“I think the war on drugs has been a failure, and I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws.”
Now this is interesting; Presidential candidate Barack Obama made a statement about a week and a half ago (January 31st) clarifying his position on Marijuana decriminalization. Video of him at Northwestern University in 2004 showed a pro-decriminalization Obama; forward-thinking, and clear about his intentions. However, in a video from 2007, when asked for a show of hands on who supported Sen. Chris Dodd’s proposal for legalization, Obama seems unsure and only raises his hand halfway before lowering it back down.
Well, in this statement (from January 31st) Obama’s campaign clears the smoke, saying:
“[An Obama administration] will review drug sentences to see where we can be smarter on crime and reduce the blind and counterproductive sentencing of non-violent offenders.”
Seems pretty clear, right? Well, evidently this is not so–Obama retracted his “pro-decriminalization” statement to The Washington Times about 24 hours later. They then made it clear that Senator Obama doesn’t endorse eliminating criminal penalties for marijuana, and that the back-and-forth was due to confusion of the meaning of “decriminalization”. Obama’s latests position on the issue reads:
“If you’re convicted of a crime, you should be punished, but that we are sending far too many first-time, nonviolent drug users to prison for very long periods of time, and that we should rethink those laws”
So…that means that Hilary is anti-pot, Obama is slightly less anti-pot, McCain is anti-pot, and Mitt Romney is anti-pot/anti-MEDICAL pot. So whoever you vote for, don’t let it be Romney.
Who’s the best still running? Probably Ron Paul. He has always been clear on his position–he would end the Drug War. Pretty clear, eh?
Piece & Dubs
T.H.C.
Source: The Washington Times ( http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080201/NATION/43529865/0/FRONTPAGE )