What was the number one question (in four different categories) from today’s “online town hall” meeting with President Barack Obama? The answer: Whether the White House supports the legalization of marijuana.
The president’s answer: No. He does not support legalization and he doesn’t not see it as a good way to get the economy back on track. The answer was perhaps politically correct, but nonetheless disappointing — coming from a former toker, and especially when accompanied by the dismissive laugh he used to punctuate his answer.
Nonetheless, during a press briefing this afternoon with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, several reporters tried for more complete answers to the burning pot questions: Was Obama’s answer a political one or a economic one? Did he have any economic numbers to suggest that legalizing marijuana wouldn’t help the economy? Gibbs danced around, saying only that we’d “heard” Obama’s answer and that he doesn’t “think [Obama] believes that is part” of an economic recovery plan. Another reporter asked, “not as a joke, but as a serious policy issue,” would Obama consider legalizing pot? “The President opposes the legalization of marijuana,” Gibbs said. “He does not think that is…uh…he opposes it…he doesn’t think that is the right direction for America.”
But keeping pot on the unregulated black market and jailing non-violent pot smokers is?
This article appears in March 20 • 2009.