President Obama believes the federal government may soon be forced to consider revising its anti-marijuana policies.
On Friday, during a taped interview with HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, the president said if the voters in Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada legalize the leaf for recreational purposes, it could be the death rattle inside a historical chain of events that finally brings nationwide pot prohibition to a screeching halt.
“The good news is is that after this referenda, to some degree it’s gonna call the question, because if in fact it passed in all these states, you now have about a fifth of the country that’s operating under one set of laws, and four-fifths in another,” Obama said.
“The Justice Department, DEA, FBI, for them to try to straddle and figure out how they’re supposed to enforce laws in some places and not in others — they’re gonna guard against transporting these drugs across state lines, but you’ve got the entire Pacific corridor where this is legal — that is not gonna be tenable,” he added.
President Obama then went on to explain to Maher that while he does not consider legalization a means to an end, he does think the government will soon be forced to respond, as legalization continues to spread.
“I don’t think that legalization is a panacea,” Obama said, “but I think that we’re going to have to have a more serious conversation about how we are treating marijuana and our drug laws generally.”
Some of the latest data suggests that more Americans than ever before want marijuana to be made legal in a manner similar to beer. A recent Gallup poll discovered a record breaking number of the American population (60 percent) now stands in support of full legalization, while another survey from Gallup shows that fewer citizens consider the national drug problem a “very serious” issue.
