An Open Letter to President-elect Barack Obama
Comments (95)
December 1, 2008
December 1, 2008
In this open letter to Barack Obama, the Marijuana Policy Project suggests just a few of the many changes President-elect Obama could take to begin creating sensible marijuana policies in America.
You give us $40, we’ll give you a shirt. We’ll even throw in an official MPP membership.
The opinions expressed below by our viewers and posters do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Marijuana Policy Project. These views are those of the individual authors alone. MPP does not condone or support the illegal use of marijuana. We do encourage open and frank discussion, but if a comment has been posted that is in some way significantly inappropriate, please e-mail us at socialnetwork@mpp.org to report it. Thank you, and we're looking forward to what you think!
95 Comments, Comment or Ping
William D
Great video, keep it up guys
Dec 2nd, 2008
Norman Lepoff, M.D.
Please keep your word and stop the DEA raids against unarmed, sick citizens and their harmless cannabis medication providers of the State of California?
Please stop persecuting United States citizens for using one of the most harmless substances on this planet: Cannabis?
Please appoint well eduated and responsible people as Attorney General and “Drug Czar.”
We want a change form the draconian measures of the past.
Thank you,
Norman Lepoff, M.D. retired
Dec 2nd, 2008
michael wills
Dear Mr. President-Elect,
You promised to cut wasteful spending. There is no more wasteful spending in this country than the hundreds of millions spent fighting the “war on drugs”. It is a bigger quagmire than vietnam or iraq. You know what is really ironic about marijuana being illegal? If no one had ever heard of it, and it was discovered in some jungle somewhere for the first time today, the finder would be hailed as a hero because of all the medical uses they would discover in testing it. Please be sensible Mr. President-Elect, make marijuana legal for adults to use as they would alcohol or cigarettes, which have been proven to be much more dangerous than cannabis.
Thank you,
Mike Wills
Dec 2nd, 2008
Laura Schlegel
Put action in place to humanize our prisons and drug laws.
Dec 2nd, 2008
John Webster
At a time when our nation is faced with an overwhelming financial crisis, it’s more important than ever to prioritize federal spending. Busting, prosecuting and imprisoning medical marijuana users should not even be considered an option for the Justice Dept. budget. Shift priorities. The government should be helping it’s citizens - not harming them.
Dec 2nd, 2008
Jamaste
Posted on Kos.
MPP rocked on election day. Keep up the good work!
Dec 2nd, 2008
Rose Fuhrman
Dear Mr. President-Elect Obama
I am thrilled that you were elected. Cried for a week and now mostly smile broadly when reminded.
Prohibition of cannabis/marijuana is costing lives, environmental quality, and vast amounts of money we could be using to fight climate change through green energy production and other actions, educate our citizens, and much else of value. This is one issue that affects every other.
Please honor your promise to stop federal raids on medical marijuana producers acting within state law.
And please go beyond that to eventual adoption of a harm-reduction approach that will: stop filling our jails with people who don’t belong there; stop funding black markets of huge profits; and stop fueling the war-zone our southern states and Mexico are increasingly becoming.
Cannabis is a plant, and a useful one at that. Science has confirmed that, and I hope that when you are in the White House science will be respected. How arrogant of human beings to outlaw a plant.
Thank you,
Rose Ann Fuhrman
Dec 2nd, 2008
Mike Kitts
Dear Mr. President:
I have several things I want to bring up. First, will you finally quit the financial
waste that is the “war on drugs”? What a Lame excuse to spend money, when
rehab is so much better than incarceration. I could go on and on about this subject, but I have a feeling that I’m preaching, somewhat, to the choir. At least, I hope I am.
Second, I addressed your Secretary of State, when she was a candidate, and I asked her if she would be willing to do away with private, no-bid government contracts, and the outsourcing of our military to private security forces like Blackwater. Now, I am asking you the same. Please reply, you do have my email address. Thank you, Mike Kitts.
Dec 2nd, 2008
Mark Washburn
Barack Obama: end the war on drugs. Legalize the production, possession and use of marijuana. It’s the rational thing to do and is fitting in our free society. This will eliminate waistful spending on enforcement and offers the opportunity to implement new taxes, a financial win-win. Thanks.
Dec 2nd, 2008
Mickey
I pray you will just stop the criminalizing people for a God creation…Thank You Mr. Obama.
Dec 2nd, 2008
Judy Bohlmeyer
To the Honorable Preisident Obama;
Please legalize…and STOP the political oppression and disenfranchisment of our people before it’s too late! Thank you.
Dec 2nd, 2008
Laura Kasko
Also please help change the law that denies federal educational aid to any children who have been convicted of marijuana possession. Why would we ever want to deny an education to anyone in this country? What is the point of this policy–to keep anyone who has had bad judgment or bad luck down for the rest of their lives, even though they have paid for the so-called crime already? This certainly isn’t the American way…or shouldn’t be. Thank you for caring, Mr. Obama.
Dec 2nd, 2008
Michael R. Sanders
Marijuana laws have been used to spread fear, for far too long. They have been misused to tarnish and inhibit the lives of millions of Americans. Often, penalties include the loss of certification and licenses, which are unrelated to the “offense.” This results in the degradation of individuals, in a far greater manner, than the abuse of marijuana, alone. Honest information is more powerful than all of the enforcement tactics, combined. Please stop the pain and fear, which the criminalization of marijuana has caused. Thank you, Mr. President.
Dec 2nd, 2008
Alexander J
Dear President Elect Obama,
I know that you are going to have an enormous amount of work on your plate when you take your seat in the Oval Office. The number of issues that you will be faced with during your first term will be overwhelming to say the least and I am quite sure that decriminalization will not be on the top of your list of things to accomplish.
However, I can see that you are preparing yourself well with a very capable cabinet and appointees to other branches of gov’t. Please think carefully about the next appointment for the position of Drug Tzar by finding someone with a sensible approach to this issue and someone who can advise you on ways to effect positive change by decriminalizing or at least adjusting the classification of THC so those who need the drug are not living with the fear that they may be incarcerated for their use. Like many of the issues you will be addressing, it may be wise to look to the results of ballot initiatives in individual states and follow suite by allowing them to decide what is criminal and what is not.
We don’t expect to make the leap from where we are now to wholesale decriminalization, that’s like trying to find unicorns. However, a couple small steps in that direction by the White House could reverse the tide of the past 3 decades and halt the unwarranted and unnecessary punishment of responsible and sensible marijuana users for both recreational and medicinal purposes.
Please stand by your word and do the right thing.
Dec 2nd, 2008
Yvonne
Very high amounts of people use marijuana, I have known many of them.
None ever had any adverse effects on them or the people they live with.It is an herb and that is all that it is,As for it’s use around children I believe it should be treated as cigs and not be smoked around them, however
if you are opposed to it, can you at least do or have studies done to prove it’s tameness? There are a few people that do not like it after they have tried it, but
those people are likely ill in a personal way, such as my mother who it gave a headache to as she had a brain tumor with cancer in the tumor and some that didn’t enjoy it as they didn’t need it for emotional or physical health issues
But the fact remains too that there are amputees that are paraplegic and others that really need mj for combating depression and emotional/physical pain that are not allowed to have it.And those that have had pieces of cadaver spine transplanted into them with deteriorating bone disease etc.
Besides we really don’t need to waste the police time and efforts on things that are doing no harm when there are real crimes that need to be taken care of first.Nor the money for and room in jails and prisons.
Take my advice I am over half a century old.The stuff is great it should even be sold as a cooking herb like cilantro which some are allergic to –but that is my example.
Dec 2nd, 2008
Patrick Lilly
Dear President-Elect Obama:
You’re not the first candidate for the Presidency who has expressed some willingness to do something positive about this country’s horrible war against cannabis (”marijuana”) users. But none of the others have actually done anything about it, once elected. Perhaps you can break that mold. I’m hopeful, but I’m not holding my breath.
In reality, you need to look at the larger issue of drug prohobition in general. The United States–once the “land of the free”–continues to have a larger percentage of its population in jails and prisons (and on “parole”) than any other country in the world. And the blame lies squarely at the feet of drug prohibition (the “Controlled Substances Act”). Will you do anything about it? You promised “change.” Will this change?
