Obama, You're No Stranger to the Bong: An Open Letter to the President

[cow1578]

I think guy who said 6% of agricultural land would supply our energy needs is full of crap. Cannabis is not a wonder plant that can solve all our problems.

What legalization could do is make our streets safer, our children less likely to use drugs and our absurd deficit a little less bad. The objectives of the war on drugs are not being achieved by that war. It's like trying to win the Vietnam war by dropping a 500 lbs. bomb for every man, woman, and child in the country. It isn't working.

[seymournuggets]

I guess roughly 60% said no on legalizing, and 40% said yeah. If we can just alter that 20%. Like hear me out! Kill off 10% of the baby boomers. Then get 10% of your friends, and family registered to vote. Thumbs up if this a good idea? lol

[Ryannnn29]

ron paul for 2012. drug wars don't work... look at the past century. learn something people-who-think-otherwise. what a ridiculous world we live in where cannabis is considered bad...

[cmekill64]

FUCK THE DEA AND FBI

[unheardcky]

i wouldn't want to see it legalized becouse id be harder for teens like me to get

[sneakyamdal]

politicians were not created to change things, but to make sure everything sticks the same. Even the romans did this! it's nothing else than history repeating itself again and again and again...

[jfm487]

Yeah. maybe that's why it took him 12 days to responf to the BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico and why he parties and takes vacations and golfs while the people of FL, and other states have to clean up and cope with the oil mess. Obama is stoned alright. he is a a totla ZERO loser. Troops still die in Iraq and Afganistan while he parties and acts like a moron who can only read a teleprompter.

[rpoosterrhema]

they want it all for themselves...besides ending the war on drugs would only bring taxes...pout...My dealer doesn't tax!

[hyastu]

1:53 thats some ugly ass piff

[Bartman67]

lets all go get high, YOU SHUT THE HELL UP you freek shows

[emerhausen]

wurd

[christo930]

Government hypocrisy is never ceases to amaze me. Bush and Obama have both used hard drugs yet continue to throw people in prison for doing exactly what they themselves have done.

[WestEtnaMafia]

he is gonna do nothing- no different from the last to the next douche bag in office. ron paul wants to decriminalize it btw

[bjkbjkbkjb]

@WestEtnaMafia i really hope you're wrong

[notabuzzkill]

Sorry but Obama is a hypocrite regarding marijuana.

[hidethisnine]

@notabuzzkill Obama is a lying hypocrite regarding everything.

[rainbowbrat09]

come on obama do this for all those people who could've been president like you but got caught like you didn't.

[jewboyjwr]

fuck hemp!

thats a waste of good herb. unless ya make that shit outta stems i guess

[forXION]

hemp is so useful... research the all the things hemp can be used for...

[barrytrussell09]

One stroke of the pen Mr.President and you could change everything for the good in good old america,decriminalize drugs now Mr.President and give the business to the honest merchents in this country and take it away from the criminals,peace out!

[OnlyAPawn1970]

He just turned into another government puppet,like all the rest.Meet the new boss-same as the old boss.Legalize Marijuana.

[ez2spell321]

nice song

[TheY0ungTurds]

5/5. Im sure it hasnt been that long ago since obama smoked a bowl. Not ending the faux war on drugs would be hyprocritical.

[kait112]

Props to my University of Utah football team there at the end. Go Utes!

[sociablyclussy]

Each county grows sugar beets , ganja , and cultivate Kudzu , these counties can have EPA still/gas pumps so there is little hauling by trucks !!!

[pottsman420]

bielocke:

im from ohio and pretty much every1 here smoke's weed i do my parent's have my friends mom does and is growing plant's that she found us growing(lmao) weed is excepted and its less harmful the water.....

[SUITSUSALL]

Approximately 6% of the agricultural land area of the contiguous United States would produce more Cannabis Biomass than is required to supply all current demand for gasoline, diesel, and oil in the US.

4/5 of everything being done on this planet are dependent on some kind of OIL product. The reason cannabis/hemp was made illegal even with overwhelming proof of its SAFE RELAXING HERB is to continue the profiteering of the very few!

