Change We Can Believe In?
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December 29, 2008
Change.gov, the official website of President-Elect Obama, has reopened its online polling page, “Open for Questions.” Of course we all know what happened the last time the incoming administration asked the public to decide what issue should be America’s top priority. And we’re all well aware of Obama’s less than favorable reply.That said, the fact that the legalization of marijuana finished first out of over 7,000 questions polled generated significant media coverage, including features by Fox News (watch the video here), Esquire, and The Hill. So let’s keep the media and the soon-to-be President’s feet to the fire and continue to push the debate.
Currently, over 25,000 public policy questions have been submitted to Obama’s website. Dozens of these questions pertain to cannabis law reform. Right now, the leading vote-getter among these (with 2,000 votes) is:
“Why do you believe that marijuana should not be legalized? How is the prohibition of marijuana any different than the prohibition of alcohol? 100,000 Americans die every year due to alcohol but none to marijuana.”
Please take a moment and log onto the Change.gov site to voice your support for this question, and others pertaining to the need to end America’s antiquated and punitive prohibition of marijuana. (To vote for this and other popular marijuana law reform questions, click on the “additional issues” link or perform a word search using the term “marijuana.”) The people spoke once before; it’s time we make our voices heard again!
“Change we can believe in?” We shall see.
88 Responses to “Change We Can Believe In?”
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“Billions are wasted on marijuana prohibition every year, with 80 to 90% of arrests for possession alone. As President, will you evaluate the current stance on marijuana and work to end the failure known as prohibition?”
That’s the question I asked. I think we need to concentrate on the social networking sites as well; write a note on Facebook or on MySpace. Tell as many people as you know to log in and vote on change.gov! Let this administration know what we want.
well I voted for all the sennsible cannabis policy questions, good luck to us all
That question isnt even in the top 10.. I think the reason it was done in the late afternoon/early evening was hoping that the NORML and MPP people wont see it..
Keep it up guys, post this everywhere you can.
Argue with people, use statistics from this site. Get people THINKING!
I wish they would address the fact that kids now die from marijuana, because of the laws they made to protect them from stupidity. Awareness has simply led them to choose the inevitable substance, with a sound mind, based on educated knowledge.
Knowledge is power. If there is true harm, tell them the truth. Marijuana is no more of a gateway drug than alcohol, or cigarettes. (More kids have tried, and will be come destroyed from trying both those alternative “Legal” substances.)
Marijuana users don’t “Advance” to harsh drugs. Users who found no psychological reward from marijuana, “Advance” to harder drugs. This includes kids/teens who self-medicate, when medication is too expensive, or not available, for underlying “Other” issues. (Completely unrelated to any marijuana use. This has reduced due to awareness, not due to making marijuana illegal. In areas where there is no “Awareness”, the numbers have not changed. Yet, the marijuana is just as illegal there, as it is in the other areas where awareness of hard-drugs is high.)
Alcohol, cigarettes, Twinkies, and lettuce have no no “Accepted” medical or nutritional value, and are more dangerous. (Lettuce gives you colon cancer, and Twinkies make you overweight, enough to kill you.)
Laws need to be made with an “Intention”, and the “Intention”, should be clear, and enforcement strictly adhered to. If a law is made to “Protect Frogs”, then it should include that intention. These laws, turn kids into criminals, into gangsters, into gunslingers, into felons… For something they have made a clear choice to do. For something they “Think” they can get away with. For something they don’t care what the outcome will be. For being a kid…
These laws punish responsible individuals, and allow the real felons to flourish in our absence. It should be a felon to tamper with any inhaled or ingested food, in a way that encourages chemical addiction. (MSG is limited, so should adding crack to marijuana. That should be a felony. Punishable by law.)
It should be a felony to produce X quantity, without a proper inspection of the facility, and operations. That is a business, and should require the same treatment that similar food/substance providers have. Records, inspections, branding identification, list of “Additional processing ingredients”, testing… (Responsibility.)
