Kal Penn Defends Obama’s Record On Marijuana | TPM LiveWire

Speaking of duping young stoners, glad to see they’ve addressed it. After all, 18 years olds can google in any state of mind.

….And now for my response to the horseshit he actually said. (Evil evil grin here.)

Consistent? OK, even if I was to give that to him, something could just as easily be consistently bad as consistently good. It you just consistent, you aren’t saying which one it is. It’s a pretty weak and full of holes endorsement of a policy. It’s somewhat akin to me saying haters might be hateful but at least they are consistent.

Consistent. Let’s look at, shall we? What is true. Obama has consistently been against reforming drug laws. That is true.  For people interested in drug policy that is not necessarily a plus.

Enacting parts of the Dream Act through the side entrance is great and all but it has nothing to do with drug policy. It’s not far from trying to make a correlation that the Do’J’s efforts to put down some poll tax laws is an indication of how the administration is approaching drug policy. It isn’t. It’s be like saying Operation Fast and Furious is indicative of how the Do’J pursues the War on Drugs. Oh wait….

The actor-turn-wonk says that Obama has always been “not in favor” of the legalization of marijuana. Again, not necessarily something people who are interested in drug policy will think is a point in BHO’s favor. It’s not changed at all by the fact that he isn’t a flip-flopper on the issue.
Candidate Barack assured Rolling Stone  that he wouldn’t be using the government’s resources (ahem, like the Do’J) to interfere with state laws on medical marijuana. True to his espoused position, newly minted 44 instructed the Do’J to focus their efforts elsewhere.

Sometime in 2011 this changed. The President did not publicly change his position but his Do’J changed their policy to one that puts them in direct opposition with Colorado, California, New Mexico and Maine’s laws. Other states are in a grey area. At Obama’s Do’J’s direction, police and government resources were used to shut down dispensaries that were operating legally under state law.

I’m not taking a side on whether or not it should be the state or federal laws that should rule the day here; I’m just pointing out that this use of government resources is completely inconsistent with Candidate Barack’s position in 2008.

In fact, Kal Penn’s suggestion that Obama has chosen to focus the Department of Justice’s efforts elsewhere isn’t particularly consistent with the Obama administration’s actions over the last year and a half.

Just saying.

…But I still do love the whole approach with Kal Penn and the way it is being framed and presented. Brilliant stuff!