Ethan Nadelmann: The White House Experiments With Weed

Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance, explains that recent marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington isn't simple. The Federal response (or lack thereof) will determine how the policy is actualized. Transcript-- With the victories for the marijuana legalization initiatives in Colorado and Washington on Election Day 2012, it really presents the White House and the Attorney General with a dilemma. Because on the one hand they and their law enforcement officials -- federal law enforcement officials, you know, can point out and have repeatedly said it's all illegal under federal law. Regardless of what the states do, it's still illegal under federal law to possess, buy, use, sell, grow -- all illegal. That's it. But as we saw with medical marijuana, which began to be legalized back in the mid 90s and is now legal in 18 states and Washington DC, it's not so simple. And what we see is that the federal government has allowed various states to set up their own systems to regulate medical marijuana. Some places are interfering; some places they're letting it be. You know, what Obama said when he ran for president the first time and what he and the Justice Department made good on in the first year back in 2009 was to say that if medical marijuana producers, dispensaries are operating legally and transparently under state law, it will not be a federal law enforcement priority. So the federal policy has been very mixed with some of the federal US <b>...</b>
Author: bigthink
Duration: 4:37



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Ethan Nadelmann: The White House Experiments With Weed