Dec 2nd, 2008
laura brown
JUST MAKE SURE TO REMEMBER—–WE DO NOT WANT IT LEGALIZED—–WE WANT IT DECRIMINALIZED—-TO MAKE IT LAGAL –MEANS THE GOVERMENT CONTROLS IT–I WANT TO GROW MY OWN FOR MY OWN USE–AND NOT GO TO JAIL!!! I GROW MY OWN VEGETABLE GARDEN EVERY YEAR SO WHY CANT I GROW MY OWN SMOKE–I DONT LIKE CIGAREETTES (WHICH HAS BEEN PROVEN HARMFUL)BUT I DO LIKE MARIJUANA WHICH DOES NOT!! I HAVE HAD STOMACH PROBLEMS ALL MY 52 YEARS AND JUST TAKING ONE OR TWO PUFFS ALWAYS CALMS IT DOWN!! I WANT IT FOR ME WITHOUT LETTING SOME DOCTOR OR GOVERMENT OFFICAL TELLING ME YES OR NO!!! IT SHOULD NOT BE UP TO ANYONE BUT ME!!! PERIOD!! 52 YEARS IS ENOUGH TIME FOR ME TO BE ALLOWED TO MAKE MY OWN CHOICE!! YA THUNK!!
Dec 2nd, 2008
Steven Harmon
Dear President Obama
Please honor your promise to stop federal raids on medical marijuana producers acting within state law. I have Aids been poz for 21 years And i live in Texas we do not have medical marijuana here but it has been a life saver for me If there any way to make medical marijuana llegal for the Unites States please do. I do not like braking the law. Please Help.
Thank you
Steven Floyd Harmon
Dec 2nd, 2008
Bruce S.Zembko
To: President Elect Barack Obama First I would like to tell you I am sorry about your Grandmother. Wish she was here to see you at least through your years as president. If all Americans are created equal. Then why do police & judges, ect not have anything happen for cannabis. After putting a good citizen in jail for some cannabis. When they went home and their wife was smoking or cooking with it. Would they bust her and put her in jail ? Or any of their family or friends ? Why are they more equal then all of us ? To serve & protect us or themselves. If the police arrested and jailed every person in this country. And all of them and their family’s and friends were only left. Say 20 million people. They would never go over the speed limit. Always completely stop at a red light or stop sign. Always use their blinker. Never ever drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes. So they would never have alcohol in them behind the wheel. God forbid ever use any drugs. Especially Cannabis which would lead to mainlining heroin & taking OxiContin or other narcotics. Their kids would always raise their hand at school before speaking out. Always stand straight in line. Never push or put down another. It would be like Heaven. They would have to polish their guns from getting rusty. All the judges would have to retire as all courts had no one there. They would drive in perfect formation to the prisons to see all or use. With plenty of stops along the way giving free coffee and donuts. PLEASE CHANGE THE CANNABIS LAWS & MAKE THE SYRINGE USERS THE ONES THAT HAVE TO BE ARRESTED. Also Cannabis helps me which I cannot use in this country. For my eyes with cornia damage, arthritis, other aliments, and mainly to be able to get the most out of each day. Why should someone have to be dying to use it. That’s like sticking a cigarette in someones mouth as a last request before pulling the switch or letting the syringe open to release the poison in the vein. You cannot make a powder from cannabis so it cannot be injected and more and more needed. It’s time for this country to grow up and help each other not try to see who they can hurt to ruin their lives. In All Hope & Appreciation !!! Bruce S.Zembko P.S. I just hope that the Senate and Congess can be on your side for all of the problems that you will have.
Dec 2nd, 2008
James L.
Dear President-elect Barack Obama,
Please stop the DEA from arresting peaceful Americans for marijuana use! The government policies of the Drug War has caused many to be labeled as criminals, even those who are sick and dying.
The Drug War has created the drug cartels in other parts of the world. And isn’t it a sad financial fact that the #1 cash crop in America is marijuana.
Let us not talk about change, let us work together to create some real change. Let us work at saving our children from the abuses and harms of drugs by controlling them ourselves and not the criminals. Drugs are too dangerous to keep in the hands of criminals.
Please get the drugs off the streets. Legalization will stop others from making millions of dollars. Legalization will allow controls to be put in place, as is alcohol. And legalization will save the U.S. Budget some $10 billion.
You want change, I’ll be your Drug Czar and show you some real change, lasting change, and change that will get the drugs off the streets, thereby saving our children, demoralizing the drug cartels and moving them out of America.
Regulate all drugs, control all drugs and tax all drugs. And if a private citizen wants to grow his own, for his own personal use, who really cares?
Mr. President, I look forward to hearing great things coming out of your administration.
Dec 2nd, 2008
Crohn's Disease Sufferer
President-elect Obama,
Please stop federal involvement in States with medical marijuana programs. Allow the people to choose for themselves the best course of treatment for THEIR bodies. Please also allow science to prevail and lift bans on experiments involving marijuana as medicine. This is counter-productive. Unlike other more controversial research types, this involves a PLANT. You had campaigned on the promise of ridding the political process of special interests. Please do not allow special interests to lobby to suppress the research and possible cures a simple plant could contain.
I also urge you to look at the “War on Drugs” as a whole. Economists from your alma mater, Harvard, have shown how marijuana prohibition is costly and ineffective. The policies the United States is forcing on the rest of the world with respect to drug prohibition are creating a war zone in places like Mexico. Please take the profits out of the drug cartels’ hands. Marijuana legalization would be one huge step in the right direction. Too many lives are adversely affected or altogether lost due to marijuana prohibition. We can no longer afford to spend billions of dollars on ineffective policy. Your promises to cut out ineffective policy from the nation’s budget, line by line, must include ALL ineffective policy. Marijuana prohibition is one such failed policy.
I also urge you, Mr. Obama, to allow the cultivation of hemp as part of our Nation’s plan to move forward with a “green economy.” Textiles, fuel, and other applications are well within our reach, if only we would use some common sense with regard to our economic development and environmental policies.
Dec 2nd, 2008
Brinna Nanda
Dear President Elect Obama,
Your election to the Presidency brought enormous hope to the world. I believe that you are committed to truth and fairness. I trust that you will apply these virtues to the “War on Drugs” which is raging all around us; directed primarily against otherwise law-abiding citizens, and which inevitably causes more harm than good (all is the case with all wars).
At the very least, please revisit the mis-scheduling of cannabis as “having no current use for medical treatment in the United States.” Clearly cannabis does have use for treatment in the 13 states (comprising 25% of the US population) which allow for medical marijuana. At the present time, one person in the DEA (under the AG), with no medical training and immune from redress, is allowed to determine what is or is not medicine for over 300,000,000 US citizens.
By the way, the US Dept. of HHS holds a patent (#6,630,507) specifically on the medical uses of cannabinoids derived from cannabis — and is offering it for licensing! Does not this alone indicate mis-scheduling?
Since I am sure your judgement is based on science rather than ideology, I encourage you to immediately review the current federal policy on this issue, and ask for congressional hearings on the science behind all the claims (pro and con). Let’s be “smart on drugs” and declare peace in this unfair, unproductive, costly and damaging “war”.
Sincerely,
Brinna Nanda
Felton, CA
Dec 2nd, 2008
Domingo A Torres
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Hello Mr. President Obama;
Consider this, I am now 60 years old and God has chosen me to survive several times the death experience by the use of illegal drugs, Marijuana excluded. I am not a drug addict per say, but in my past I had expose myself to the use of some illegal drugs, so I can judge for myself to the truth of them. The knowing of a truth comes by the experiencing of it or by following it without experiencing it, from the advice of a honest and trusted person.
I have concluded that under God’s love and adult responsible use, Marijuana’s properties were intended by God for a time out of our worldly stress and within one’s prudence and knowledge of its effects to be enjoyed of its gift of relief. I am suggesting that Marijuana should be decriminalized for both medical and adult recreational use. However not without an educational mandate about how to, where and what for, and it’s after effects. Regulations should be setup towards age use and sales, places of use and an ID card system for those who have been approve by a physician that they can use it for both medical and recreational.
The ID card system can tally the amount bought by the card holder and limits can be set up. The sales to minors by card holders can be arrested with a very heavy fine or long term incarceration, just as driving or operating machinery under the influence. The sales taxes from both and any offspring businesses, to include its farming and growing products, packaging, transportation, storage facilities, health security, safety, quality control, and paraphernalia, etc can be funneled back into jump starting the economy. More research on it should be allowed for medical and for finding alternative means of a healthy delivery system. However inasmuch as that the pharmaceutical companies may have had good intentions with the product Marinol, I resent any chemical alterations to reproduce what God has already made perfect. I have tried Marinol and it scared the hell out of me. It is nothing like the effects of the actual plant.
I will add that Marijuana is not for everyone, as we all have different tolerances for different foods and medications. I do not encourage the use of it to anyone who chooses not to use it. However I beg you on behave of those who are different from the rest of the none users, to be tolerant of our difference and let us do what is rightfully our way of life, without prejudicial discrimination.
