# Could Obama legalize recreational marijuana use via Executive Order?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 9, 2016, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564 "2016-01-09T04:50:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2016, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564/1 "2016-01-09T04:50:59Z")
Well?
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### Author:  [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2016, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564/2 "2016-01-09T06:38:00Z")
No.
At best, he could direct the DEA to ignore (aka: “assign lowest priority to”) it.
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### Author:  [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2016, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564/3 "2016-01-09T11:39:33Z")
Which wouldn’t change anything at the local level.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2016, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564/4 "2016-01-09T16:09:31Z")
Executive Orders do not create new law. They interpret existing law.
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### Author:  [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2016, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564/5 "2016-01-09T16:44:22Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#):
>
> Which wouldn’t change anything at the local level.
Presumably he could ask Democratic Governors to do the same thing at the state level. Assign priorities elsewhere, don’t waste your time. This is essentially the case in some states of Australia. In NSW recreational marijuana is almost never prosecuted. In theory for under 15 grams its a $50 fine but I’ve never even heard of that being applied. Usually people just get it confiscated and a warning if they’re in public, or it would be outright ignored if found in a private home.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2016, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564/6 "2016-01-09T16:56:36Z")
The states are ahead of the feds on this one. Seems pointless for him to do anything. To some degree he’s done what he can already by not siccing the DEA on the states that are allowing it.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2016, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564/7 "2016-01-09T17:23:52Z")
> [@coremelt](#):
>
> Presumably he could ask Democratic Governors to do the same thing at the state level. Assign priorities elsewhere, don’t waste your time.
Lots of states and municipalities have already done this, most even before some states started decriminalizing marijuana.
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### Author:  [@NeonMadman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NeonMadman)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2016, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564/8 "2016-01-09T17:46:33Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> Executive Orders do not create new law. They interpret existing law.
That’s the theory, at least. The same could be said of Supreme Court rulings, but in the absence of Congress having a spine, both the executive and judicial branches have been pretty active in cranking out new law in recent years.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2016, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564/9 "2016-01-09T17:54:48Z")
> [@NeonMadman](#):
>
> That’s the theory, at least. The same could be said of Supreme Court rulings, but in the absence of Congress having a spine, both the executive and judicial branches have been pretty active in cranking out new law in recent years.
Got a single example of the SCOTUS creating new law?
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2016, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564/10 "2016-01-09T18:51:58Z")
Or the Executive branch?
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2016, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564/11 "2016-01-09T18:58:34Z")
There are other kinds of law besides statutory law. The courts create law through judicial precedent. The president creates law through executive orders and policy decisions. Executive agencies create law through regulations and the decisions of regulatory tribunals.
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### Author:  [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2016, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564/12 "2016-01-09T19:06:26Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> Or the Executive branch?
Heres one. Obama’s use of drone strikes: “targeted killing”. The legal status of this is murky at best. Rather than change the law to allow Assassinations by intelligence agencies he just declares it to not be an assassination by executive order.
> **[Targeted killing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Targeted_killing)**
>
> Targeted killing is a form of assassination carried out by governments outside a judicial procedure or a battlefield.
> Since the late 20th century, the legal status of targeted killing has become a subject of contention within and between various nations. Historically, at least since the mid-eighteenth century, Western thinking has generally considered the use of assassination as a tool of statecraft to be illegal. Some academics, military personnel and officials describe targeted killing as le...
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### Author:  [@NeonMadman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NeonMadman)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2016, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564/13 "2016-01-09T19:36:40Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> Got a single example of the SCOTUS creating new law?
_Obergefell v. Hodges_ comes to mind. Whether you love or hate the idea of same-sex marriage, the fact remains that homosexuality was pretty much illegal everywhere when the 14th Amendment was ratified; it’s hard to imagine that the framers of that Amendment intended to establish a right to same-sex marriage.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2016, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564/14 "2016-01-09T19:48:12Z")
> [@NeonMadman](#):
>
> _Obergefell v. Hodges_ comes to mind. Whether you love or hate the idea of same-sex marriage, the fact remains that homosexuality was pretty much illegal everywhere when the 14th Amendment was ratified; it’s hard to imagine that the framers of that Amendment intended to establish a right to same-sex marriage.
Pertinent part of the 14th.