It should NOT be “Controlled”, if it is for personal consumption. Including gifting, and short-sales. We do this to reduce our potential risk and harm, from others who push unsafe products. “Personal”, would be any quantity that is not above minimum wage, at a consumable level, not a fictitious, “Street value”.
It is obvious, even to the most educated individuals, that there is no justification for this undesired control. We need to be spending these billions on education, and debt reform, and real control of hard-drugs. We need to stop playing these “Religious”, “Parental”, and “Political” games, and get real. We need to remove these individuals who don’t support reality from office. We need to get control of our country again. We need more of us to vote. We are the majority/minority here. (Of all races and creeds.)
We are the ones getting hurt, loosing our jobs, our homes, our lives, our pride, our country.
They don’t live here, we do! They live in a political fantasy, and continue to push false propaganda on our “Stupid kids”, as they continue to say. (Indirectly, by continually repeating all this false material in school and TV.)
They are not stupid… They out-smarted the system, and now dealers are using our kids/teens as pushers. Because they know they can get away with it. (Not that it is a wise choice, but it is a smart choice. Smart as in “Educated”.)
How many more lives will they ruin? What is next, coffee, sugar, fat, cholesterol, AIDS?
Last time I checked, it was the governments job to protect us, not harm us. Using highly researched data, to establish a reasonable set of laws, that have been proven to harm us.
Where is our ability to say, “This is unjust”, and reform it? Where is our “Stupid laws”, expiration date? In a changing world, why is there no “Auto review”, for outdated laws, which no longer pertain to today’s circumstances? Why are politicians the only ones allowed to carry the voice of so few, with the weight of so many?
This government is failing. Time for the bank to cash-in, and cut our losses, while we still have a home. We are on our fifth mortgage, and we are worrying about how the garden looks. Great, this law, and others, have driven us into more debt.
Make it legal, cash in on the tourism, world-wide. Get our money back. This is the one thing that every nation’s tourists want.
Pay places to export goods, instead of taxing more. Raise import taxes, to balance the economy. We don’t make money if we keep buying others garbage. We need something that they desire. They all desire this! Be the first to reclaim what was wrongfully taken away from us. (Now I know how the Indians feel. I want my land back! We want our land back.)
I saw a segment on CNBC also.
With the United States government holding patents on Marijuana’s properties… It’s obviously going to take some sort of miracle for this to finally happen in this current state of corruption.
Please go to change.gov and VOTE! Under the second category “national security,” there is a question by AP asking: “Our current war on drugs is failing America. Billions of dollars are spent on a losing campaign. Our prisons are overflowing with people that don’t deserve to be there. What is the government going to do in an effort to fix this major problem?”
PLEASE, VOTE IT UP and if you want to, vote the others down! The cannabis questions don’t seem to be doing too well, this time around. Though we may not like the answer, we need to keep the “drug war” issue at the fore-front! Thanks, and peace!
Unfortunately, asking the same question repeatedly is likely to get no better results. I think we should be asking Barack Obama about decriminalization measures, and recognize that he is not our ally for full legalization at this time. Since he has already promised that states with medical marijuana laws ought not to be interfered with, we should be asking him to honor this promise. Going further, we will need to continue to promote greater social and political acceptance of cannabis especially compared to other (legal, and more harmful) alternatives.
Obama has won and we know that is a good start. While it would be nice if President Elect Obama took the initiative and proactively championed the cause of legalization, or at least decriminalization.
However, this is American politics, and it should be no surprise to us that with all of the priorities set forth for this administration, and with all of the special interests knocking at Obama’s door, that we should have to fight for what we want.
Now we must become the squeaky wheels. It is now our job to demonstrate that we will not wait, and that President Elect Obama re-evaluate his priorities. The onus is on us to show our president that he actually does need to invest political capital in our cause.
Do not be discouraged. Do not buy into the naysayers who want to admit defeat before the game has begun. We can do this!
