Change.Gov ? Taxation of Marijuana

Not many Americans got to see or participate in the Change.Gov polls. At the time many of us were excited the "President of Change" wanted our opinions, what to change to better America. We answered, but did he respect the answers he received from America?

The first round of questions for the transition team's change.gov website came to a close at midnight. The question

""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.?"

is in the lead with 7,947 people liking this question, and 634 people not liking this question.

Overall the first round of questions generated a turnout of 978,947 votes on 10,303 questions from 20,462 people.

LINK

DoseNation had this information on the Change.Gov poll;

The first edition of President-elect Barack Obama's "Open for Questions" at change.gov has come to a close. His transition team will answer questions submitted by users that receive the most votes.

The question voted to #1 is:

"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.?"

16 of the top 50 questions were drug-policy related (mostly marijuana).

Obama's transition team has promised in a blog entry to answer these questions in the next couple of days.

LINK

President Obama actually did three polls, two by internet and one by phone. The number one suggestion was that he legalize marijuana, how did he respond?

“Will you consider legalizing cannabis/marijuana/hemp so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a multi-billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?”—DJ C, Chicago, IL

Open for Questions Response, 12/15/08: “President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana.”

LINK*

*Scroll to bottom of page to find the above quote.


The Real Reason Obama Won’t Support Marijuana Legalization

Much has been made of the fact that a marijuana legalization question was ranked #1 when President-elect Obama opened his Change.gov website up to questions from the public. In an open vote, the public spoke loudly and clearly that marijuana reform was the very first issue that the new President should address. For our trouble, we’ve been rewarded with the sorriest excuse for an answer that Obama’s transition team could possibly have provided:

Q: "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
A: President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana.
Care to elaborate? You see, we all knew what the answer was. The point was that we all wanted to know why. As frustrating and insulting as it is to witness an important matter brushed casually to the side without explanation, Obama’s answer actually says a lot. It says that he couldn’t think of even one sentence to explain his position. Within the vast framework of totally paranoid anti-pot propaganda, Obama couldn’t find a single argument he wanted to associate himself with. That’s why he simply said "No. Next question."
LINK

At this point many of us were disgusted and angry at the NO-Bama non-answer. Shortly after the infamous Change.Gov polls, I realized that to change this insane prohibition on Marijuana would take millions of Americans screaming for change. We are seeing more blogging and even more of the press is starting to state the war on marijuana is lost.
Now we have to get the Taxation of Marijuana past one of the slickest lobbyist organizations in the world, Law Enforcement. Not only does Law Enforcement have politicians ears, but they can make dishonest statements about the "Dangers of Marijuana" and it gets MSM coverage! These statements are in the nature of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) all they have to do is introduce statements to cause the general population to vote against marijuana. They do not need to prove their claims, nor do they want to debate the merits of their claims, just give a press release an start the FUD rolling.
One group we have to help us is LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and Norm Stamper a blogger at Huffington Post Seattles EX Police Chief.
As activists it is our duty to share with others the truth, marijuana is the safest herb on this planet and it has been used as such for 4,000 to 10,000 years. Only for the past 70 yrs has there ever been laws against Marijuana, it is past time to tax it!
Lets be politically correct, it is time for "The Taxation of Marijuana", the term legalization is to much a stigma.



Alaskan Dad