Tell the President: Don't Interfere With State Marijuana Laws

Ethan Nadelmann is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change. Mr Nadelmann is the founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.

Support for making marijuana legal is increasing more rapidly than ever before. Although I recently wrote that I don't expect bold leadership from President Obama on this issue, there is one small but significant step he can make: respect the rights of states to reform their own marijuana laws.

Lawmakers in California, Washington, New Hampshire, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Vermont have introduced bills to decriminalize or legally regulate marijuana. More than half of Californians say they would vote for a ballot initiative to tax and regulate marijuana - we'll see in November. With recent polls showing about 45 percent of the country in favor of taxing and regulating marijuana - and majority support in several states - we now have an unprecedented opportunity to reform our nation's counterproductive marijuana laws.

The Justice Department announced last fall that federal authorities would no longer arrest medical marijuana patients or providers who comply with state law. This policy shift was a step in the right direction - but it doesn't go far enough. I'm concerned that the DEA keeps conducting raids on medical marijuana providers without explaining how or why their actions are consistent with the guidelines.

It won't be long, however, before the Obama administration must take a position on states repealing their marijuana prohibition laws. Now is the time for us to encourage the administration to abstain from interfering with state efforts to tax and regulate marijuana.

With deficits rising, tax revenue falling, and prohibition-related violence increasing along the U.S./Mexico border, we literally cannot afford to wait much longer. Police make about 850,000 arrests every year for marijuana offenses, now comprising one-half of all drug arrests. Eighty-nine percent of marijuana arrests are for nothing more than possession of small amounts. Enforcing marijuana laws costs an estimated $10-15 billion in direct costs alone, and regulating marijuana would raise billions of dollars annually in additional new tax revenue.

To their credit, Obama and his drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, have made it clear that they don't want to talk about marijuana at all. That's a significant improvement over the former drug czar, John Walters, who regarded marijuana as the most dangerous drug in America.

Kerlikowske thinks he's protecting the president by repeatedly insisting that "marijuana legalization is not part of my vocabulary or the administration's," but it's going to be increasingly difficult for him to maintain that posture if support for making marijuana legal continues to increase. In the meantime, I can't really blame Obama and his drug czar for avoiding the topic of legally regulating marijuana. It's our job, after all, as citizens and activists, to make it part of their vocabulary - by persuading a substantial majority of Americans that our country will be better off with marijuana regulation.

But if the initiative in California wins in November, or if subsequent efforts in other states are victorious in the coming years, the Obama administration will have no choice but to respond. Let's get the upper hand now - by urging the President to respect the rights of states to experiment with new ways of regulating marijuana.

Photo credit: Adrian Miles