Web lights up with protests over Obama's dismissal of marijuana legalization

President Obama probably didn't anticipate that his brief dismissal of marijuana legalization during the online town hall would light up a potent movement of support for decriminalization.

The fact that he even addressed such a controversial and oft-ignored topic impressed some. But the way he seemed to deride the question angered manywho quickly expressed their dissent online in website comments, on blogs and throughout social networks.

"There was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation," the president said during the town hall, amongst a thunder of laughter from the crowd. "And I don't know what this says about the online audience." More laughter.

"The answer is, no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy," Obama said.

No further explanation given. Next question.

His short response was not only disconcerting for marijuana supporters but also a bit perplexing. After all, Obama called for marijuana decriminalization during ...

... a debate at Northwestern University when he was running for U.S. Senate in 2004.

The legalization debate is not a new topic for websites like YouTube, Digg and Facebook, where a pot-smoking niche has long congregated. But it has exploded in the days since the town hall.

The Huffington Post prominently featured an editorial titled "Pot Saved My Life, Mr. President." In it, the writer concluded, "The president will be asked this question again, and maybe next time he won't laugh at us."

The Times had a story Sunday quoting former federal judge Jim Gray claiming the war on drugs had failed and that pot should be legal. The so-called failed drug war was, incidentally, the same claim made by Obama in 2004.

The lit-up lobby rages strongly on social networking channels as well. The Facebook page, called M A R I J U A N A, has seen a spike in membership as of late.

And on the social news website Digg, a story about marijuana benefits, decriminalization or reactions to Obama's weedy treatment of the pot question has been voted to the home page every day since the town hall -- and in many cases, multiple times a day.

So what doesthat say about the online audience? Considering that many political analysts attribute a major part of Obama's election to his popularity on social networks, maybe he shouldn't be so quick to dismiss something they clearly feel strongly about.

-- Mark Milian

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Photo credit: uzi978 via Flickr

Comments

[juxtapostle]

People are afraid to broach the subject of marijuana law reform publicly because of the policed state of fear that has been so ingrained into a society that supposedly values freedom of speech. Discrimination such as job loss, denial of health insurance and of VA health benefits, and denial of student financial aid due to marijuana use are all sanctioned by law. Something as benign and fiscally positive as hemp agriculture is considered political suicide. The relative anonymity of the Internet is giving voice to people who are afraid to publicly protest marijuana prohibition, and the writing is on the wall. Finally.

[kparcell]

Obama's failure to respect the credibility of those in the anti-prohibition movement means that the drug-funded criminal and terrorist organizations that justify trillions of dollars in military spending are secure for another four years. It's no mere coincidence that Afghanistan is the largest supplier of opium to criminal markets while the legal trade suffers supply shortages, and that while we spend dollars and lives "losing" the war there, Afghani women remain subjugated and illiterate. Replace criminalization with regulation, and militarization with education, and peace is inevitable...but those who profit from and control the WMDs oppose that change. Same as it always was.

[OneCrankyDem]

Pres. Obama embarrassed himself twice that week. Once with his distasteful joke about the Special Olympics on Jay Leno, which he promptly apologized for but still took heat in the press for. The second was his laughing at the sick and disabled that use Medical Marijuana but don't want to be sent to prison. Funny thing is the press gave him a pass for this slight of the disabled. While the outrage was immediate among the mmj community their only chance to express was on blogs such as this one, too bad the Pres. doesn't have the time to surf the web to see all these comments. He has surrounded himself with so-call drug warriors like Joe Biden whose passion ended up adding years and years to people prison sentences with his take no prisoner stance on drugs. Rahm , his chief of staff is just as bad if not worse. Now that Obama is safely wrapped in the bubble of the White House it's hard to see where he will be getting the views of the public anymore. Yesterday as he pushed for the Bankruptys of the Auto Industry it was easy to be surprised that a Democratic Pres. would be happy at the destruction of thousands of Jobs and Pensions by a Judge.
Obama has turned away from those that took him at his word and voted to elect him. He may never make his second term if he continues to refuse to engage with those who brought him to the dance. His stance during the election was decriminalization of MMJ, but not now. His stance was to protect the worker, but not now. He made often comments about holding his feet to the fire yet when the public trys he blows them off with a snicker and laugh, we will see who lasts last come the next election cycle.

[Ricky]

Marijuana prohibition kills people, marijuana does not. WTF? By not attempting to regulate marijuana the trade is dominated by drug lords. Over half of their money is made off a plant that Americans grow much better. What good does marijuana prohibition bring to our country? Please no snide dismissals.

