Gary Johnson, former Republican governor of New Mexico, announced his presidential candidacy today. Will his presence in the 2012 race have an impact on President Obama’s marijuana politics?
Johnson’s not your typical Republican candidate. As you’re bound to hear, the libertarian, an ally of Ron Paul’s, strays from traditional party politics by supporting gay civil unions, totally rejects Birther arguments, believes abortion should be a woman’s choice, doesn’t attend church (a big draw for GOP voters), and backs marijuana legalization.
More than just supporting legalization, though, Johnson admits to using weed both as a youth and more recently: between 2005 and 2007, after a paragliding accident, even though medical marijuana was at that point still illegal in New Mexico.
Said Johnson to The Weekly Standard journalist John McCormack, “Rather than using painkillers, which I have used on occasion before, I did smoke pot, as a result of having broken my back, blowing out both of my knees, breaking ribs, really taking about three years to recover.”
Considering Johnson’s candor on cannabis, it’s hard to imagine his presence in the race not having an impact on President Obama, who once claimed legalization was “worth a serious debate,” yet still backs Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Justice’s hardline against potential legislation.
“If passed, this legislation will greatly complicate federal drug enforcement efforts to the detriment of our citizens,” Holder said of California’s failed ballot initiative to legalize marijuana, which he and his team promised to oppose.
In addition to this spotty track record, Obama also just put the kibosh on letting town hall participants vote on which questions he’ll be asked, because everyone kept asking about marijuana legalization, and apparently he doesn’t want to have to deal with weed.
While the President loves to claim he’s “evolving” on grass—just like he’s “evolving” on marriage equality—he hasn’t gone far enough to prove his commitment to an increasingly popular cause, and Johnson’s adamant politics may very well force Obama’s hand.
April 21, 2011 at 5:17 pm, Jedi said:
I’ve pretty much given up on Obama making even the smallest effort toward a serious examination of cannabis legalization impact on our nation’s health, economy, environment, industrial and social issues. If he would just appoint a commission to study the situation I would be happy.
Obama Fail.
Johnson 2012!
April 22, 2011 at 7:08 pm, Anonymous said:
It would be reinventing the wheel to appoint a blue ribbon panel to “study” the issue of cannabis re-legalization. We’ve got several that have already done so. Not only that they date back to the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission report which was published in 1894.
Subsequently the LaGuardia Commission in the 1940s, the Scaeffer Commission in 1972, and a 2002 panel commissioned by the Canadian Senate which was published in 2002. Every single one of these came down squarely in favor of re-legalization.
It might have sneaked in without you noticing, but the US is worse than flat broke. Standard & Poor issued a warning about US government debt. This is the first time in the history of the US that the “full faith and credit of the United States of America” has been seriously questioned.
We’ve squandered over a trillion with a T dollars on the epic failure of public policy which we call the war on (some) drugs just since cold, gloomy day in in 1970 when the DEA opened its doors.
Since 1970 we’ve never been anywhere in the vicinity of being able to fantasize about paying the debt down, so we’re still paying interest to the tune of $55-60 billion each year in interest. If we don’t throw another penny into the rat hole of prohibition we’re going to spend another trillion with a T dollars in less than 20 years.
After the pillaging of the Treasury by the dork President and his faithful ward Dick there’s no way possible for the US is going to start paying down the debt anytime soon. We’re going to be paying interest for decades to come for money squandered decades ago.
Wait, it gets worse. We don’t have the money to pay those interest charges, so we have to borrow the money to keep our obligation current. Are there people that borrow from Citibank to pay off American Express that don’t end up in bankruptcy court?
I’ve been reminded that sometimes you have to borrow until it hurts to fix something that might kill you regardless of whether you can afford it or not, with World War 2 being a prime example. I agree that prosecuting WW2 qualified as one of those circumstances. But it took the US 3 years and 9 months to dispatch Messrs. Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito and their axis of evil. In 2 years we’ll have a century of this epic failure of public policy under our belt. Well unless you count from the first law against opium smoking by Chinese immigrants, that was passed in 1875. I’m counting since 1913 when California criminalized cannabis in order to get rid of the Mexicans. Sheesh, Know Nothing prohibitionists can’t even get racism to work right. The last time I looked, California was up to its eyeballs in Mexicans.
What have we gotten for that borrowed and squandered money? Well drugs are much more affordable today. Adjusted for inflation all black market MADs are less expensive than in 1970. With the exception of cocaine which is freakin’ cheaper in nominal dollars for the love of god.
We’ve been blessed with several red headed step children of prohibition. Crack cocaine was invented so that black market cocaine vendors could verify that their coke wasn’t just milk sugar.
There wasn’t any black market demand for methamphetamine in 1970.
Recently prohibition has delivered the invention of synthetic cannabis and synthetic cocaine.
