I'm still not used to having a president with common sense. It just comes from a lifetime of dealing with the dung left over by the likes of Nixon, et al.

Choom Gang 2016

So, his message to the pot-smokers in his base is "I think you should all be in jail, but you should support me anyway because I don't have enough resources to put most of you there".

I don't believe him. He told the California dispensaries the same thing at the start of his first administration but the busts of the clubs continued, along with constant harassment, threats to the property owners, etc. It got so bad here in SF that some clubs just gave up a physical brick and mortar store and now provide their product by delivery only.

I'm with @4--The President, if he didn't lie, was was very disingenuous on the MMJ issue. We'll see if the Feds in another year or so find some oblique means of obstructing the legalization and sale of weed which I expect to happen.

File this under "I will believe it when I see it" for reasons cited above.

Also, I think he has left himself ample wiggle-room for the DoJ to enjoin implementation of regulatory regimes for sale and distribution. And even if they don't do that, he seems to leave wide open the possibility that anyone who attempts to open up shop under state law would face federal distribution charges.

The feds don't have to go after recreational smokers to seriously interfere with state law, is what I'm saying.

@4:

There must be other reasons for shutting down these establishments other than the simple fact that they're selling cannabis products. Thcfinder.com lists seven or eight brick-and-mortar dispensaries in central SF (and way more than that across the bay bridge), so one has to wonder why all of these are still in business, if the level of harassment from the Feds is as bad as you claim.

@3 To be kinda fair, enforcing and upholding the law is the president's actual official job. Not, mind you, to determine unilaterally what those laws are.

Write your congress rep and senator if you want the law changed. Quit bitching at the president about what the laws are, it's just intellectually lazy and ignorant.

He's basically saying, toke up, and by the way, I'm not a black Muslim hippy communist pothead.

What @8 said. Enough with the cult of the presidency already. It just distracts from the real culprits - our elected representatives in Congress.

@8: The scheduling status of marijuana is under the executive branch's control. Any I-502 related lawsuits filed by the federal government will be chosen or not chosen by the justice department who works for Obama. Every enforcement action will be carried out by the DEA, reporting to Obama.

I'm not ignorant and lazy, and I've made my opinions known to the relevant elected officials. There were some not too happy to get an earful from me and a closed checkbook this round based upon this issue.

Sure, the principle of the president enforcing congressional laws is a lofty one (I assume the same principle leads you to criticize him for abandoning his defense of DOMA, unlike me). Maybe he should say he is going to not prosecute intra-state marijuana activities until he has successfully eradicated marijuana in all the other states :-).

Basically, he's just being honest that they can't get a conviction for individual possession or state/county/retail legal sales in the West any more.

But if you're in a gang and selling weed, don't be surprised if they do convict you.

So, what I'm hearing is that he's said it's going to be lower priority for now.

I'm going to pull a prediction from the vast and great psychic abyss of "What Obama did the last time this type of thing came up." Please note that this is said in a super spooky voice.

When stores are opened he will go after them primarily based on factors such as size, proximity to schools, etc that make them more egregious. The really big and well known stores(such as Harborside) will get either harassed or busted as well as the ones that are breaking state law.

The DOJ will try to do some court wrangling about lesser aspects of the laws which will, at most, make it a little harder for them to exist so that way the Democrats can show that they aren't blood siblings with the filthy stoners.

Once everyone realizes that the world won't come to a sudden and complete end due to hordes of psychotic stoners roaming the countryside other states, depending on their electorate and temperament, will try to implement regulation of cannabis.

Or, in other words, so far this is going exactly like MMJ has under the Obama administration.

And yes, I know there was a terrible shooting in a school. Yes it is absolutely horrifying. I am currently still in shock from Clackmas. I'm posting about something I know about so I don't start crying at work because two close family members are out of work, the world has gone insane, and there isn't a damn thing I can do to fix it.

Feel free to flame away. I don't care at this point.