I know that it’s going to be a hard sale to convince the senate and the religious righteous people of our nation, because of all the false propaganda and fear that has been put into people’s mind about Marijuana. Marijuana has no business being under government prohibition of any kind, for God gave it freely, and man has abused God’s intent for His creation of it. Whether you care to believe it or not I represent God’s voice on this issue. This is what He wants, less He would not have cause me to survive the several deaths and revivals I encountered.
Mr. Domingo A Torres
Dec 2nd, 2008
George Wagoner, M.D.
Dear President Elect Obama,
Proposal 1 recently passed in Michigan was an essential step in the process leading to rescheduling marijuana so that it can be properly controlled, made available to researchers, and dispensed by pharmacists to patients in medical need. Federal law will eventually change, at which time patients will be able to obtain their medicine from a pharmacy. ["Medical Marijuana Act Leaves Patients In Limbo," 11/30/08] Until then, this will keep Michigan’s seriously and terminally ill from being arrested for using a safe and effective treatment.
My dear wife passed away from cancer last year. She was not a criminal, and had no desire to break the law. But other treatment options were inadequate for her nausea and marijuana brought her comfort in her final days. I am proud that my fellow Michiganders — a majority in each of 83 counties — agreed that she and I did not belong in jail for treating her suffering.
George Wagoner, M.D.
Dec 2nd, 2008
Bryan
Dear President-Elect Obama,
Please stop the government from violating my rights as a citizen for smoking Marijuana. I mean really it is time for a “change” a big one to say the least for the U.S govenrments poistion on marijuana. I mean how could it really be classified as a drug along with heroin and cocaine ? Let me remind you that Marijuana has never killed or harmed anyone. See Unlike Tobacco Marijuana will not leave me talking out of a voice box or will not leave me unable to operate a vehicle and endanger peoples lives like Alcohol. So please review the facts and you will see that Marijuana being illegal is simply ridiculous, costly, and un constitutional. it si OUR GOD GIVEN RIGHT!!
Dec 2nd, 2008
jeannette courtney
Please make it to where, those of us ,who depends on, the effects of cannabis, to treat our medical conditions, like mine ,such as, chronic pain. I live in daily pain, and from all the meds I take, I normally, do not have an appetite, when I smoke my medical herb, chances are great, I will eat that same night, if not soon after smoking the cannabis. Please protect our right as patients, to have and to use cannabis, in a safe enviroment, with no fear of law enforcement, with required identification, for having on our persons. Thankyou, for being our president. God bless you and your family, always. Cannabis Patient, in Calif,
Dec 2nd, 2008
Jon Freeberg
The only legitimate controversies about cannabis are the laws concerning it. The hysteria about marijuana use and its affects stem from a decades long campaign to demonize the plant.
Propaganda was initiated by Harry Anslinger in 1932 and backed by William Hearst who had an interest in banning the plant because hemp competed with timber for paper production.
The exploits of Harry Anslinger’s attack on marijuana is well documented and lasted the length of his 30+ year career. News reports were circulated of people going insane and murdering. Claims were made that people lost their grip on reality and jumped to their deaths because they thought they could fly. This they claimed could result from trying marijuana one time.
The hallmark of government backed pot paranoia came in the form of the infamously iconoclastic film “Refer Madness.” It’s hard to imagine, tax dollars being spent on a fiction promoted as fact. To make amends the government should back a film titled “DEA Madness” and set the record straight.
There are no rational arguments for the federal government’s actions regarding marijuana. All sane thinking falls on the side of “change” when it comes to criminal marijuana legislation.
To continue the “war on drugs” declared by the delusional Richard M. Nixon in 1972 would confirm the conspiracy theorists accusations of a government drugs for profit incentive.
The exclamation point on the ludicrous federal treatment of marijuana and its partakers is the “Class 1″ designation alongside substances like heroine and crack cocaine.
This screams, “Yes the laws are absurd and we don’t give a damn what’s right or what you think about it, we’re the federal government and we’ll do whatever we want!”
President-elect Obama, do the right thing and “CHANGE” marijuana policies.
Dec 2nd, 2008
John Kramer
Dear Mr. President elect,
You promised to legalize marijuana for medical uses only. I expect you to keep your promise.
Love, John
Dec 2nd, 2008
Michael J. Masley
Mr. President-Elect,
By stopping the war on marijuana users (whether medical or not), the money could be used to further your health care agenda, no?
Michael J. Masley
Dec 2nd, 2008
Adel
Dear President Obama
I don’t really know where to start. There are so many things wrong with our drug laws. Why are we incarcerating so many people for smoking a joint? Why do we prohibit people with marijuana arrests from so many things, like being eligible for federal grant money for college? I am Native American and my ancestors are rolling over in their graves over this. Marijuana is an herb that is good for what ails you. Please use some common sense on this issue and quit putting productive, hard working people in jail for relaxing or treating their arthritis etc in their own way. Prohibition needs to end. The only BAD thing about marijuana is that it is illegal. Have some studies done if you don’t believe us. Several other countries have already done these studies and came to the conclusion that it is relatively harmless.
I am also pretty sure that if it was taxed, that would sure help us out of our depression.
Dec 2nd, 2008
David A marshall
Please help stop the madness which is the “War on Drugs” Pot is not the enemy or the thing that destroys people. The DEA destroys peoples lives and is the enemy of main street citizens.
Dec 2nd, 2008
Gary Petz
please stop the DEA from arresting people for using or dispensing medical marijuana in states that have legalized such activity.
Dec 2nd, 2008
Gary Petz
Please stop the DEA from arresting people who use or dispense medical marijuana in states whose laws make that activity legal.
Dec 2nd, 2008
Purpose420
Dear President-elect Barack Obama,
I’m leaving out some major detail’s, but in short i’ve used (mj) as medicine over a period of 14yrs. In May of 1990 I had a stroke that left me paralyzed from the eye’s down, sometime in 1995-96 Angel Raiches story hit the media. As I sat and watched her fate being decided, I decided my own and that was to try this drug and set the record strait. (did it work or not?)
It’s nearly 16 yr’s later and I’m very much alive and the people that once laughed at me when I told them of my plan. are now shakin their head and saying, if it works “it works”. I’m beggin you sir please let the people choose, they put you in office because they feel you will bring the change this country needs, please don’t let me or the people down.
Dec 2nd, 2008
Robert Payne
Dear President elect Barack Obama-
There are no rational arguments for the federal government’s actions regarding marijuana. All sane thinking falls on the side of “change” when it comes to criminal marijuana legislation.
To continue the “war on drugs” declared by the delusional Richard M. Nixon in 1972 would confirm the conspiracy theorists accusations of a government drugs for profit incentive.
The exclamation point on the ludicrous federal treatment of marijuana and its partakers is the “Schedule 1″ designation alongside substances like heroine and crack cocaine.
How can marijuana be illegal when it has never been proven to have killed a single person who overdosed or had created an illness of 5,000 YEARS of recorded history.
This screams, “Yes the laws are absurd and we don’t give a damn what’s right or what you think about it, we’re the federal government and we’ll do whatever we want!”
Which also leads to our overburdened prison system where the United States of America has the most prisons & inmates in the entire world.
President-elect Obama, do the right thing and “CHANGE” marijuana policies.