Women were oppressed and they were squeaky wheels.
People of color were oppressed and they were squeaky wheels.
Sexual minorities were oppressed and they were squeaky wheels.
Now it is out turn!
We won’t be quiet until we get the grease!
Respectful, accurate, relentless.
Yes we cannabis!
I love how this round of questions does not have a “Criminal Justice” section like the first round of questions. Anyone else thinks this was done on purpose due to the fact that legalization of marijuana and war drugs were in the top 10 last time? Seems curious to me as the new sections don’t seem to fit the legalization / war on drugs topic.
Oh My God… i feel we’re getting so close!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =]]]]]]]]]]]
i honestly believe we will see it 100% legal, for the sick & healthy, in our lifetime!!!!
we just have to wait for all these old people to die out.. lol
I have a feeling we are building ourselves up for another disappointing answer.
keeping the feet to the fire here in Iowa.
Awesome! Let’s force them to respond to another question. We won’t be ignored!
-DC
http://www.davidcarlsonpolitics.com
Why does it not show a marijuana question as a top economic question on change.gov ? We are talking about millions of jobs, and billions of dollars, right? BELOW ARE THE QUESTIONS I SUBMIITED TO CHANGE.GOV .WHEN I WENT TO COPY AND PASTE THEM TO THE BLOG RESONSE, I FOUND MY QUESTIONS ARE ALL FLAGGED INAPPROPRIATE! WHAT THE HELL! “will you legalize hemp and marijuana so we can use the billions of dollars it will create, and millions of jobs it will create to revolutionize or economy and stop black market crime?”
shaw6038, oil city,PA – Economy View response Post a response
“will you stop the DEA, and our fine police from attacking innocent people and imprisoning them, destroying people and families, crushing dreams, and breaking hearts, for those of us who otherwise are good ,law bidding citizens whom enjoy marijuana?”
shaw6038, oil city,PA – Additional Issues View response Post a response
“Why not use hemp to cure our energy crisis? It is the best plant to use for making bio fuel, it can be used to create electric, instead of burning coal. It seems silly to ignore all its positives, because of a few who just don’t know
the facts.”
shaw6038, oil city,PA – Energy & Environment View response Post a response
“1 acre hemp makes as much paper as 4 to 10 acres of trees in a 20 year cycle , when it grows it reduces greenhouse gas, the same as all those trees we keep cutting down. Plan to do the sensible thing?”
shaw6038, oil city,PA – Energy & Environment View response Post a response
To vote on popular marijuana law reform questions on the Change.gov site, go here:
http://change.gov/page/content/openforquestions20081229/
and click on the “additional issues” link:
#2 most popular in this category: (3000 votes)
“The people of this country want marijuana decriminalization, when will marijuana be decriminalized? Why continue to spend billions of dollars to prohibit marijuana when evidence shows that the war on drugs is, as you said, “an utter failure”?”
#3 (2,900 votes)
“The Drug War has been an incredibly expensive failure since it’s inception. Meanwhile, millions of our citizens have been incarcerated for using drugs. I think we need to end this folly. What do you think, Mr. President?”
#5 (2,600 votes)
“Why do you believe that marijuana should not be legalized? How is the prohibition of Marijuana any different than the prohibition of alcohol? 100,000 Americans die every year due to alcohol but none to Marijuana”
Just type in “marijuana” on the top left search bar on Change.gov (http://change.gov/page/content/openforquestions_20081217_private_url) and vote yes on all the marijuana related questions.
I’m sure if the majority of the questions on the top 20 are marijuana-related then Obama will be forced to deal with this issue.
I think change.gov is rigging the system.I also think there is an organized neg campaign going on…I notice alot more negs on the marijuana questions than last time.
It is VERY important to get our questions to the top again so the transition team can’t claim it was a fluke.
