poll included 1,000 individuals of varying ages and demographics from all across the country. And in virtually every category, a roughly three-quarters disapproval of federal interference in state marijuana matters was expressed by those polled, even among the 65 years of age and older category, which has typically been the most disapproving of marijuana use for any reason.

"The results of this survey demonstrate that there is virtually no support in the country for the Obama administration's crackdown on state medical marijuana laws," said Steve Fox, Director of Government Relations for the Marijuana Policy Project. The Obama Justice Department (DOJ) announced last fall that it planned to begin shutting down marijuana dispensaries in California and elsewhere, and has since raided nearly 200 of them in at least nine states.

"Across all demographic and ideological groups, the American people strongly believe the president should respect state medical marijuana laws, as he promised he would when he campaigned to be president. It is clearly time for President Obama to stand up to the members of his administration who are carrying out the morally wrong and politically unpopular policy of denying patients safe access to this beneficial medicine."

View the full results of the MDPR poll here:
http://www.mpp.org

Obama lied on campaign trail about respecting state marijuana laws

You may remember that, while on the campaign trail, Barack Obama openly promised to respect state medical marijuana laws, and not trample on individual rights in this matter. But like many of his other promises, this one was clearly a lie, as there have been more raids on marijuana dispensaries under Obama's watch than there have been under any previous president who served during times when such dispensaries existed.

"Since October 2009, the Justice Department has conducted more than 170 aggressive SWAT-style raids in nine medical marijuana states, resulting in at least 61 federal indictments, according to data compiled by Americans for Safe Access (ASA), an advocacy group," wrote Lucia Graves from the Huffington Post back in April.

In a effort to stop this tyranny, a bipartisan effort has been launched in the form of an amendment to H.R. 5326, a key appropriations bill that recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives. The amendment, authored by Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Ca.), Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.), Sam Farr (D-Ca.), and Tom McClintock (R-Ca.), would prohibit federal funds from being used to interfere with medical marijuana laws in individual states where it has been legalized.

"The Rohrabacher-Hinchey-Farr-McClintock Medical Marijuana Amendment seeks to put scarce federal law enforcement resources to better use," says ASA. "The amendment specifically prohibits the Department of Justice from using appropriated funds to interfere with the implementation of medical cannabis laws in states that have approved such use."

Sources for this article include:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr5326

http://safeaccessnow.org/downloads/1aCJSAppropriations.pdf

http://healthland.time.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com

http://www.mpp.org/media/press-releases/poll-shows-overwhelming.html

http://reason.com