Apparently, even an Arab liberal can see the dangers of marijuana:

Barack Obama’s selection of Eric Holder as his attorney general is a very discouraging sign for anyone who hoped the new administration would de-escalate the war on drugs. As Dave Weigel noted earlier today, Holder pushed for stiffer marijuana penalties when he was the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, and the details are strikingly at odds not only with Obama’s signals regarding marijuana but with his opposition to long sentences for nonviolent drug offenders. According to a December 1996 report in The Washington Times excerpted at TalkLeft, Holder wanted “minimum sentences of 18 months for first-time convicted drug dealers, 36 months for the second time and 72 months for every conviction thereafter.” He also wanted to “make the penalty for distribution and possession with intent to distribute marijuana a felony, punishable with up to a five-year sentence.” The D.C. Council made the latter Holder-endorsed change in 2000. Holder thought New York City’s irrational, unjust crackdown on pot smokers was a fine idea and worth emulating, saying “we have too long taken the view that what we would term to be minor crimes are not important.” His rhetoric on the seriousness of marijuana offenses was indistinguishable from that of the most zealous Republican drug warrior.

This is hardly his only intelligent choice, either. Joe Biden’s record is also stellar:

Sen. Joe Biden also sponsored the Rave Act, which targets music events where drug use is allegedly prevalent.

About medical marijuana, Biden said in 2007: “We have not devoted nearly enough science or time to deal with the pain management and chronic pain management that exists. There’s got to be a better answer than marijuana. There’s got to be a better answer than that. There’s got to be a better way for a humane society to figure out how to deal with that problem.”

Biden coined the term “drug czar” and has championed the Office for National Drug Control Policy.

In addition, Obama’s Drug Czar is a… Republican! With a 10% rating from NORML, he appears like a promising choice:

Let’s just see how Jim Ramstad has worked in the US Congress to help all us ravaged cannabis consumers:

* Voted against the Hinchey Amendment in 2007 and 2005 that would have suspended funds used by the Department of Justice to conduct raids in medical marijuana states.
* Voted in 1999 for the DC Appropriations Bill (Section 167) that said that even though 69% of the residents of the District of Columbia approved medical marijuana, DC couldn’t spend any money to enact the initiative.

And just this February, Jim Ramstad was named to the Board of Directors of Joseph Califano’s CASA (The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse) by declaring responsible adult cannabis users “addicts” and using workplace drug testing and mandated rehab to funnel their health insurance money into the drug treatment industry.

So, if Barack Obama turns out to be a Hippie that supports spreading marijuana to all the corners of the Earth, as he very well may, I confess my naivety in praising him, and repent in sackcloth and ashes. However, with the records of several of these picks, I think that we can look for him to retain what is done with potheads and pot smokers: throw them in prison for at least five years until they have fully repented of their sins. Hopefully, Obama will mandate that potheads be executed under the Law; since he is a Democrat, he will probably not do this. Still, we can expect for Obama to lead in a truly bipartisan manner on this issue, and we can expect to see our streets free of pot smoke, even though they’ll probably be infested with sodomy. The Three Strike Law is a necessity in our society, and Barack Obama seems committed to retain this holy law.