Pubdate: Wed, 22 Jan 2014
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 2014 The Washington Times, LLC.
Contact:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/492
Author: Ernest Istook
Note: Ernest Istook is a former Republican member of the U.S. House
of Representatives from Oklahoma.

SMOKE AND MIRRORS: OBAMA CREATES HAZY DRUG POLICY

President Obama's latest claims about marijuana are contradicted by
research and official positions of the Office of National Drug Control
Policy, which is part of the White House. And Mr. Obama's words have
anti-drug leaders worried about negative repercussions among youths.

Mr. Obama claimed to The New Yorker magazine that marijuana is no
worse than cigarettes or alcohol, and he promoted state efforts by
Colorado and Washington to legalize marijuana, which remains illegal
under federal law.

The National Drug Control Policy's official stance, posted on
WhiteHouse.gov, says the opposite of Mr. Obama on all counts.

For example, as documented in agency reports, marijuana smoke has
significantly more carcinogens than tobacco smoke.

As reported by the government's National Institute on Drug Abuse,
adolescent use of marijuana does something that alcohol does not: It
causes permanent brain damage, including lowering of IQ.

Taxpayers have spent billions of dollars warning about drugs, often
about marijuana, but these efforts were dramatically undercut by the
president's comments.

Mr. Obama might as well have rolled that money into a joint and smoked
it on national television.

He told the interviewer, David Remnick, that his earlier years of
prodigious puffery were "a bad habit and a vice." Yet he doesn't warn
others not to follow in his footsteps.

The Drug Free America Foundation responded on its blog: "His
laissez-faire attitude about legalization has drug policy and
prevention experts scratching their heads in confusion as to why the
president will not give clear guidance. ... Either he is seriously
ill-informed about the issue or is completely ignoring warnings from
his highly-esteemed advisors."

The foundation called it an "irresponsible move for such a person in
the most highly-regarded position in this country."

The official National Drug Control Strategy from drug czar R. Gil
Kerlikowske lists marijuana as one of the "four major drugs (cocaine,
heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine)."

Don't expect him to resign in anger about how Mr. Obama is
undercutting his work, however. He's a short-timer because Mr. Obama
nominated him last fall to become commissioner of U.S. Customs and
Border Protection.

So for now, perhaps until Mr. Kerlikowske is at his new job,
anti-marijuana messages remain on the White House website. As one page
describes things, "confusing messages being presented by popular
culture, media, proponents of 'medical' marijuana, and political
campaigns to legalize all marijuana perpetuate the false notion that
marijuana is harmless."

They should add Mr. Obama's name to the list of confusing messengers
who perpetuate false notions. Except confusing messenger is too polite
a term. Outright hypocrite fits better.

Be on the lookout for the White House to remove warnings of marijuana
use from its website, such as this gem: "The Administration
steadfastly opposes legalization of marijuana and other drugs because
legalization would increase the availability and use of illicit drugs,
and pose significant health and safety risks to all Americans,
particularly young people."

It is impossible to reconcile that post with Mr. Obama's failure to
enforce federal drug laws against marijuana, and with his statement to
The New Yorker about Colorado's and Washington's open violation of
those laws, namely, "it's important for it to go forward."

Why go forward? The president's explanation is indeed a
head-scratcher: "Because it's important for society not to have a
situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or
another broken the law and only a select few get punished."

Everyone in Colorado and Washington who puffs up is breaking the law -
federal law. And no law has a perfect rate of arrest and
prosecution.

Mr. Obama, however, tried to attribute it to class warfare and racial
bias, and in so doing voiced a myth that his own anti-drug people are
shooting down.

Myth No. 10 is "The government sends otherwise innocent people to
prison for casual marijuana use."

In fact, less than 1 percent of all drug incarcerations are for simple
possession or use of marijuana, and those few tend to be plea bargains
for people who actually were dealers.

Mr. Obama's ramblings in The New Yorker show an effort to project an
intellectual approach to the marijuana issue when in fact his was
pseudo-intellectualism.

He offers loose arguments, even discredited arguments, because he
doesn't expect serious follow-up from the media. Even if he gets it,
Mr. Obama simply talks in circles, ends the questioning and shuts out
that reporter in the future.

Anyone who believes otherwise must be smoking something. 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D