So far every attempt by Obama to directly reach out to young voters through some form of online question and answer system has resulted in young adults overwhelming voting to confront the President with questions about our government’s marijuana policies. It happened with his transitional website Change.gov, his first Youtube townhall and with the White House’s new “we the people” petition site. Now it’s happened again.

While President Obama told Law Enforcement Against Prohibition member MacKenzie Allen, a retired deputy sheriff during an interview with the organization:

We have to think more about drugs as a public health problem

his comments on the new federal drug new budget show things in a different light.

MacKenzie Allen, the retired deputy sheriff and a currently a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), has the #1 question in YouTube’s “Ask Obama” contest, in which President Obama will answer the top-voted questions in a live interview to be broadcast this afternoon from the White House. Allen’s question got twice as many votes as the next-highest voted question.

If we all stand together, we can turn around a horrific status-quo by putting cannabis in the realm of health, not law enforcement. Persuade our community leaders to stand up and speak for humanity and humane practices. For voters unsure of the result of legalization, let’s demand an immediate cease fire in the War on Drugs, to show that all hell will not break loose.

In just the last several days, dozens of police officers, prosecutors, and other law enforcement officials have joined forces to endorse California’s Prop 19 to legalize marijuana. Led by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, the mostly former officials say that marijuana prohibition only fuels more dangerous crime by enriching Mexican drug cartels who put guns on American streets.

At the national conference of NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) here at the Governor Hotel, in Portland Oregon, our own Michael Whitney is on a panel this morning to talk about the marijuana legalization campaign.

In a recent interview with Mike Stark, Florida Senator George LeMieux came down squarely against the rights of individual states to regulate marijuana, indicating that he was against both legalizing medical use and ending prohibition in general. He also believes that it’s the appropriate role of the criminal justice system to deal with marijuana users.

The money from illegal drugs has been providing a large and dependable financial pipeline to violent criminal organizations including American gangs and international drug cartels. In the last several years, the drug cartels in Mexico have killed over 28,000 people. By legalizing marijuana, it would deprive these criminal enterprises of a huge source of their funding.

Great news from our friends at Law Enforcement Against Prohibition: the National Black Police Association, a 38-year-old advocacy group for African American law enforcement professionals, has endorsed Prop 19, California’s marijuana legalization initiative.

As Mexico’s government announced the death toll in the four-year-long war with drug cartels totaled more than 28,000, President Felipe Calderon called for a debate on legalizing drugs to fight the cartels. Norm Stamper, a 34-year veteran police officer who was Seattle’s chief of police and is now a speaker with the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), issued the following statement for the Just Say Now campaign to legalize marijuana