Obama (Still) Isn’t a Cannabis Ally

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While seeming to have a somewhat friendly approach to cannabis and drug policy in general given his rhetoric, US president Barack Obama still has not actually changed his stance in any meaningful way. Sure he did come out a couple of years ago and state that cannabis is no more dangerous than alcohol and he joked on the campaign trial as well as in speeches about his heavy cannabis use in college, but his actions as president seem to contradict this position of tolerance.
In fact, Obama seems to be reversing his stance from what it was about a decade ago. For example, in 2004 at Northwestern University Obama had made this statement on the war on drugs and cannabis policy:
“In terms of legalization of drugs, I think, the battle, the war on drugs has been an utter failure and I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws but I’m not somebody who believes in legalization of marijuana. What I do believe is that we need to rethink how we are operating in the drug wars, and I think that currently, we are not doing a good job.”

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This of course seems like a moderate position to take, right? After all he’s directly stated that the war on drugs isn’t working and that federal government should decriminalize marijuana. But like any good rhetorician Obama’s actions have only contradicted that and similar statements since. Let’s not forget that this president, the head of the executive branch of US government, is responsible for more raids on both illegally and legally operating cannabis dispensary facilities than any other president in US history. This administration has also racked up the most amount of marijuana arrests seconded only by George W. Bush and lastly let’s also keep in mind that Obama could at any moment shut down, or at least reduce the amount of work done by the DEA, especially given his affinity for executive orders.

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And like the title of this article suggests Obama still hasn’t made any plans to end the drug war or at the very least lighten up on anti-marijuana enforcement. This (unsurprising) insight comes from an interview between the administration member, Assistant to the President of the United States and Senior Advisor for Strategy and Communications, and Huffington Post correspondents Jen Bendery and Sam Stein. During the interview Pfeiffer said:
“…the Attorney General has dealt with sentencing disparities with focus, and we have given, within the constraints we have, appropriate deference to the states of Washington and Colorado. And we don’t have anything additional planned on that… Nothing.”

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While it seems that the administration won’t take further legal action states where cannabis is legal , we’re in for more of the same. More restrictions, more drug raids everywhere, and more of a fruitless government campaign against a plant.