Dec 2nd, 2008
katherine lindley
there are many reasons to stop the law against marijuana …JOBS JOBS JOBS.. if it was legal..it could be sold and taxed like beer or cigarettes or fuel… that means we would have to build or make special places to grow, harvest, package, sell…. new jobs…new tax revenue… also the farmers that are getting checks from the goverment for help would no longer need it..why, because we need places to grow the crop so we can ship it to places that will process it…there is a real high demand for marijuana..that would keep the farmers busy, so they would not need the goverments money…then you have to think about the part of the marijuana that is not being consumed, it too can be harvested, makes the strongest rope in the world, it makes an oil and many other things like shampoo, soap..again this part of the plant, would need their own places to be processed..again new jobs….you will not win the war against marijuana use…. so why fight it then…the people want this …and did you know that some of our first presidents actually grew marijuana in their fields…it was legal until 1933, i could be off a year or two…. marijuana shows promise in many medical problems…new research, again ..new jobs…ROCK MY WORLD OBAMA, MAKE IT LEGAL….DO SOMETHING NOONE ELSE HAS DONE…thanks, katherine…i have alot more info about this subject if you would like to talk about it…oh yeah, let me close with this…hopps, which is in beer, is a sister plant of marijuana…funny….they are both in the cannabis plant family…
Dec 3rd, 2008
floyd
that is 1 good clip mpp keep up the good work and i hope “obama keeps hes promise” and if anyone wants to see it, i have a email with a vedio of obama saying hes for medical marijuana and the mpp put it out, i just wished “our goverment would listen to the ppl” on marijuana but they are making moreeee moneyyyy with it being illagel or so they “think” just in this country id say we the U S PPL consume about 30 or more billion dollars of weed a yr just think how much of that money would help this country get out of “dept” im just saying
Dec 3rd, 2008
KCBENNIE
I think that the right to recreationally smoke cannabis is a not the point of legalization, it’s an added perc. The point of legalization, in my opinion, is the benefits of the usefulness of the plant itself. It’s the benefit of biodegradable plastics. It’s the benefit of a renewable source of biomass fuel that doesn’t make our food prices skyrocket. It’s the benefit being able to grow a crop in rotation that replenishes the soil. It’s the benefits of lumber and paper that doesn’t require the destruction of trees. It’s the benefit of all of those saved trees that have the ability to clean our air and combat global warming. It’s the benefit of taking rediculous amounts of money out of the hands of criminal organizations and legally putting that money into our economy by allowing our citizens to grow the #1 cash crop on the planet. It’s the benefit of being in complete control of your own God given body to put into it what you want and when you want. Take into consideration all of those factors and tell me how important of an issue you think it should be.
Dec 3rd, 2008
Jon Kellogg
Great Video!
It seems so ironic that so many facets of society, and government can be changed for the better just by legalizing marijuana.
the prison system is a large problem, swallowing up way too much of the American taxpayers money, putting NON violent “offenders” away with violent ones has proved time and time again to result in EVEN MORE PROBLEMS than what we started with. this doesn’t take a genius to see. When money gets involved, and profits can be made, corruption is close to follow…. we are in the thick of it here in the U.S. on this issue!
The medical drug companies are flooding are society with harmful, often under tested drugs, with CRAZY side effects… when a harmless plant, can help aid in so many ailments with just as much success for some people, and NO loss of quality of life. At the very least, may it lead to a smarter society who “uses” fewer high risk pharmicutical drugs, accompanied by no risk natural remedies.
Not to mention that the concept of “freedom” in America is highly questionable today. how free is one really, when you are told what plants you can or can’t grow in your own garden? “In God We Trust”??? not when you take a plant that HE (or she) created, and gave to the world, and that people have used since the beginning of time, and decide to make it illegal for all the wrong reasons. Shame on the American government for backing this B.S. agenda for so long, and at such a cost to our own citizens.
FACT- we imprison more of our own people in the U.S. than any other country… most are drug related offenses.
CHANGE! yes we can!!!
Dec 3rd, 2008
Jon Kellogg
It seems like a good time for the national deficit to benefit from the nations #1 cash crop, doesn’t it?
The politics of the past should be left there, the future is too important to my newborn twin boys! As well as all of our future citizens.
Hemp is way too useful to ignore any longer, and Marijuana is far too harmless to continue to be wrongfully classified as the same level drug as heroin and cocaine. No one is stupid enough to believe this any more, and it makes the government look dumb for enforcing laws based on this untruth.
How ironic is it to know that the way that Marijuana can harm you the most… is by the laws developed around it.
when the laws are more harmful than the substance itself, that is a HUGE CLUE that something is wrong here!
If we can find a way to legalize and regulate a poison like alcohol, then it should be easy to find a way to do the same for a natural medication.
Voted for CHANGE - Jon Kellogg - Maryland
Dec 3rd, 2008
Sara C
Dear President Elect Obama:
The marijuana policies in this country are out of whack. You seem like a nice, intelligent, kind man so please change these ridiculous laws that are keeping millions of non-violent criminals in prisons wasting tax dollars that could obviously be used elsewhere. Decriminalize it & Legalize it for those who need it. It’s evil to keep people in pain when they don’t have to be. Good Luck
Dec 3rd, 2008
richard brumfield
Excellent video. Keep up the good work.
Dec 3rd, 2008
Susan Smith
I have been a patient with several diseases that were very painful. I smoked marijuana for the pain and it DOES help. I don’t live in a medical marijuana state, but it should be!
Please help people like me and others, President Obama, and make the laws sensible. We’re entrusting you to make the CHANGES that are so long overdue.
Sincerely, Susan Smith
Dec 3rd, 2008
Lisa
Great Video. Keep up the good work
Dec 3rd, 2008
terry ford
yeah i gotta go with just about everything said so far on this video and on these comments! i hope you get to read this for yourself although in all likelyhood you will never see it. its my hope that some aid or adviser brings it to your attention soon!
Dec 3rd, 2008
Mark
I would ask Obama if he would consider putting marijuana in Schedule 2. This is a baby step, but one that would allow unbiased research and medical use.
Dec 3rd, 2008
Dennis Bills
Mr. Obama:
Congratulations on your victory. I firmly believe and sincerely hope that your victory is also a victory for The American Public. I long for a government that is not based upon greed and lies, but based on truth and compassion. I want a government that I can believe in again, and strongly hope that you can start us down that road.
I respectfully ask you to consider the history of marijuana prohibition. How it became illegal in the first place, and how the government has created hysteria surrounding this issue. Please help stop the madness and the continued prosecution of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
I hope that someone in your administration notices this site and brings it to your attention. I hope that you actually see the video and read the postings. But more than that, I hope that you care enough about this issue to actually stop the madness. Thank you.
Dec 3rd, 2008
J. Lape'
Sir, for the first time in my 68 years, I was so proud of my fellow Americans. We chose the man we thought was the best man for the job. Now Sir, I don’t envy you the mess you have had thrown in your face, however one thing that you might do, is to reverse the failed “war on drugs”. Sir, I believe the “war on drugs”, has had a horrible effect on how people respect the law and those who enforce it. We have all heard the lies from the DEA, and ONDCP, so if we are smart enough to look past the propaganda, we can no longer support this failure. And Sir, we know that by supporting “prohibition”, we are in effect supporting an ongoing criminal enterprise. Here in Arkansas, the kids say that it is easier to buy “weed”, than to buy a pack of “Camels”. Sir, that tells me that what we are currently doing is not working, not to mention the untold billions of dollars, we poured down this endless pit.
Dec 3rd, 2008
Todd T. with TM
I was hit with Transverse Myelitis on April 1, 2002.
Both of my legs feels like acid on my skin.
The only thing that helps is Medical Marijuana.
This is a wonderful video,
Please help President-elect Barack Obama
Thank You, Todd TM 2002
Dec 3rd, 2008
Kathy
Mr. President-elect,
You must have seen the damage our drug laws do while you were a community organizer. If ever there was a place where misguided public policy is totally wasting millions/billions of taxpayers dollars, it is the “war on drugs” and especially the war on marijuana. (Read “The Emporer Wears No Clothes” free online at http://www.jackherer.com to get all the facts.)
Unlike other legal and illegal drugs, marijuana has never killed anyone. Why not legalize it and tax it like alcohol? You could pay off the national debt in a few years!
And as for the drug war in general, prohibition never works. It only fuels organized crime.
Now, most importantly for the economic future of our country, please pass HR 1009 and remove industrial hemp (non-psychoactive marijuana grown for fiber, fuel, building material and food) from the clutches of the DEA. The rest of the world is going to develop this hardy annual (and one of the cornerstones of human civilization) and leave us in the dust. And if we can’t have the insight and courage to admit we have been wrong for the last 70 years, we deserve it.
God Bless You and Good Luck!
K. Spalding
Florida
Dec 3rd, 2008
Phil
To have Obama catechizing marijuana, a Schedule 2 is indeed a baby step taken where a footprint left by an adult is required. This promise and footprint will expose the true cost of the Drug War. The true cost woven into the legal industry. War profits. Freedom. All there is to know about HEMP is already known. How could it not be? Especially by the unbiased medical, legal and researcher’s who will decide how the Constitution is read.
Dec 3rd, 2008
Nick
Hello president elect Obama. I was writing to say that the drug on wars is a losing battle with marijuana. We still will have it no matter what. The people getting busted are filling up prisons where a more dangerous person could be incarcerated, like a murderer or a rapist. Also if we grew it here in the U.S. the government should tax it and it would also open up more jobs for people and we could use some other by-products of the plant to make rope, cloths, and all sorts of things. Alcohol and Tobacco is legal and it causes multiple deaths every year and marijuana has no recorded documents of deaths of only marijuana. I know this isn’t at the top of your list but it would be nice for you to consider this. thanks!
