As a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) I have testified at the state house in favor of liberalizing our marijuana laws, and I have written in this space before advocating an end to the “War on Drugs” altogether. So I keep an eye on related events and news from around the country. But the current campaign by President Obama and the Justice Department against the California marijuana dispensaries — culminating in the recent raid by IRS and DEA officers on Oaksterdam University in Oakland — have left me baffled. Turns out I’m in good company as the assembled talking heads on last week’s Real Time with Bill Maher were also unable to discern the President’s thinking or possible motivation in all this. Never mind that Obama is going back on his promise not to use federal resources for this purpose, but from a political point of view this is insanity. Why is he going so far out of his way to alienate his political base? It’s just baffling.

To learn more about what drug legalization might look like, check out this article from Forbes Magazine, “Ten Years After Decriminalization, Drug Abuse Down By Half in Portugal.”

Drug abuse is bad, the War on Drugs is worse.

Tags: marijuana decriminalization, Oaksterdam University, obama

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