See: THE REPORT: Cannabis: The Facts, Human Rights And The Law

[XanatharEye]

No way how can it be a fuel? I put it in my pipe it takes a lot to make it sublimate, i put gasoline or even cooking oil in my pipe, one spark and i'm chokin or worse.

[SUITSUSALL]

The CBEE (Cannabis Biomass Energy Equation), follow the link to the SUITS website from my channel, click on the CBEE (tab).

YES, you can make fuel! : )

[caliNYCdoja]

one spark wouldnt set cooking oil on fire

[XanatharEye]

Bud soaked in olive oil will burn with one spark, by one spark i mean one flick of a bic

[sanarkhos]

"Thank you for reversing an inhumane policy established by the Clinton administration and continued by the Bush administration."

Sucka!

[johntm77]

WOOT. Yeah was this really sent to him? And if so what are the chances of him opening it?

[jewboyjwr]

FTW! pot is less harmful than soda!'

go eat a dick anyone who looses control of their body when they smoke.

ITS CALLED MODERATION DICKHEADS.

your expected to use it when you drink so you don't wake up in a pile of your own vomit and excrement so don't get fucking lit so you can't even remember your own name!

COME ON NOW!

i know common sense seems extinct but really?

[pottsman420]

no i dont agree with you...... smoke till ur high as fuck dont stop erlie if u have to monitor how much u smoke then dont.... i personly have to smoke 1 1/2 bowls of sour diesle to get decently high...by my self

[sweetness2152]

sour diesel is pretty bomb, sour dukie is goin around here right now and its the shit

[man4cannabis]

good song and obama if pot is illegal you should not be president you inhaled didint you

[LegalizeMarijuanaJD]

Agreed, zapatista512. The way Obama ridiculed marijuana legalization shows how casually he casts aside his supporters. Check out my channel, LegalizeMarijuanaJD, and let's see what we can do to change his mind.

[zapatista512]

Obama is a piece of shit.. he just said he's not going to legalize marijuana. Google it.. that hypocrite.

[caliNYCdoja]

Obama has lied about everything he was going to do

[Bielocke]

I am a weed smoker myself, occasionnally, so please, do not see my message as an anti-drug post...

Weed, or drugs in general, isn't like alcohol. If you smoke one joint ur already high, if u sniff cocaine up ur nose, u go craaaaazayyy, and let's not talk about crack, heroin, meth, etc...

What i'm traying to say is, both alcohol and weed, meth, coke...etc, are drugs. Difference is, one is accepted by society, the other isn't.

[HeathenRage]

What I don't think a lot of people understand is:

The government knows that marijuana is benign and relatively harmless....but the government finds it useful to have organized crime, to influence the economies and to carry out clandestine operations in other counties.

The fictitious drug war keeps drug prices high, and seizures from uncooperative, or otherwise rouge or unconnected drug lords, keep many government law enforcement agencies well funded, supplied and trained.

[HeathenRage]

Just think...we(the public) have Google Earth...can you imagine what they(CIA/law enforcement) have....They know where every drop of mustard is, and where it came from.

You think this much dope gets through without (big brother) knowing? Come-on.

[HeathenRage]

Fighting crime is expensive and requires front-end investments from society to most effectively influence behavior.

Most of the investments required have little to do with the many law enforcement agencies that are currently being used as trained governmental militia's against the citizenry.

The "Drug War" is being waged on us, not for us.

[Yoruyonaka]

Lee, that's just it, there is none. I mean, unless you think that these cartels are going to start providing weed free to everyone and not only that but from the comfort of their own homes then the internet movies example doesn't really apply.

The only comparable example is alcohol, which was the target of prohibition before they shifted to weed and everything else. How many ppl do you know who buy moonshine? The only reason it's still even run is because of restrictions on alcohol content

[Yoruyonaka]

All the Cartels control, all they've ever controlled, is crappy mexican brick weed. When its legal, that will become the domain of Phillip Morris and their buddies. They can buy it cheaper than the Carts, they can distribute it with less end-term transport damage, they can market it better, and if the Cartels still try to butt in Phillip Morris can raise a heck of a lot larger fighting force.

