(Cannabis News) A forthcoming biography on President Obama is making headlines, with new details about the president smoking marijuana with his teenage friends in Hawaii.

David Maraniss’ book, Barack Obama: The Story, describes Obama as a marijuana enthusiast: “When a joint was making the rounds, he often elbowed his way in, out of turn, shouted ‘Intercepted!’ and took an extra hit,” Maraniss writes. Maraniss also describes Obama’s technique of “roof hits” while hot-boxing cars. “When the pot was gone, they tilted their heads back and sucked in the last bit of smoke from the ceiling,” he writes. Obama has been less than shy about his drug use in the past, writing about the topic in Dreams from My Father, “Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it,” he writes in the memoir.

(NORML) The internet was ablaze yesterday with talk of President Obama’s youthful pot use. Which is odd, considering the only thing atypical about Obama’s high school years is how common and relatable they seem.

We encourage you to make your voice heard as an American voter and let the White House know this is an issue you consider to be of importance in this election. It is time those in Washington realize supporting rational reforms to our country’s marijuana laws can win them support at the ballot box.

RT!: @BarackObama: It’s time to have your “marijuana moment” #LegalizeIt2012 #DescheduleMJ – http://bit.ly/Kb3EAk
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(NORML) New insight into the early life of Barack Obama has been recently made available in the form of excerpts from the forthcoming biography, “Barack Obama: The Story.” Apparently young Barry Obama, like countless of his contemporaries, enjoyed partaking in the use of marijuana. The president even was a trendsetter amongst his peers:

As a member of the Choom Gang, Barry Obama was known for starting a few pot-smoking trends. The first was called “TA,” short for “total absorption.”

Along with TA, Barry popularized the concept of “roof hits”: when they were chooming in the car all the windows had to be rolled up so no smoke blew out and went to waste; when the pot was gone, they tilted their heads back and sucked in the last bit of smoke from the ceiling.

He also was unafraid to go against proper smoking protocol:

Barry also had a knack for interceptions. When a joint was making the rounds, he often elbowed his way in, out of turn, shouted “Intercepted!,” and took an extra hit. No one seemed to mind.

(420 Times) We reported recently on a poll that shows 74% of Americans supporting medical marijuana laws. In politics that is more than a super-majority. Yet President Obama continues his crackdown on medical marijuana, decimating the industry and denying hundreds of thousands of people – if not millions – legal protection their state has bestowed upon them.

As I’ve been saying for almost a year, where is the political upside in this for Obama? Can you point to any political gains the President will get from this policy?

As the media turns up the heat on Obama’s medical marijuana crackdown, one of the excuses he’s giving is that they’re just going after businesses that are violating state laws. In the President’s own words:

The only tension that’s come up – and this gets hyped up a lot – is a murky area where you have large-scale, commercial operations that may supply medical marijuana users, but in some cases may also be supplying recreational users. [Rolling Stone]

And again from someone at the Dept. of Justice

After Kimmel’s speech, a Holder deputy told HuffPost that there was no coordinated war on medical marijuana, but that some individual clinics were breaking both state and federal laws. [Huffington Post]

Andrew Sullivan even gives a nod to this notion:

To be fair to Obama, he specifically said the policy was against those abusing the medical marijuana law to sell illegally. And some blame can be attached to the disorderly way in which medical marijuana laws have been enforced.

This excuse fails on like five different levels. The escalating assault on medical marijuana that’s been ramped up over the past year is far from focused on forcing out bad businesses. If it were that simple, there wouldn’t be much to argue about. States could simply clarify their policies where necessary, medical marijuana providers could maintain scrupulous compliance, and only the crooks and bums in the industry would have anything to worry about, right? Wrong.

Read more: http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy/2012/apr/30/ugly_truth_about_obamas_war_medi

President Barack Obama touted a progressive attitude on medical marijuana on the campaign trail, but since taking office, Obama’s administration has hardened its stance and supporters of the drug are crying foul on the flip-flop.

In a March 2008 interview, Obama told the OregonMail Tribunethat medical marijuana ranked low on his list of priorities.

“I think the basic concept of using medical marijuana for the same purposes and with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors, I think that’s entirely appropriate,” Obama said. “I’m not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue.”

But the numbers tell another story.

Since October 2009, Americans for Safe Access, a group committed to legalizing medical marijuana, estimates the Justice Department has carried out 170 raids on dispensaries and cultivation facilities in nine states.

“Every time a dispensary is shut down, there are literally hundreds of people waking up that day wondering where they will get their medication,” saysKris Hermes, the spokesperson for the Americans for Safe Access.

Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-201204121125usnewsusnwr201204110411whisper1apr12,0,4939297.story

From a fantastic op-ed in Huffington Post written by Cesar Gaviria, former president of Colombia and member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy; Ernesto Zedillo, former president of Mexico and member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy; and Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president of Brazil and chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy:

Our second core recommendation — which is more complex but just as important for ensuring peace and public safety — is to encourage experimentation with different models of legal regulation of drugs, such as marijuana, in similar ways to what is already done with tobacco and alcohol.

Research has consistently demonstrated that marijuana is a less harmful drug than tobacco or alcohol. Regulation is not the same as legalization. This is a critical point. Regulation is a necessary step to create the conditions for a society to establish all kinds of restrictions and limitations on the production, trade, advertising and consumption of a given substance to deglamorize, discourage and control its use.

The stunning reduction in the consumption of tobacco in the Americas shows that prevention and regulation are more efficient than prohibition and punishment.

Regulation cuts the link between traffickers and consumers. It is this link that enables traffickers to impel people to use ever more harmful drugs. Since marijuana is by far the most widely consumed illicit drug in the world, regulation would also significantly reduce the vast resources — and thus the vast power and influence — generated by organized crime in the illegal drug markets.

So what did our Vice President, Joe Biden, have to say about that strategy last month when he visited Latin America?  You know, Joe Biden, who as senator was the man who brought us mandatory minimum sentences, the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity, the abomination of civil asset forfeiture, and creation of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (aka The Drug Czar)?

(Drug War Chronicle) “It’s worth discussing, but there is no possibility the Obama/Biden administration will change its policy on legalization,” he said after meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

“It’s worth debating in order to lay to rest some of the myths that are associated with the notion of legalization. The debate always occurs, understandably, in the context of serious violence that occurs with the society, particularly in societies that don’t have the institutional framework and the structure to deal with organized, illicit operations,” he said in remarks reported by the Associated Press and McClatchy Newspapers.

Read more: http://stash.norml.org/former-latin-american-presidents-agree-legalize-marijuana

Back when he was running for president in 2008, Barack Obama insisted that medical marijuana was an issue best left to state and local governments. “I’m not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue,” he vowed, promising an end to the Bush administration’s high-profile raids on providers of medical pot, which is legal in 16 states and the District of Columbia.

But over the past year, the Obama administration has quietly unleashed a multi­agency crackdown on medical cannabis that goes far beyond anything undertaken by George W. Bush. The feds are busting growers who operate in full compliance with state laws, vowing to seize the property of anyone who dares to even rent to legal pot dispensaries, and threatening to imprison state employees responsible for regulating medical marijuana. With more than 100 raids on pot dispensaries during his first three years, Obama is now on pace to exceed Bush’s record for medical-marijuana busts. “There’s no question that Obama’s the worst president on medical marijuana,” says Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. “He’s gone from first to worst.”

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/obamas-war-on-pot-20120216#ixzz1mZx2TGby