Capitol Hill is talking about cannabis, again!

Earlier today The Hill’s influential Congress Blog posted my commentary:

Legalizing Marijuana Tops Obama Online Poll
via The Hill

Last week, the website Change.gov — the official website of the Obama Transition Team — asked the public to provide them with a list of the top public policy questions facing America. Visitors to the site were then asked to vote on which questions should take priority for the incoming administration.

According to the website, “participation … outpaced our expectations. … Since its launch … the Open for Questions tool has processed over 600,000 votes from more than 10,000 people on more than 7,300 questions.”

Ironically but perhaps not surprisingly the top question for the new administration — as chosen by the general public — was one most politicians seem utterly unwilling to talk about.

“Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?”

… So will Obama’s team respond to the demands of the electorate and initiate an honest, objective, and long-overdue review of U.S. marijuana policies? Or will the incoming administration — like the outgoing one — hide their collective heads in the sand?

As we’ve noted before, The Hill is widely read by lawmakers and by the national media; it is vital that we demonstrate the popularity of the marijuana legalization issue by commenting prolifically. Please post your feedback to The Hill and make a point of disseminating this essay to your friends and colleagues.

(Note: Comments to The Hill are moderated. That means that there will be a delay, sometimes a significant delay, between when you post and when your comment appears live online. That said, all comments will eventually be published. As you can see, my last Hill essay received over 200 comments, one of the highest totals ever received by The Hill on any topic!)

Finally, please take a moment to drop a note to your local news outlet highlighting the results of Obama’s online poll. Currently, this issue is reverberating throughout the blogosphere, but with your help, we can make this a mainstream news story as well.

UPDATE!!! UPDATE!!!

Well, it’s only been 24 hours, but so far 100+ readers have posted comments to The Hill’s blog telling John Walters to either tell the truth or get out! (I’d be more than happy with the latter.) Keep the feedback coming.

Also, many of you may also wish to stop by the Huffington Post, where my essay has just been re-posted here.

Like The Hill, the Huffington Post is a highly influential political website — and it is one of the most visited sites on the Internet. Yet their reporting is seldom critical of the war on (some) drugs. Please send The Post a message that their readership supports marijuana law reform by commenting on this story, “digging” it, and disseminating it widely. Thanks!

Drug Czar John Walters believes he can lie with impunity.

He’s wrong.

Today NORML responds to the Czar’s outrageous claims that few, if any, people are arrested or incarcerated for marijuana violations — and we do so in John Walters backyard: The Hill’s influential Congress blog.

How Can We Discuss Marijuana Policy When America’s Top Drug Cop Won’t Even Acknowledge The Facts?
via The Hill

If denial is the first sign of addiction, then Drug Czar John Walters is hooked to the gills. He’s addicted to targeting and arresting marijuana consumers, and he’ll do and say anything to keep this irrational and punitive policy in place.

The Hill is providing reformers with a valuable service by bringing our message prominently to Capitol Hill, and acting as a mediator in a high profile debate with the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. In the past, the Drug Czar’s office has outright refused to debate spokespersons from NORML or other marijuana law reform groups, but the office has felt obligated to respond to our posts on The Hill, which remains the paper of record for members of Congress and their staff.

Because The Hill is widely read by lawmakers and by the national media, it is vital that we demonstrate the popularity of this issue by commenting prolifically. Please post your feedback to The Hill and make a point of disseminating this essay to your friends and colleagues. Previous posts by NORML to The Hill’s blog have received hundreds of readers’ comments — virtually all favorable toward marijuana law reform. Editors at The Hill inform NORML that it’s the highest volume of readers’ response they’ve ever received on any commentary on any topic!

The Hill is getting our message; will Congress or the Drug Czar?

More than 100 readers have posted comments in support of NORML’s recent guest editorial, “Criminalization of Marijuana Must End,” which appeared in The Hill’s influential ‘Congressional Blog.’ Editors at The Hill inform NORML that it’s the highest volume of readers’ response they’ve ever received on any commentary on any topic!

So it’s hardly surprising that the Drug Czar’s office has grudgingly and belatedly offered their two-cents worth in a factually bereft editorial entitled “Marijuana Decriminalization Bill Ignores the Facts.” It’s an unintentionally amusing essay — though judging by the comments it appears that few people, if anyone, have actually bothered to read it — topped off by this half-baked claim, “[L]egalizing marijuana [is] a topic more often heard in college dorms at 2 o’clock in the morning than in the hallowed halls of our Congress.”

Excuse me, but if debating the merits of America’s failed cannabis policy is, in the Drug Czar’s opinion, a topic only appropriate for midnight musings, then why is the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy straining their already diminished intellectual capacities responding to this discussion in The Hill (which, last time I checked, was not a publication frequently read by college students in their dorm rooms at 2 am)??!!

Of course, I suppose The Hill should thank their lucky stars that the Drug Czar responded at all, given that no representatives from the ONDCP, CADCA, or other ‘pro-prohibition’ groups will ever agree to engage with NORML in a face-to-face debate in a public forum. I mean, it wasn’t all that long ago that federal officials were distributing a guidebook, “How to Hold Your Own in a Drug Legalization Debate,” that recommended that prohibition advocates decline invitations to publicly debate drug policy issues.

My how times have changed!

Editors at The Hill asked me to write a blog post regarding the recently introduced cannabis decriminalization bill in Congress, HR 5843. My blog post is squished in between Rep. Duncan Hunter’s and Sen. Kenneth Salazar’s posts.

There is a comment section as well…have at it and let policymakers and their staff know what NORML supporters want in the way of a functional cannabis policy.

Along with Roll Call and The Politico, The Hill is widely read by Congressional staffers and the national media. Washington Times columnist and San Diego radio show host Rick Amato interviews me this evening at midnight (eastern) on the topic of cannabis decriminalization.