With regard to immigration, Obama has effectively allowed certain groups temporary amnesty by putting them at the bottom the ICE’s to do list. Might he not behave similarly to allow CO and WA to keep their marijuana laws by putting it at the bottom of the DEA’s to do list?
I don’t see a lot of political advantage in Obama cracking down on them.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the next few elections cycles. If enough states legalize it, it will be de facto evidence that there will be enough political will for a Constitutional amendment on the topic, bypassing Congress and the Supreme Court. That would be sweet!
Two years ago in California, the opposition asked Eric Holder to help campaign against their measure. He did, appearing in commercials and such. This time Colorado and Washington officials asked him to do it again, but he took a pass.
Good news for Mexico. Washington & Colorado’s legalization of marijuana is expected to make a major dent in the Mexican drug cartels’ 6 billion dollar/year illegal pot trafficking business.
Bets that local cops in the surrounding states make up every possible excuse to stop out-of-state vehicles entering their states from WA and CO.
“We smelled marijuana. Can we search your car? (If not, we’ll impound it overnight and have a dog look at it tomorrow, so we advise you to step back and let us search, because we’re going to do it anyway)”
One of my coworkers is already planning to get into farming. He figures he can retire from this job and grow pot full time in a couple of years.
I’m not so confident that things will change that much that quickly. But we’ll see.
Arkansas lost their attempt at Medical marijuana. However, the vote was reasonably close. I think it will be back on the ballot in a few years. It took several tries to get the state lottery.
I’m thinking that Obama will continue keeping the Justice Dept from harassing the state’s legal pot dispensaries? That’s 4 more years for the state programs to get established without Federal Marshals kicking in the doors.
I find it unlikely in the extreme that marijuana legalization will be the first Amendment enacted “bypassing” Congress. It is technically possible, but has never been done and would take so much political energy that Congress would have reacted to the sea change long before it came to a Constitutional Convention.
That said, I’m all for it, one way or another.
You might find thisAlternet article relevant to your interests.
This is another argument against the tobacco companies taking over pot production–they just don’t know the genetics like the artisanal growers who’ve been crossing and encouraging strains for specific effects for decades.
Maybe I should start a new thread in GQ for this but I am wondering about some things regarding federal enforcement of laws in opposition to the new state constitutional amendment in Colorado, where I live. It seems obvious to me that the feds could easily come in and prosecute pot sops and commercial growers. They haven’t done that a whole lot with the MMJ shops here. They did send letters to a bunch of them that were within 1000 ft of schools and told them to move or be shut down. As far as I know they all complied and nothing happened. I don’t think our governor state or attorney general is at all pleased with the new amendment but they have said publicly they will fulfill their duties. My questions are:
Can local DAs charge people with federal crimes?
Can local and state law enforcement assist federal law enforcement in actions to enforce federal law that is in direct opposition to the state constitution? In other words would it be legal for the Colorado attorney general to provide state troopers to the feds to help raid a pot shop?
Here’s what the Seattle PD is saying about the new law and what they think it will mean as far as they’re concerned.
Like they couldn’t just hire a bunch of them? :dubious:
“Director of Marijuana Genetics at Phillip-Morris” 
Interesting job title you got there, Bob!
…there is also a movement (case heard in Dist ofColumbia court oct 16 2012) amongst some of the medical community to try and get the Feds to reschedule marijuana, which might help the legalization efforts.
The video clip at the bottom of that page amuses me.