Dec 3rd, 2008
mark wachter
Dear President - elect Barack Obama,
I think you will agree telling the truth is the only way to go. Schedule One drug “No medical bennifits” I am a 48 year old male who has MS, and let me tell you marijuana helps me with my ten side effects of MS. I have asked my doctor to suggest something else, he can not. It helps me with my MS, it helps other other folks with other disease’s, if it were legal it woud be marketed as the “miracle drug”. Not to mention all those sayings I grew up with and so did you, One nation under GOD, In God we trust, but yet we outlaw God’s medicine?
Start telling the truth, Please
Mark Wachter
Dec 4th, 2008
Pamela Gari
I am one of the victims of this insane war. I used to live in your home state.
I’m hoping that you will make a difference that will echo throughout the world.
I’m hoping that you will make a difference that will allow me to see my children again and allow me to come home.
I’m hoping.
It’s all I can do.
I’m 51 years old, and I live with chronic pain. I had only what I needed. Obviously that wasn’t enough to make the raid on my home appear worth the manpower wasted, so lies were told until the Illinois State Police looked good!
End this insanity please.
Dec 4th, 2008
Mrs Sabrina Massie
I am a 50 year old woman that was in a horrific car accident some three years ago… My leg, arm and back were badly injured, to the point that they will never be the same. My Pain Managment Specialists are great!! The problem is because I also use weed to offset the pain and the anxiety pain produces, I may soon have to go to another doctor (DEA Regulated Clinic, or some such nonsense)….. This naturally grown plant does as much for me as narcotic pain killers…. My option? Be addicted to medications that are seriously damaging… or inhale a bit of a plant… Hmmmm And this is illegal? Crazy is what it is….
Dec 4th, 2008
Maria
To President - elect Barack Obama,
I have lived on pain pills for so many years it is now tearing up my intestines, I was always against Marijana and drugs but now I support medical marijuana. If it helps people that suffer from pain and other health problems then I support it. I have never tried it but the way my body and mind are changing from all the pills I want to try the medical marijauna. I am almost 50 yrs old and every tooth in my mouth is rotting away due to pills,my stomache is so messed up from all the pills I can only eat certain foods now, I feel like I am 90 yrs old all due to side effects from narcotic pills. Please help me get somewhat of a normal life back please. I would like to be around to see my grandchildren
If it makes someones life more comfortable and enjoyable then I support it. From what I have heard and read it is much safer than all those pills, If Medical Marijuana helps control pain more than all those dangerous and harmful pills then I support it what is the harm in trying?
I want to be comfortable with the rest of my life, I want to enjoy my life but due to side effects from pain pills that is hard to do.
If Medical Marijuana helps many others in pain like myself then it should be allowed. 100% Medical Marijuana is not for everyone, but for the people that want to try it and get relief then it should be allowed.
Please think of people who live in pain everday and please think of the people that are addicted to these dangerous narcotics those are the people that need to live a better life and as pain free as possible.
Dec 4th, 2008
ScottGray
Dear President elect Obama-Stop the War on Personal Choice.
I*m a 51 year old living in California for the protection afforded me by the state medical marijuana laws.Marijuana works for me.
Allocate money for research so we can understand how
marijuana can alleviate physical and mental pain.
Dec 4th, 2008
Joey Thompson
I never ask anyone to keep their promises, I expect it. If they choose not to I choose to accept that that person is nothing short of a liar who chose to use his words and speech to get what he wanted. Not only do I expect you to keep your promises to Med M patients, I expect you to protect our jobs with a federal law that gives us patient choice of medicine. If our jobs have no protection and our employers can terminate us for having our medicine in our bodies, and be arrested for growing or possessing our medicine why should we vote for you again? Corporate interests are behind the threats that Med M patients face every day trying to make more money on drugs and alcohol that cause many deaths each year in this country. I expect the real change you so proudly boasted. NO MORE ARRESTING OVER TAXED PAYING AMERICANS OR JOB ELIMINATION BECAUSE OF THEIR CHOICE OF MEDICINE, SHOW US REAL CHANGE OR WE WON’T VOTE YOU BACK IN.
Dec 4th, 2008
Wm. Scott
There has got to be a way to sue the policy and law makers for the horrible collateral damages, deaths US sponsered civil war (in South America) and the misery caused by this insane war. “Harm Reduction”, some decriminalization and regulation are what a responsible Gov’t would do, especially in a free society.
The only way to help end this insanity is for people to start filing civil suits for huge amounts of punitive and actual dollar damages against those responsible for the policies in place.
Now I believe legislators and other policy makers are supposedly immune to such charges. However victims, both those directly and those affected indirectly can sue the cities and law enforcement of those cities and counties responsible for the damages. Whether or not these suits are successful or not is not the only outcome. If millions of Americans file charges, in a few years it will bring attention to the national mind set. It will also create historical proof of gross incompetence against those responsible and will tarnish their lives for future historian to view.
The only way to end this insane drug war is to “break the bank” of our Gov’t and those responsible. By doing so, law and policy makers will carefully pay attention to the details, the negative impacts and the far reaching consequence of their laws and policies. This will enable law and policy makers to reevaluate their decisions so they may either modify or repeal laws that cause more harm than good.
Everyone makes mistakes. Even Gov’ts. That’s fine. However when a mistake is done over and over again with dire consequences and damage to society, it becomes criminally negligent. It may not be a bad idea for all victims to file a complaint of gross incompetence to a local authority or to some official agency for a matter of record. Maybe even gain momentum to actually file charges against those responsible.
People, we Americans have got to end this insanity. We must bring real accountability to our law and policy makers. The damage alone to the credibility and trust of our judicial system will take generations to repair.
We must teach our leaders that trust and respect are earned, and not bullied.
To think the money squandered in one year could have repaired and updated the New Orleans levee system, preventing the Katrina disaster. This example should be a red flag for us Americans to stand up and demand our will onto our leaders.
Dec 4th, 2008
Purpose420
Ya it’s me again sir,
Ya you know the crazy pothead in the wheelchair that thinks he can change the world, I’m just guessing sir. But at some point in your life did you smoke marijuana and say the words “I’m going to be the first black president” and your friends just laughed, and said your just high? you made it sir, congrats! make the dream real for everyone:)
I’d also like to say I’m glad to see America is standing up for itself, in my opinion America is telling you how to make the first multi-million dollar budget cut are you gonna ignore them?
Dec 4th, 2008
Thomas Hamilton
Dear President Elect Obama,
I registered 153 new voters as a canvasser. I never did voluntary political work before. I work for corporate america. I read their governmental affairs website which contained their stances on issues and looked at which candidates they gave red checkmarks to and who got their approval with green ones. You were not their favorite candidate. I emailed them back and chastised them on their policies with regard to respecting employees rights to privacy and compared their ideology to that of the Bush administrations. I was nervous about sending them this email, but as the late Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter”. I could no longer remain silent, so with a raised heartbeat, I hit “send”. I hope you were worth it. Hope is all we have left to cling to after decades of lies and manipulation on the subject of cannabis, all in the name of greed and self serving interests who wish to continue the utter failure of a drug war on cannabis gone terribly wrong. I regard you as an intelligent man capable of recognizing the mistakes of the past and I would hope that you are not doomed to repeat them.
Thank You, Thomas Hamilton.
Dec 4th, 2008
Renee Hatcher
Dear President Obama,
Please resefine the marijuana laws for all states , I feel it is very relaxing and is used widely for relief of pain.
Please help stop the raids on the elderly for there use it really doesnt hurt anyone.
Dec 5th, 2008
Robert&Gina
My wife and I have suffered from cancer. She was Born with Ovarian Cancer. She was the youngest to ever survive this back in the mid 70’s. Thanks to a group of 7 Doctors. I was diagnosed with Renal Cell Cancer in 2005 as I just turned 28 a little over a month. The kidney was a total loss.
I’ve taken care of her and watched how hard it is and how bad she suffered. exm..Inertercystal Cystitis, Cronick Middle to left flank pain that wraps around her back. Just to name a few and what I was trying to get at is now I know how she feels. I now feel it too. You don’t know until you’ve felt what real pain is and you will Pray you’re Heart out, but unfourtunatly, the pain is still there. And please don’t get me wrong, my wife and I are GOD fearing followers in his LIGHT.
Now we live in Florida and they prescribe us in combination Methadon 10mg.4xdaily, Klonipin 2mgx4daily, xanax1mgx3daily, Effexor 150mg2xdaily, premarin 0.9mg1xdaily, eneblex 25mg1xdaily 12mcg/hour fentanyl patch every3days, norflex 100mg2xdaily, and any natural God given remedies that can be used safely and reduce us from taking these pills.
