Email distributed by the Libertarian Party.
From the desk of Bill Redpath:
Dear Paul,
Call it “hypocrisy you can believe in.”
Less than a week after the Obama administration claimed they were ending the Bush policy of raiding state-sanctioned medical marijuana dispensaries, DEA agents Wednesday night burst through the doors of the Emmalyn’s California Cannabis Clinic in San Francisco and seized the prescription cannabis the clinic had a lawful permit to dispense to the ill.
Agents refused to state why the clinic was being raided. The clinic states they are in full compliance with state and local laws, and it holds a permit from the city of San Francisco.
But apparently Obama, who also said he’ll fight any effort to re-legalize marijuana, doesn’t care about state laws, or the sick and suffering. He’s more than happy to continue the War on Unapproved Drugs.
I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to fight back.
Can you help the Libertarian Party protect the rights of voters who approved medicinal marijuana, and the sick and dying who need it with your best gift of $25, $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,500, $2,500 or whatever you feel you can afford today? Just click here
to help fight back.
The Libertarian Party is America’s only hope to elect public servants who will fight to protect state medicinal marijuana laws. Electing Barack Obama simply guaranteed more of the same.
For all the talk–and talk–and talk–of change, the Obama Adminstration is quickly proving itself to be the same old, same old–but just a lot more of it. Any hope of real change through the two older political parties is simply magical thinking. Events continue to prove that the only hope of real change in abjectly failed government policies is through the Libertarian Party.
With your support, we can give pro-medical marijuana candidates the resources, training and support they need to win elections, and then use their authority to stop raids that violate state’s rights and nullify the wishes of voters.
Can you help us build a Libertarian Party that wins elections by rushing me your most generous contribution of $25, $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,500, $2,500 or whatever you feel you can afford? All you have to do is click here
.
I’m absolutely outraged that the DEA would break into a lawfully-permitted clinic that dispenses legally-approved medicine to the sick, and especially just days after Obama said they wouldn’t.
The time has come to begin electing Libertarians, not Democrats who carry out anti-voter, anti-states’ rights, anti-freedom Republican policies.
The Libertarian Party is the only party that is fighting back. Obama has made it clear he not only supports the War on Medical Marijuana, but he even said in a press conference yesterday he’ll fight any effort to sensibly reform drug laws.
Help us make that happen. Help me fight for your rights by
clicking here
to send me your kindest gift of $25, $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,500, $2,500, or whatever you feel like you can afford right now.
Thank you for all your kind support, Paul.
In liberty,
William Redpath
Chair, Libertarian National Committee
P.S. The DEA is continuing to raid lawfully-permitted medical marijuana clinics, just days after Obama claimed they wouldn’t.
Your Libertarian Party staunchly opposes this attack on the rights of voters, patients and all Americans, and we’re leading the fight against it.
Paul, please support our fight to preserve your liberty with your best gift of $25, $50, $99, $250, or whatever you can afford today by clicking here
.
Paid for by the Libertarian National Committee
2600 Virginia Ave, N.W. Suite 200, Washington D.C. 20037. Content not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.
Hello fellow Americans from 2004 to 2007 I worked for a medical marijuana facility. The facility operated in alameda county and had a permit to dispense marijuana that was issued and regulated by the alameda county Sherrif department. The dispensary followed all state and local laws. The dispensary paid all federal and state taxes and kept impecable financial records throgh the service of a certified forensic
accountant. The cooperative was raided in 2007 and the federal govt charged to men in connection with the dispensary. When these two men sought to take there case before a jury of their peers the federal government decided to vindicitivly charge me as a co defendent for being an employee at a dispensary that I had to get a backround check from the alameda county Sherrif department to work at. I was arrested in 2009 while taking a test at school and held overnight . The next day I was arraigned and told that I was facing a fifteen year minimum with a life time maximum sentence. Obama is not keeping his word to not use federal resources to prosecute medical marijuana providers and I just wanted to let people know.
Legalize it. Free the innocent criminals. Stop wasting billions on an silly war on drugs.
Gene, that’s so crazy it might work. Best to talk to Kubby on it.
BTW, the reason the LPCA has been silent on this is because while the LNC is out pleading money, LPCA has been out actually raising it.
That and there really were allegations of actual state law violations, and the state is so broke that they can’t do the investigations anyway.
@25
If ran as a non profit, who knows? It may work.
Got any links handy?
Good idea, except that I think the laws forbid political parties from operating businesses. I could be wrong.
Also, guess which will be the dispensary guaranteed to get raided?
They aren’t enforcing state laws. Just using them as an excuse.
The same can be said of any other issue. It’s one where more Democrats than Republicans support it.
See my previous comment above on this point. The empirical evidence is that availability of medical marijuana in some states is, if anything, increasing support for recreational legalization in those states.
I agree.
“The Obama administration never claimed they were ending the Bush policy of raiding state-sanctioned medical marijuana dispensaries”
pdsa
yes obama said it a few times, you can see the videos on youtube.
I’d like to see the California LP start it’s own dispensary and use whatever profits derived to help fund a campaign against the DEA.
“The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind,” White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.