FYI…
The first round of voting at Change.org also ends on December 31. Marijuana legalization remains the site’s #1 question — the top 3 highest polled questions from each category go to round 2 — but a few other marijuana related questions could use a boost:
* Legalize the Medicinal and Recreational Use of Marijuana (currently in 1st place in the Criminal Justice category)
* Legalize Marijuana For Medical And Recreational Use (currently in 4th place in the Criminal Justice category)
* End DEA classification of Marijuana as having no medical benefits! (currently in 5th place in the Health Care category)
* Legalize Marijuana it fits in all causes like global warming to just plain better environment! (currently in 6th place in the Other category)
* Save family farms growing hemp for methanol production (currently in 4th place in the Agricultural Policy category)
http://www.change.org/ideas
My question is currently in the lead! Everyone head over there and make sure you vote! Keep my question in the lead!
I feel special with my question being #1 right now. I tried to word it in a way where he couldn’t get a way with a short “yes/no” this time.
http://change.gov/page/content/openforquestions20081229/
Woohoo! over 1000 marijuana related questions. Let’s keep knocking on their door!
Remember to look for marijuana under the economy section. Money always gets politician’s attention.
Well,I did what I could.I posted the story on my social news site Propeller.com and got 0ver 300 who at least saw it and had the opportunity to join in.
I reposted it today.
Anyone on here can help by going to Propeller and voting on it to get it to the front page where it will be seen by thousands.
You must create a free account on Propeller to vote…it’s a fun site and I post many stories from NORML and always get a positive response.
Please help…
http://www.propeller.com/story/2008/12/30/change-we-can-believe-in/
When in the question portion, do a search for 5843. Read the questions and vote this up…. this not only asks questions about a specific piece of legislation already proposed in Congress, but also brings that legislation to the attention of millions of Americans. Not to mention, that if for some strange reason, Obama does support that bill… he could push that bill through the comittee level a little faster and get it on the floor for voting!
Here’s my question in the economy, VOTE IT UP!
“China is the top producer of hemp since their scientists patented a series of washes and treatments to produce cloth soft as cotton but five times as strong. Despite thousands of uses; U.S. hemp production is restricted. What can we do to compete?”
PLEASE PLEASE continue to vote!!
Thank You NORML
Ok people we have to keep fighting, keep writing, keep talking and don’t give up. Sooner or later they will have to answer our questions on this issue. We all know the benefits in Marijuana and reform. If we keep shouting they have to do something. PLEASE DO NOT GIVE UP. Go to change.org and keep voting and submit more and more marijuana questions. We would love to see all TOP 10 questions to be about marijuana reform and the end to the war on drugs but, it all starts with us. Next step is drug czar. For some odd reason he/she is the last to be pick, why? The top 2 they are talking about is NOT who we what to take that office. This could set us back years and years. and again PLEASE DO NOT GIVE UP we need you the people to win this battle, a battle that can be won. Will be tough but know one said it would be easy. These battles cost a ton of money, so please help out people like NORML… EVERY PENNY IS ANOTHER STEP TO LEGALIZATION and thanks to all those and your help.
we have got to get that question #1. Vote YES on Q.
“Our current war on drugs is failing America. Billions of dollars are spent on a losing campaign. Our prisons are overflowing with people that don’t deserve to be there. What is the government going to do in an effort to fix this major problem?”
AP, Seattle, WA
VOTE NOW!
I think the question NORML touts in this very post is the right way to go. Instead of asking the same “Will you/when will you” questions, to which he has already answered “not in favor”, we need to unveil WHY he is not in favor of it. Go NORML, and cannabis users, please see this question as the proper one to vote for. It has the right message.
Almost forgot – it’s a good idea to vote DOWN other marijuana-related questions. We need to make sure that our asking of why he is not in favor of legalization makes it to the top!
President-elect Obama is a douche bastard, he wont give us a reason why or why not he wants to legalize it. All he said was quote “President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana” In his interviews before presidency he sais he supports marijuana. Now that hes president he dosent, look who we have as a president a fucking 2 faced mother fucker. The only reason he said that before is to get votes.