If this is what my wife and I have to be on for the rest of our lives because our president can change all this and reduce Doctors getting Patients addicted to Opium based pain killers and other addicting medicines in general, if he can’t see what’s wrong with the picture and allow MARIJUANA to be substitutided instead of HEAVY NARCOTIC PAIN MEDS. Not to mention to much about Doctors dropping their Patients off heavy Pain Killers cold turkey .Some can’t get over the withdrawl because they been on the pain killer to long. THEY GO TO STREET HEROIN! SEND THIS TO OUR PRESIDENT THAT PROMISED US. IF THIS DOESN’T OPEN HIS EYES, THAN HE’S NO BETTER THAN THE BURNING BUSH.
Signed,
Robert Lewis Renal Cell Survivor
Dec 5th, 2008
Norman Lepoff, M.D.retired
These comments make so much sense. We need to keep up the fight against the drug war and to do our best to get this wonderful medicine legal for everyone especially the sick, frail and disabled.
If any politician truly cared about us or our children they would stop this draconian, ignorant, corrupt drug war and make peace once and for all.
We do not need a DEA. They are thugs that abuse and mistreat the sick, frail and defenseless citizens of our great country. As far as the “Drug Czar,” besides lying to our children and the rest of us, I have no idea what the purpose of his office is? It is another useless, expensive government beaurocracy. It should be eliminated along with the DEA.
Great comments everyone!
I doubt Mr. Obama will keep his promises to us.
We need to be diligent and give lots of money to NORML, MPP, ASA and all the rest who are fighting for us.
This stupid war will keep going on, and on, and on until we the people can stop our corrupt government from fighting and harming us and our children!
Dec 6th, 2008
mike graham
good morning MR PRESIDENT-elect!!!!
i hope you would get the chance in the midst of solving the worlds economic problems, to take a few minutes to visit a matter that concerns over 60% (whether personally or has a family member) of AMERICAN’S. i guess it effect more world wide, but i haven’t even considered that….MR. PRESIDENT, please, please, please address this issue. i understand how busy you are these days, G.W. sure left you with a mess….i’m not sure if this is something you can take care of by EXECUTIVE ORDER or not, but that might be one option. take all that money being spent on prosecuting patients and spend it on education, not just drug education, but sex ed wouldn’t hurt either. i wish you the best of luck, and would love to tell you my story, i know your very busy, but you know how to get a hold of me, i mean, YOU ARE THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!!!!!!
Dec 7th, 2008
matt
listen i have always fought for the right to legilize weed or pot what ever you call it if you think about it if it ws able to be sold by the govenerment they could sell it and tax it and take us out of debt. my email is madrennicks@hotmail.com if u believe with me write me
Dec 8th, 2008
Ben
Hahaha he looks like he’s high
Dec 8th, 2008
Mike Morrison
I hope but I really doubt he (Barack Obama) will ever watch this video..
Yes, as much as I have read in the past couple of hours on many other different websites this morning.. It is clear that legalization could be closer then what it was 5 years ago.. It’s just sad how ” WE ALL
” (AMERICAN CITIZENS) have let our Government control our lives this long like thy have.
We have had many, many protests in the past years, letters written by many american citizens, questions asked, money spent, among so many other things on this subject.
(Thanks to all the lobbyist doing the walk in Capital Hill for us.)
I just don’t understand why they don’t at the very lease try it for a year or two. Totally legalize it that is. If it doesn’t workout they can always go back and re write the laws back into the books. It’s not that hard.
Another question I have is with so many companies now days DEMANDING you submit to drug testing. Being denied the job if tested positive.
What can you do then ? Finding a job is already hard enough especially with 6000 stores closing at the end of 2008. Estimating about 60,000 people out of work by Jan 10th 2009. To me it’s just another way to keep the lower/middle class down having a possession of a controlled substance charge on your record when applying for a job. Again DENIED.
What can a person do but go out finding other means to support if not just his/herself but a family as well but commite a crime. IT’S JUST WRONG.
Thanks for reading my long post.. As well as keep up the good work. We still have a very long road ahead of us im affraid.
Dec 9th, 2008
Josh C
President Obama
Legalizing Cannibas will benifet our nation and help keep it out of the hands of teenagers. Millions of dollars will be saved to help fight the war on real drugs such Crystal Meth and cocaine.
Dec 9th, 2008
Lisa H
President Obama
You have the power to relieve suffering of so many people in the United States, and save hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax payers money all with the stroke of a pen. Legalize Medical marijuana at a federal level.
Please President Obama from someone who suffers every day from pain that at times becomes intolerable, I beg you, end the suffering and the wasting of tax payers money.
Dec 10th, 2008
Charlotte Stubbs
I am a 55 year old disabled veteran with several chronic and painful diseases.
Although Colorado passed a medical Marijuana law several years ago, because of the DEA I can not use it. This is wrong.
The DEA has taken on itself practice medicine. They arrest doctors for prescribing life saving pain meds to people and then charging the doctor with murder after the patient dies of withdrawals. The Drug war is a failure and the money spent there could be better used elsewhere.
When the pain becomes too much for me and if I decide to end life I will have to die alone without my family around me because of the stupid laws we have in this country.
I know you have a lot on your plate but I hope you’ll take some time to change these horrible laws. I also hope you’ll commute the sentences of the doctors who have been unfairly jailed for doing their jobs. In the end the only real thing we own is our lives and we should have the right to live them as we see fit, as long as we do not cause harm to others with what we do. Please make a strike for freedom and help change the laws and get rid of the DEA..
Dec 10th, 2008
Robert&Gina
Dear Mr. President Obama,
This is my second letter in this very large letter that is to be sent to you . I hope you are who you say you are, I have no doubt about u. I know you will read all of these and see that not only will legalization of Marijuana will become a number 1 cash crop and provide plenty of jobs and get us out of debt. U CAN ALSO STOP PAIN NATION WIDE. STOP THESE DOCTORS FROM PROSCRIBING OPIATE BASSES PILLS. Please let us choose how to stop our pain the natural way. All this points to is the medicine facilities, the know that if we can stop our own pain that GOD gave us as a NATURAL PLANT BASED MEDICINE. Pleases, Mr. President, consider everything we all wrote to you. It all comes to all the same points. One person said,” Legalize it for a year or two and it if doesn’t work out, re-write the laws to restrict it again”. You’ve already made HISTORY, YOUR OUR ANSWER OUT OF DEBT< PAIN< AND THE FUNDING TO TARRISIM BUYING MARIJUANNA ILLEGALLY. Also incarceration of People who just want to be out of pain. Make Room For Real Criminals Act, by Barny Frank (REP)
Thank you,
Robert Lewis/Renal Cell Cancer Suvivor
Dec 10th, 2008
Justine McCullen
Mister President:
I am not even sure if your eyes will see these letters. Perhaps the cries of a few of Joe Public pale against the screams of wall street and your constituents. Perhaps your advisors will only hand you a write up of the jist of these letters.
I for one am not very hopefull toward the goal of getting higher government to realise the money to be had, and the general happyness to be achieved. I am not hopefull that we will wrest natural medicines out of the clutches of the Pharma interests.
I would like to be fully a supporter like others in this petition, but i understand your job to be toughest of most. You have so many people to answer to and for, and many other issues to juggle to keep everyone happy.
But I am hopefull that you will be up front about it. That you may address this in your own words. If at the very least to tell Joe Public, why it is that you cant or wont comply with our public wishes. And why this cant be put to public vote like in a real democracy. To let us understand who we voted into office that opposes our desires.
With this being an issue minor to anything else, esp in the face of global depression, couldn’t you let the little guys like us ride the storm, seeking happyness, and mental relief that does not kill us, while we lose everything else?
I am sure there is a middle path to this issue.
Of all that you have to do, this one boon to the people, is the least contoversial. I wish you luck and wisdom in your coming term of office.
Justine McCullen
Dec 10th, 2008
Mandy Kaser
President-elect Barack Obama:
As a medical marijuana drug convicted citizen, I beg that you stick your plan and help decriminalize and END THIS DRUG WAR now…
I am another one of those statistics that with only 2 months left of schooling I was let go of. Leaving me now with an unfinished degree in Business Marketing and all the unpaid debt. Not only that; but it is also a big damper in my life goal to not only consult others in organic herbal medicine; but the culivation and business perpectives of my new found business idea as well. Although I do have the opportunity now (after finally serving all my time) to get my drug felony dropped to a lessor degree; I still stand by my belief system of organic medicinal herbs. Therefore still disagreeing with the fact that my husband and I were in as much trouble as we were for somthing as simple as cultivating 3 plants for strickly medicinal purposes as I was getting off all the 9 different prescription drugs I was on at one time. In my opinion we need to worry about those horrible drugs that are distributed all over by so called doctors today instead of this war on cannabis as a “drug”.
