Dear pot activists in California, you can stop freaking out.

The DEA had raided five pot dispensaries this week, despite Obama's kinda-sorta campaign promises to honor state regulations if he became president. (California law protects pot shops, but federal agents have purview to bust such big operations, and federal courts have jurisdiction to prosecute them.) It's okay, Stoney McStonersteins, Obama's gonna nip that pesky DEA in the bud. He just hasn't gotten to it yet.

The White House said it expects those kinds of raids to end once Mr. Obama nominates someone to take charge of DEA, which is still run by Bush administration holdovers.

“The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind," White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.

This is a pretty bold reversal on Bush policy, which knocked over pot clubs like glass bongs on a cement floor. It also suggests that Washington state could decriminalize marijuana without a federal challenge. The Obama Administration's statement may also foreshadow a philosophical shift when Obama appoints the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, AKA, the Drug Czar. But don't count on it. Since Bush 'coptered back to Texas, Obama appointed an interim director whose been part of the problem—bloated, ineffective, fear-based programs—for the last 15 years. The actual Drug Czar could be pro-needle exchange, pro-marijuana research, and anti-drug-ads-that-make-not-an-iota-of-sense. But the favored pick doesn't look like that person. In addition, Obama's fave for the surgeon general, Sanjay Gupta, is ear-deep in his own fudge tunnel on pot policy. Gupta, while smart and comely, thinks that pot should remain illegal because it "isn't really very good for you." Jeez, Gupta, chocolate cake and Whoppers aren't "really very good for you," either. Wanna outlaw those?