No Marijuana Question During Online Interview With Obama

by Ben Morris
President Obama’s CitizenTube forum concluded today with questions about ending marijuana prohibition receiving the most votes, by far. Yet, an answer to the most popular question was absent from the president’s address, which took place on YouTube this afternoon.
Last year, when marijuana reform questions topped the president’s “Open For Questions” forum, the president at least answered — albeit without serious consideration to the issue.
Obama needs to realize something: ending marijuana prohibition is not a fringe issue. Not anymore. The question consistently ranks among the most popular whenever the president holds one of these unfiltered forums, and the polls are showing rapid increases in support for reform nationwide (46% of Americans think small amounts of marijuana should be legal, according to a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll). We can’t just ignore it. With at least three states considering legislation or ballot initiatives to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol in the coming years, the issue is going be addressed in a serious way — whether or not Obama continues to ignore it.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that President Obama chose to ignore marijuana reform questions. The questions posed to him were selected by YouTube, which decided not to present the highest ranked questions to the president. This post has been changed to correct that inaccuracy.

YouTube’s CitizenTube forum concluded today with questions about ending marijuana prohibition receiving the most votes, by far. Yet, the questions about marijuana prohibition were not presented to the president this afternoon.

Last year, when marijuana reform questions topped the “Open For Questions” forum operated by the White House, the president did answer them — albeit without serious consideration to the issue. It’s unfortunate that YouTube would shelter the president from something that’s obviously on a lot of people’s minds.

Ending marijuana prohibition is not a fringe issue. Not anymore. The polls are showing rapid increases in support for reform nationwide (46% of Americans think small amounts of marijuana should be legal, according to a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll), and at least three states are considering legislation or ballot initiatives to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol in the coming years. This issue will be addressed in a serious way, and it’s regrettable that YouTube would shy away from it.

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Tagged with: citizentube and Obama and open for questions by the author