Obama won’t go after states that legalized marijuana
Justice Department could still step in
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday he won’t go after Washington state and Colorado for legalizing marijuana, leaving supporters of the movement cautiously optimistic that a showdown with federal law won’t happen.
In a Barbara Walters interview airing Friday on ABC, Obama was asked whether he supports making pot legal. “I wouldn’t go that far,” he said.
But the president, who has admitted smoking pot when he was younger, said his administration won’t pursue the issue in the states where voters in November legalized the use of marijuana. The drug remains illegal under federal law, but the Justice Department has been vague about what its response to the votes would be.
“It does not make sense from a prioritization point of view” to focus on drug use in states where it is now legal, Obama said. Possession of up to 28 grams of marijuana is now legal for adults over 21 in both Washington and Colorado.
Marijuana activists were relieved at Obama’s comments, but they still had questions about how regulation will work. They said even if individual users aren’t charged with crimes, marijuana producers and sellers could be subject to prosecution, civil forfeiture and other legal roadblocks.
Obama simply told Walters that going after “recreational users” would not be a “top priority.”
“There’s some signal of hope,” Alison Holcomb, who led Washington’s legalization drive, said of Obama’s statements. “I think it’s correct that we ultimately we need a legislative resolution.”
But Tom Angell of the group Ma- rijuana Majority said Obama’s comment don’t add anything new. He said the federal government rarely goes after users and Obama can do more besides passing the responsibility to Congress. Angell said Obama can use executive power to reclassify marijuana as a legal drug.
The Justice Department hasn’t targeted recreational marijuana users for decades. With limited resources, its focus has been to go after major drug traffickers.