Obama Admin Says It Won't Fight Looser Marijuana Laws, With Conditions

schwit1 writes with news that the Obama administration has released a memo stating that it will not fight liberalized marijuana laws in states like Colorado and Washington, but made that promise conditional on a set of guidelines, such as requiring efforts to dissuade underage use. From the Washington Post's coverage: "Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole detailed the administration's new stance, even as he reiterated that marijuana remains illegal under federal law. The memo directs federal prosecutors to focus their resources on eight specific areas of enforcement, rather than targeting individual marijuana users, which even President Obama has acknowledged is not the best use of federal manpower. Those areas include preventing distribution of marijuana to minors, preventing the sale of pot to cartels and gangs, preventing sales to other states where the drug remains illegal under state law, and stopping the growing of marijuana on public lands."

Re:The emperor has no clothes

[zlives]

what is this constitution you speak off?

Re:More fallout from Snowdon....

[Ghjnut]

If he gets us all thoroughly stoned, we may forget what we were up in arms about. That conniving bastard!

Re:Discouraging underage use?

[RabidReindeer]

I modded you insightful but I'd like to challenge one point of yours: what makes you believe that smoking marijuana impairs one's ability to drive?

Because the whole point of it is to alter one's mental state?

Granted, some people drive so badly, that any change is likely for the better. I, of course, am not one of them.

Re:The emperor has no clothes

[gman003]

NCC-1700, USS Constitution. First ship in the Constitution class, which included the NCC-1701 Enterprise.

Re:The emperor has no clothes

[Froboz23]

Establishing drug legislative policy requires a joint effort between the states and the federal government, especially when reefering to marijuana, instead of this state-by-state grass roots effort. It’s high time that they hashed these problems out. Still, it's nice to see that Eric Holder is willing to be blunt about this issue instead of just blowing smoke. He understands that we'ed all be better off with this decision.

Re: Discouraging underage use?

[Badblackdog]

I totally agree, I speak from the enlightened mind of a Master Weed Sommelier . If I am are too, baked, toasted, roasted, and fried to drive a vehicle, then I wouldn't get up of the sofa in the first place. It's called "couch-lock". It's hard to get there by smoking even good weed. For a smoker with a high tolerance such as myself, I pretty much have to eat a redicilous amount of "home made" baked goods or smoke some killa, monster, bad-ass, wicked, dog poop-looking Maroccon Hash to get, too high to drive. To much of anything is not good for you. What were we talking about? Oh, another benefit would be accurate measurements of potency for edibles and smokeables. Also a /. comments formatting question. Can I use HTML code from the IPhone app in my comments for italics, bold and hyper-links? I'm sure I should know this, not trying to be a dick or anything, but somebody give me a simple answer before the sarcastic wise ass answers start flying around. Dude, it took me like an hour and 45 minutes to type that.

Re:Discouraging underage use?

[Anonymous Coward]

no legally recognized tests, (other than blood draws) either device based tests, or field sobriety tests

I've got a field test - just ask them a question, and then ask them the same question 2 minutes later.

I'm not sure how to end that joke, but it seemed funny enough (I'm high as fuck right now.)