Team Obama Says “No” to Legalizing Marijuana
December 16th, 2008 by Alex
A few people have written to us for an opinion on the recently updated ‘Open for Questions‘ feature on the President-elect’s official Change.gov website.
It’s a pretty simple format. People submit questions that they would like answered by Obama’s transition team, then those questions are voted up or down depending on their popularity / relevance. The 5 most voted on questions then get answered.
Out of the 5, here is the question that most of us are interested in:
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.? – S. Man, Denton
And here is the transition team’s expansive response:
President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana.
It might not be the answer we wanted, but at least their reasoning is clear. And by clear, I mean non-existent.
Before everyone gets worked up about this, let’s think about the venue more than the response. Is a Change.gov blog post really going to be the launching point for an incoming administration’s marijuana policy? I don’t believe so.
Instead, this feels more like a boilerplate response than a final answer. Out of all 5 questions, the marijuana response was the shortest answer (only 1 sentence) and there was no attempt made to delve into any of the root issues.
In other words, this isn’t what marijuana progressives wanted to see, but it’s not an end-all / be-all either. I’m sure the MPP, NORML and LEAP will all continue to push just as hard for marijuana reform. I also bet they’ll hold the incoming administration accountable for a logical and thorough response to the legalization movement as a whole.
