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May 17, 2013
Nixon and Obama; a Comparison
For over eight years, this blog has focused on the benefits "medical marijuana" applicants have derived from their use of (federally illegal) cannabis under the aegis (protection) of Proposition 215. More recently, it has aired cautionary opinions about the human cognitive function that has endorsed the American ban on weed through UN Treaty.Unfortunately, Prop 215's "protection" has been dubious at best. Although now in its seventeenth year, the DEA and NIDA, federal agencies created by President Richard Nixon to enforce and protect his questionably legitimate drug war, are still tall in the saddle. Also, given his record of waffling on the subject, it would be a stretch to imagine that "Barack the Uncertain," the first admitted toker (non-white in the bargain!) to become an American President, would exercise the power of his office to restrict the DEA in any way.
When one learns additionally that the DEA was created by Nixon's Executive Order in 1973, Obama's position becomes even more hypocritical. Didn't he specialize in Constitutional Law while at at Harvard? I guess intellectual honesty wasn't included.
Obama's waffling on medical marijuana is especially troubling to me in light of what I've discovered (and often blogged about): the heretofore unrecognized role of biological fathers in the emotional health of their children. Obama himself is a prime example of that Paternal Deprivation Syndrome; he was raised by a single mother; the only time he even met his biological father was to say good-bye at an airport when he was 10 and Barack Sr. was headed back to Africa- where he would die in an automobile accident.
Unfortunately, neither Obama nor those with an interest in "legalizing" the use of cannabis know how clearly that connection emerges from my data.
Given the budget disparity between Nixon's DEA and the highly fragmented drug policy reform movement, that's not a surprise. Nor does it prevent us from understanding how the "liberal" Obama can order the use of drones to kill suspected terrorists in Afghanistan: didn't Richard Nixon expand LBJ's contrived Gulf of Tonkin Resolution into an order for B-52s to bomb Cambodia and Laos?
Nor sadly, does here seem to be any limit on the use of terror governments can "legally" employ, once a properly worded law has been is on the books. How long did it take for military-style SWAT team raids to become SOP against suspected marijuana "grows," even in "medical marijuana" states. Lest anyone point out their use has declined in the past few years, Obama appointee Melinda Haag has been shutting down pot "dispensaries" by simply threatening owners who refuse to evict them with forfeiture and 40 years in prison!
Is that a tactic our founders would have endorsed? Not likely.
The next entry will discuss why an incredible appointment by Washington State has finally convinced me that the likelihood of
meaningful change in American drug policy before humans finally decide the threat of accelerated climate change is real are- at best- 50-50, about the same as the chance Obama will restrict the police powers of Nixon's DEA before leaving office.
Doctor Tom
Doctor Tom
Posted by tjeffo at May 17, 2013 07:50 PM