It's Earth Day -- go green, legalize marijuana

It's Earth Day in Washington and, all about, politicians are scurrying to offer their tributes to the environment. Call it Earth Pander.

On Capitol Hill, the Congressional High Tech caucus is hosting a briefing -- led by California Democrat Anna Eshoo and Texas Republican Mike McCaul -- on smart grid technology. The upshot: a new, intelligent grid could drastically increase the efficiency of the nation's electricity infrastructure.

Plus, several committees are hosting climate change hearings on both sides of the Capitol. And lots of Cabinet officials -- from Transportation, Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency -- are testifying.

At the White House, the Big Three automakers brought their new energy-efficient cars to the North Lawn in what the Obama administration billed as a "green" vehicle market research day. Actually, the event was delayed for two hours because of rainy weather, prompting the Associated Press to quip that the cars might be fuel efficient but they're not apparently waterproof.

Usually when executives from GM, Ford and Chrysler visit Washington, they are treated to lots of outrage from suddenly populist members of Congress who claim to be protecting the public purse. To be sure, Chrysler and GM are meeting inside the West Wing with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and National Economic Council Chairman Larry Summers on the terms of their TARP loans. But at least on the lawn, they were welcomed as heroes -- or at least innovators.

For his part, President Obama  is in Iowa today, addressing workers about his energy plan at a "green" plant in Newton, Trinity Structural Towers, a former Maytag plant that now houses a manufacturing facility producing towers for wind-energy production.

But perhaps the most unusual Earth Day comment came from the Marijuana Policy Project, which told TheHill.com that a disparate array of politicians -- from Texas Republican and Libertarian darling Ron Paul  to California Democratic Latino rock star Loretta Sanchez -- are now talking about legalizing marijuana, in part because of growing concern about the recent drug-inspired violence at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“We are seeing a massive explosion of interest in this issue, very rapidly, across many different fronts,” said Aaron Houston, the director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project. “It’s definitely been difficult to keep up. ... We’ve been bolstering our staff."

In his first nationwide e-town hall meeting, Obama got more questions about legalizing marijuana than about anything else, a product of a healthy lobbying campaign by the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws (NORML).  The president brushed off the question.

"There was one question that voted on that ranked fairly high and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation," he said. "And I don't know what this says about the online audience, but ... this was a popular question. We want to make sure it's answered. The answer is no, I don't think that's a good strategy to grow our economy. All right."

But legalization advocates insist his non-answer answer drew a flurry of public interest. "It’s a bittersweet thing when the president dabbles in your subject matter,” said NORML's executive director, Allen F. St. Pierre. Noting that he'd been at NORML since George H.W. Bush's administration, he added,  “I’ve been here long enough that, had President Bush been in that same situation, in a hand-picked audience, they would have hissed in 1991. So this is all moving largely in a very positive direction.”

-- Johanna Neuman

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Photo: Associated Press

Comments

[Pom Pom Girl]

4 Fingers. My coworker put his hand in a press to remove a part, bypassing some guarding, and had all 4 fingers cut off. Of course the blood test during the accident investigation indicated he was chock full of THC (?) whatever the Marijuana chemical is.
If he had been drinking we might have smelled it but with Pot we simply didn't know.
Growing dope sounds so smart until your friend gets a body part removed.

[StraightFacts]

"In his first nationwide e-town hall meeting, Obama got more questions about legalizing marijuana than about anything else, a product of a healthy lobbying campaign by the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws (NORML). The president brushed off the question."

Even before Norml posted to their blog about their poll Marijuana legalization was already the top topic in many of the categories. This wasn't from lobbying efforts. Its probably an issue many closet marijuana users took to heart and posted on. After all the internet offers great privacy to voice your opinion without being flagged by the community as a pot smoker.

[Charles]

If you live in California and favor legalization of marijuana for adults, tell your state representatives to support California Assembly Bill 390. Visit yes390.org

[pedro]

at this rate.. we're only gonna have a couple more Earth days...
If we can stop deforesting trees.. and use HEMP for all our paper and clothing, rope, etc... we can make a DRAMATIC change agriculturally. It would be a revolution!!! It only takes 1/4 of the space it takes to make the same amount of paper with hemp than it would with trees. And hemp is a plant, not a tree.. so we only have to wait weeks for it to grow back, unlike trees.

Go green. Go organic. GO INDUSTRIAL HEMP!!!

[jaysea]

She is my favorite.
But she wrote that she felt lonely on her bolg on _______richfriends . o rg_______ which is for wealthy singles and celebs.
Also she posted many her hot videos on her blog.

[Dr.NosePikens]

Legalized it or be in favor of prohibition? In favor of prohibition only means you are either a recent citizen of the United States and have no clue what our founding father's visions and values for this country are or you are a un patriotic megalomaniac sir who loves to hear himself talk.
What it says is un-American so you may want to consider another approach to your desire to express your true agenda. Here's a history lesson for the future so you do not appear to be a flag burner to real Americans who have spent their lives serving and defending America.

