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[Cerridwen]

50. Link to the full speech:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/04/09/remarks-president-obama-town-hall-young-leaders-americas

There’s then the second issue of legalizing marijuana, whether it’s medical marijuana or recreational use. There are two states in the United States that have embarked on an experiment to decriminalize or legalize marijuana -- Colorado and Washington State. And we will see how that experiment works its way through the process.

Right now, that is not federal policy, and I do not foresee anytime soon Congress changing the law at a national basis. But I do think that if there are states that show that they are not suddenly a magnet for additional crime, that they have a strong enough public health infrastructure to push against the potential of increased addiction, then it’s conceivable that that will spur on a national debate. But that is going to be some time off.

And then the third issue is what will U.S. international policy be. And we had some discussion with the CARICOM countries about this. I know on paper a lot of folks think, you know what, if we just legalize marijuana, then it’ll reduce the money flowing into the transnational drug trade, there are more revenues and jobs created.

I have to tell you that it’s not a silver bullet, because, first of all, if you are legalizing marijuana, then how do you deal with other drugs, and where do you draw the line? Second of all, as is true in the global economy generally, if you have a bunch of small medium-sized marijuana businesses scattered across the Caribbean and this is suddenly legal, if you think that big multi-national companies are not going to suddenly come in and market and try to control and profit from the trade -- that’s I think a very real scenario.

Much more at link.