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Paul Ryan

Med Marijuana Advocates Rally in Front of Many Obama Campaign Headquarters

protestors

With the exception of Paul Ryan’s declaration that marijuana should be a state level issue (which was quickly recanted by Team Romney), marijuana reform has not garnered much attention this race.  Only Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson has embraced the issue and vowed to legalize marijuana if elected president.  Unfortunately he is having a hard time breaking through the two party system and his appearance at the debates seems unlikely.  President Obama has certainly disappointed  many medical marijuana patients and activists.  Mitt Romney has vowed to “fight medical marijuana tooth and nail”, leaving patients with few options.  Recent campaign stumbles, including a controversial statement accusing President Obama of “apologizing for American values” immediately following the Libya embassy attacks and a video where Romney claimed he was not targeting 47% of the country in his campaign make it increasingly likely that Barack Obama will remain the president of the United States.  Marijuana activists launched a nation wide protest outside of the President’s campaign offices in 15 states.  Americans for Safe Access have been helping to organize the rallies.  Steph Sherer of the group said “There have been more raids under Obama in three-and-a-half years than eight years of Bush.”  Even if President Obama wins, advocates are hopeful that he would reconsider his positions for a second term.

 

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Rough Election For Paul Ryan

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The race for the U.S. presidency can consume and spit out candidates.  The young boy wonder Paul Ryan has been a rising star in the GOP and Congress for almost 14 years.  However, joining Mitt Romney in the race for the White House may drive down his stock considerably.  Already responding to criticisms of misstatements after his address at the RNC regarding welfare and Medicare, the news just has not been great for Ryan.

Clearly Ryan and Romney are not on the same page.  Romney selected a man known as a budget hawk, but has not embraced what Ryan believes.  In fact Mitt Romney seems to be running from his record.  Recently Mitt Romeny told “Meet The Press” that President Obama and the GOP (lead by Ryan on the issue) were wrong to vote to cut military spending.  The lack of unity was on display recently as Paul Ryan told a group of voters in Colorado that he felt marijuana laws should be left up to the states to decide.  This was soon followed by a statement from the Romney campaign that indicated that Ryan agreed with Mitt Romney 100% and that marijuana should never be legalized.

We do not want to pick on Paul Ryan specifically, but so far he is the only one who has dared engage on the issue of marijuana.  Even though marijuana legalization offers the potential to satisfy Paul Ryan’s desire to cut spending and the size of government, we were still surprised to hear him support the issue.  We were NOT surprised to see the Romney campaign recant a statement.  They seem to have made an art of this.

The Paul Ryan statement that seemed to come from left field motivated marijuana.net to dig a little deeper into Paul Ryan’s view on marijuana.  The digging did not require much effort and we were able to figure out that as recently as May of this year, Paul Ryan voted against a bill that would have defunded the DEA’s ability conduct medical marijuana raids.  Not exactly a pro state rights view is it?

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Paul Ryan Almost Gives Hope For Reform Advocates

paul ryan

The prospects of marijuana becoming a campaign issue seemed dim for most of the presidential race.  President Obama has avoided the issue when engaging in online forums and Mitt Romney had recently told a college crowd he would fight medical marijuana “tooth and nail”.  Whether intentional or not, medical marijuana was front and center, even if for a brief time.

Mitt Romney has been running for president since 2007 with Biden and Obama now holding office for almost 4 years.  Paul Ryan represents the only fresh face Americans may not be as familiar with.  In a move that most likely upset Romney campaign organizers, Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan recently stated that he felt marijuana should be a state issue.  He told a local television network in Colorado, KRDO TV, that “it’s up to Coloradans to decide.”  Before activists get their hopes up he also added that medical marijuana “is something that is not a high priority of ours.” The stance makes sense as a growing wing of the Republican Party is seeking to promote state rights, smaller government, and fiscal responsibility.

Campaign officials for Romney/Ryan were quick to change the tone.  They later released a statement that Paul Ryan agrees with Mitt Romney that marijuana should never be legalized.  This is not the first time the two have not seen eye to eye.  Mitt Romney has been attacked on many items in Paul Ryan’s controversial  proposed budget which would make deep cuts to many social programs.  The two also differ on abortion as Paul Ryan does not believe in exceptions even for incest, rape, or when a mother’s health is compromised.  Additionally, last night on “Meet The Press” Mitt Romney said Republicans were wrong to vote to cut defense spending, even as it was brought to Mr. Romney’s attention that GOP leadership (including Ryan) voted for the cuts.  This has seriously brought into question by analysts as to exactly why Mitt Romney selected Paul Ryan as his vice presidential candidate being that the two seem to differ substantially on issues.

Perhaps they are worried about their conservative base, a base that has not fully embraced Mitt Romney.  However, it is always interesting when a candidate says something in plain language only to have a spokesperson take it back later.  Are they trying to have their cake and eat it too by having Ryan curry favor with reform advocates, then turning around and appeasing the “tough on drugs” crowd?  Even if Paul Ryan truly does support state rights in this instance, just putting toe in the water is not good enough.  Patients have felt mislead by the President so a simple statement alone will not win over this community.  The Romney/Ryan ticket had a chance to win over disenfranchised patients, but instead chose to do what Romney has been famous for, sending conflicting messages.

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