Currently, the only way that I can afford to go to college is through federal loans. My parents are in no shape financially to help, regardless of how badly they want to. I have one scholarship that ends up paying for most of tuition. I maintain a 3.4 - 3.6 GPA. If I were for some reason to lose my loans, I would not be able to go to college. I am fortunate that I am even able to get the substantial amount of loans that I do. There is no telling how far into debt I will be by the time I get out of college as I will hopefully also be attending law school. I feel that what a lot of people do not think about is exactly how much it costs to go to school and live on your own on top of tuition. Tuition may be one of the cheapest of my expenses when you count in how much I have to spend for food, rent, and gas. A job is an option but it can be a costly option toward your GPA. This is a situation that I do not have any suggestions to fix, but I did want to voice that I am extremely concerned about the issue as I will be facing the repercussions of it in a matter of years when I have to begin to pay back my loans. It is a scary feeling you get when you think that you are putting in all of this time and money and then there is no guarantee that you will have a job when you get out of school, but regardless, you'll have tens of thousands, possibly over a hundred thousand, dollars to pay back as soon as you get out. You would think that we would want to make it easy for those that want to work and learn to go to college and work towards a career without the fear of bankruptcy for them and their family.

Like I said, I have no suggestions, but I do recognize it is a SERIOUS problem because I am a part of it.

I hope that in '09, we will begin to use reason, good judgment, and true justice in our policy makings. Hopefully gone are the days when we operate quickly on a platform of fear and anger instead of a methodical and intelligent judgment. I hope that we will work towards being acceptable of other lifestyles, and not punishing others for choosing differing lifestyles. I hope that we will properly organize our efforts and only pursue criminal justice on those that are hurting other people. I hope we will operate on an empathetic platform of truth, science, and facts instead of adjective propaganda. I hope we can come together and at least try to make the best out of what we've got. We have such diversity. We may not all agree all the time, but thing of the achievements we could accomplish together. The future is ours.

Let's pick ourselves up and become the land of the free again. Let's pick ourselves up and be an example for the rest of the world about what a nation can do if all ways of life put their minds to it. Let's restore our liberties.

I feel that there is no excuse for the incoming administration to ignore the pleas from so many Americans concerning drug policy. I feel Open for Questions has become victim to foul play, although most of the top questions in "Additional Issues" concern drug law reform. Last night the top three questions concerned drug law reform, today a question about torture and wiretapping has been bumped to the top above everything by a few thousand votes. I find that odd. I am not saying it is certainly illegitimate, but it seems odd.

The forums alone should be enough to get the President-elect's attention. Even a retired Seattle police chief agrees that Mr. Obama should listen to the voters on this issue.

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/december302008/leap_opinion_12-30-08.php

I believe that most people do not realize how many issues this would help if considered and acted upon.

I feel that the Cannabis issue is something that President-elect Obama will have to face soon, as it is apparent that the people have spoken about it. I know that a lot of people probably do not understand why it is such a big deal and probably say to themselves, "If you didn't break the law, there wouldn't be a problem." and I can understand why some would think that. For the people that have not tried Cannabis or it is not for them, they simply do not have the passion nor do they understand exactly how illegitimate our Cannabis laws are, because they do not ever have to think about them.

It is important to promote knowledge and reasonable thinking when it comes to matters like this. I like what one person posted on the last forum which stated that there are plenty more important issues than this, but what makes this issue important, is that it should not be an issue to begin with. I hope that at the very least, the President-elect will order an independent study, similar to what Nixon had done with the Shafer Commission, and then go from there. Time and time again, our own government has suggested that there is no reason for any actions regarding Cannabis use to be criminalized (of course, that was a time when scientists and medical doctors were the drug czars).

I just hope that this issue does not turn out like it did with Jimmy Carter. When Jimmy Carter was in office he promised the decriminalization of marijuana because time and time again evidence pointed that there was no need for its users to be going to jail, but then politics and his past got in the way and he could not afford to appear soft on drugs, so he repealed his promise. I'm not saying Obama promised decriminalization or that he supports it, but I think you get the idea.

With prescription drug abuse on a rise, and more and more children and adults overdosing, let's focus on that. For medical marijuana patients, if it works for you, and gives you relief, I encourage you to continue. Despite all the scientific evidence of it's safety, I think if using Cannabis keeps you from poisoning yourself with as many harmful medications that are out there, then it is a no brainer. As ex-police officer Barry Cooper said once, if my children start experimenting when they grow up, I hope they do so with marijuana, because at least I'll know they'll live through the experience.

I encourage everyone to inform themselves, because it is obvious that we cannot rely on mainstream media. A simple google search can provide a wealth of information.

Ha, I know how you feel. The past three or four comments that I try to post end up not showing up anywhere, and they are in no way offensive or anything. They are just comments continuing on previous discussions.

I hope that with the "new updates" coming with this forum, an update with the auto-moderator will also come. I had a post that I have tried twice and it instantly disappears. I always try to think out and read over all of my comments before posting and I can find no reason why this should keep happening. It's not that big of a deal but it is an annoyance sometimes. At any rate, Merry Christmas!