> [@](#):
>
> , it forbids states from denying any person “life, liberty or property, without due process of law” or to "deny to _ **any** _ person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
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### Author:  [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2016, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564/15 "2016-01-09T19:48:43Z")
> [@NeonMadman](#):
>
> _Obergefell v. Hodges_ comes to mind. Whether you love or hate the idea of same-sex marriage, the fact remains that homosexuality was pretty much illegal everywhere when the 14th Amendment was ratified; it’s hard to imagine that the framers of that Amendment intended to establish a right to same-sex marriage.
Actually, sexual orientation wasn’t a widespread concept in 1860s America. Sodomy was a recognized concept, but the framers of the amendment would not have been familiar with the idea that there is a class of people who are uniquely attracted to same-sex partners and not opposite sex partners from birth. It is difficult to know what they would have done with such a concept if they had all of the understanding we have in 2015. What we know for sure is that they believed that if two people are treated differently under the law, there needed to be a good reason.
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### Author:  [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2016, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564/16 "2016-01-09T20:18:04Z")
In theory, any county sheriff or prosecutor can “legalize” anything, simply by refusing to enforce the law and arrest and/or prosecute offenders within their jurisdiction… This would be an executive act. This is not unknown . It was used in some states during the 55-mph speed limit days, when the police simply refused to ticket speeding drivers.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2016, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564/17 "2016-01-09T20:18:17Z")
> [@friedo](#):
>
> There are other kinds of law besides statutory law. The courts create law through judicial precedent. The president creates law through executive orders and policy decisions. Executive agencies create law through regulations and the decisions of regulatory tribunals.
This is a good example of arguments driving past one another because the participants are defining words in different ways.
What is a law? Is it the statutory words in bills passed by legislatures? Or does it also include the precedents, interpretations, and regulations that are needed to determine the exact meaning of those statutes in particular situations, many never envisioned by the bill writers. Are the latter “new” laws or are they inherent in the laws themselves?
This makes a huge difference. If it’s the former, then the President and Supreme Court never issue any new laws. If it’s the latter, then a new law potentially emerges every time a judge bangs a gavel or an independent agency issues a ruling.
I’ve written here that in broad terms, the entire history of the Supreme Court in the 20th Century involves overthrowing older Supreme Court judgements. In some ways you can call all those decisions new law. But in many ways you can’t. The Constitution is a living thing, a general framework for statutory laws to build rooms in. Sometimes you redecorate; something you gut the place and start over.
Whichever path you take, a line like “but in the absence of Congress having a spine, both the executive and judicial branches have been pretty active in cranking out new law in recent years” is sheer ideological nonsense and ignores 200 years of actual history.
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### Author:  [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2016, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564/18 "2016-01-09T20:26:00Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> Whichever path you take, a line like “but in the absence of Congress having a spine, both the executive and judicial branches have been pretty active in cranking out new law in recent years” is sheer ideological nonsense and ignores 200 years of actual history.
So what do you call George W Bush’s declaration that torture is legal and Obama’s declaration that Assassination is legal? In both cases laws are simply ignored as irrelevant by executive order. True the words of the laws haven’t changed, but the meaning of them, and the enforcement can be changed via executive order as long as a team of tame lawyers comes up with a legal justification.
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### Author:  [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2016, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564/19 "2016-01-09T21:25:28Z")
Well, if Mr. Obama may wish to leave it as a wink and a promise to garner votes for Mrs. Clinton from the unengaged young and the druggies otherwise too stoned to reach the ballot-box.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2016, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-obama-legalize-recreational-marijuana-use-via-executive-order/742564/20 "2016-01-09T22:15:45Z")
> [@coremelt](#):
>
> So what do you call George W Bush’s declaration that torture is legal and Obama’s declaration that Assassination is legal? In both cases laws are simply ignored as irrelevant by executive order. True the words of the laws haven’t changed, but the meaning of them, and the enforcement can be changed via executive order as long as a team of tame lawyers comes up with a legal justification.
> [@Claverhouse](#):
>
> Well, if Mr. Obama may wish to leave it as a wink and a promise to garner votes for Mrs. Clinton from the unengaged young and the druggies otherwise too stoned to reach the ballot-box.
This is GQ, I remind you. The only fair game is what the definitions are, not whatever you don’t like about any particular administration. And the options here are “never” and “always” and not “when I disagree.”
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