NEWS: DEA will now be part of the National Security Council

[NuteGreenwitch]

Obama to revamp National Security Council: report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama plans to expand the membership of the National Security Council and increase its authority to set strategy on a wide range of domestic and international issues, The Washington Post reported on Saturday, quoting his national security adviser.

The council, which was established after World War Two to advise U.S. presidents on military and diplomatic matters, would become "dramatically different" after the overhaul, national security adviser James Jones told the paper in an interview.

"The world that we live in has changed so dramatically in this decade that organizations that were created to meet a certain set of criteria no longer are terribly useful," Jones, a retired Marine general, was quoted as saying.

He said sections of the government not traditionally part of the council would be brought in on a case-by-case basis -- he named the Energy Department, Commerce Department and Treasury, and all the law enforcement agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"New NSC directorates will deal with such department-spanning 21st-century issues as cyber security, energy, climate change, nation-building and infrastructure," the Post said.

Jones said the new structure would be outlined in a presidential directive, probably in the coming week.

(Reporting by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Peter Cooney)
​

Now then... what will this mean

 

[Boneman]

LOL.....McCain aint looking too bad now huh!! And you voted for change LOL You got it Not you NuteGreen but I just say that in general terms

 

[110100100]

Hmm...I don't know what it WILL mean but I've been thinking recently that a way to sell the end of the war on drugs might be to reassign the DEA into a homeland security role. I know what you're thinking but hear me out.

The DEA will fight hard to keep their jobs right. Ending the war on drugs ends their jobs. So let them help secure the borders or something along those lines.

 

[torrey420]

I agree with that line of thinking...re-define their role while slowly letting the war end.

Hmm...I don't know what it WILL mean but I've been thinking recently that a way to sell the end of the war on drugs might be to reassign the DEA into a homeland security role. I know what you're thinking but hear me out.

The DEA will fight hard to keep their jobs right. Ending the war on drugs ends their jobs. So let them help secure the borders or something along those lines.

 

[REFRIGINATOR]

Won't the DEA still have plenty to do going after the other drugs? Who gives a fuck what they do as long as pot is no longer on the bad list.

 

[tinyTURTLE]

word up.
let the DEA deal with the scourge that is meth.

 

[misshestermoffitt]

Obama moved to end DEA raids on med states on Feb 5. He's working on it, give it some time. Good weed comes to those who wait

 

[110100100]

Obama moved to end DEA raids on med states on Feb 5. He's working on it, give it some time. Good weed comes to those who wait

HUH?!?!?!?!?

What you talking bout Willis?

 

[swampgrower]

HUH?!?!?!?!?

What you talking bout Willis?

hes talking about this

http://www.mpp.org/states/california/news/ca/dea-continues-pot-raids-obama.html

 

[110100100]

hes talking about this

http://www.mpp.org/states/california/news/ca/dea-continues-pot-raids-obama.html

Maybe you should try reading that article...

Nowhere does it say "Obama moved to end DEA raids on med states".

I'm sorry but a White House spokesperson making a comment to a reporter about how the President feels on an issue is nowhere NEAR moving to do something about it.

His position was made quite clear previous to this and that obviously had little effect on the DEA who have made at least 7 such raids since he took office. All the guy has to do if he wants this to stop is issue a directive.

 

[nczeroballer187]

I would definitely like to see some National laws legalizing medical marijuana and decriminalizing possesion of small amount if not complete legalization!

 

[GrowGreenGreen]

Maybe you should try reading that article...

Nowhere does it say "Obama moved to end DEA raids on med states".

I'm sorry but a White House spokesperson making a comment to a reporter about how the President feels on an issue is nowhere NEAR moving to do something about it.

His position was made quite clear previous to this and that obviously had little effect on the DEA who have made at least 7 such raids since he took office. All the guy has to do if he wants this to stop is issue a directive.

