page_title: Citizen's Briefing Book
section_title: Top recommendations
hierarchical_section_title: Citizen's Briefing Book / Top recommendations
caption_attribution_description: English: Ending marijuana prohibition as the most popular vote on citizensbriefingbook.change.gov
context_page_description: Citizen's Briefing Book is a compilation book of recommendations made to President Barack Obama by visitors to the Change.gov website, given to the President after his January 20, 2009 inauguration. Internet users were able to post recommendations of changes they would like to see made in the United States, and they were also able to vote on other users' recommendations, as well as participate in a comment process.
  The Minnesota-based company called Magnet 360 helped develop the functionality, using technology from Salesforce.com. Co-chair of the Obama-Biden Transition Team, Valerie Jarrett, stated that the Citizen's Briefing Book was a way for the Obama transition process to remain open and transparent. Popular recommendations included ending the prohibition on marijuana use in the United States and the legalization of online poker. Citizen's Briefing Book received positive comments from writers for the Christian Science Monitor and Business Week, and criticism from writers for Chicago Tribune and Indianapolis Business Journal.
context_section_description: According to the Change.gov site the best-rated ideas would "rise to the top" of the list, to later be given to the President. As of January 17, 2009 the most popular suggestion, with 70,520 points, advocated ending the prohibition on marijuana use in the United States. By January 19, 2009, over 500,000 people had voted on thousands of suggestions posted by 70,000 individuals. In total over 44,000 suggestions were submitted, with over 1.4 million votes cast for the various recommendations.
  Other popular ideas included legalizing online poker in the United States, and focusing on green initiatives. One post suggested the administration investigate UFOs, and another suggested Obama hire entertainment personalities including Michael Moore, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, and Stephen Colbert. After voting had closed, the most popular suggestion with 92,000 votes was "Ending marijuana prohibition", and the third most popular: "Stop using federal resources to undermine states' medicinal marijuana laws." A representative for President Obama, Jen Psaki, told Reuters: "President Obama does not support the legalization of marijuana."
caption: Most popular vote on citizensbriefingbook.change.gov
  (January 20, 2009)
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