“Like The War On Some Drugs? Thank Dems’ VP Pick Senator Joe Biden!”
-Headline from the NORML blog, September 7, 2008
Feathers are just asking to be ruffled. Begging for it. Parading around on soap boxes, shouting in glee, writing articles and posting on social media, all in an effort to get someone to be the feather ruffler.
Because they sure as hell can not actually support Joe Biden. Not without being gratuitous hypocrites. Not without back peddling on decades worth of quotes and articles, all branded and still sitting on websites and in publications for everyone to see.
Surely, like an unconscious cry for help, they must want someone to point this out? To remind them of who Joe Biden, in their words, truly is? That must be it. No one would actively present themselves as blatant hypocrites for the sake of a political party, over the community of marijuana smokers they claim to stand for, would they? Certainly not any organization or individual that is actually politically unbiased.
Welcome again to Tinfoil Hat Time, where ruffling feathers is normal.
Let us begin with the aforementioned article written in 2008 by Dominic Holden, then member of the NORML Board of Directors. The tone is clearly set from the start as he begins with, “Obama selecting Biden is a punch to the gut.” Continuing, he explains why, “I am anything but a single issue voter, but I’m also a die-hard zealot against the drug war. Everything that could have gone wrong has been an unbridled catastrophe: Drug epidemics and cartel routes breeze across the continent, privacy laws are gutted for sport, kids try drugs younger and younger, our prisons are stuffed with young black men… And it’s Joe Bidens fault. As former chairman for the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden is the person most responsible for passing a package of laws in the mid-80s that we think of as today’s drug war. Biden presided over the mandatory-minimum sentencing guidelines that required judges sentence dealers’ girlfriends and small-time peddlers to decades-long terms in state and federal prisons, where thousands are rotting to this day.”
It’s an excellent read. It finishes by pointing out how Biden would mislead the public and colleagues on drug policy by only allowing police, prosecutors, and DEA officials to speak while any opposing voices were kept silent, effectively controlling the narrative. A move that appears to have grown in popularity and spread to all facets of his life, including presidential elections. (https://norml.org/blog/2008/09/07/like-the-war-on-some-drugs-thank-dems-vp-pick-senator-joe-biden/)
Moving on, let’s jump to one month later, November 23, 2008, to an article posted by former NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre (this article does not credit a second author). Written as a reference to Obamas’ cabinet picks and what they mean for drug policy the headline reads, “So Far, Not So Good”. Scrolling down to Joe Biden’s section, it tells the same tale, “The pick of Joe Biden to be Obama’s running mate was my first sign of digestive tumult regarding the prospect of ‘CHANGE’ for drug policy reform.” It too then lists a summary of well known facts, “Biden was at the center of creating the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), mandatory minimum sentencing, civil forfeiture laws, the Rave Act, funding for DARE in public schools and the ad campaigns for the Partnership for a Drug Free America.” Rounding things off nicely, the author adds a quote from the man himself, “When asked in Connecticut this past May of pain management, Biden exhorted that ‘There’s got to be a better answer than marijuana.’” (https://norml.org/blog/2008/11/23/so-far-not-so-good/)
posted a link to a White House petition urging Obama to listen to “the voters of Colorado and Washington about the future of cannabis legalization, not the famously anti-cannabis/pro-drug war architect Vice President Joe Biden.” At the time the petition only needed 7,000 more signatures. The petition has since been removed but the post remains. (https://norml.org/blog/2013/01/06/tell-obama-to-just-say-no-to-joe/ ).
Flash forward to July 9, 2020, and to a blog post about Biden’s plan to decriminalize and reschedule marijuana. Dropping the historical portrayal of Biden as the “most responsible” “architect” “at the center” of a list of horrifying drug policies, NORML now refers to his plans as being “out of step with public opinion.” It just rolls off the tongue like molasses, doesn’t it? Quoting NORML Executive Director Erik Altieri the article states “It is impractical at best and disingenuous at worst for the Biden campaign to move ahead with these policy proposals. Rescheduling of marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act would continue to make the federal government the primary dictators of cannabis policy, and would do little if anything to address its criminal status under federal law.”
There is not one mention of Bidens role in creating the policies that this article speaks out against. Not one mention of him being the cause of the racial and societal injustices pointed out in this blog post. Not one. (https://norml.org/blog/2020/07/09/bidens-marijuana-plan-is-out-of-step-with-public-opinion-would-do-little-to-mitigate-the-failed-policy-of-federal-prohibition/)
Only a tiny sampling of writings were chosen for this column, and all from NORMLs blog (they made it too easy). It barely scratches the surface of the material that exists written by the marijuana community, legalization activists, civil rights groups, and criminal justice reform advocates calling Joe Biden out for what he has done, naysaying any hopes that he will change, and then turning around and downplaying his role, lending support, and even celebrating him.
It makes no logical sense for anyone in the marijuana community to support Joe Biden. Zero. The community itself has done more over the years to out Biden for his crimes, yes crimes, against the people of this nation than Trump’s campaign ever did, by far. A man who led the charge in creating all of the policies that we find ourselves revoking equal protection laws, side stepping discrimination laws, and instituting ‘equity’ laws in order to fix. Terribly unjust, and often perceived as racist policies that were turned into law under the leadership of Joe Biden before many of the African Americans sitting in jail today for drug crimes were even born. To mislead these victims of Biden into thinking the reason they sit there is also the solution to their problems is an underhanded assault on ethnic minorities for the sake of political gain, and a blatant use of ethnic minorities as tools. A double dipping for the same corrupt politician. Anyone involved should be ashamed of themselves.
To support the cause of the problems we are trying to solve is madness. Bat shit, straightjacket, madness. If a very well known anti-drug politician can suddenly become a pro-drug politician smack dab in the middle of a huge effort to correct for his drug policies, just because it is politically advantageous, then these are not the sorts of people we want leading the legalization effort. This eagerness to flip flop along party lines, rather than marijuana lines, probably speaks as to why it has taken so long for actual change to take root.
Any notion that Joe Biden’s ‘win’ is a win for marijuana is a laughable effort at pretending marijuana is what one cares about. A wishful afterthought at best. Joe Biden winning, or Trump losing, rather, is all that was cared about. To the insane point of electing a vile fourty-seven year career politician who was openly called out as an enemy of the community decades ago, and whose plans will not solve for the problems he created.
The marijuana world is better served thinking for themselves and sticking with the truth than they ever will be listening to fake ‘marijuana advocates’ who inject party bias into everything they say and do. Supporting Joe Biden, or even covering for Joe Biden, is a slap in the face to the community and one of the most disappointing displays of hypocrisy for the sake of politics in history.
