After my recent post on legalization of marijuana through federalism, it is gratifying to see the Obama administration move away from federal prosecution of marijuana offenses that are within the guidelines of state laws.  This is the exact framework needed to allow the eventual legalization of marijuana on the state level - though it is disheartening to see on the very same day Obama's new Justice Department policy: the Los Angeles District Attorny's Office chose to crack down on dispensaries in the LA area.    California is the state with the most developed quasi-legal marijuana infrastructure, so a setback there is especially poignant.

Two steps forward and one step back is how it goes with marijuana norml-ization, I guess.  Like legalized gay marriage, having productive states with liberal marijuana policies demonstrates that the bogeyman of societal decay is nothing more that a scare tactic from social conservatives.

Even with the mixed news, it is always heartening to see marijuana policies enacted rationally on a national level.  The War on Drugs has been a catastrophic failure for everyone except privately run prisons and South American drug cartels, and this is one area where the difference between Obama and his predecessor is especially stark.