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In the process of fine tuning my blog and working out the kinks I am fixing this post. Originally the post was too long and as a result overlapped the footer below and looked trashy, so in lieu of determining the reason why the formatting won't contain the text within the blog post, I am just posting the rest of the article here, with a link to the actual article below.

http://ourreallifebysam.blogspot.com/2010/10/obama-administration-this-week-said.html

This is a repost from the LA times about proposition 19, which is a piece of legislation that proposes the legalization of marijuana for the state of California. The federal government vows to enforce national marijuana laws regardless of whether the majority of California citizens want it to be legalized. this to me is wrong because it displays a failure of the basic principle of the purpose of government. "for the people by the people." the government exists to enforce laws that a collective group of people agree should be enforced. but what happens when something is illegal regardless of the feelings of the voters? well I believe that the interests of the constituents will shine through. It seems completely unnecessary to enforce a law in a state where no one thinks that law should be enforced. and lets get one thing straight here, anti-marijuana and anti-drug laws are not the same at all as other, more generally accepted laws like the illegality of Rape and murder. Drug abuse should be considered a public health issue, and not a legal issue. specifically, I think the states should decide what drugs to regulate and which ones to keep illegal. and when you are talking about something that is proven to be less dangerous than taking an Advil, the argument becomes even more relevant. there would be a major burden taken off of the tax payers and local and federal law enforcement if marijuana were legalized because of the reduction in incarceration and arrest of non-violent offenders. it would also generate several million dollars in revenue for the country and would not pose a serious threat whatsoever.