Obama's pot comments could help legalization efforts in states (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiibdeq1S4F15GYIIYqcMQL0xg8yzNhdg1BtTOjd8XYlYpTkKQjtt1EsbLl6yFv-j6TRcbaTv_GhPuMH_aqQ_v8uvIdsiRdtk4yOPczIZGq-50HW5V3WYYoZUp3Y77WYF3csrMWAORdFfc/s1600/1b797b0268b03102490f6a706700c7cc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiibdeq1S4F15GYIIYqcMQL0xg8yzNhdg1BtTOjd8XYlYpTkKQjtt1EsbLl6yFv-j6TRcbaTv_GhPuMH_aqQ_v8uvIdsiRdtk4yOPczIZGq-50HW5V3WYYoZUp3Y77WYF3csrMWAORdFfc/s1600/1b797b0268b03102490f6a706700c7cc.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390361308186_2936" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">President Barack Obama's <a data-mce-href="http://news.yahoo.com/obama-marijuana-football-184222270.html" data-rapid_p="9" href="http://news.yahoo.com/obama-marijuana-football-184222270.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">comments on marijuana</a>, published in the New Yorker magazine over the weekend, could help legalization efforts in several states, including Oregon, <a data-mce-href="http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20140120/UPDATE/301200002/%20" data-rapid_p="10" href="http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20140120/UPDATE/301200002/%20" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the Statesman Journal reports</a>.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390361308186_2956" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The president's comments "will certainly have an impact on voters in the state of Oregon,” Rep. Vicki Berger told the Statesman.“As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life," Obama told the magazine. "I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.”</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390361308186_2975" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">According to the newspaper, Democratic lawmakers plan to introduce a legislative referral next month that would ask voters whether they want recreational marijuana legalized. Similar efforts are under way in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The president's views "will influence people throughout the country,” Donald Moorse, a Portland, Ore., medical marijuana dispensary owner, told the paper. “I think that’s why he made the comments.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The president acknowledged marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer."</div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-image go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp landscape onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="11" data-uuid="653f5edc-e79d-35fc-ba8b-1a3925eca667" href="http://news.yahoo.com/photos/obama-smiles-daughter-sasha-fill-burritos-volunteer-dc-photo-193233676.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="Obama smiles as he and his daughter Sasha fill burritos&nbsp;&hellip;"><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 200px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 270px; zoom: 1;"></span><span class="cta-text xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; bottom: 5px; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 42px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View gallery</span><span class="icon-slideshow icon-white-slideshow-xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.16s linear; background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; bottom: 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 23px; left: 5px; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; transition: opacity 0.16s linear; width: 32px; z-index: 1;"></span></div><img alt="Obama smiles as he and his daughter Sasha fill burritos&nbsp;&hellip;" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="200" src="http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/uWgjUHwU1SLxDS8D_fO5EQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTIwMDtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2014-01-20T193233Z_58128909_GM1EA1L09IM01_RTRMADP_3_USA-KING.JPG" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></div></a><div class="body-related-title photo-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: grey; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16.5px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;">U.S. President Barack Obama (C) smiles as he and his daughter Sasha (2nd R) fill burritos as they vo …</div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Asked about the legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado and Washington, Obama said, “it’s important for it to go forward because it’s important for society not to have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">In Colorado, where a law legalizing recreational marijuana went into effect on Jan. 1, Obama's pro-pot comments were front-page news, even appearing above the Denver Broncos' win over the New England Patriots on Monday's cover of the Denver Post.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Last week, the New Hampshire House of Representatives became the first state legislature to vote in favor of a bill to legalize the sale and possession of recreational marijuana, which, if signed into law, could entice Vermont to do the same.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><a data-mce-href="http://watchdog.org/124288/new-england-pot-domino-effect/" data-rapid_p="12" href="http://watchdog.org/124288/new-england-pot-domino-effect/" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">According to VermontWatchdog.org</a>, a bill to legalize the sale and possession of pot will be on this session's agenda in Montpelier.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The support was welcomed by pot advocates.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390361308186_2991" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“The first step to improving our nation’s marijuana policy is admitting that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol," Mason Tvert, director of the Marijuana Policy Project, said in a statement. "Now that he has recognized that laws jailing adults for using marijuana are inappropriate, it is time to amend for those errors and adopt a more fact-based marijuana policy.</div></div>

Obama's pot comments could help legalization efforts in states (BLOG)

President Barack Obama's  comments on marijuana , published in the New Yorker magazine over the weekend, could help legalization efforts...

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