New Policy Encouraging Government Petition Raises Questions of Legalization

The Obama Administration has been facing a lot of complaints from people who were expecting a lot from this group and have yet received very little. In order to make the government more accountable, Obama recently passed a regulation stating that any issue with enough support will receive a customized response from the president.

In this case, “enough support” is defined by the amount of signatures on a given petition. According to the new rule, any petition that receives at least 5,000 signatures will be eligible for executive review. This doesn't mean that the issue in question will be immediately decided upon, but rather that a response statement will be offered in a matter of weeks.

Of the eight petitions that have made the cut so far, the biggest is that which recommends legalizing marijuana and regulating it in a way similar to alcohol. With close to 20,000 signatures, this is by far the most popular issue currently being brought to the Obama Administration.

The petition is similar to many pleas from marijuana supporters in the past. It documents the detrimental history of pot illegality, including the arrests of over 20 million citizens that were otherwise completely productive and the billions of dollars of tax money that has been spent to incarcerate and “rehabilitate” them.

The petition also cleverly references the lack of progress made since pot was made illegal in the first place. If the intent behind the law was to lower the amount of users, restrict access, and get pot off of the streets, then the law obviously isn't working. Petitioners ask, why, then, keep it on the books?

The president and his staff are set to make an official response to this petition within the upcoming few weeks. Marijuana supporters anxiously wait for Obama's words, which could either energize and revolutionize the marijuana industry, or severely stifle it.