Federal Sanity On Cannabis

As if I needed another reason to vote for the guy:

At a November appearance in Audubon, Iowa, Obama recalled that his mother had died of cancer and said he saw no difference between doctor-prescribed morphine and marijuana as pain relievers. He said he would be open to allowing medical use of marijuana, if scientists and doctors concluded it was effective, but only under "strict guidelines," because he was "concerned about folks just kind of growing their own and saying it's for medicinal purposes."

Obama went a step further in an interview in March with the Mail Tribune newspaper in Medford, Ore. While still expressing qualms about patients growing their own supply or getting it from "mom-and-pop stores," he said it is "entirely appropriate" for a state to legalize the medical use of marijuana, "with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors."

In response to recent questions from The Chronicle about medical marijuana, Obama's campaign - the only one of the three contenders to reply - endorsed a hands-off federal policy.

You can read the entire article at SF Gate here. Of course I personally advocate for the complete legalization of cannabis but as with all things, one step at a time. The odds against Obama becoming president have always been long and to make the legalization of a substance that has been the focus of many decades of organized smear tactics and misinformation one of the central platforms of his campaign would only increase those odds, so it's not surprising that he is staying as moderate as he can on this issue. But when compared to the other serious contenders this year, and even the last several administrations, his views are light-years ahead of everyone else's in their progressiveness. America really does need this man, for so many reasons.

[Update: Shortly after writing this, I came across this post at The Agitator. Stories like this one make my blood boil; that movement you just felt was our country shifting one step closer to fascism.]