"Legalization is not in the president's vocabulary....Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit," Love, Obama's Drug Czar

Nick Gillespie | July 23, 2009

Hey, remember all the speculation that Barack Obama might be, you know, better on pot issues than his various awful predecessors, partly because he, you know, bragged at times about inhaling ("that was the whole point")? As the liberals like to say, He won, get over it. And for those of us who value individual rights and a sane (not hysterical) drug policy, get over that too. Here's Obama's drug czar Gil Kerlikowske talking in Fresno, California yesterday: 

"Legalization is not in the president's vocabulary, and it's not in mine," he said.

Kerlikowske said he can understand why legislators are talking about taxing marijuana cultivation to help cash-strapped government agencies in California. But the federal government views marijuana as a harmful and addictive drug, he said.

"Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit," Kerlikowske said in downtown Fresno while discussing Operation SOS—Save Our Sierra—a multiagency effort to eradicate marijuana in eastern Fresno County.

It's particularly galling that Drug Czar K is pretending (like all those who came before him) that marijuana has no medicinal value. Whole thing here.

Hat tip: Marijuana Policy Project, who is keeping the right (and tight) tabs on this sort of depressing development.

And sing along to "Obama, You're No Stranger to The Bong":

Reason on drug policy.

Reason.tv on drug policy.