A letter to the President

This is the letter I sent to the president today. Why not send your own letter?

President Barack Obama
The White House, 1st Floor, West Wing
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama,

Ok. So. Just so we’re on the same page: In the last 15 years, taxpaying
US citizens voted and legalized medical marijuana in 16 states. Voters
in several states also decriminalized small amounts of marijuana for
recreational purposes (the equivalent of a parking ticket). The gateway
theory has been DISPROVEN and in fact, cannabis has been shown to
SHRINK TUMORS as well as treat PTSD, depression, anxiety, fibromyalgia,
and many other conditions. So why is the federal government disobeying
taxpayers and ATTACKING legitimate businesses, which only hurts our
economy, not to mention hurting patients and citizens who have done
NOTHING wrong? RESPECT the will of the people — STOP arresting medical
marijuana patients, STOP persecuting legitimate dispensaries in legal
states, STOP with the no knock raids, shooting people’s family pets in
front of their children because they have a small amount of pot for
personal use… just STOP THE MADNESS! We need to stop supplying
violent mexican drug cartels with weapons so that we need bigger,
badder weapons to fight them off. We need to respect our voters’
rights and HONOR THE LAWS THEY VOTE TO PASS. When the punishment for a
victimless crime is far more hurtful and damaging than the
“crime” itself, that is called cruel and unusual punishment.
Please, you can end this cruel and unusual war on American Citizens who
like to use a non-harmful plant. Now more than ever, we have bigger
problems to deal with. There is real crime happening all around us.
Surely we have better things to do than take a brutal, cruel,
Totalitarian national stance on a simple plant and the peaceful people
who use it?

Please watch this video, by Lindy, titled No Knock Raid. I beg you, do
something to end this war on our citizens. United we stand – divided
we fall. Stop dividing us, please…

In the summer of 2007, during your campaign for the presidency, you
said you would respect state medical marijuana laws if you were
victorious in the election. In March of 2009, Attorney General Eric
Holder said that your position as president was what you said it was
going to be during the campaign. In October 2009, your Department of
Justice issued a memo to U.S. Attorneys clarifying this position. The
following was the key sentence in that memo:

“As a general matter, pursuit of these priorities should not focus
federal resources in your States on individuals whose actions are in
clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for
the medical use of marijuana.”

This memo was clearly intended to cover not only medical marijuana
patients, but also the dispensaries that had been established in
California and elsewhere to provide patients with a reliable source for
their medicine. There would be no reason to issue a memo instructing
U.S. Attorneys to de-prioritize medical marijuana possession cases, as
everyone knows that federal prosecutors rarely, if ever, prosecute
individuals for small amounts of marijuana.

Since the issuance of that memo, it seems as if your position on
medical marijuana has evolved — and not in a good way. You have
allowed U.S. Attorneys to issue threatening letters to state officials
considering medical marijuana legislation and/or working on
implementation of existing laws. And you have allowed law enforcement
officials to issue warnings to financial institutions, resulting in
these institutions dropping medical marijuana providers as customers.

Worse, you have sat back and done nothing while U.S. Attorneys in
California have targeted medical marijuana providers and even the
property owners who lease space to them. The U.S. Attorneys are even
threatening to seize the property of these land owners.

Shame on you for allowing this to happen.

So what are you going to do, Mr. Obama? Are you going to let these U.S.
Attorneys defy your stated policy in order to force medical marijuana
patients into the criminal market? Or are you going to tell them to
respect state laws — and local ordinances — so that states can
regulate the distribution of medical marijuana in the manner they feel
is best for patients and for their states?

Sincerely,

Jessica Struzik