The federal government said Friday that marijuana has no accepted medical use and should be considered armed and dangerous like heroin. Marijuana use was recently approved by many states including California to treat medical conditions including chronic pain.
Global research revealed that marijuana effectively treated conditions such as glaucoma and multiple sclerosis, prompting supporters rally the government to found "medical marijuana." Understandably, patients using cannabis in order to relieve chronic pain are outraged.
Joe Elford, chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access said, "We have foiled the government's strategy of delay, and we can now go head-to-head on the merits." He added, "We have foiled the government's strategy of delay, and we can now go head-to-head on the merits," and that he was not surprised by the decision because Obama said that he refuses to tolerate large scale commercial cultivation of marijuana.
Elford claimed that studies suggest that marijuana enables patients undergoing chemotherapy to eat because of its positive effect on appetite.
The Obama administration has proompted medicinal marijuana advocates to appeal to the federal courts. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration enabled the decision, only two months after advocates asked the U.S. Court of Appeals to respond to their petition.
DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart rejected its usage because of its "high potential for abuse." Marijuana is also considered a "gateway drug" that often leads to cravings for more potent drugs such as cocaine and heroin.
Leonhart concluded, "At this time, the known risks of marijuana use have not been shown to be outweighed by specific benefits in well-controlled clinical trials that scientifically evaluate safety and efficacy."
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In an apparent effort to prevent marijuana legalization from again dominating the discussion, Obama's next online townhall event will not allow participants to vote on their favorite questions for the president. But what does that say about the politics of social media? And will it even work?
It started with a simple and promising idea. The young voters who helped put Obama in office congregate on the Internet, and the best way to keep them involved in the political process is to meet them on their own turf. The incoming Obama Administration planned online forums mimicking the "thumbs up, thumbs down" voting systems that help rank the best content on popular viral sites like YouTube, Reddit and Digg. The President would solicit questions from the public and see what people cared about the most.
What no one anticipated was that the legalization of marijuana would emerge as the most popular political topic among the online public. Despite being initially chastised as "Internet trolls," supporters of marijuana reform repeatedly demonstrated their momentum in an open exercise of online democracy.
As startling as it was to see marijuana legalization taking a front row seat in mainstream politics, the outcome couldn't be ignored without defeating the purpose of the exercise entirely. Obama was forced to respond, and after an unfortunate first attempt to brush the issue aside, he eventually conceded just months ago that legalization is "an entirely legitimate topic of debate," but rejected it without explanation nevertheless.
It had become clear that as long as Obama's forums allowed the public to vote on topics for the president to address, the top-ranked questions would be about legalizing marijuana or even ending the War on Drugs altogether. Reluctant to confront the issue further, the White House recently changed its approach and announced an April 20, 2011 event on Facebook in which participants will not be allowed to vote at all. Questions can be sent in by email or posted on the Facebook page, but Obama's staff will make selections without any public input.
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WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama plans to take questions from YouTube viewers Thursday afternoon, and for the third time in as many years, the overwhelmingly most popular query involves the legalization of marijuana.
Of the top 100 most popular questions as rated by YouTube users, 99 are about the drug war or pot. Of the next one hundred, 99 are again about drug policy. Somehow, two questions about clean energy made their way into the top 200.
The pot questions don't stop there, but HuffPost stopped counting deep into the 200s, as the president is unlikely to answer all of them. If past history is any guide, he may not answer any of them.
A White House spokesman tells HuffPost that the president on Thursday will answer whatever questions YouTube puts before him. "A selection of top voted questions has been made to insure that as many of the most important questions as voted by the YouTube community will be asked," a YouTube spokesperson told HuffPost.
Obama did answer the question in 2009, addressing folks who asked if the president would consider legalizing marijuana to boost the economy and tax revenue.
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