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The White House Responds To We the People Petition

Posted by samzenpus on from the thank-you-for-contacting-citizen-support dept.

First time accepted submitter Nysul writes "The White House, aiming to gather the opinion (or marketing data) of the internet nation, asked for our thoughts by creating the We the People site and now it has responded to some of the more popular petitions, such as marijuana reform and separation of church and state. You probably won't be surprised at the answers."

15 of 920 comments (clear)

  1. I stopped reading the responses after... by orphiuchus · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...I read their claim that marijuana is addictive. You can lie to my face all you want, but don't expect me to vote for you.

    1. Re:I stopped reading the responses after... by Rockoon · · Score: 2, Informative

      Anyone who has used it knows that there is no debate.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    2. Re:I stopped reading the responses after... by orphiuchus · · Score: 3, Informative

      As a former smoker, a coffee drinker, and a former marijuana user, I can promise you that both caffeine and nicotine are far more addictive than marijuana.

      In fact, I've never in my life had a "marijuana craving", but I've had many pounding headaches from not giving in to nicotine cravings.

    3. Re:I stopped reading the responses after... by Stormwatch · · Score: 5, Informative

      In a zero to 100 scale, with nicotine being at the very top, cannabis is rated 21 - well below caffeine, alcohol, or valium. sauce

      --
      Circumcision is child abuse.
    4. Re:I stopped reading the responses after... by orphiuchus · · Score: 3, Informative

      Unless they do, then the really can. The problem is the overlap between pot smokers and slackers.

      Its easier to quit smoking pot than it is to stop drinking soda.

    5. Re:I stopped reading the responses after... by demonlapin · · Score: 5, Informative

      You won't die from quitting heroin, either. The drugs that are actually physically dangerous to quit cold-turkey are alcohol, benzodiazepines (Valium, Xanax, Librium, etc.), and barbiturates (Quaalude/methaqualone, pentobarbital, phenobarbital, etc.).

    6. Re:I stopped reading the responses after... by jrumney · · Score: 5, Informative

      Caffeine is physically addictive. Heavy users stopping cold turkey can expect severe headaches, fatigue, altered mood, fever and other symptoms. Pot is not physically addictive, largely due to the fact that it stays in your system so long, so any sudden halt of consumption leads to a gradual drop in the level of THC in your body over a period of days or even weeks.

      Psychological addiction to pot is of course possible, as it is with any other substance, object or activity.

    7. Re:I stopped reading the responses after... by ahfoo · · Score: 3, Informative

      You can indeed die from heroin withdrawl. For a heavy user going cold turkey it's normal to experience extremely elevated blood pressure that can directly result in death especially when there are aggravating factors which is common in people living off a substance that can only be obtained in a black market economy of questionable purity injecting the drug with recycled syringes. You bet they can have complicating conditions before they go cold turkey under those circumstances. Circulatory problems are not a rare thing for junkies by any means. Totally collapsed veins are not unusual at all. When you couple those circumstances with an intense extended period of extremely elevated blood pressure it can result in death.

      Having said that, the far more common cause of death for a heroin user going cold turkey is not a direct result of the withdrawl symptoms but an overdose in an effort to control the symptoms of withdrawl. That's pretty much the classic OD scenario. Saying that you can't die from quitting heroin seems to be a bit overly simplistic given that fact.

    8. Re:I stopped reading the responses after... by demonlapin · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'm an anesthesiologist. I could be wrong, of course, but medical school, residency, and my personal experience all say that people don't die of opioid withdrawal. It's not fun, but it's not fatal. I would guess that something else was going on at the same time - perhaps he was using some of those other drugs I mentioned, as well - but would welcome details, if you have them.

    9. Re:I stopped reading the responses after... by mcgrew · · Score: 3, Informative

      There are no physical withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal is the key to whether a substance is addictive or not.Alcohol, caffeine, opiates, tobacco, and many other drugs are addictive, because there are physical symptoms when the addict stops. Alcohol withdrawal can be deadly.

