Will States Lead The Way To Legalizing Marijuana Nationwide?

When citizens of Colorado and Washington voted in November to legalize marijuana, they created a conflict, because pot remains illegal under federal law and anyone who lights up is committing a federal crime and could theoretically still be arrested for it. After Colorado passed its referendum, Governor John Hickenlooper said the implementation of the law in his state would be a “complicated process” and warned residents not to “break out the Cheetos or Goldfish too quickly.”

While it seems unlikely that the federal government will make much of an effort to arrest pot users in Colorado or Washington — President Obama has said he has “bigger fish to fry” — the tension between federal and state laws on marijuana remains. Just last week, an appeals court rejected a suit that sought to lower the drug classification of medical marijuana under federal drug laws.

More