After Years of Dodging Questions About Legalization, Medical Use, Obama Goes on Record — And it's Not Pretty

President Obama began his administration giving proponents of medicinal marijuana and legalization proponents hope that this commander-in-chief would be different.

Keep in mind that this president fessed up to smoking pot (and that he inhaled) and doing a little coke while he attended Punahou, a very exclusive private school in Honolulu. Presidential candidate Obama also promised that he wouldn't dedicate Justice Department resources to prosecute medical marijuana cases in states that OK'd it.

Of course, we all know how political promises turn out, don't we? States that legalized medical marijuana now have U.S. Attorneys shutting down dispensaries and collectives despite the will of its citizens. Though Obama's been one of the most accessible presidents via the Internet, he's never answered questions about legalization and medical use, never mind that those questions are always one of the most frequently asked — until now.

He recently told talk show host Jimmy Fallon, "We’re not going to have legalized weed anytime soon."

He said even more during a Rolling Stone interview, though it sounded like political newspeak:

"What I specifically said was that we were not going to prioritize prosecutions of persons who are using medical marijuana. I never made a commitment that somehow we were going to give carte blanche to large-scale producers and operators of marijuana — and the reason is, because it’s against federal law. I can’t nullify congressional law.

"I can’t ask the Justice Department to say, ‘Ignore completely a federal law that’s on the books. What I can say is, ‘Use your prosecutorial discretion and properly prioritize your resources to go after things that are really doing folks damage. As a consequence there haven’t been prosecutions of users of marijuana for medical purposes."

Well, gee — that's not disingenuous or confusing at all!

http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2012/04/25/president-obama-no-legalized-weed/ 

http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2012/04/25/obama-not-going-“to-turn-the-other-way”-on-medical-marijuana-dispensaries/