[Jason Ellison]

It's obvious how Mr. Obama is not in control as most people think he is....The lies and avoidance of the truth is what bothers me more than anything....LEGALIZING MARIJUANA WAS THE #1 MOST IMPORTANT VOICE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.....AND HIS DESCRIPION WAS "There was one question that ranked fairly high....etc.etc....BULLSHIT MR PRESIDENT...IT WAS THE #1 REQUEST BY THE AMERICAN PEOPLE...THE PEOPLE WHO VOTED YOU INTO OFFICE....WHY THE HELL WOULDN'T YOU GO AHEAD AND SAY....THE #1 QUESTION? Are you chicken? Are you affraid of what the REAL people in control of the US would think? Why not call a SKUNK a SKUNK....instead Mr. Obama you would say call it a furry animal with white stripes right? Your no different than George Bush in my opinion......You don't have the balls to really change do you? Are you affraid the American Public won't support you? Stand up for what you believe.....your better than this......

[Pat Rogers]

What Obama's comments really speak to is how he cynically used this online audience to get elected and then dumped them like a snotty tissue.

During the campaign Obama stayed silent as commentators repeatedly took his vague innuendo implying support for drug policy reform and expanded it into audacious hopes for real reform. When the fact was and is that Obama is an ardent drug warrior who is quickly escalating and militarizing the drug war. His flippant dismissal of the online audience betrayed his real opinion for the first time since the election.

[Really A Nice Guy]

News Flash: If teens want to smoke pot it will ALWAYS be available. If you legalize it, tax it, and set regulations it would be a lot harder to get it. hint hint. Coming up a teen in the late ninties it was a hell of a lot easier to get pot then beer. Legalization would help those who need it medically, boost state revenues and create new jobs, give law enforcement time to concentrate on "real" issues and my personal favorite; pull the rug out from under those dealing this stuff and using the money for no good. Tax free by the way. Its time to get out of the past people. We all know we are just delaying the inevitable.

[Lola]

Legalize!!

[James]

I voted for Obama because of his YouTube video of him saying he thinks the war on drugs is a failure and I hoped he wold have stayed true to his roots but it seems for now he has turned the other cheek less than 100 days in so he has lost my vote on the next election!

[greenferret]

Marijuana prohibition fuels violent organized crime, fills prisons with nonviolent drug users, and wastes billions of taxpayer dollars every year.
Tell President Obama and your elected representatives that marijuana should be legalized and taxed, just like alcohol: http://tinyurl.com/LegalizeTaxIt

[Yapciku]

Legalize it now. Presidents of South America agree with it. USA consumes what they grow but the main problems are there (in South America & Mexico). A lot of people is dying because of USA consumption...

[Dick Evans]

Marijuana prohibition is an obsolete legacy of the past that we don't need and can't afford. Those who purport to be leaders--in government, education, business, media--must lead in the exploration of alternatives, such as taxation and regulation. www.cantaxreg.com

[Mike R]

Obama flat-out lost my vote on this one. Not because of his views - I can respect him taking the porhibitionist stand, even if it is a complete 180 from his previously stated views on the issue. Afterall, everyone is allowed to grow, learn and ultimately change their minds - the President included.

What I CANNOT abide is his skewing of the facts. He failed to mention that this was the #1 question in his call for questions. In fact, it was the top 7 questions. I CANNOT abide his failure to provide any form of explaination or provide a logical agruement. I absolutely CANNOT abide him laughing the issue off as if 20,000,000 hadn't people been arrested, many thousands hadn't murdered in cartel wars and many thousands of peole weren't sick and in the position to benefit from medical marijuana.

Obama has proven to me that he's nothing more than a mouth-piece for the same elitist minority that has profitted from the Civil War on Drugs from day one.

[Casey]

he answered the question. it was the wrong question. lets get him the right one next time.

[Marijuana helped my pain and didnt make me an addict]

Obama really screwed up here. Yes it would help the economy, on many levels. True it cant undo all the damage done by Bankers Greed, and Bush's war for oil, but there are MANY reasons to end this stupidity NOW. Since these ridiculous drug policies have been enforced we see an empowerment of drug cartels an increase in violence and a denial of a non addictive medicine that has been demonized for 70 years. Quit the BS Mr President, we voted for change, TIME TO SHOW US SOME REAL CHANGE!!!
Make marijuana safely available. taxable and LEGAL for use for anyone who needs it. You might even notice a decrease in alcoholism and tobacco use.
PROHIBITION IS WRONG.

[Sam]

He lost my vote for next term. Until this is properly assessed and addressed we should all consider not voting for him next term.
He knows what is the right thing to do, he pressed for it in 04' as mentioned in the article. Unfortunately the last of the anti-pot movement still reside in the white house. once these brain washed/brain washing fat cat baby boomers die it will be legal. May as well grow some balls and do it now Obama. Save some lives instead of trying to disarm us making us even more vulnerable to crime.

