Obama doubles down on his comments about marijuana saying his main concern is the criminalization of pot use as opposed to the health risks
Obama has once again argued that marijuana is just as dangerous as alcohol even after his own drug enforcement czar blasted the claims.
'I stand by my belief based on the scientific evidence that marijuana for casual users, individual users, is subject to abuse, just like alcohol is and should be treated as a public health problem and challenge,' he said during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.
He went on to stipulate that his motivation in speaking out on the topic isn’t so much focused on the health risks but more about the legal inequalities that come in handing down sentences for drug-related crimes.
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Sticking to his guns: President Obama said that he thinks the criminal sentences for marijuana do not match up to the severity of the drug and that should be fixed within the legal system
Obama talks legalization of marijuana on CNN
'My concern is when you end up having very heavy criminal penalties for individual users that have been applied unevenly and, in some cases, with a racial disparity. I think that is a problem.
‘Over the long term, what I believe that if we can deal with some of the criminal penalty issues, then we can really tackle what is a problem not just for marijuana, but also alcohol, also cigarettes, also harder drugs and that is to see that our kids don't get into these habits in the first place.
‘The incarceration model that we have taken- particularly around marijuana- does not seem to produce the kind of goals that we've set.
'I think that is a problem. We're going to see what happens in the experiments in Colorado and Washington. The Department of Justice under Eric Holder has said that we are going to continue to enforce federal laws.
Parsing the issue: He is still wary of wide-spread legalization because that could lead to increased marketing and promotion of the drug, and he views it should be viewed like similar 'vices' like alcohol and cigarettes
'I think they have to ask themselves some tough questions, too. Because if we start having a situation where big corporations with lots of resources and distribution and marketing arms are suddenly going out there, peddling marijuana, then the levels of abuse that may take place are going to be higher,' he said.
Mr Obama has been open in his admissions about his own prior drug use, as he first described his frequent dabbles with the drug in high school in his memoir that was released when he was a Senator.
The issue has come up again in recent weeks following an interview he gave to New Yorker editor David Remnick wherein he said that the drug is not as dangerous as it has been perceived and the laws surrounding it deserve to be revisited.
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The future: American opinion seems to be falling in line with Mr Obama following the recent legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado and Washington State. Above, a legal Denver dispensary
'As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous,' Mr Obama said in the New Yorker interview.
'Middle-class kids don’t get locked up for smoking pot, and poor kids do,' he said. 'And African-American kids and Latino kids are more likely to be poor and less likely to have the resources and the support to avoid unduly harsh penalties.'
'We should not be locking up kids or individual users for long stretches of jail time when some of the folks who are writing those laws have probably done the same thing,' Mr Obama added
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...inalization-pot-use-opposed-health-risks.html
Obama has once again argued that marijuana is just as dangerous as alcohol even after his own drug enforcement czar blasted the claims.
'I stand by my belief based on the scientific evidence that marijuana for casual users, individual users, is subject to abuse, just like alcohol is and should be treated as a public health problem and challenge,' he said during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.
He went on to stipulate that his motivation in speaking out on the topic isn’t so much focused on the health risks but more about the legal inequalities that come in handing down sentences for drug-related crimes.
Sticking to his guns: President Obama said that he thinks the criminal sentences for marijuana do not match up to the severity of the drug and that should be fixed within the legal system
Obama talks legalization of marijuana on CNN
'My concern is when you end up having very heavy criminal penalties for individual users that have been applied unevenly and, in some cases, with a racial disparity. I think that is a problem.
‘Over the long term, what I believe that if we can deal with some of the criminal penalty issues, then we can really tackle what is a problem not just for marijuana, but also alcohol, also cigarettes, also harder drugs and that is to see that our kids don't get into these habits in the first place.
‘The incarceration model that we have taken- particularly around marijuana- does not seem to produce the kind of goals that we've set.
'I think that is a problem. We're going to see what happens in the experiments in Colorado and Washington. The Department of Justice under Eric Holder has said that we are going to continue to enforce federal laws.
Parsing the issue: He is still wary of wide-spread legalization because that could lead to increased marketing and promotion of the drug, and he views it should be viewed like similar 'vices' like alcohol and cigarettes
'I think they have to ask themselves some tough questions, too. Because if we start having a situation where big corporations with lots of resources and distribution and marketing arms are suddenly going out there, peddling marijuana, then the levels of abuse that may take place are going to be higher,' he said.
Mr Obama has been open in his admissions about his own prior drug use, as he first described his frequent dabbles with the drug in high school in his memoir that was released when he was a Senator.
The issue has come up again in recent weeks following an interview he gave to New Yorker editor David Remnick wherein he said that the drug is not as dangerous as it has been perceived and the laws surrounding it deserve to be revisited.
The future: American opinion seems to be falling in line with Mr Obama following the recent legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado and Washington State. Above, a legal Denver dispensary
'As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous,' Mr Obama said in the New Yorker interview.
'Middle-class kids don’t get locked up for smoking pot, and poor kids do,' he said. 'And African-American kids and Latino kids are more likely to be poor and less likely to have the resources and the support to avoid unduly harsh penalties.'
'We should not be locking up kids or individual users for long stretches of jail time when some of the folks who are writing those laws have probably done the same thing,' Mr Obama added
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...inalization-pot-use-opposed-health-risks.html
