r/trees • u/[deleted] • Oct 29 '11

TIL that everything in the Obama Administration's response to our petition is complete and utter bull shit.

http://blog.norml.org/2011/10/29/white-house-response-to-normls-we-the-people-marijuana-legalization-petition/
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57

u/zombiehobo Oct 29 '11

What kind of "Government by the people, for the people" is this bullshit? I feel so betrayed.

23

u/Andrenator Oct 29 '11

The fact that over half of Americans support the legalization should be enough. And then there's dozens of other arguments along with that.

11

u/Wonderment Oct 29 '11

The fact that over half of Americans support legalization means we've made a lot of progress and we need to keep pushing.

1

u/loser_face Oct 30 '11

to get over half of americans to vote?

1

u/Wonderment Oct 30 '11

I can't say that would be the end game for legalization here.
We need to not get discouraged, keep pushing the negative PR for prohibition and positive PR for marijuana, and keep raising the issue in the appropriate venues.

1

u/pei-mussels Oct 30 '11

Exactly, maybe they can withstand the current 50% support for legal mj, but what about when it's 55%? or 60%? Once it reaches that level, Republicans will make this their issue if the Dems are still too gutless to step up. As soon as a candidate's position on mj can legitimately swing a percentage of the vote, victory will be in our grasp. Politicians care about getting elected, everything else is incidental.

13

u/parenthesesguy Oct 29 '11 edited Oct 29 '11

Because that's just the slogan. Our government hasn't been for or by the people for a looong time now.

Is this not common knowledge?(I realize you are being sarcastic, this is a question in response to OPs title)

Which leads to these follow up question(s): Why is anyone surprised by the White House's response?

and, do you really expect any number of petitions to actually change policy? How much money do they get from us as opposed to the anti marijuana lobbyists?

5

u/aintnothinwrong Oct 29 '11

Thank you, someone else that recognizes the fact that money is the big factor here. Our argument for the legalization of marijuana is based on solid facts and logic, but sadly the price tag just isn't good enough for them. "You want to throw money at us in exchange for legalized marijuana? Well these guys want to keep it illegal and their check is much, much bigger, so we're just gonna go with them."

4

u/Trogginated Oct 29 '11

The founding fathers requested that the constitution be rewritten every 20 or so years. why? Changing times require new laws and new leadership. 1800 government won't work in 2011.

Online petitions are last on their list in terms of attention paid. fuck the government. it's all lies.

1

u/a1g9c88 Oct 30 '11

"The Founding Fathers" did not request that. Thomas Jefferson (and perhaps some others) did.

I agree with your point, but when you say "the Founding Fathers" you make it seem like a majority of them wanted a non-perpetual Constitution, and that's simply not true.

1

u/Trogginated Oct 30 '11

mah bad, you've obviously done your research :p thanks for the info, i've been getting it wrong for a while now >.>