Jacob Hornberger, founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation, is happy to see the Republican lose the presidential election. He also thinks president-elect Barack Obama may have policies to offer libertarians.
First, here's what Hornberger thinks of Republicans:
For the last 7 years, they have plunged our country into darkness, oppression, injustice, and tyranny, seizing on the 9/11 attacks to centralize federal power, suspend the liberties of the American people, and embark on one of the most shocking Big Spending sprees in history.
And here's why he thinks Obama might have something to offer libertarians:
For example, [Obama] has spoken out against arbitrary arrests, in favor of habeas corpus, against the invasion of Iraq, against torture, and in favor of closing the Pentagon's prison at Guantanamo Bay.
....
But with Obama's election, libertarians will at least have a chance to make some significant headway toward restoring civil liberties and the procedural protections of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to our land, along with moving our country in a more positive direction with respect to foreign policy. That possibility would not have existed under a McCain administration.
There is another area in which we libertarians should redouble our efforts under an Obama administration – the war on drugs.
On the war on drugs, Jacob Hornberger assumes Obama, as a lawyer, a minority and an inner city community organizer, will have a better understanding of the failure of this policy.
But we don't have to guess about this, at least as far as marijuana policy reform is concerned. Jacob Sullum with Reason Magazine wrote:
The Washington Times reports that Barack Obama, who told an audience of college students when he was running for the U.S. Senate in 2004 that he favored decriminalizing marijuana, still holds that position, although he opposes complete legalization.
If Obama is open to drug policy reform, it makes the ballot question victories for drug policy reformers in Michigan and Massachusetts all the more important.
Western Standard editor Peter Jaworski wrote:
"Michigan voters approved a medical marijuana measure, while Massachusetts voted to loosen marijuana laws making possession of one ounce or less subject to a fine of $100...."
But as California drug policy reformers know all too well, state initiatives to liberalize marijuana laws have little value as long as federal law prohibits marijuana use for any purpose -- even medical, which is constitutionally a state matter -- and as long federal law makers ignore America's federalist tradition of state rights.
On this matter, Jacob Sullum accuses "self-described conservatives, including Republican presidential candidate John McCain" of "abandoning their avowed federalist principles because of a blind hostility toward a plant they associate with draft-dodging, flag-burning hippies."
What this abandonment of federalism means in practice is best embodied in the case of Charles Lynch who legally, at least as far as California law is concerned, operated a medical marijuana dispensary in California with over 2000 patients. On August 5th, Lynch was convicted of 5 federal drug-related offences that could carry penalties of as much as 85 years in prison.
If Obama can reign in the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and leave marijuana policy reform to the states, he might just be able to keep both federalists and drug reformers happy, while keeping a safe distance from a policy with which few politicians are keen to be too closely associated.
News Hawk- Ganjarden 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Western Standard
Author: Matthew Johnston
Contact: Western Standard
Copyright: 2008 Western Standard
Website: Civil Liberties and Drug Policy: Does Barack Obama Have Anything to Offer Libertarians?
First, here's what Hornberger thinks of Republicans:
For the last 7 years, they have plunged our country into darkness, oppression, injustice, and tyranny, seizing on the 9/11 attacks to centralize federal power, suspend the liberties of the American people, and embark on one of the most shocking Big Spending sprees in history.
And here's why he thinks Obama might have something to offer libertarians:
For example, [Obama] has spoken out against arbitrary arrests, in favor of habeas corpus, against the invasion of Iraq, against torture, and in favor of closing the Pentagon's prison at Guantanamo Bay.
....
But with Obama's election, libertarians will at least have a chance to make some significant headway toward restoring civil liberties and the procedural protections of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to our land, along with moving our country in a more positive direction with respect to foreign policy. That possibility would not have existed under a McCain administration.
There is another area in which we libertarians should redouble our efforts under an Obama administration – the war on drugs.
On the war on drugs, Jacob Hornberger assumes Obama, as a lawyer, a minority and an inner city community organizer, will have a better understanding of the failure of this policy.
But we don't have to guess about this, at least as far as marijuana policy reform is concerned. Jacob Sullum with Reason Magazine wrote:
The Washington Times reports that Barack Obama, who told an audience of college students when he was running for the U.S. Senate in 2004 that he favored decriminalizing marijuana, still holds that position, although he opposes complete legalization.
If Obama is open to drug policy reform, it makes the ballot question victories for drug policy reformers in Michigan and Massachusetts all the more important.
Western Standard editor Peter Jaworski wrote:
"Michigan voters approved a medical marijuana measure, while Massachusetts voted to loosen marijuana laws making possession of one ounce or less subject to a fine of $100...."
But as California drug policy reformers know all too well, state initiatives to liberalize marijuana laws have little value as long as federal law prohibits marijuana use for any purpose -- even medical, which is constitutionally a state matter -- and as long federal law makers ignore America's federalist tradition of state rights.
On this matter, Jacob Sullum accuses "self-described conservatives, including Republican presidential candidate John McCain" of "abandoning their avowed federalist principles because of a blind hostility toward a plant they associate with draft-dodging, flag-burning hippies."
What this abandonment of federalism means in practice is best embodied in the case of Charles Lynch who legally, at least as far as California law is concerned, operated a medical marijuana dispensary in California with over 2000 patients. On August 5th, Lynch was convicted of 5 federal drug-related offences that could carry penalties of as much as 85 years in prison.
If Obama can reign in the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and leave marijuana policy reform to the states, he might just be able to keep both federalists and drug reformers happy, while keeping a safe distance from a policy with which few politicians are keen to be too closely associated.
News Hawk- Ganjarden 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Western Standard
Author: Matthew Johnston
Contact: Western Standard
Copyright: 2008 Western Standard
Website: Civil Liberties and Drug Policy: Does Barack Obama Have Anything to Offer Libertarians?