The White House said it expects those kinds of raids to end once Mr. Obama nominates someone to take charge of DEA, which is still run by Bush administration holdovers.
“The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind," White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.
Medical use of marijuana is legal under the law in California and a dozen other states, but the federal government under President Bush, bolstered by a 2005 Supreme Court ruling, argued that federal interests trumped state law.
Dogged by marijuana advocates throughout the campaign, Mr. Obama repeatedly said he was opposed to using the federal government to raid medical marijuana shops, particularly because it was an infringement on states' decisions.
“I'm not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue," Mr. Obama told the Mail Tribune newspaper in Oregon in March, during the Democratic primary campaign.
He told the newspaper the "basic concept of using medical marijuana for the same purposes and with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors, I think that's entirely appropriate."

I think that the article does intimate that his administration is setting off in that direction. Baby steps!

Besides, he has some econ issues to sort out before he hands one down to all the stoners.

 

[misshestermoffitt]

On Feb. 5, the Obama administration quietly but firmly broke with more than a decade of federal policy on medical marijuana, signaling an end to the federal war on state medical marijuana laws. The question now is, what next?

In response to questions about a series of Drug Enforcement Administration raids on medical marijuana collectives in Los Angeles, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro told the Washington Times, "The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind."

The low-key language may obscure what a sea change this represents. Ever since California voters passed the first modern medical marijuana law in 1996, official policy has been to use federal resources to attack these laws in every way possible.

Clinton administration efforts to bar doctors from recommending marijuana were shot down by the courts, but the Bush administration raided dispensaries and sometimes arrested medical marijuana patients and providers. Owners of buildings where medical marijuana dispensaries operate legally under state law have been threatened with seizure of their property.

Now there are 13 medical marijuana states, comprising one-quarter of the U.S. population. Support has been wide and bipartisan, from Montana to Rhode Island. Most importantly, a series of scientific studies published since 2007 have verified that marijuana is a safe, effective treatment for a variety of serious and painful medical conditions.

That represents both a challenge and an opportunity for a president who has committed his administration to "ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology" and "listening to what our scientists have to say. Even when it's inconvenient." The medical marijuana issue begs for that principle to be put into practice.

The first imperative is to install new leadership at the DEA -- leadership that will follow Obama's command to stop interfering with state medical marijuana laws and, just as important, stop obstructing science. The DEA has moved to block a medical marijuana research facility at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, despite the fact that its own administrative law judge recommended that the project be allowed to proceed.
The reasons given by acting DEA administrator Michele Leonhart -- a Bush holdover -- were transparently phony: an ideological opposition to medical marijuana dressed up in pseudoscientific language. This is precisely the sort of nonsense Obama has pledged to end.

But stopping the raids, cleaning out the obstructionists at the DEA and letting the University of Massachusetts effort (and other worthy research projects) go forward should be just the start. The federal law that classifies marijuana as having no recognized use in medicine and as unsafe for use even under physician supervision is scientifically laughable. The American College of Physicians, the American Public Health Association and the American Nurses Association are just a few of the organizations that have urged that this unscientific policy be rethought.

Here's a step the administration could take quickly, without Congress getting involved: Under a program begun in the late 1970s and supervised by the FDA, the federal government supplies medical marijuana to a handful of patients. President George H.W. Bush closed new enrollment into the program, called an IND (Investigational New Drug), back in 1992.
By reopening the IND, President Obama could help suffering patients in states that don't have medical marijuana laws, while maintaining tight FDA supervision to prevent abuse. The program could obtain data from these patients that would add greatly to our body of knowledge about medical marijuana.

If science is truly to triumph over ideology, medical marijuana is the perfect place to start.

 

[VictorVIcious]

He could stop the raids in a matter of minutes, his signature on an Executive order is all that would be necessary. All of the rest of that is BS, it ain't rocket science. VV

 

[Kant]

He could stop the raids in a matter of minutes, his signature on an Executive order is all that would be necessary. All of the rest of that is BS, it ain't rocket science. VV

I can understand if he's trying to come up with a more permanent solution by reorganizing things but i agree that he should just sign an executive order for the time being.