[Yoruyonaka]

These types of organizations ONLY exist because of the black market they thrive on. They are extremely expensive to run because of their violent and forceful tactics and gov't resistance, they just cannot by nature make money off of legal industry.

They'll move to another market and slowly die out, because guns and prostitutes aren't big enough revenue to run such organizations. The leaders will slowly be shot down by the cops and the soldiers will metriculate back into society. Over. Done

[Yoruyonaka]

On top of all of that, the fact that cannabis prohibition is the chief source of funding for the crime syndicates in the Americas and the world, it wouldn't even matter if they did still survive (which they won't, and less likely the more reasonable the law is). It is not acceptable to say, "okay, we'll keep throwing innocent citizens in prison, keep walking over every first ammendment right and by our actions make our citizens slave in all but name because it won't kill the cartels."

[Yoruyonaka]

Whats more, more than the right to tread over our rights, is that the Cannabis Civil War has created MASSIVE gov't agencies and given extra work (and therefor money) to most all of them. And Obama is definately big gov't. Its also helped the "fundraisers" of both parties - oil and coal, tobacco and alcohol, trial lawyers and police (who can legally still your shit without filing charges against you, btw, they file them agianst your shit which has no rights). Why stop it?

[Yoruyonaka]

Great vid, btw. I wish Obama would listen, but legalizing cannabis would be against his interests. The dems would lose the angry smoker vote, and they would lose the power that the drug war gives the gov't to encroach on the bill of rights. Every one of those unbreakable ammendments has been broken by one law or another that came from the drug war. Heck, prohibition (the first signs of the civil war here at home) gave the excuse for the first gun control laws (it created gun-toting gangsters

[Yoruyonaka]

(cont'd from below)

The only reason for the violence of the drug war is that illegality. Even legally importing pot from Mexico would be difficult for many reason. One of the biggest determinants in the quality of cannabis is how it is harvested and handled. The active chemical is contained within the trichome heads (the shiny tiny mushrooms you see on the surface of many plants), and if you touch them with any force, they break. Shipping it long distances turns it to doodoo. No profit.

[Yoruyonaka]

j95lee, yes it will, that's kind of the point. Without criminal laws or ridiculous tax structures, there is no profit in it for the cartels. The expense of a reasonable tax will HARDLY cover the risk they run and the bribes they must maintain and all of the other trappings of black market industry. And that doesn't even take into account the massive price drops that will occur unless a high price is artificially maintained. The cartels wouldn't be profitable unless they found something else.

[j95lee]

The cartel will probably buy the legal supply in bulk, or otherwise control the supply by force, and undercut anyone selling it legally. People download free stuff from the internet for a or buy bootleg material although the product might be legally available - at a price.

Maybe they'll find a way to process the stuff faster, more cheaper, or distribute it in a way not legally permissable. I'm no drug expert, but there should be some incentive to break the law at the end.

[j95lee]

I'm all for medical marijuana and rethinking the drug wars, but I'm dubious about legalizing drugs. Drug addiction has serious consequences, and addicts can hurt others.

If MJ was legal, the drug cartels will attempt to control the legal supply, or undercut government regulations (you know the govt will regulate drugs even if they legalized them) by selling it cheaper underground. Either way, the violence won't just evaporate just because the incentvive to break the law disappears.

[ChrisSketch]

Addicts can get help much easier when there's no taboo to admitting you have a problem. If you're afraid of being arrested you're not going to seek help and its more difficult for others to to recognize if their loved ones have problems.

Weed can grow practically everywhere. It'd be like trying to stop people from growing their own tomatoes. Growing would be like brewing your own beer. The only reason we have foreign marijuana cartels is because its too risky to grow ona large scale in America.

[Imaginefree69]

Great song, awesome message!

The time is now!

End the war on drugs and free the POWs!

