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Upstart
Business Journal
With
Obama's comment, can pot
businesses stop holding their breath?
by Teresa Novellino, Entrepreneurs
& Enterprises Editor
December 14, 2012
President
Barack Obama says federal
authorities should not make it a “top priority” to step in and assert
federal
law in the states of Colorado and Washington, both of which legalized
marijuana
for recreational use.
“We’ve
got bigger fish to fry,”
Obama told ABC News’ Barbara Walters in an interview that airs in full
tonight
on 20/20. "It would not make sense for us to see a top priority as
going
after recreational users in states that have determined that it's
legal.”
In
a chat today on Good Morning
America, Walters also says she asked Obama about what he tells his two
daughters
about his own marijuana use when he was a young man. "He tells them
'Don't
make the same mistakes I made,'" Walters said.
It’s
the first time that the
president has spoken about the topic since voters in both Western
states vote
to approve pro-marijuana ballot measures on November 7. The measures
were the
first to legalize marijuana for personal use. Eighteen states and the
District
of Columbia have laws allowing for medical marijuana use and
distribution.
But
the legalization and sale of
pot in Washington and Colorado defies federal law, which defines
marijuana or
cannabis as a narcotic. This is not to say that pot businesses are up
and
running in either state...
Read
the rest of the article at
Upstart Business Journal
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