Faulkingtruth

These are excerpts from an article I wrote for my website during the Obama online town hall meeting. I just pulled a couple of sections to post here, then provided a link if anyone wants to read the entire commentary. Feel free to repost it along a link whereever you want.

Open for Questions: Americans Want an End to the Prohibition on Marijuana and Industrial Hemp

Open for Questions: Americans Want an End to the Prohibition on Marijuana and Industrial Hemp
By Mark Faulk
March 26, 2009

Today, President Barack Obama declared the White House "Open for Questions". Asking for questions from internet contributors in an attempt to include the average American in the political process, President Obama held a historic online forum where he responded to the concerns of the very people who elected him in the first place.

So what topic is the number one issue people "outside of Washington" want our President to address? The legalization (and taxation) of marijuana. Seventy years after our government kowtowed to big business and began one of the most egregious and effective propaganda campaigns in history, seventy years after the age of "Reefer Madness", Americans want to know why our government still hasn't addressed either the prohibition of marijuana or the legalization of industrial hemp as a cash crop.

The topic dominated seven of the eleven topics, and was the most popular question in four categories:

Green Jobs and Energy:

1) ""Will you consider decriminalizing the recreational/medical use of marijuana(hemp) so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and a multi-billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?”"
Green Machine, Winchester,Va

Financial Stability

1) "Would you support the bill currently going through the California legislation to legalize and tax marijuana, boosting the economy and reducing drug cartel related violence?"
Anthony, Warrington, PA

Jobs:

1) "What are your plans for the failing, "War on Drugs", that's sucking money from tax payers and putting non-violent people in prison longer than the violent criminals?"
Matt B, West Bend, WI

And then there was the category headed "Budget", where the top seven most popular questions had to do with either recreational marijuana or industrial hemp, including:

1) "With over 1 out of 30 Americans controlled by the penal system, why not legalize, control, and tax marijuana to change the failed war on drugs into a money making, money saving boost to the economy? Do we really need that many victimless criminals?"
Ryan Palmer, Dallas, TX

And a particularly effective way of phrasing to bring home the point of how much harm the archaic laws effectively pacing marijuana in the same category as hardcore narcotics such as heroin and cocaine:

"Our marijuana laws destroy peoples lives. Had you been arrested, you couldn't be our President. Legalizing marijuana and hemp (Washington grew hemp) would create many jobs, help the environment, and the sick. Would you consider legalizing Marijuana?"
Rick, Tennessee - (Financial Stability)

As the Open for Questions forum began this morning, advocates for the reform of our country's archaic hemp and marijuana laws had to be asking themselves: How would the President address what is still one of the most politically-charged issues of our generation? Would he even ask the questions at all, or would he do as other Presidents have done, and continue the policy of ignore and deny? If he did choose to ignore it, it would immediately destroy the credibility of the entire forum, it would undermine his stated pledge to include average Americans in the political process. Since he had promised to answer the most popular questions as submitted by online voters, it seemed unlikely that he could possibly dodge the issue altogether.

Read this article in its entirety at:
Open for Questions: Americans Want an End to the Prohibition on Marijuana and Industrial Hemp