News » Obama #FAIL – POTUS Can’t Articulate a Defense for Federal MMJ Policy

Remember the traction that comedians and the opposing political party gained when that video of Obama’s teleprompter going out went viral on the Internet? Well, here’s another video of Obama stumbling through a response to a talking point, but this one is guaranteed not to go viral amongst the same group that propelled the first one to household joke status. Why? Because it involves marijuana.

What you’re seeing in the above video is a Q&A between a participant and the President that happened this week in Minnesota. On his current public tour, being called “Presidential Town Hall” meetings (in reality these are blatant campaign stumps, but such is the advantage of the incumbent), Obama was in Cannon Falls, Minnesota this week. One of the participants in the audience asked President Obama about federally legalizing medical marijuana (MMJ).

The stammering response shows that although he made big claims during his 2008 campaign and early days in office, the POTUS clearly can’t justify the change in stance his administrative policy has taken.

Here’s a written version of the question and the non-answer given:

Audience member: “If you can’t legalize marijuana, why can’t we just legalize medical marijuana, to help the people that need it?” Obama: “Well, you know, a lot of states are making decisions about medical marijuana. As a controlled substance, the issue then is, you know, is it being prescribed by a doctor, as opposed to, you know — well — – I’ll — I’ll — I’ll — I’ll leave it at that.”

It’s enlightening to realize that President Obama, who is arguably one of the world’s most articulate public speakers and who is definitely one of the most powerful statesmen to take the podium in recent memory.. it’s enlightening to see that he cannot articulate a simple response to a simple question about cannabis.

What’s so enlightening about it? The fact that what Obama cannot say is the simple truth. Something that Hillary Clinton had no problem accidentally letting slip in Mexico early this year: there’s too much money (for government) in prohibition.

What Obama cannot bring himself to publicly say is that too much of our government’s infrastructure, from federal to local, is dependent on marijuana being illegal. As I said in that earlier article regarding a lifting of prohibition, the entire paradigm of our nation’s law enforcement efforts (and abuses) would be changed. Whole departments of police units, including thousands of SWAT and undercover narc squads, would become useless. Like Treasury agents after prohibition’s end, armies of newly-obsolete law enforcers would need to find a new line of work.

In fact, to toot my own horn a little bit, I covered many of the political and economic ramifications that would rain down on the United States should marijuana suddenly become legalized in an article penned back in February.

Instead, what we get are stammering statesmen and contradictory, science-ignoring policy reports from the White House in the form of their 2011 National Drug Control Strategy.

In short, we get government at usual. It really doesn’t matter who’s at the helm or making the public speeches. In the end, policies don’t really change much. Too many people have their hand in the marijuana prohibition cookie jar for that policy to change easily.

[source Activist Post]

Tags: legalization, medical cannabis, medical marijuana, MMJ, president obama