The White House rejected petitions regarding the legalization of marijuana Monday, including one that had reached almost 75,000 signatures in support, according to a Huffington Post article published Monday.

One petition, among seven, was created in response to the high number of enforcement actions taken against medical marijuana dispensaries in California. Another petition called on President Barack Obama to stop wasting government money on interfering with such dispensaries, according to the article. The petitions received 150,000 signatures.

The seven rejected petitions were published on the White House website as a part of the ‘We the People’ project. The project allows Americans to petition the administration on a range of issues. Once a petition reaches enough signatures, it is guaranteed to be reviewed and responded to by White House staff, according to the White House website.

Gil Kerlikowske, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, wrote the official response. He said that according to scientists at the National Institutes of Health, marijuana use is associated with addiction, respiratory disease and cognitive impairment.

‘As a former police chief, I recognize we are not going to arrest our way out of the problem,’ Kerlikowske said in the statement. ‘We also recognize that legalizing marijuana would not provide the answer to any of the health, social, youth education, criminal justice and community quality of life challenges associated with drug use.’

Dessa Bergen-Cico, an assistant professor of public health in the David B. Falk School of Sport and Human Dynamics, said though these health allegations are true, they are inflated. From a health perspective, marijuana could be associated with addiction because those who do much more dangerous drugs also use marijuana. Respiratory infections are also possible, as those who smoke regularly are more prone to bronchitis and asthma, she said.

‘Associated can mean many, many, many different things,’ Bergen-Cico said. ‘Part of the objective or the drive for smoking marijuana is some sort of mild cognitive impairment. Those are also statements that are true of many legal substances.’

The petition rejection comes about a week after Gallup released a poll stating 50 percent of Americans supported the legalization of marijuana. Bergen-Cico said she was not surprised.

‘If just over 50 percent support it, all you need is a very vocal 10 percent that can make it difficult for you,’ she said. ‘So I’m not surprised in that sense in that the politics takes precedence over anything else.’

Paul Whitman, a sophomore mechanical engineering major, mentioned the petition in a previous article published by The Daily Orange on Oct. 25. Now that it’s been rejected, he said he thinks there could have been a better response and that a lot of the studies the statement mentioned are outdated.

‘Marijuana is the most nonviolent drug there is,’ Whitman said. ‘If anyone is in (rehab) for marijuana addiction, it’s because it was court-ordered, and they were forced to. It’s not something that becomes uncontrollable like cigarettes or alcohol.’

Although the White House issued a rejection, Whitman said he thinks the issue will continue to heat up in the next few years, even making its way into politics as something people will get elected on. Once people realize marijuana is not as harmful as they think, he said, it will become a huge issue.

If he could respond to Kerlikowske’s statement, Whitman said he would demand a recent study to be done using a large group of people, current information and total transparency.

‘Honestly,’ he said, ‘I think it’s going to be legal in the next 10 years.’

mjberner@syr.edu

Published on November 2, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Maddy: mjberner@syr.edu