Thank you for this posting, Al.  I submitted a question very similar to the ones listed above, and I think it's fair to say that this is one of the /primary/ causes of political concern among people of my age and generation (I am 28).   Keep up the good fight!

Here.

that so many of the questions I recommended made it to the top of the list, including the questions on drug policy, prisons, same-sex marriage, and my personal favorite, ranked #6:

"Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor - ideally Patrick Fitzgerald - to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?"

Bob Fertik, New York City

With empty buildings and for-sale signs spotting many a neighborhood, with skyrocketing job losses, with food banks and public assistance programs stretched to their limits, this country simply doesn't have the money nor the resources to appropriate to these foolish and outdated drug laws.

What's more important? Affordable housing and food? Or making sure someone doesn't grow a few marijuana plants outdoors? I was actually surprised to find out yesterday that the national guard in my state is still working with the DEA on helicopter missions above rural Weld County (total population of 180,000), for the specific purpose of destroying marijuana crops. It's absolutely ridiculous. And costly.

I didn't expect such questions to rank so high, with the economy and all that, but the support in itself is not new I think; I bet that outside Washington a majority (left and right) is in favor of legalization. The beauty of this coming up now, imo, is that other policy promises can't be kept without addressing drug policy too. For example, a solution for Afghanistan other than turning it into a high-intensity version of Colombia requires changing drug policy there.

One of the problems with the "drug war" is that it is being fought not just by the federal government, but by every state.  Even if Obama, somehow, could get the federal laws overturned or modified, we would still be far from obtaining a new, rational, less-punitive, more regulatory nationwide policy.

The War on Drugs is an obvious policy failure.  There is so much opportunity to make a change in this policy that provides numerous benefits.  I have been cautiously hopeful that the current economic meltdown might cause Obama to make a pragmatic change in this area.  Hopefully he pays attention to those who are voicing a rational opinion in this matter.

I think a lot of people might be surprised at how much support for reform in this area there is from some "red" states.  While Wyoming voters certainly are fiscally conservative, which partially explains the dominance of the Republican Party here, we also can be staunch defenders of civil liberties - "to each there own" is a way of life here.  Most the people I know are not fond of the War on Drugs, and these are people that invariably vote Republican.  Sometimes I wish they would realize that their philosophies are actually Libertarian, so that they would not always act as such partisans.

Democrat for US Senate (Wisconsin 2012)

Democrat for US Senate (Wisconsin 2012)

you have the wrong data!

Its allmost 8,000 people who voted the question up and 634 voted it down

http://change.gov/page/content/20081211_openforquestions

Maybe the time reeally has come for this type of change....although I still think there are many, many who are not ready yet.  I'd love to see it.  I think in my case, it won't change my own life (those days are past) but I do believe it's what is best for the country overall.

On another note, I was glad to see Josh Marshall advocating my position of forcing the R's to actually fillibuster rather than just threaten to do so.  I also heard Thom Hartman saying the same thing.  Reid seems to be the problem.  I'm not sure he can really get folks in line when push comes to shove.  Is there any chance there will be a change in leadership??

Cannnibis ought to be legalized and regulated, not hard for a a grown up nation to do. Of equal importance is ending the militarization of substance abuse. The toll in human suffering on all sides of the borders is far too high. Pouring money into armies of oppression only builds waste on corruption. Education and treatment work while suppression and oppression has failed.Why continue funding such a failed concept when there are so many successful models?  Take the profit out the drugs and end the endless piling of bodies, failed states, Etc in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

If Obama wants a truly bipartisan, extra-Beltway issue with which to rally the troops, this is it. Pushing for drug policy reform would only alienate the culture warriors who already consider him the Anti-Christ anyway, and would help solidify his support among the libertarian types who aren't yet sure what to make of him.

He gets this through, it doesn't matter who the Republicans nominate for 2012 - it's Reagan/Mondale all over again.

I think it will be even bigger than that. I know many, many conservatives who are in favor of legalizing drugs, and not just marijuana. Even Stratfor, hardly a liberal think tank, wrote not that long ago that the only effective solution to the Mexican wars would be legalization.

Golly Darn,   THIS information was TRULY a BREATH of FRESH AIR.   How nice to think that Science instead of Superstition will help deal pragmatically with the WAR on DRUGS <people> issue.

Legalization. As states and cities try to stretch resources, somehow putting away someone whose only crime is growing his or her own weed, or lighting up a blunt doesn't seem like it would be worth the expenditure. In some cases, they may not even have the personnel to look for  "victimless crimes" such as smoking a joint in a private residence.  I suspect there will be an increased emphasis on fines and probation, especially if the infractions are private and do not include selling or distribution to minors.

