Crackdown politics
by digby
In their unrelenting quest to kill legal medical marijuana dead, President Barack Obama and the United States Department of Justice appear content to incur collateral damage.
Last week, property owners who rent to dispensaries were informed that the federal government could seize their properties within 45 days; this week, one of the four United States attorneys who declared open season on anything connected to state-legal cannabis told California Watch that the fourth estate is next. Specifically, the administration says any publication — from print to web to broadcasting — that accepts advertisements from medical marijuana businesses could face prosecution.
It would appear that the President is going to make his “run to the middle” in a different way this time. Apparently, he’s going to make some populist rhetorical feints while selling himself as a hard core law and order/national security tough guy. It’s an unusual approach not seen since … Ronald Reagan. I’m guessing that it won’t work quite as well without the “welfare queen” demagoguery, but maybe Mexican deportations and medical marijuana busts can suffice as stand-ins. After all, it was Nancy Reagan herself who ran the “Just Say No” anti-drug campaign in the 80s.
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