At just 26 years old I already have arthiritus throughout my body starting in my spinal area, severe anxiety disorder/agoraphobia to an extent, and severe “unknown” stomach issues. You know what truly helps me with these issues at hand ??? Not 9 diferent prescriptions on a daily basis which in turn only cause more helath related issues; but pure, organically grown marijuana. That is the ONLY TRUE MEDICATION that works for me and plenty of others in my same health related circumstances.
Please, please take the stand and help this issue as soon as possible!!!
My Brightest Blessings to you and your future plans.
Sincerely Hopeful,
-Mandy M. Kaser
Dec 10th, 2008
Patrick Johnson
Marijuana is a plant, and a MIRACLE for some, not a drug. This “drug” is clearly far less dangerous than alcohol, less damaging than tobacco, and less profitable for the government than either. This could CHANGE. Legalization, regulation, and taxation of cannabis could possibly generate more revenue for the government than either alcohol or tobacco.
Responsible marijuana users are no more of a threat to themselves or others than a baby! The only threat is drug dealers. Marijuana users find themselves associating with drug dealers that may sell other, more harmful substances. If Americans could purchase their pot from a safe, secure source, there would be no chance of exposure to these hard drugs. The drug war would not have to bother with marijuana users or sellers if it were legalized, law enforcement could focus more on drugs that are a real problem.
I rest my case. Thank you for your time taken on reading this.
Sincerely, Patrick Johnson, a happy camper.
Dec 11th, 2008
Dawn Striegel
President Elect Barack Obama
First, I would like to congratulate you on your election. I prayed for you as well as voting for you.
I, like many others, have been a marijuana user for over 25 years. I used it for medicinal purposes such as anxiety, back pain, and to help me sleep. After failing a drug test for work, I had to undergo drug and alcohol meetings, stop smoking or risk losing my job, and ask my doctor for prescription pain medicine and anxiety meds. These medications only make me feel worse, by not taking away the pain, being constipated with no appetite, sleepless nights, and most of all withdrawal after deciding they were causing me more harm than good. I do not use other drugs such as cocaine or heroine, I don’t care for these prescription pain killers or even xanax for anxiety, and I don’t even like drinking alcohol. Yet, I am stuck in a society that will allow prescription drugs like Methadone, Oxycotin, Lortab, Xanax, Valium, and many others that aren’t addictive but are labeled Phsychotherapeutic drugs such as Zoloft or Prozac, to be used and abused. I believe these drugs to be way more harmful to the mind and body than marijuana.
The cost of prohibition I believe is a senseless waste of the American’s Tax dollars as well as a senseless waste of our court systems time and money. Why should the drug lords profit from the use when the U.S. can generate an enormous amount of profit just from people like myself?
I shouldn’t be prosecuted for smoking marijuana in the privacy of my home and it is not anyone’s business what I do with my personal time. For instance, it’s okay to drink a couple of martini’s but it’s not okay to smoke a joint and then go into work the next day worrying that I may have a suprise drug test awaiting me. I feel this is a total violation of my rights as a citizen of the great U.S. and my question is, what are you going to do about it?
Sincerely, Dawn Striegel
Dec 11th, 2008
Brian Garfield
Dear President Obama;
I have had primary progressive multiple sclerosis with constant
pain for over ten years now. My doctor is getting paranoid of the DEA for prescribing pain meds for me. Without them, I would be even more miserable than I already am. I’d like for you to do two things for me. 1) Please tell the DEA to ease up on doctors that are treating their chronic pain patients, and 2)
please also tell the DEA to stop raiding the medicinal marijuana
co-ops where it is legal to have them. If you could make it for the entire country to have access for medicinal marijuana for certain disorders, it would help out millions of Americans.
You’re the man, and I truly hope that you can help us all.
Best regards
Dec 11th, 2008
Jared Clark
Wow guys keep it up. We want it to be legalized!
Dec 12th, 2008
Rebecca Shaw
Very professional and accurate!
Thank you for all of your hard work and for making our voices heard!
Dec 14th, 2008
sam spradlin
mr. president….please make marrijuana legal in all states. i live in ny and am on very heavy narcotics oxycontin and just went through hell with methadone withdrawal my dr. prescribed for degenerative disc disease. marijuana will not only help people like me and help the economy.i see more crack cocaine problems that need to be addressed. government grown marrijuana would take care of illegal sales and be observed as something that helps people.i am 54 yrs old.there is a elderly home here in elmira where a 70 yr. old woman was going to ny city and getting marrijuana for residents in the home with extreme pain and cancer,,,she went to jail! marinol is legal …a derivitive of marrijuana so DO YOU SEE ‘the wrong in this picture?” please please legalise it for the economy and generations to come.
thank you
samuel spradlin
Dec 16th, 2008
sam spradlin
i did not read ALL of the above letters but i see that most are medically disabled as i am and drs. are afraid to prescribe drugs because of dea. my medical and pain management drs. both go along with legalization. why take a heroin synthetic as methadone for pain when 1 joint twice a day takes care of the pain.i am so angry with bush wasting money in iraq when it seems to me that the citizens of the united states need rebuilding and help. bring OUR SOLDIERS HOME and point our missiles to iraq or napalm the suspected cells as was done in viet nam. i am a vet and this war will be another viet nam. i got off the subject but let ALL that wants or needs marrijuana legalized come to washington to testify and see the millions show up in your new front yard. if alcohol was the issue….i assure you not many would show up because of deaths in their familys because of it or the alcoholics would not be physically able to make it there after spending there money on binges and not eating or in the hospital because of alcohol.
thank you again
samuel spradlin
Dec 16th, 2008
john
legalize it
Dec 17th, 2008
karen
LEGALIZE MARIJUANA.THANK YOU.AND MY EXTREMELY PAINFUL BODY THANKS YOU.
Dec 17th, 2008
Mark J. Choplin
Hi,
I’m writing to you to affirm your work with all the suffering patients both young and old. Because of the shortsightedness of State / Federal government, who protect the Alcohol / Cigarette and/or Medical application of Class 1 drugs ( which marijuana is still included ) for their own profits. What a twisted world we live in !
Why can’t someone who is severely ill and in pain, be afforded the opportunity to grow their own medication ? Why can’t the Government tax the growth, sale and acquisition of Cannabis to pull the economy out of the hole that the bizarre politicians have allowed us to fall into ?
I was born in Camden County, N.J. in 1957 and became an addict in 1972. I used every drug under the sun. I went to the old ” Camden Detox ” in 1983, 1984, finally in 1985, sought recovery at the Salvation Army in Philadelphia. Served as a Group Leader there for the next two years, got custody of one of two children and worked at A.T.& T. until 1992. I became a productive taxpayer, although in PA., stayed sober, stopped smoking and started the Horticulture Program at the Philadelphia County Prison System from 1993-2002.
While watching PBS in 2003/2004, there was a young man, say 25 -35 years old, with blonde hair who was supporting a vote from a politician from New York on MED MARIJUANA, which ultimately failed. Although your efforts have been stoic, there wasn’t much to speak about when other politicians would not even open there minds to change. There was a Governor from Wisconsin or Iowa who slammed his congressional door in this man’s face stating to your representative,” that Marijuana was a gateway drug “. What a load of sh.. !
I also worked in detox at Livegrin, a rehab in Bensalem, Pa.. The entire time I stayed sober. Presently, I’m still sober ( except for the fact I had to move from N.J./ PA. to Eugene, Oregon to recover from my illness) (HIV). I would like to come home to see my other two children/family and be willing to testify in the State Assembly in N.J.or PA.. and/or Congress for the above listed action.
I was sent home to Phila. to recover, but I still couldn’t walk without the use of a walker/cane. After a suggestion from my son that Cannabis would heal me, we moved to Oregon in June of 2004. Within 4 months, I stopped using the walker/cane. My recovery has been a miracle. I still haven’t become an active addict again, and I regained the use of my arms/legs after smoking Cannabis. (Toxoplasmosis)
I beg to differ, based on all the help I afforded to others since 1985 ( 23 years 8 months 3 days of continuous sobriety ), in which I’ve continued to be a productive member of society. Please forward this message to this person as I offer my grateful thanks to you all. How can I help ?
HAPPY HOLIDAYS !!!!!!!!!!!!