It's only about one thing, and it's not about how dangerous something is my goodness. There are just way too many examples to give of products on the market considered GRS (Generally Recognized as Safe) that if fact are detrimental to the human body. The real issue is how the evangelicals’ convinced my Republican party to switch from patriotism and capitalism to a police state which condones anti American values such as prohibition of any kind. The old party would have capitalized on the values to be made by giving the public what they want and not this "Take it away attitude” they have now thanks to the negative influence of religion. They really have screwed up a fundamental American value and that's the freedom of choice. Abe Lincoln new this when he insisted America be about individual freedoms and not a government that attempts to regulate a persons individual desires.

Abe Lincoln...

"Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded." -Abraham Lincoln U.S. President.

Drug Prohibition has failed for the same reason Alcohol Prohibition failed. Prohibition does not work. Don’t Be Fooled Prohibition is UN-AMERICAN!

END THE FOOLISH, FAILED WAR ON DRUGS!
John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln but Harry Anslinger assassinated Lincoln’s ideas for America. Mr. Editor apparently does not agree with Abe and thinks he knows better? Get real boy. For all you liberals who think only you can enjoy cannabis in this world gone mad I am a Republican ! You guys need to stop stereotyping us Republicans as America's bastards who don't understand the herb. We do understand cannabis so end that thought now friends. Ron Paul is a model Republican that the other so called Republicans won't recognize because they too are not concerned about American's right to have freedom from government intervention and personal freedom and choice.

So ridiculous to try and change the foundation America was built on.
Our grandparents gave their BLOOD to be free from this way of thinking
don't buy these lies people. Think and make choices for yourself. And if
you can't do that join the military but for Pete's sake don't fall for this crap.

END OF DISCUSSION

[ghjost]

@straightfacts

there's something an old hippie once told me, and while at first it sounds preposterous, the more I experience the more I believe it. This guy was in his late 60's. He said "there are only two types of people in this world- people who admit they smoke pot and people who don't." The internet seems to be proving his point.

[chris]

How do they even know if your coworker had smoked that day? It's not like drug tests can tell if it was an hour ago or a week ago with much accuracy.

[Kevin]

4 fingers. Im sorry for your friends loss. But heres the facts. fact one he's an idiot regardless if he was high or not to stick his hand in sometihng like that. And fact two, Marijuana stays in your system from 1 day to 60 days, so he could have been high 8 days ago and still tested high for THC.

So the point is, just because people are idiots doesn't mean growing dope(Marijuana) is a bad idea.

[Kevinq]

Fine delete my comments. LEGALIZE IT!

[Mark Montgomery]

I agree, marijuana should be legal. Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001 and their experience has been positive. Now if you are caught with a 10 day supply of your drug or less you face an administrative court, not a criminal court. We can do that here in the USA. A group of 20,000 very serious policemen, prosecutors and attorneys have formed a group to legalize ALL drugs, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (http://leap.cc ) They see what happened when we legalized alcohol in 1932 as a good example of how drug legalization would work. We can't stop drugs. They're sick of chasing drug users and sending innocent people to prison for decades just because they like to get high. This foolish war on drugs has lasted 37 years and cost us over a TRILLION dollars and we are not an inch closer to stopping drugs. How many millions of Americans are we going to lock up in prison for decades? Legalize ALL drugs now. Mark Montgomery boboberg@nyc.rr.com

[Phil E. Drifter]

Pom Pom Girl: "Growing dope sounds so smart until your friend gets a body part removed." Why are you blaming the plant instead of the unfortunate mistakes made by a living, (hopefully) thinking human being? Millions, MILLIONS of people smoke or otherwise ingest cannabis every day, week, or month; you'd think if the substance were the problem, everyone would be doing it. Plenty of people use cannabis responsibly but you never hear about it because it's illegal (to replace slave labor with prison labor after the north outlawed slavery upon winning the Civil War). Read tinyurl.com/1mn for the real history behind the 'war on (some) drugs. I'm nearly deaf from drugs, pills given to me when I was hospitalized. Where was the war on (some) drugs to help me then?

[Phil E. Drifter]

FTA: "In his first nationwide e-town hall meeting, Obama got more questions about legalizing marijuana than about anything else, a product of a healthy lobbying campaign by the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws (NORML)."

NORML did NOT make any online campaign telling people to visit whitehouse.gov. Shoddy reporting, right there. The fact is, cannabis is a wonderful plant that can be used to produce over 35,000 finished products. And for that, it was outlawed. (To protect other industries, most notably probably newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst's interests in keeping his vast timber acrage valuable. Had hemp been legal he would have had to entirely restructure how he got his paper to print news. So he created 'yellow journalism,' that is, printing fantastic, albeit false, stories about the dangers of 'the devil's weed with roots in hell!' It's just a plant. The most wonderful plant the earth has ever seen, but nonetheless, the most prolific plant the Earth has ever seen.

[Joe Wilson]

Legalize It Already.. Darn It!!.... LoL..
It isnt a matter if its good for your health or not, alchol,tabacco, and subscription drugs, and crap in our water supply and all the junk food is bad enough.llol..
it isnt about it boosting the economy, but I believe it would, It isnt about ending the drug war, but it sure in hell would put a damper on it.. Its about people making the choose themselves.. We should have a choose of what we want to put into our bodies or not, we dont need no politicians or lobbiests making that decision for us...

[cj]

stop procrastinating an just legalize cannabis