Marijuana petition asks Joe Biden not to push for crackdown on Colorado, Washington

Big photo below.

The longer the federal government waits to tell Colorado and Washington whether it will allow the states to determine their own marijuana policy after each passed pot-reform measures, the more theories surface about who in the administration might prove to be an impediment. The latest involves Vice President Joe Biden, thought to be a hardliner against weed -- and it's prompted a White House petition asking him to back off. See it and get details below.

The document can be found on We the People, a White House website that allows citizens to create petitions to the Obama administration and promises a response if they collect 25,000 signatures within thirty days. The text is featured later in this post.

Barack Obama.

Why target Biden? The answer can be found in "Obama's Pot Problem," featured in the current issue of Rolling Stone. The article, which explores the political pressures on Obama to either move to preempt retail provisions in Colorado's Amendment 64 and Washington's Initiative 502 or allow them to move forward, highlights Biden in the following passage:

"There are not many friends to legalization in this administration," says Kevin Sabet, director of the Drug Policy Institute at the University of Florida who served the White House as a top adviser on marijuana policy. In fact, the politician who coined the term "drug czar" -- Joe Biden -- continues to guide the administration's hard-line drug policy. "The vice president has a special interest in this issue," Sabet says. "As long as he is vice president, we're very far off from legalization being a reality."

Mason Tvert.

Also prominently featured in the piece is Mason Tvert, one of A64's main proponents and newly minted spokesman for the national Marijuana Policy Project; he's dubbed "Kid Cannabis" because he was just 22 when he launched his successful 2005 campaign to get Denver to remove criminal penalties related to adult use of marijuana. Tvert was troubled enough by the assertions about Biden's views on marijuana (expanded upon in this Huffington Post report) that on Monday, he began pushing the petition, entitled "Tell VP Biden to end his war on marijuana users and to respect the people of Colorado and Washington." At this writing, it's gathered more than 8,500 signatures and has until January 9, 2013, to meet its goal in order to prompt a White House response.

When asked about the rationale behind the petition, Tvert says, "We certainly think Barack Obama should not be steered away from following the will of the voters in Colorado and Washington by our vice president."

Continue for more about Joe Biden and federal marijuana policy, including the text from the petition.