…maybe The President listened to some of his own Constitution lectures/????
circumvent…..
@#5 (and others) – Am I missing something here?! Why is the federal DEA enforcing California STATE laws?
Ross Levin – i would agree with you, except just narrowly considering the topic of medicinal marijuana, the support/opposition cannot easily be mapped to any bipolar modeling of political viewpoints. There are many Republicans who believe doctor prescribed marijuana should not be prohibited, and there are many Democrats who believe this is a step on the path to a hell of legalised drug use, and that the state, for the good of its people, should prohibit it.
This was a sfe pitch for Redpath in that it would not alienate the Republican light wing of the LP, because they love it when he cries “Obomination”, the facts notwithstanding, and hardly any of them are going to publicly opposed medicinal marijuana use.
Again, this release misstated facts in it portrayal of what the Obama Administration has said about state sanctioned medicinal marijuana distributors. Again, this issue, although troubling, should not be a primary concern of the LP to begin with, because it means that the LP is willing to rest on half-assed “transitional legislation” fantasy, that is in reality another obstacle to be overcome before a real libertarian perspective regarding drug use by a free citizenry can be realised. Again, show me where the LP National has shown even a cursory concern about the unlibertarian international effects from the war on drugs.
pdsa, I am probably one of the biggest critics of NatCom and the LP office. But when they do something, anything, that is within the Platform, I try to be there to applaud. Afterall, I am there to criticize often enough.
I don’t expect much more out of the national office. Too many there have their heads up CPAC’s arse.
But this fundraising letter ain’t as bad as you are making it out to be. In fact, it is a step in the right direction.
PEACE
Yeah, it’s great that the national LP is doing something different than just trying to be some weird growth off of the Republican party.
Please Steve, spare me the false praise. Let me know when Redpath squarely addresses the issue of drug prohibition, and the effects that it is having on Mexico. ok? I can’t find anything at LP dot org on this topic, and won’t be holding my breath, because the national does not promote the LP’s Official Platform Planks about Drug Prohibition or Immigration.
This is only Redpath throwing out a bit of red meat for ditto-heads. You know, like people who think O-bomb-em is cute and original, instead of just being lame.
Here another Google site search of lp.org to ruminate on, good buddy:
{dea raid california site:lp.org}
Note that not ONE of the links originated from the LP National; all were from state affiliates. Standing Up? Hardly! More like bending over for CPAC.
I don’t agree in this case.
Real, living, breathing patients have been helped by medical marijuana legislation. They should not have to wait until we have enough support for recreational legalization; some of them won’t live that long.
Despite the raids, something like 98-99% of the drug arrests are state/local. The feds don’t have the budget to raid the vast majority of clinics.
Pot is de facto legal at the retail level in parts of California. It’s not difficult to be diagnosed as a patient, and there are numerous suppliers operating openly within an easy commute. Street dealers have been driven out of the pot business.
Support for recreational legalization is growing. It continues to grow about 1% a year, and is already well in the 40s in the leading states. Coincidentally, or not, those are all medical marijuana states. So, medical marijuana is not keeping recreational legalization from taking place; if anything, it is helping it happen faster.
I agree. About damn time the LP talked about issues like this again.
Raw Video of protesting DEA agents loading up a van – SF Chron
Regardless of the technicalities of Redpath’s letter, it’s good to see the LP leadership recognizing that there is potentially much hay to made over this issue among O-bomb’em’s faithful. Legalizing weed was the number one issue on the campaign’s change.org site and the number one issue during his recent online press conference and both times he blew off his own supporters when they brought it up. Now how do we scoop up these soon to be disillusioned folks?
O-bomb’em like Clinton and Bush before him has at least staked out a clear policy on drugs – use them and get caught: go directly to jail, use them and don’t get caught: you too can be President!
pdsa,
I just find it insane that they claim the DEA will not perform drug busts unless state laws are being violated as well, never mind that the state laws have absolutely nothing to do with drugs. It seems to me that if the Drug Enforcement Administration is going to bust a pothouse for a traffic violation, why wouldn’t they confiscate books? Their raids are obviously not related to any state drug laws being broken. Stating they won’t perform drug busts unless state laws as well as federal laws are being broken implies that these refer to drug laws. I’m not a big fan of the lawyerese they speak. I agree with you that they never actually said it and only fooled people, I also agree that it’s crap. We seem to agree on a lot of things.
I don’t think transitional legislation is such a bad thing, a lot of things take time. This however isn’t legislation, and it’s not what it should be either. If the DEA would only focus on drug “crimes” that are punishable under both state and federal laws, that would be a tiny step forward and a good thing. Not a great thing, mind you, but not a bad thing either. This, however, is just pure shite.
pdsa, I think you knew what I meant.
Of course the news release was (IMHO) “pretentious hyperbole”, as you so aptly put it.
You seem to be suggesting a news release defending the DEA, while it might get media attention, is hardly good theater (or politics). And hardly “principled”.
The world of politics is to keep your message simple and to take what people think they know or want, and putting a different spin on it. In our case, a Libertarian spin. I think Bill Redpath’s release above does just that.
