Leave that plant alone

A lot of people flagging Charlie Savage's piece on rumors the DOJ will be cracking down on Colorado and Washington state over the recently passed citizen initiatives to legalize recreational marijuana use. Not sure this is even real. There's a lot of words like "might be considering" here but I'll join the Greek chorus to say, if it's true, it's the dumbest, idea, ever.

Andrew thinks Obama should advocate for re-classifying pot out of Schedule One. A worthy project but I don't think Obama should be spending political capital on that either. It would likely lead to a media frenzy that would derail the momentum. But surely going after the states, and by inference the citizens, who passed the initiatives, many of whom also voted for the President, would be politically suicidal.

I don't need Obama to be proactive on moving this issue. I'm okay with allowing the changes to bubble up from the grass roots. It has been working well so far and we have far more serious problems to deal with right now. For one thing, if the DOJ is so bored they're looking for a fight, how about they address the horrendous mess of voter repression so sharply exposed only a month ago. Or prosecute a few more banksters. And if the DEA needs something to do, let them chase down meth labs. Those people are an actual danger to public safety. [photo via]