In addition to being less expensive drugs are now widely available on demand in almost every nook and cranny of the country. In 1970 they didn’t smoke merrywanna in Muskogee, nor did they take their trips on LSD. In 2011 there is a thriving 24/7/365 trade in street meth in Muskogee OK, with heroin/oxycodone and cocaine being just slightly less available. The cartels have started building a Navy.
Drugs are much more potent than in 1970. Back then a junkie would have been lucky to get heroin that was 10% pure. Today forensic lab techs don’t even bat an eye when the end users heroin tests at 80%.
Cheaper, more widely available on demand, and significantly more potent. I thought the DEA was started to get rid of drugs, not to make sure everyone could get them and more easily afford them. I think they call that a “heckuva job”.
We don’t have the money to squander on the wheel’s reinvention. It’s a bald faced lie that we don’t have the data needed to make the right decision and end the war on (some) drugs. There’s no reason to believe that a regulated retail distribution chain would look anything different than it did in the US in the 1800s when cannabis was legal and popular. Every major US city had hash parlors operating and mail order for the rural folks. It was such a non problem that an incredibly large percentage of Americans think that cannabis was invented in 1964 by the Beatles and Bob Dylan.
If you want a first hand accounting of the market for recreational cannabis in the 1800s you can pick up a copy of “The Hasheesh Eater” by Fitz Hugh Ludlow, first published in 1857. It should be less than $20 at Amazon.
Well sorry for the length of my screed but it’s positively brain dead to continue with a public policy which is not only unachievable, we move further and further back from the starting line with every day that we delay doing the right thing. In the 1930s the people who promoted the failure of drinking alcohol prohibition looked at the catastrophe that they had wrought on this country, man up, and move on to try to find something that worked. In 2011 those in favor of the war on (some) drugs can’t admit its failure despite the overwhelming evidence that it is indeed an utter, and abject failure in the past, and a guaranteed failure in the future.
April 21, 2011 at 5:52 pm, Rarian Rakista said:
Obama is a DINO, who cares?
What we need is an honest talk about a unicameral legislature and stop sending the troop of red senators from small states in, they are the ones over the long term who have hurt this country the most. Why the hell should Alaska have the same sway in our upper house than California?
April 21, 2011 at 6:28 pm, Anonymous said:
He’ll have my vote.
April 21, 2011 at 6:57 pm, john charles webb jr said:
REFRESHING !!! TO HAVE ;REAL’ CANDIDATES
WHO TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT THEMSELVES AND WHO ALSO ‘TAKE A STAND’ :
BRAVO FOR GARY JOHNSON .
April 21, 2011 at 8:33 pm, Anonymous said:
Yes. Gary Johnson is a terrific candidate for president. I observed how he propelled marijuana reform in New Mexico, and he was brilliant.
Obama has proved to be totally craven on marijuana policy, and frankly, I believe he is in the pockets of the marijuana-prohibition-industrial-complex. So, YES, Governor Johnson. You can likely win with this issue. SAMHSA research shows that more than 100 million Americans have consumed marijuana. That’s near HALF the of-age population. It’s a winner for any political hopeful with the courage to stand up for the right thing.
Just please, Governor Johnson, don’t attack Social Security and/or Medicare. They are the two most beloved, needed, and functional programs that exist in our government.
April 22, 2011 at 3:08 pm, Anonymous said:
If Gary Johnson stands for the legalization of Marijuana, he has my vote.
April 22, 2011 at 3:17 pm, Clifton Middleton said:
Free Market Hemp will be the determining factor in the 2012 elections. Industrial hemp is a 2 Trillion dollar a year industry that has been repressed by the oil industry since 1937. Hemp can replace foriegn oil as a source of fuel and provide millions of jobs processing and manufacturing fuel, food, fiber, medicine and recreation. We can deliver 5 percent of the vote to any man or woman willing to support our righteous cause. The elections will be close and 5 percent will select the next president. We can do this, Yes, We Can
April 23, 2011 at 12:08 am, Leogouk said:
Legalizing Cannabis?!
Ending wars in Iraq, Afghanistan?!
Woman’s Pro-Choice?!
No Tax increase?!
You have my vote at hello!!!
April 25, 2011 at 1:05 am, Dave Beall said:
Obama is a filthy prohibitionist, yuck.. I have a no-Tolerance-rule for prohibitionists.
To be honest, Obama lied.
It’s time we vote in a real American with Constitutional and moral values to ‘lead’ our country.
Congress is on the wrong path for Americans and America, but they do make a real effective world-wide-terrorist-entity that wages the War-on-People in the USA and around the world. If you let these criminal thugs keep going, all people in the world will be in prison or some kind of cage. The Congress will not stop until it controls the entire world and all the people in it.
The Congress has the power to stop this, but they refuse.
The President has the power to stop this, but he refuses.
They have left us, the people, no choice, but to take over operations.