Feds Still Attacking Medical Marijuana

I am a supporter of President Obama, and I hope he is re-elected to serve a second term. But that doesn't mean I agree with everything he does. And I am particularly upset when he ignores a campaign promise -- a promise the Republicans in Congress could not keep him from completing.

When he was running for president in 2008, Barack Obama said he would stop the federal government's war on medical marijuana (in the states where it is legal). He has not done that. Instead, he has continued the Bush administration policy of ignoring the state laws and going after those who grow and sell medical marijuana.

In fact, his administration now proposes to go even further to attack medical marijuana than Bush did. After getting some bad publicity for going after the sellers of medical marijuana to cut off the supply to sick people (which is no surprise, since over 50% of the population now wants marijuana legalized and a much larger percentage (about 3/4) wants marijuana approved for medical use), the government is changing its tactics -- and the new tactic is downright sneaky.

The government now proposes to go after the owners of the property housing medical marijuana shops. They are pressuring the landlords to either shut down the shops renting their property, or risk losing those properties in a government seizure. They plan to use the law meant to stop drug lords by seizing their property. That property of the drug lords was originally thought to have been bought with illegal drug money.

This is a blatant misuse of the drug property seizure laws. These landlords did not purchase that property with drug money. They are just trying to make a living off the property they legally purchased, by renting it out to a business that is legal and selling a legal product (at least according to state law). If the government is not violating the letter of this law, it is certainly violating the meaning and original intention of the law.

This is just wrong. President Obama should be ashamed of himself -- both for breaking his campaign promise, and for misusing this property seizure law.