Obama is a Fag!!!
We should ask a question on Change.GOV to make alcohol illegal since its 10X worse then marijuana and kills people everyday. Unlike WEED
I’ll never understand alcohol, you drink too much of it, you can’t walk straight, can’t function. The hangovers suck, the vomiting sucks, the deaths caused by it sucks. Same with cigarettes. You can’t tell me they don’t kill people. Yet BOTH are allowed, and they get their money for it.
If I am going to continue to pay taxes in this country, and be a citizen of this country, I want my Cannabis. I am sick and tired of spending money for a little bag of smoke, cause the government can’t just LET IT BE. I often wonder how much of an IQ you have to have to get a job with the government. I do note that it is quite humorous to see the FBI’s drug policy for employment..
http://www.fbijobs.gov/52.asp
They approve prescription drugs all the time, yet do they actually have a clue about the drugs themselves. YOU CAN”T OUTLAW THE NATURAL! (Jack Herer is right, always was, is, and will be). The system is flawed, which seems to be how things work nowadays. Take Zoloft for example. I took it for a month, by the end of the month, I didn’t even know my own name, I didn’t know where I live, and I couldn’t remember anything (yes amnesia). I am still thankful for my friends who helped me, and stuck by me. THANKS FOR APPROVING THAT DRUG A-HOLES. Who made them god to chose right from wrong.
Obama, please don’t be an idiot, for the love of God, please don’t. Thank you. I swear, Canada WILL be my new home, if our new President doesn’t change things, cause I sure as hell am not going to wait another 4 years. I will sell my properties, cash in my stocks, and move. This entire war/prohibition of Cannabis is out of hand. This is as lame as getting a ticket for jaywalking. The End.
Derek, why would we want to vote down the other marijuana related questions? Just vote on them all.
how do the gov ever expect the youngsters to respect any laws on drugs when they are so contradictive of one another , you cant sell alcohol and tobbaco freely and openly , whilst making the use of cannabis illegal (the least harmfull) its just silly and a total contradiction .
we need to take the illegal profit made from cannabis from the organised criminal groups and put the profit into goverment hands , imagine what we can do with the tax made on cannabis sales.
no law,money or prohabition will ever stop people using cannabis ,so why are we continuing to spend millions on this pointless war on drugs ?
stop the madness and legalise cannabis in a sensible controlled way .
I just submitted this question at Change.gov: “President-Elect Obama, will you decriminalize cannabis? We can’t continue to watch our economy flounder while wasting vast amounts of resources on prosecuting nonviolent offenders. Will you spend some of your political capital on this issue?” Keep up the amazing work, NORML.
It looks as if the question is being censored. One of the top 10 questions has (at this time) 3,182+ votes and 641- votes. Yet, two separate marijuana questions have surpassed those numbers and are not listed on the top 10 questions.
One of the marijuana stats: 4,192+ and 563-. The second marijuana question has 3,615+ and 531-. Perhaps it just takes the system a few minutes or so to get on to the top 10 list, but if it doesn’t show up within a few days then we may have to consider the possibility that it’s being censored, or stupid people are marking it as inappropriate.
This is my question just posted… “Mr President will you publicly acknowledge the peoples number one question to legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana, take questions on the issue and explain to us why your against it”…? lets keep pursuing it till will get the answer we deserve vote it up people
My new mantra — 15 million in 2012. Don’t mess with the beast.
Just checking up now, the question below is top of the list with nearly 1800 more votes than the 2nd place topic
Legalize the Medicinal and Recreational Use of Marijuana.
“Marijuana has been proven to relieve the suffering of the chronically ill, as well as disabled patients undergoing chemotherapy, and other forms of medical treatments, yet using it for medical purposes continues to be a crime in most of the country. We should make it legal not only in medical cases, but for recreational use as well.”
http://www.change.org/ideas?order=top#listSection
Good question and I voted on almost ALL the Cannabis ones.