      Unfortunately, the politicians and politically driven have attempted (maybe successfully) to redefine habituation as addiction, adding such nonsense as "sex addiction" or "food addiction" or "gambling addiction". The trouble is, anything can be habituating. Drink a glass of orange juice every morning at 7:00 for five years and I guarantee you'll miss it when you can't have it.

      If by your definition of "addiction" marijuana is addictive, then orange juice is even more addictive.

      Pot smokers don't steal, prostitute, or beg for it when they can't have it, unlike alcoholics, crackheads, and junkies. They don't spend the rent money on pot, they simply do without.

      The "marijuana is addictive" is in fact a bald-faced lie propagated by the folks you voted for..

      --
      Free Martian Whores!
  2. Re:they ignore us. by Black+Parrot · · Score: 4, Informative

    so, when is the revolution, guys?

    how much proof do we need that they do not care about our needs or wants or even justice??

    Uh... heard of that Occupy Wall Street thingy that all the politicians and talking heads are so busy dismissing, and the police are so busy beating up?

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  3. Re:Why bother by artor3 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Gitmo is open because the Republicans made it impossible to transfer the detainees out. Obama isn't a dictator. He can't just make things happen by declaration.

    Obama did weaken the Patriot Act, though not as much as many would like.

    Wars are multiplying? The one in Iraq is ending, the one in Libya didn't require any American troops in harm's way. How exactly is that multiplication? At worst it's staying flat, and if you're honest, you'll admit that our military commitments have been reduced since he took office.

    The economy is way better than it was when he took office, you just suffer from a very short memory (along with most Americans). Here's a reminder: when Obama took office, we were hemorrhaging around half a million jobs a month. Now the number of jobs is rising each month, albeit slowly.

    And that's it? That's all you got for him failing "on so many bold promises already"?

    What about the promised and delivered credit card reform that prevents "universal defaults", short notice due date changes, and several other abuses?
    The promised and delivered closing of the Medicare doughnut hole?
    The end to "pre-existing conditions"?
    The new START treaty?
    Ending Don't Ask Don't Tell?
    The expansion of AmeriCorps?
    The surge in Afghanistan?
    Finally completing the CAT-5 levies in NOLA?
    Passing the promised Ledbetter Act?
    Allowing stem cell research to continue?
    Letting Cuban Americans visit their family in Cuba?
    Killing Osama freakin' bin Laden?

    Look, if you don't like him, fine. If you don't agree with his policies, fine. But don't lie about what he's accomplished. For those of us who actually listened to him campaign instead of simply imagining what he might do, he's been an outstanding success, even in the face of opposition that goes well beyond what any president should have to deal with.

  4. Re:Why bother by blank+axolotl · · Score: 5, Informative

    He gets no credit for winding down Iraq. He and his administration in fact lobbied hard to keep the troops there longer, but the Iraqi govt forced the US to honor the Bush deal/promise for an end of 2011 deadline.

    http://www.nationaljournal.com/u-s-troop-withdrawal-motivated-by-iraqi-insistence-not-u-s-choice-20111021?print=true

  5. Re:Why bother by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 3, Informative

    Maybe you weren't there during the 2008 election, but Obama was promised as the Second Coming. He was the savior who was going to deliver us and ring in a new era. When he was elected, serious, hardcore journalists wept openly on camera. He got the Nobel Freakin' Peace Prize, for God's sake. He's right up there with Yasser Arafat and Jimmy Carter in the pantheon of heroes!

    Have you even been reading leftist thought recently? The war in Libya was just another imperialist oil grab. The recipient of the Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, had harsh words for the intervention of NATO in a country's internal affairs, as did many other prominent intellectuals.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  6. Re:Waste of everyone's time by Skreems · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ignoring some of the more blatant forms of stupid in that response, I'll just point out that while it's possible to traffic in bootleg cigarettes, enough people find it easier to just pay taxes on the legal version that they generate in excess of 16 billion dollars in tax revenue per year. Source: http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=403

    If you hit even a small fraction of that, it would still be a pretty significant amount of revenue for cash-strapped state governments.

    --
    Slashdot needs a "-1, Wrong" moderation option.
    The Urban Hippie