I believe that there are a few things that must be done before legislators will even consider the legalization of marijuana.

The argument is going to have to be presented to reveal the real flaws of prohibition for one thing. One thing that I try to point out is that the government officials that address and oppose legalization state that they want to save the children. I feel that a system of regulation and education would be a more effective way of keeping it out of the hands of children with developing brains and would also keep them from being exposed to the same market that houses cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and prescription pills (among other things). After all, a recent study has shown that high school students can get marijuana more easily than beer. Drug dealers don't ID.

Arguers for prohibition also fail to address the accusation that regulation would destroy its existence in the black market. Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug, and with it out of the black market, a lot of violence and untaxed revenue is spared along with untold lives.

I believe the biggest problem for the legalization effort, though, is the idea that a lot of lawmakers feel that if they support legalization, then they support the use of drugs, which is not the case.

A lot of people do not know that we have spent close to a trillion dollars to keep marijuana illegal and fight its use. A lot of people have forgotten that we used to use the plant for nearly all of our needs and now farmers cannot even produce industrial hemp which contains minimal amounts of psychoactive compounds. A lot of people do not know that the first federal law concerning cannabis was a law requiring farmers to grow it. We used it for rope, food, paper, fuel, oil, medicine, clothing, livestock feed, and many other uses. Talk about going green! And despite our laws it is STILL our number one cash crop ABOVE corn and wheat.

That's a lot of untaxed revenue that could be used to help our health care system and our schools among other things.

Doctors cannot even hardly get access to it just to study it to learn more about how it works.

In my opinion, it is too easy to see that regulation would yield far better results than prohibition. I just hope that this is talked about enough that the incoming administration sees it too.

Greetings,

I guess I will throw my two cents into the homosexuality issue.

My personal feelings about it aside, I, along with many others I hope, do not believe that making homosexual marriage illegal will make homosexual people turn heterosexual. It's the same mind-set of prohibition. Just because there are laws preventing something, does not make it disappear and will certainly not keep people from engaging in the act. Homosexuality has been around for all of history.

I feel this is an issue to be handled personally, not federally.

Along with my feelings of prohibition, making something legal does not have to mean that everyone condones the behavior, but it does mean that we agree that everyone is equal and if some choose to engage in behavior that we do not agree with, they are free to do so as long as it doesn't hurt anyone.

I am a Southern Baptist Christian, but perhaps I look at things a bit differently than most of my Christian brothers. I feel that no one has the right to legislate morality. Personal beliefs and opinions are things to be dealt with in the individual soul. I encourage others to try and take a more compassionate view towards this issue. After all, homosexuals are as much human as the rest of us and deserve as much respect as others demand.

That is about all I have to say about that. I will not comment on the Rev. Warren issue because I am not homosexual so I don't feel that I have the right to talk about something I don't entirely understand.

I leave with the encouragement for all to embrace an open minded reaction to further issues. Try to understand the issues from similar and opposing viewpoints before outwardly reacting strongly.

Have a great day!

Jason.

I would like to plead with the Transition team to organize this "General Discussion" forum. I mean absolutely no disrespect toward those that are offended or defensive of Obama's pick of Rev. Warren, but personally, I get on here to read about people's thoughts and opinions on policy and various other ideas outside of that issue, but due to the heavy traffic that comes with such a controversial topic, it is hard to wade through the comments to find topics that I would like to discuss with others. It is also very hard to find my threads to read comments and so forth.

A simple solution would be as others have said, to create a sort of directory so that people can go talk about related issues. Even maybe take "The Agenda" and make a forum for each agenda so we can make the forum more specific. It is quite obvious that a lot of people are ready for their voices to be heard, and some organization is now needed.

This is a good thing though. I am happy to see that so many people care and are no longer apathetic to the American situation.

Let's keep it up!

If you too would like to see the Transition team work on this, try and comment on this post as much as possible so that it will be seen, or post your own topic about this issue so that hopefully they will see it.

Thanks,

Jason.

I tried to post this earlier but my computer failed so if it is repetitious I apologize.

President-elect Obama has almost finished appointing all of his cabinet positions. Let's get a discussion going on who would be a good, sensible, logical, intelligent, knowledgeable individual to be appointed to the position to head the ONDCP, also known as the "drug czar."

Let's do some research and see who everyone thinks would be the best choice.
One person I have heard about is Ethan Nadelmann, Ph.D.

Whoever is chosen, I hope Obama spends a lot of time and effort on this seeing as we spend tens of billions of dollars fighting the current "War on Drugs" which only sends billions of what would be taxed revenue underground and sends tens of millions of non violent users into a dangerous black market environment that has no problem with presenting an array of drugs to children with brains at the peak of their development.

We definitely do not need another John Walters to send "unicorns," as he calls those sentenced for simple possession, to take up jail space for longer amounts of time than child molesters and other violent offenders.

so let's do some research.