cannabisnews.com: Republican Congressman Joins Democrats
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Republican Congressman Joins Democrats
Posted by CN Staff on November 13, 2014 at 17:14:47 PT
By Ryan J. Reilly
Source: Huffington Post
Washington, D.C. -- Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), one of the strongest conservative voices for reforming the government’s approach to cannabis, joined with a group of Democrats on Thursday in calling for Congress to stand aside and allow the legalization of marijuana to go into effect in the nation’s capital.D.C. voters overwhelmingly backed Initiative 71, which legalizes possession of up to 2 ounces of marijuana for adults aged 21 and over, as well as limited at-home cultivation, earlier this month. (Sales of the drug are still banned.) Congress has 60 days to review the legislation, but it is unlikely that it would pass a bill and get the president to sign it during that limited window.
However, Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) has threatened to try to sabotage the initiative by attaching a rider to another piece of legislation that could prevent legalization from going into effect. And D.C. Mayor-elect Muriel Bowser previously suggested that she believes there should be legislation passed to regulate and tax marijuana before Congress reviews the legalization measure.Democratic Reps. Earl Blumenauer (Ore.), Jared Polis (Colo.) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (District of Columbia) held a press conference on Thursday to call on Congress to stand back and allow legalization to move forward in D.C., as it has in Colorado and Washington state.“I ask the House and Senate to respect the D.C. marijuana legalization initiative that comes straight from the votes of two-thirds of the people of my district,” Holmes Norton said.Polis told reporters he believes there will be a working majority to stop any amendments that would block D.C. legalization from going into effect. Many Republicans joined Democrats in May in voting for an amendment that blocked the Drug Enforcement Administration from targeting medical marijuana facilities that complied with state laws."I think we can work together to muster a bipartisan majority to avert any backdoor mechanisms to prevent the will of the D.C. voters from being implemented," Polis said.Rohrabacher appealed to his Republican colleagues to rethink their approach to recreational marijuana laws as well, noting that “things have really changed in Washington” on cannabis issues.“My message to my fellow Republicans is: Wake up and see where the American people are, but also see what the fundamental principles are in this debate. The fundamental principles are individual liberty, which Republicans have always talked about, limited government, which Republicans have always talked about, the doctor-patient relationship, which of course we’ve been stressing a lot about lately, and of course states’ rights and the 10th Amendment," he said.“I’m very proud that 50 of us finally got the message that making sure that people have the right, or at least the states have a right, to make the determination on this particular issue is more consistent with our philosophy of letting the states make the criminal justice decisions that our founding fathers had in mind,” Rohrabacher said. “It is counterproductive to the welfare of the people of this country to have our limited resources … going to put in jail someone who’s smoking a weed in their backyard or something like that.”Rohrabacher said he hopes that Republicans will be persuaded not only by the philosophical case for allowing legalization to move forward, but the political practicality as well.“Just in the practical politics, let's understand that there’s been a big change -- a sea change -- in public attitude towards this, because people realize what a total waste of money it is compared to other priorities,” Rohrabacher said.“How much longer is it going to take until those … Republican leaders understand that this is not an issue that’s going to lose them votes?” Rohrabacher asked. "Members of the Republican Party just should become more practical, if nothing else. The American people are shifting on this issue, and this is going to make and could make a difference in the election of some very close races.""If I can't appeal to your philosophical natures and all these other things, come on over for just raw politics," he said. "The numbers are going this way now."Source: Huffington Post (NY)Author: Ryan J. ReillyPublished: November 13, 2014Copyright: 2014 HuffingtonPost.com, LLC Contact: scoop huffingtonpost.comWebsite: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/LHzjBsWjCannabisNews   -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #1 posted by Oleg the Tumor on November 16, 2014 at 08:12:02 PT
But they said this in 1937, didn't they?
"If I can't appeal to your philosophical natures and all these other things, come on over for just raw politics," he said. The numbers are going this way now."Now, I respect Rep. Dana Rohrabacher greatly. But to say that something should be done for "just raw politics" invites serious error.Isn't this what the Senators and Congressmen were told in 1937 regarding the banning of marijuana, "THE ASSASSIN OF YOUTH"? "… come on over for just raw politics, the numbers are going this way now." And so they did. And when raw politics prevails, those who are heavily invested have the best chance of prevailing.There was no one to speak up for the hemp farmers in 1937."Raw politics" prevailed on August 2, 1937. And here we are.And the truth? We have this terrific petroleum substitute available. It requires relatively little capital expenditure (compared to Big Oil, and just about any other industry)This is what should be driving the conversation, but it isn't. Why not? Because those who are heavily invested in Big Oil and Big Prohibition would rather it did not, that's why.And this is perhaps why the cannabis issue is limited to talking about marijuana – just one part of the plant.What about all the other products this plant can produce?Are we to ignore paper production, biofuels, and a dozen other industries that could be producing thousands of jobs?This is plain nuts.America needs growth, real growth. Not just the compounding of debt upon debt with cheap money.America needs the new industries that this plant can provide.This is why humans need leadership, to protect the many from the factional and well-off, few.We should all reread "The Federalist Papers" by James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. Maybe we will get an understanding of why this country was set up.The founding fathers took exception to previous governmental systems featuring kings, tyrants and their privileged, perpetual ass-kissing investors.This is what was meant by "American exceptionalism". It does not mean that we are better than everyone else, it means that we "took exception" to the criminal activities of governments in Europe to oppress the individual.George Washington knew that London spent the same amount on black ops each year (as a percentage of GDP) as they had for hundreds of years, back to the forcing of opium on China. They still do today.Those looking for a modern-day Babylon need seek no further than the City of London, the Bank of England, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds, Barclays and HSBC (Which Stands for Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corp.) for those of you who didn't know.The British military is famous for colluding with its banking sector and its media sector to keep the privileged on top and to exclude everyone else.So who really won the Revolutionary war?Not the hemp farmers, that's for sure.FREE THE PRISONER OF SCHEDULE ONE!
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