Legalising cannabis

COLORADO’S now yearslong experiment with legal medical and recreational cannabis markets has been mostly positive and fascinating, and yet the federal government has been slow to rethink its decades-long prohibitionist position.

We hope the Obama administration takes advantage of its historic opportunity to end or take steps towards dismantling the destructive war on pot. What an irony it would be if Obama, who has openly admitted to pot use in his early years, and who has shown great tolerance towards local legalisation laws, left office without having moved the nation away from the antiquated reefer-madness enforcement of past presidencies.

The problem appears to be entrenchment at the US Drug Enforcement Administration, which missed the July 1 deadline it set for itself to reach a determination on whether to reclassify marijuana from its current laughable position as a Schedule I substance. Like heroin, the classification is reserved for the most dangerous drugs with which the DEA concerns itself.

Meanwhile, families trust medical marijuana to help children with seizures and other ailments.

Patients with serious conditions seek medical marijuana for a range of treatments. They do so largely without significant scientific study to guide them.

We get it that ending marijuana prohibition would be difficult. Perhaps more debate is needed before the feds can get behind full-scale legalisation.

The DEA should step up and look past its ridiculous hardline approach.