[XionXi]

You know, personally I have nothing to gain from this as I never have and never will smoke weed. However, I don't think anyone has the right to stop others from doing so, and it'd be massively hypocritical of Obama if he doesn't do something to decriminalize the stuff.

[barrytrussell09]

End the war on drugs,prohibition is criminal,end the war on drugs.Lets have a trully free trade system with tarifs and taxes and good honest merchentsDECRIMINILIZE DRUGS

[hellnowewont]

War on Drugs is nothing more than a phony war just like war on terror designed to oppress us and rob us of our civil rights.

[sarrazinmars]

funny....clinton saying that he didn`t inhaled it!

[lakeviewviking]

Obama will continue the war on drugs, and his sheeplike cult will avert their eyes to the hypocrisy.

Remember: govt. oppression is only bad when republicans do it.

[copenhagen1221]

True dat lol. I mean come on, Obama is inheriting the War on Drugs, so it's not really his problem ya know...

^^^Sarcasm

[VGsuperstar]

the war on drugs is just the war on personal freedom...ask bill hicks he knew

[jvittetoe]

Great vid, absolutely great up until the end. THE GOVERNMENT HAS NO AUTHORITY TO MAKE THE NCAA USE A PLAYOFF. How can a freedom loving organization like REASON endorse such immoral force. What a shame.

[Cannabisativa420]

cool song

[Nubiah9]

COOL - FREE THE WEED

[jadedclown]

YES! Please let us have our pass time. Some of us enjoy to smoke. Some of us are old, in pain, or just want to forget our troubles and be happy. There is NO scientific proof that weed is bad other than smoke inhalation. So come one be real, let men make their own choice, and get rid of cancer sticks, thats where we need to go next.

[caszper87]

LOL @ let men make their own choice AND get rid of cancer sticks....which is it?

def legalize weed tho

[a4finger]

nice

Realisticly the worst thing about marijuana is the fact what you're smoking a weed. You're gonna get lung cancer. The drug effects themselves aren't really that strong. The only side-effect is u become hungry. U could also haluscinate, and that could lead to problems

[ChrisSketch]

Yea, enough smoke will cause lung problems. But you really don't have to smoke a lot of weed to get the benefits. Its not like people smoking a half a pack of cigarettes a day.

You could also cook with it, you could use a vaporizer, some medical marijuana dispensaries have sprays with just the good chemicals in it. I'd say cancer would be a minor risk in moderation. Like seriously hurting your liver with alchohol: you could, but unless your overindulging, you probably won't.

[mellydad]

this would be a good way of getting taxes, like they do on tobacco. There is opportunity in this crisis. Tax it, tax it, tax it.

[veee4vendetta]

Taxes = theft through threat of murder.

[markdcarter]

Government = monopoly of force.

[grungehawk]

i just want t to be able to smoke without being afraid of getting in trouble.

weed, why is it so taboo?

[skullaria]

Because big pharma can't get a piece of it.

[LPBguy]

ROTFL @ Rush Limbaugh reference.

[LPBguy]

Obama definitely deserves criticism from the libertarians for his massive stimulus packages, which he is certainly getting.

However, we can applaud him for at least moving in the right direction on the issue of marijuana. Make no mistake, there is still plenty of work to be done in ending the war on drugs, but this is encouraging.

[jesamani75]

let the herb grow!!!

[jeepndesert]

government isn't stupid. government is extremely evil. that is why there is a war on drugs.

[KodeineUniversity]

Unless they bring in the government high-breds and try and pacify the country with reefer and adult swim.

I'm an advocate for weed, and legalization, but only true legalization where we can grow it our self, and trade it freely. This will not be the case with USA sponsored legalization. They'll tax it, control it, perhaps even be in charge of production, we'll see how that works out. They'll always have their war on drugs, they might just redefine weed to "product" like alcohol and tobacco.

[justbringit151515]

@jeepndesert

"a War on drugs is a war on me"

"they got money for war but can't feed the poor"

-Tupac. Keep Ya Head Up

whether it gets legalized or not, will not solve the problem. the problem is money. we give it too much power. as long as there is money, there will be control. but who controls the money? the federal Reserve. but who do they serve??? Satan?