Sincerely,
Mark J. Choplin
Eugene, Oregon
email :fetticus@yahoo.com
cc : mpp.org
Dec 18th, 2008
Steve Roadhouse
Legalize grass NOW!!!!
Dec 19th, 2008
Agust
Keep it up! Legalization is coming!
Dec 19th, 2008
Greg Jablonski
Dear President Obama,
Please support the legalization of Medical Marijuana ON THE FEDERAL LEVEL, so we can stop building prisons and can have the room to put real and violent criminals in jail…Rapists, Murderers, Bank Robbers, Muggers, Wife beaters, Drunk Drivers, The Mafia, the Bush Administration for War Crimes, Wall Street CEO’s, etc.
People who are trying to alleviate their physical pain legally are not criminals!!!!
Dec 21st, 2008
Breck Zimmerman
Dear President Elect Obama
First off let me cogradute you on your victory in the recent Presidential Election, and with the class in which you ran your campaign. I hope that you continue to show ther wisdom that you have and that your promise for change will be one that is beneficial to this great country. I hope that in the coming years of you administration that you and your cabinet will look closely at our current marijuana prohibition laws. It is clear that after almost 80 years of prohibition that our current laws are not working. As a nation we spend billions of dollars a year on the war against drugs and the only thing to come of it is the icarceration of more of our citizens, greater drug wars resulting in deaths thru out our world and more money being put into the hands of criminal organizatiions. In times of crisis it is those that think outside of the box that allow for progress and change, we have tried for the prohibiton of drugs for to long and in the process we have dragged this country and others downin the process. I ask you to please legalize marijuana and begin to deal with the real issues that plague this nation, and allow for the government to generate new taxes on marijuana and allow for one of the worlds oldest drugs to play some type of role in leading this nation into new light
Dec 21st, 2008
douglas crawford
With the recent beheadings of policemen in Mexico by the drug lord gangs, full and controlled legalization is an absolute must. In addition, for those who do purchase and use the illegal products from Mexico, you need to consider the type of people you are supporting. Maybe MPP should also write an open letter to all US pot uses and call for a boycott on use until the perpetrators of this haneous crime in Mexico and caught and exectued.
Dec 23rd, 2008
wilma morris
Congragulations Mr. Obama, I am a 58 year old women, who sent a letter to you asking for a job. I know I am in college now, but for me to be so old in school is a tragic reason. I got shot and couldn’t walk for years, I prayed for God to spare my life so that at least bless me to try at my dream again. I am a student at Merritt Cillege in Oakland Ca., thanks to the Department of Rehabilitation, which helps disabled people get back in the working field. I have been independent and somewhat dependant on government aid to help me and my 4 children.I have a disabled daughter that i know will be with me all my life. She has three children and she is a widow. It is hard for me All I want to do Mr. Obama is to work the rest of my life toward helping people. Mr. Obama, I have heard your speech about the rich and the middle class, well Mr Obama I happen to be one that is out of both ranges, I happen to be the poor one, one of a dozen million or so we need help. please don’t forget us. all the actress, actors, and rappers get paid a price that is very unfair to the people all are not talented and the corruption in the industry they think they are above the law, you promised a change. What individual is worth millions of dollars, when the economy is at zero. It hurts to know that the rich don’t pay for anything they get, nor do they pay taxes, WHY?, It hurts when your childs school is going to be shut down, and the schools that stay open will have no sports, because the children means nothing to this society now a days. please help us. the money: $200 million, $150 millions and all of the other outragous pays could go to our children and a better future. every athletic that gets paid millions, finds a way to get injured or give a bad reputation for our young children. the children sees and knows it. please help our children and the poor that has been overlooked for so many years. We the poor people is the ones thst makes the rich and the middle class able to walk on main street and the red carpet. It is so hard to get anyone to hear our hurt, I pray Mr Obama that this letter gets to you and at least look at it. I know me and my family don’t mean a thing to you, because we are no bodies, but I am begging you Mr. Obama to give me a chance to work for my pay.I dream each and everynight that I will someday be able to work in the Whitehouse, to be of service to my country and all the people of the USA.
Please, I am begging for a job, I am a student at Merritt College, this semester I am taking up Government and US Politics. I hope to do my internship in the whitehouse in the Political part pretaining to my major: Social Service Admnistration please answer me, please give me a chance. Wilma Jean Morris
8125 Birch St
Oakland,Ca. 94621
510-636-9112
510-706-1400
Dec 29th, 2008
Keith
I am asking you Mr. President-Elect to help stop the DEA raids on Medical Canabis Dispensary, Patients and the growers. Medical Marijuana should not be considered a drug and the DEA should not be raiding them. I read that you said that you will put the DEA to better use than having them raid marijuana
Dec 31st, 2008
Corey ONeill
Go to http://www.change.org
President Obama’s website for we the people to give input on what the government needs to do….. Decriminalizing Marijuana is one of the top priorities! We the people need to speak up and he will listen!!!!
This is Obama’s website….. let him know how we feel!!!!
There is an official vote on this website from 1/5-1/15
let him know what the top priority in this country is!
Jan 2nd, 2009
barbara ayers
marijuana should be legal for any one to use. the jails are full of good people that smoke marijuana. our nations first president washington grew his own for his use. whats up with this? our goverment is fighting a war that it will not win time to end this war against marijuna and make good for all.
Jan 4th, 2009
debra thomson
Dear Mr. President Obama,
I find it ridiculous that congress still is not voting to make marijuana legal while they get drunk on alcohol. if you put alcohol and marijuana side by side, Alcohol has more mean side effects and marijuana is the lesser of the two evils. its about time that marijuana, made by God, is made legal.
Recently 2 parents here in Charleston SC grew a few plants in their yard. One is sick with cancer. They got busted, the news reported that there was a $57,000.00 street value. That is ludicrous. they were growing it for themselves. its a felony. are we communists? where is the democracy, the freedom? the privacy?
this is insane! they grew it for health issues. its time to stop making a “weed” illegal. while there are hormones in our food (approved by the FDA)and we are sold pharmaceuticals that cause all kinds of deadly side effects, we are not allowed to help ourselves with the many health benefits that marijuana has???
the way the DEA is loosing its war with this drug war, isn’t it time to legalize this very safe drug? It’s like putting your finger in the damn and the great damn is already broken? shall we just build jails all over America for pot users???
we have drunk drivers on the road and drunken people running the states in the USA, but alcohol is legal. Please lift the veil off the eyes of our backward local and state leaders and take away the Federal offense, the felony for using marijuana which brings relief to the masses of people with cancer, migraines, IBS, MS, AIDS, etc.
Please end the stupidity! In the name of all that is good and Holy, for Gods sake, be the President that makes the world at peace again.
One thing, i have never heard of a Pot Smokers going on a killing spree. but ever since it became so very highly illegal in the 70’s our country has gone south as far as it can into the drug world.
what are people seeking? a place of peace? freedom of pain from disease?
i don’t know. i do know this though, marijuana would benefit more people then it would hurt families the way Alcohol does. and by the way, it’s great for Attention Deficit children.
Lets get the drug dealers off the streets, out of schools, off the street corners and make these drugs legal, clean, safe and easy to get either from growing it at home or from the pharmacy, a health food store or a doctor.
I have terrible migraines. i don’t use marijuana. i use a prescription drug. its a prescription narcotic and its not working anymore, but i still have the migraines. however if my doctor continues to write my prescription chances are the DEA will be all over his ass and he may even loose his license, but i will still be sick.
this is a stupid cycle. why can’t we just take the drugs that work and also ease up on doctors that try to help patients that are sick.
i had to watch my dad die of cancer, a slow, horrible death. the doctors even then were slow to hand him out drugs, even though he was dying, he might had gotten addicted…. that is crazy.
lets get government out of the medical business and let doctors do what is right. instead of constantly being afraid to prescribe real drugs that work on real diseases.
damn it I’m tired of my migraines, I’m tired of the prescription narcotics that don’t even work anymore, can you please make Pot, marijuana, weed or whatever our stupid small minded society calls it, make it legal, for all the people in this country that suffer from one disease or another.
i voted for you. I know you will make that change you promised, i voted for you because i believe in you. i believe that you will be that man, the brain, the gentlemen, the human being with a heart and soul.
when all the businessmen took over the white house and screwed the American public of their rights while leading us to over work, be sleep deprived and make us run until we are all washed out, chewed up and spit out!
I hope to God, you have what it takes to get the job done. A man of the people, elected by the people. Thank you for your time Mr President, I believe in you, sincerely, Debra Thomson.
A Patriotic All America