Just keeping the malevolent inside and making sure they get inside has to take priority in hard economic times.

As for the effects of legalized alcohol (using a legalization parallel), it's clear that whatever they were never were anything close to the mayhem anti-repeal people may have feared. The shootouts over territory vanished, the speakeasies quickly died, and the streets of Chicago became safer. The same thing will be true with pot, and even faster since people can grow their own and not need any help in distribution. People still had to wait until enough legal booze was available before the craziness really ended.

Yes, legal pot may have a few more people toking their way through the economic crisis, but right now, tranquillity is what is needed, in the same way as some people maybe drank their way through the Depression.

Gee, the money saved by legalizing marijuana, could be put toward bailing out the automakers!

Milton Friedman, 500+ Economists Call for Marijuana Regulation Debate; New Report Projects $10-14 Billion Annual Savings and Revenues

http://www.prohibitioncosts.org/

I would definitely recommend 2 of Angela Davis' books: Abolition Democracy: Beyond Prisons, Torture, and Empire and Are Prisons Obsolete? She is a remarkable historian and traces the history of the current Prison Industrial Complex from the Constitution to the Slave Codes to the Black Codes (Jim Crow) to Civil Rights and the current de facto criminalization black men. These are well worth a read.

There was also a poignant PBS P.O.V. documentary called Prison Town, USA, which described how local economies are destroyed even as local businesses are promised contracts and jobs for allowing these monstrosities into their struggling towns. In one case a farmer could no longer work on his farm, which his family had done for generations, due to big agribusiness and he became a guard. It demonstrated how he in a sense was imprisoned as well since he was no longer outside in the sun and fresh air and how he changed when a farm tool used to grow food and sustain is replaced with an implement of violence.  

A link to a you tube video of Davis talking about this issue here.

It's hard for us to imagine a time when drinking alcoholic beverages was illegal. 

There are parallels between the drug war and prohibition that seem so obvious to me.  You would think they would be obvious to our legislators?

There is a difference between legalisation and decriminalisation.

Legalisation means the State controls production and distribution, and gets to slap a tax on it - like alcohol. Big bucks for the State coffers.

Decriminalisation is just removing the offences from the statute books.

Your State going bankrupt? Looking for revenue? Legalise!

In the present economic climate such a proposition could be attractive to fiscal conservatives - cut costs in the justice system and raise revenue via an excise (tax).

BondiBeachViews

http://change.gov/newsroom/entry/open_for_questions_response/

the shortest response by far is the one related to the topic of this post. is the next question "why"? or "really"?

Oh, man. If that's the "response" I'm going to have to get busy.

Thanks for alerting us. We'll all get busy. That was lame, if those slogans were all the we're getting in terms of answers, and it will not stand.

The response as it currently stands is unacceptable. No justification whatsoever! Rargh...

But it *will* stand! It *has* stood!

Of your 6 questions, one of which was #1 by a long margin, we got the most formulaic and dismissive response possible!

Obama, Bush, Clinton, Carter, whatever - Imperial Managers sworn to uphold the elite, opress the masses and truly mock the notion of government for, by and of the people!

Please, wake up!

http://www.chris-floyd.com

http://whoisioz.blogspot.com

I think this says it all, from Change.gov:

We found 0 results for “"war on drugs"”

While I agree that dope should be legalized -- I even agree with William F. Buckley, Jr. that all dope should be legalized -- it fills me with shame that these should be the top questions on that list.  We are so self-involved.  So concerned for our comforts and fun.  Millions are dying horribly and starving and homeless because of us, and this miserable topic is #1?

I could die of shame.

Well, this should be easy.  Selfish? Only looking at this from the virtuous point of view are you? What about the social consequences of prohibition?

Having the most incarcerated people in the world mostly due to drug law violations, is that not a real problem?

The prohibition of marijuana has become  the gateway to corruption and cynicism about the government.   Pot busts are half hearted affairs since most cops don't give a fig about itsides use. They see the ridiculousness as the real comment on their power and how the system rewards the crooked and punishes scapegoats.

Inisisting on the hysterical message of the war on drugs is fishy, its so discredited by now. Who profits though?  Who is protecting that profit? That's the only message left that makes sense.

It looks like Obama is beholden to the pork politics of the War on Drugs.

I was really excited when I learned they were going to be answering questions from the public, but I was really dis appointed today.

Originally they had said they were going to answer the top ten questions, and they only answered the top 5. And the response the the #1 question was this....