Redpath is correct to call Obama a hypocrite, in that OBAMA did make people believe he would change the law, or at least the way it is enforced. And Redpath did it without abandoning libertarian principle.
Bill wasn’t writing a plank to the LP Platform, but is reaching out to potential donors. Donors of whom probably get glassy eyed when confronted with petty legalisms.
Bill did not abandon Libertarian principle when he accused Obama of hypocrisy. Nothing wrong with that.
PEACE
Steven R Linnabary oh I get it, The LP isn’t the Party of Principle after all; that’s nothing but pretentious hyperbole, and LP members are forging their way into the mainstream by being just like those they opposed: persons with personal moral values that were stunted when they were 10 years old:
But Mom!!! BillyJeff Did It First!
rotflmao
Personally, I am one that expects a little hyperbole when it comes to fundraising.
After all, Obama certainly used weasel words and Clintonesque legalese when he allowed people to believe that he would help to protect the MMJ dispensaries.
PEACE
Searching for Truth – it’s still not as clear as you make it out to be.
From the article you cited without a link:
“The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind,” White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.
The significant phrase being “federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws“. In other words, the DEA will still be involved with busting medicinal marijuana dispensaries, that it believes are in violation of state laws. I do not like or agree with it either, but at least am willing to address it honestly.
Now returning to the original Redpath contribution plea:
“Less than a week after the Obama administration claimed they were ending the Bush policy of raiding state-sanctioned medical marijuana dispensaries…”
Now returning to the Washington Times from one week ago:
———————-/
Attorney General Eric Holder signaled a change on medical marijuana policy Wednesday, saying federal agents will target marijuana distributors only when they violate both federal and state law.
That would be a departure from the policy of the Bush administration, which targeted medical marijuana dispensaries in California even if they complied with that state’s law.
“The policy is to go after those people who violate both federal and state law,” Holder said in a question-and-answer session with reporters at the Justice Department.
Devlin Barrett-Associated Press, “Holder: Pot policy may change“, Washington Times, March 19, 2009
\———————-
Again, Redpath distorted the facts in a contribution plea, as Chairman of The Party of Principle.
Many articles can be found about Obama stating he will end raids. Here is just one example of the head line:
DEA pot raids go on; Obama opposes
President vowed to end policy
Stephen Dinan and Ben Conery, THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Thursday, February 5, 2009
C’mon Nate, what kind of idiotic comparison are you trying to make here? The standard Holder stated was that the DOJ would no longer be prosecuting Medical Marijuana dispensaries, as long as they were not violating state laws, as well as federal laws. Federal law is presently being violated for no other reason than the dispensing of marijuana.
I scoffed, when first reading what Holder said, and would advise anyone who believed that this meant the raids were going to cease, to maybe light up one less spliff a day, so they can focus a bit better. Holder was clearly stating that businesses that have a state permit to legally dispense doctor prescribed marijuana were going to held to the same sort of record keeping to at least the same standard that the DEA requires of pharmacies, and that they had better get those records in perfect order.
Read between the lines here. The business closed down was a large hydroponic growing facility, which serviced largely a poor population. How exactly was this being funded? Do you think that maybe, just maybe, a fraction of the product was leaving through the back door for sale on the street?
What libertarians should learn from this is the massive fail that is “transitional legislation”. This is nothing more than allowing one’s ideals to be compromised by the fairly tale of libertarianish legislation. Libertarianish is NOT a word, and this will not further libertarianism, only serve to co-opt the poseurs.
So if a bookstore fails to pay state salex tax, the DEA is going to raid them and confiscate books?
The raid was wrong; it is not the government’s business to begin with,but the Chairman of the Libertarian National Committee should take a little more care with facts.
The Obama administration never claimed they were ending the Bush policy of raiding state-sanctioned medical marijuana dispensaries. Holder instead said that dispensaries only would be prosecuted if both state and federal drug laws were thought to be violated. There is a big difference between these two statements.
It is true that agents refused to state why the clinic was being raided, but this is standard procedures for agents who raid anything, and should not be a surprise. On the 26th, The SF Chronicle was quoting a source in the San Francisco government that said the raids were prompted by alleged violations of state law.
Again, I do not support this action, and believe it is wrong, yet this does not excuse Redpath for distorting facts in a plea for contributions.l The Party of Principles, My Ass…
————– Begin SF Chron excerpt ————-
The dispensary had been operating with a temporary permit issued by the Department of Public Health.
“Based on our investigation, we believe there are not only violations of federal law, but state law as well,” DEA Special Agent in Charge Anthony Williams said in a prepared statement.
Williams, who runs the San Francisco field office that covers a territory stretching from Bakersfield to Redding, would not specify the alleged violations. The information was under court seal.
“As of now, we are prohibited from releasing further details of the case. Items of evidentiary value were seized and no arrests have been made,” Williams said.
A source in San Francisco city government who was informed about the raid said the DEA’s action appeared to be prompted by alleged financial improprieties related to the payment of sales taxes. DEA Special Agent Casey McEnry, spokeswoman for the local office, would not comment on that information.
Rachel Gordon, “DEA raids pot dispensary in SF“, San Francisco Chronicle, March 26, 2009