Obama says marijuana ‘no more dangerous than alcohol’

[SolutionisSolidarity]

127. The whole country isn't cool with it yet.

A bit more than half the country support legalizing it, and more still support decriminalization. But there is still a potent stigma attached to marijuana. It is an intoxicant, so people who use it are still labeled as morally inferior. People are still getting fired for using it in their off hours. People are still being imprisoned for it. Even the supposedly enlightened state of California rejected legalization.

Most Democratic politicians are still "Just Say No" drug warriors; in spite of the fact that the Democratic Party indisputably benefited from marijuana legalization being on the Colorado ballot, the Democratic Governor of Colorado still champions jailing users.

Obama is not the type to stick his neck out too far, and considering what happened during the Carter administration, I suppose caution is prudent. But his administrations hands off approach to the legalization experiment in Colorado and Washington is about the best that can be expected at the federal level until the drug warriors retire.