Medical Marijuana Could Cost Obama the Election, Executive Director for American for Safe Access Argues

Steph Sherer, executive director for pro-medical marijuana organization Americans for Safe Access, argues in The Huffington Post that allowing cannabis to those with a medical need could be a defining issue of the presidential election.

Despite Obama's generally progressive policies, she argues, the president has taken a hardline against states that have approved of the use of marijuana as a medicine and the dispensaries that allow access to patients. "Things would be different," she writes, "if the President would apply his campaign slogan, 'Forward,' to our cause: stopping the raids and prosecutions of state-permitted institutions, and moving public health policy forward by ending the conflict between state and federal law."

With Republican candidate Mitt Romey and President Obama in a virtual tie in many polls, Sherer points to the seven percent showing Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson is pulling in the swing state of Colorado. That seven percent may prevent Obama from taking its electoral votes.

There's little downside, Sherer adds. Most adult support medical marijuana (a whopping 80 percent) and another 76 percent do not support the raids against dispensaries.

"With the public on our side, why should patients and our loved ones be silent?" She states.