I tried to ask a Question of my own … but I exceeded the character limit….
here was my question:
“Three Part Question Mr. President: Firstly, How is it that the Last 3 Presidents have all admitted to past Drug use, in particular Cannabis; yet are able to retain their position in the White House; while millions of Americans have been sent to the Big house for the same “crime”? Seondly, How is it that Americans are drug tested for the most menial positions in our society; yet ALL the positions in the three major branches of govt are exempt? What can be done to end this lunacy of Cannabis Prohibtion; a 70 year failure founded on lies and racism, which has resulted in the war against our own citizenry?
Like I said…. I surpassed the character limit.
while there ARE more important issues on the table…. NONE are more easily rectified than this one. Not to mention the other problems that would be solved by the legalization of Cannabis.
Thanks for your time,
Tone
Um heloooo people, if you notice the marijuana question that has 4,000 some votes that tops the marijuana question isnt even on the list enless you put in a key word for it, because the old question that was submitted comes first b4 that one and its barley got 2,000 some votes, to get recongized you have to vote again on the question that topped #1 last time, not make another question and vote on it.
to derick dont vote down on marijuana questions to get your one question you like on top. NO ITS NOT A GOOD IDEA.
I believe its rigged! I was on last night voting and the whole front page of the most popular was almost all about marijuana legalization. within just 1 hour it totally flip flopped and there were questions in the lead that i hadnt even come across in my hour of going through the pages of leading questions.
I also think that the poll is rigged. It looks as if the marijuana-related questions have many more votes than those that aren’t marijuana-related, yet they are “currently in the lead” on Change.gov. It just seems fishy.
As for voting the questions down… only vote down the questions not related to marijuana. Questions about the economy, the war in Iraq, etc. will be answered in the future regardless in press conferences. But the topics regarding marijuana policy will barely see any light in the media. This is our chance to get their attention so I say go for it.
keep on voting, there are 10x as many questions as there were the other day when i voted. gonna keep going till my laptop battery runs out.
i wouldn’t have this kind of drive if i hadn’t been arrested (for the first time) a few weeks back for possession of a joint’s worth. keep criminalizing innocent hard working american men and women and throwing their asses in jail, that makes us activists!
I am almost certain that the ENTIRE Change.gov website is RIGGED! Some others here have noticed it. I have been keeping a close eye on this, tabulating votes and watching the order of questions – I suspected this would happen.
In “additional issues,” there were 3 marijuana questions in the lead this morning. At around 0800 this morning (31), a question was pulled from another category (national security) and put in the lead in “additional issues.” Here it is:
“Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor – ideally Patrick Fitzgerald – to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?” – Bob Fertik
This question has over 9000 votes, putting it well out of reach of being voted down to second place, before they close questions (I’m assuming 2300, tonight.)
I’ve also noted some discrepancies in the drug law questions. If they are ordering questions on the number of “yes” votes received, some are out of order. If they are ordering questions on the difference between “yes” and “no” votes, some are STILL out of order.
I am 99% sure they saw this coming and thus rigged the site to keep these questions out of first place. They REALLY don’t want to have to answer these questions.”Change we can believe in?” Looks like more of the same…
What the hell is going on? This special prosecutor question has come out of nowhere and crushed our issue. It just picked up 200+ votes in about 20 minutes!!!
Is something fishy going on here? I haven’t seen any mass movements online pushing this, although it is an AWESOME idea.
Bush and Dicky are a couple of crooks!!
I suspect foul play. Suddenly a question bumped two or three marijuana related questions on change.gov by several thousand votes??? How did this happen over night?
And please, don’t get me wrong – this is all the more reason to redouble our efforts. I have conctaced everyone on my lists at MySpace, Facebook, and my email address books. I encourage others to do the same!
We reformers received some media coverage of this the last time around, and hopefully we’ll get more this time. They can’t ignore us forever!