[jeepndesert]

the federal reserve is a private bank. they earn tax exempt interest on every dollar printed. and in october 2008, the got the freedom to print it and spend it themselves. and they printed $9.7 trillion. that could have paid off the national debt

[ChrisSketch]

@jeepndesert, please stop killing Reason's credibility with your conspiracy theory bullcrap. You are the reason Libertarianism isn't taken seriously.

[jeepndesert]

gfy, the new world order is no funcamp. wake up. do some research. it is everywhere in the news. you're the reason the libertarian party is dead. ron paul's success was due to the anti-nwo crowd. i'm a georgist. until you right libertarians realize the merit of the citizen dividend paid for with land value taxes, libertarianism is dead.

[jeepndesert]

obama is just a puppet. the last president who tried to be a president, jfk, got shot. the federal reserve owns our government. they own and control everything, especially the media and intelligence. the rothschilds and rockefellers are worth trillions. .

[GloriousIgor]

drug prohibition is just another way that our freedoms are being whittled away to nothing. One day we will be like the pods in Matrix, only used to produce energy for the system and having no real life of our own except for fantasy.

[slapchop2000]

cute

[jeepndesert]

the new world order is everywhere. the government is not stupid, it is pure evil. google bilderberg to learn who owns and runs the world. this economic collapse is by design. the stock market is going to crash below 2,000 until they get their agenda through. google endgame, blueprint for global enslavement. this shit is real.

[hmetalcowboy]

What I dont understand is why the new world order doesn't want us smoking weed. other than they just like arresting 800,000 of us in a single year. Wouldn't you want people to be happy smoking weed, maybe we would stop getting on our governments case so much.

[jeepndesert]

the government wants crime. they want to divide us. they want people in prison. they want the breakdown and collapse of society. they want to divide and conquer us. they want to enslave us and reduce the population drastically. government doesn't love you. they don't want you happy..

[LPBguy]

Realize that it is about power and control. Keeping weed (and other drugs) illegal gives the government an excuse to restrict our civil liberties.

[philhersh]

Hurray for Reaon TV. End the hypocrisy

[captaindiesalot]

Dream on...they're not going to do anything that's smart in this administration. In fact, look for more police action, not less.

[mclazyi]

Such a beautiful song!

Marijuana helps so many sick people...STOP THE RAIDS ON THE DISPENSARIES!

legalize it!

[america4hemp]

reason tv you need to show the world the facts #1 medicine #1 food #1 fiber #1 fuel #1 paper ! end world hunger ! reverese the greenhouse effect ! cure cancer ! and create millions and millions of new jobs real green jobs

[Lemonator420]

cmon obama u can do it! legalize it,everyone does weed,all highschools do it,ive even found out some teachers have done it before and their lifes have been great including ppl that have successful lifes thats done weed alot,WEEDS not a drug!

[SuperModelVogue]

Exactlyy.

There are so many functioning users, out there.

You could be high all day but you couldn't be drunk all day.

[Seiku]

I don't.

[welikethegovernment]

go utes!

[tswachter]

this is too true, easy way to increase approval ratings

[adamwc1776]

Sweet! C'mon Obama, give us some change we can believe in. Hundreds of thousands of people in jail for nothing different than what you did, man. Give them the break you got.

[markdcarter]

Why look to the USA's CEO for *permission*? Is Obama your dad or something?! ;)

Check out Robert-Arthur Menard's work on personal sovereignty (World Freeman Society) and the Freedom Files website. Also, YouTube search "freeman-on-the-land". Have fun!

[anthonytaurus]

what song is this based off of.. all i remember is rockets in flight and will ferrel singin it in ron burgundy lol

[Exuro89]

three cheers for ReasonTV.

[jewboyjwr]

i love a good protest tune!

[rudolphthered1]

Awesome! Reason, thank you so much for your bold and creative contribution on this issue. Way to expose intellectual dishonesty and allow us to have a real conversation on this topic! Keep it up.

[MooseOfReason]

Great premise, cheesy song.