MARIJUANA PETITION GETS THUMBS DOWN

Just in case there was any doubt, the White House
turned down a petition to legalize and regulate
marijuana "in a matter similar to alcohol."

Backers had submitted 75,000 signatures to the
Obama administration's "We the People" project.
That vaulted it to the top spot among petitions
the White House promised a quick policy response
to if enough signatures were received. The "We
the People" project was the subject of a page one
story in The Wall Street Journal last month.

Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House
Office of National Drug Control Policy, said
Monday that research found that marijuana is
associated with addiction, respiratory disease
and cognitive impairment, and that it possibly
affects still-developing brains of people in
their 20s. He called the current drug-control
strategy "balanced and comprehensive, emphasizing
prevention and treatment" and "innovative law enforcement."

Allen St. Pierre, executive director of NORML,
which advocates for marijuana legalization and
which organized at least one of these petitions,
said he was not surprised by the response but
said it's "hard not to be disappointed that the
White House solicits=ADconsistently=ADthe views of
the general public about specific policy changes
via the Internet, and with the same consistency
completely rejects the public's ever-growing wont
to see cannabis prohibition end in our lifetimes."

Other responses indicate that the White House
also doesn't support removing the phrase "In God
We Trust" from the currency or "Under God" from
the Pledge of Allegiance. It doesn't support a
"fair tax," which the White House said would
increase taxes for the middle class and cut them
for the wealthy. And it declined to respond to a
petition calling for a probe of the prosecution
of Sholom Rubashkin, a former kosher
slaughterhouse executive sentenced to 27 years in prison.