[Bobby]

Listen to all you pot heads! These are the facts about marijuana. I am a scientist and I know everything about THE DEVIL's WEED. I'm here to separate FACTs from FICTION. This will be an enjoyable learning experience for EVERYONE! Here they are the TRUE facts (remember I'm a scientist):

1) Marijuana is EXTREMELY addictive. Anyone using the DEVIL's WEED once will surely become addicted, 99.8% of first time users say they "need to have another ****ing hit of their drug or they will start killing people". In order to sustain their marijuana binges the drug fiends will rape, murder, and pillage cities in order to obtain their destructive DEVIL's WEED.

2) Marijuana, AKA the DEVIL's WEED, always leads to harder drug use. 97.9% of first time users end up doing crack, heroin, meth, pcp, lsd, MDMA, etc... As you can see the list goes on. When the drug fiends who use marijuana (remember the DEVIL's WEED) walk around like zombies they are searching and scraching their skin in hopes of finding more of any drug. Marijuana users are going to gasoline stations and drinking gasoline so they could get "high". From 1970-2007 Americans consumer 894% more gasoline, we can assume that this increase is due to the fact that marijuana users were drinking gasoline.

3) Marijuana, DEVIL's WEED, kills users. It's a myth that marijuana never kills anyone. 25.86% of first time users die on the spot, after their first inhale. 97.9% of marijuana users die within ONE month of using the DEVIL's WEED. Marijuana kills more people than alcohol, tobacco, and war, COMBINED. Marijuana kills the user through the use of highly complex natural reactions in the brain. It causes the brain to heat up, as the marijuana user laughs and murders people, so much that the persons hair catches on fire and their eyes pop and splatter goo all over the town. The next day, hard working Americans are forced to clean up the dismembered bodies and the drug lords supplying the DEVIL's WEED force them to eat the carcasses. PEOPLE SAY "OOOOOOOO, BUT MR. GOD (The Government) MARIJUANA IS ALL NATURAL AND SAFE!!!" Well you stoners, VOLCANOES ARE NATURAL, BUT ARE THEY SAFE? You be the judge...

4)For the less than 1% of marijuana users that ACTUALLY SURVIVE, 100% of them end up committing acts of genocide. If we look back into history we must note Hitler and Stalin who used MARIJUANA. They survived, but ended up killing innocent people, just like all you other DEVIL's WEED users.

Coming from a scientist, I say we should promote alcohol and tobacco because those are legal.

[Wids]

Dear Barack, Please spend a few months in my shoes. Every 3 weeks, 6-10 hours at a time and that doesn't include transportation or preptime. Then you get home, get sick and don't eat the tons of meds you're given cause you can't hold them down or don't have insurance. Give us a break!

[RevRayGreen]

"Coming from a scientist, I say we should promote alcohol and tobacco because those are legal. "

you sound like my dad genius.

[OCPD]

James Gray was not a federal judge but a state court judge. He is now retired.

[Keefer Von Bongtoke]

i'm afraid when it comes down to politics and those who practice this is what you get and Bush one and two did their dammage by nominating most your current supreme court justices so it wil probably not be in our lifetime unless we have an outright MJ revolt. We're lucky to "kinda" have medicinal pot for now and even that only helps cartels in my opinion because mostly it's all people i meet who have nothing wrong with them and they have "the card". wonder if they use it to their advantage...

I thought that just being an American Citizen I could just have the basic right to choose what herbs i want with dinner or tea. and I also never in my life ever drank and droven and people do that all the time but catch them sober in poseession of booze...it's all good....herbs...you're going down punk!!!

so what's it gonna be...we the people or they the "big pharma" companies who have lobbing dolars???

you already know the answer...$$$$$$

[CurrentlyNotHigh]

2 words: L E G A L I Z E I T

[WHY?]

Why is marijuana Illegal? Can anyone answer this?

[Tori Pierce]

How about a Pot Bag revolt?

[Dustin]

What's interesting is that he didn't say: "No, I don't think legalizing marijuana is a good idea.", he said : "No I don't think legalizing marijuana is a good strategy to grow our economy". Maybe I'm just hopeful, but it doesn't sound as though he said NO.

I also don't appreciate his scoffs. This is an issue that is obviously very important to many, including myself, and I for one don't appreciate getting the "HA HA F** You" from the person I gave my vote to in November.

That said, he won't have the chance to do this in his second term... at least not by my vote.

[Ricardo Torrez]

man u right dis world is free n we shouldnt be able to smoke wat we want