Rep. Steven Cohen (D-TN) is NOT having it anymore. He is thoroughly done being overlooked and unheard after extraneous efforts to forward the reform of marijuana laws in the US. Cohen has backed efforts to get back into step with the public opinion on marijuana and he has long been a proponent of ending the drug war. Well, Eric Holder had an open forum in form of a House oversight hearing this past Wednesday, (May 15th, 2013) and he was unprepared for the feedback that Cohen had prepared.
While most other doddering bobble heads in the halls of Congress pinned Holder on the recent scandals concerning the invasion of privacy committed against the Associated Press and also the "outrageous" unfair targeting of Tea Party groups applying for their tax-exempt statuses, Cohen quietly brooded over The Justice Department's refusal to acknowledge the public favor of medicinal marijuana programs and the States' rights to decide best practice regarding marijuana policy. When given the opportunity, Rep. Cohen had this to say,
"One of the greatest threats to liberty has been the government taking people’s liberty for things that people are in favor of. The Pew Research Group shows that 52 percent of people do not think marijuana should be illegal. And yet there are people in jail, and your Justice Department is continuing to put people in jail, for sale, and use, on occasion, of marijuana. That’s something the American public has finally caught up with. It was a cultural lag. And it’s been an injustice for 40 years in this country to take people’s liberty for something that was similar to alcohol. You have continued what is allowing the Mexican cartels power, and the power to make money, ruin Mexico, hurt our country by having a Prohibition in the late 20th and 21st century. We saw it didn’t work in this country in the 20s. We remedied it. This is the time to remedy this Prohibition, and I would hope you would do so."
Holder's response to this has not been widely documented, though if it followed suit with his previous comments regarding this issue, it would sound something along the lines of, "We're getting around to it". Despite his assurance after the votes were in from CO and WA showing that the people's voice says to legalize marijuana that a Federal response would be provided, it has been six months with no clear statement from the Administration.
Regional Federal officials, however, have started a response of their own in the form of a crackdown on established dispensaries and new businesses. They have threatened and raided hundreds of dispensaries in the past term of Obama and this term looks to be no different in their mind.
It is our RESPONSIBILITY to tell them in a loud voice that the actions performed by the DOJ and Federal Law Enforcement in Obama's first term are NOT going to fly in the second. We have the power and our voice is starting to increase in volume as we make steady gains in legalizing medicinal marijuana as well as recreational marijuana use among responsible adults in our own States.
Contact your elected officials today and tell them that you are PRO full legalization of marijuana!
