There was a seeming change of tack from the time that AG Holder declared that Obama's campaign promise of halting the raids on dispensaries was now national policy to the moment that Obama snickeringly derided the legalization question - and those who brought it up - in his 'Town Hall'. What changed?

Perhaps we should be asking, "What didn't change?" The hidden economy's need for money laundering, for one, which banks cannot survive without.

The truth is, it's the banksters who have the pitchforks (and the horns and the tails). Former Clinton Administration DrugCzar Barry McCaffrey pretty much admitted it that it was illegal drug sale proceeds keeping the banks afloat when all other forms of revenue began to shrink up. If that money began to dry up, the fall of the banks would be complete.

Now, seeing as Obama held a very...discrete... meeting with the world's financial elite in June of last year, during which the entire press corps attached to Obama was packed onto his plane without him, and shanghaied to Chicago, then one can be forgiven as to wondering just who's calling the shots.

Returning the drug trade to its' former legal status would effectively kill the moribund world financial system. One that's been very useful for both the private banks and intell services.

Now this is change we can all believe in..right?????

How sad..for those who suffer..daily.
My heart goes out to those who need the relief to survive their pain.

I only wish my mom could have had Marijuana to help her and to have eased her pain. She died of basically starvation..because she couldn't eat , because food tasted so bad to her, and eating became so painful.

Howard Wooldridge has one of the craziest jobs: trying to convince 535 of the most uptight people in Washington - the entire membership of Congress - to legalize drugs. That means everything from marijuana to cocaine to heroin.

The idea isn't quite as far-fetched as you may think. The more money the United States spends on fighting a drug war that has spiraled out of control in Mexico, the more interest Congress seems to be taking in talk of decriminalization.

"For the first time since I've been here, the "L" word, legalization, has been used in subcommittee hearings as a solution to the violence and Mexican cartels," says Wooldridge, a cowboy and retired police detective who three years ago became the lobbyist for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, known as LEAP.

A handful of lawmakers have endorsed legalization of marijuana, including Reps. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.), Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and Ron Paul (R-Texas).

Their group will likely remain small.