President Obama says cannabis should be treated as cigarettes and alcohol

In a recent interview President Obama said that marijuana should be treated as alcohol and tobacco are considered public-health issues. He also called for reconciliation of state and federal laws regarding the drug.

“Look, I’ve been very clear about my belief that we should try to discourage substance abuse,” Obama said. “And I am not somebody who believes that legalization is a panacea. But I do believe that treating this as a public-health issue, the same way we do with cigarettes or alcohol, is the much smarter way to deal with it,” President Obama told Rolling Stone Magazine.

Obama’s such comments about marijuana are not new. In 2014, he said alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana and more recently, talking to a TV show he said, “I think we're going to have to have a more serious conversation about how we are treating marijuana and our drug laws generally.”

Talking with Rolling Stone Magazine, President Obama also maintained his long-held position that federal laws are something that a president cannot change them unilaterally. “Typically how these classifications are changed are not done by presidential edict,” he said, “but are done either legislatively or through the DEA. As you might imagine, the DEA, whose job it is historically to enforce drug laws, is not always going to be on the cutting edge about these issues.”   

The drug Enforcement Agency, recently, refused to lessen federal restrictions on marijuana on the grounds of drugs “high potential for abuse” and its lack of “accepted medical use”.

Advocates of marijuana legalization are disappointed because they believe President Obama could have done for their cause. Tom Angell of the pro-legalization group Marijuana Majority said in a statement. “That this president didn’t apply pressure on the DEA to reschedule marijuana this year will likely go down as one of the biggest disappointments of the Obama era.”

Throughout his second term Obama didn’t take a clear position on the legalization issue. On one hand, state Justice Department followed a policy that explicitly allowed states to legalize marijuana while on other hand, he didn’t made any effort to change strict federal prohibition on marijuana. This situation undermines any effort to establish a marijuana industry nationwide.

The fate of legalization much hinges on how incoming Trump administration deals with the issue. Many pro-legalization advocates fear that presence of harsh critics in the ranks of incoming administration may reverse Justice Department’s current policy of non-interference. Trump himself has said to go with the existing policy of non-interference.

In coming days we might see President Obama is much loud and clear on the legalization issue. He hinted in his interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, “I will have the opportunity as a private citizen to describe where I think we need to go.”