Week 9 EOC: Wall Street Journal Editorial

Just recently, Eric Holder, the current Attorney General of the Obama administration, stated that the U. S. will not enforce the federal marijuana laws in the states that have legalized the drug (WA, CO). He did add some stipulations to this, basically saying that if things got out of hand the feds would step in. “Justice warns that it will intervene if it discovers that marijuana is flowing to children or being trafficked to states where it is still illegal, though under federal law it is still illegal in all states “(link).  

One can find similarities in prohibition in the early part of the 1990s. Alcohol really wasn't that severe of a problem outside of the moral stance by many religious factions around the United States. Part of what it ended up doing was creating an easy building block for organized crime, and it also had the side effect of glamorizing alcohol. If we legalize pot, it will be much easier to regulate, and while it will still filter down into the younger age bracket, a lot of the glamor of the illicitness will be removed. "If we remove marijuana from the criminal market and have the market run by responsible business people that have an incentive to check IDs and not sell to minors, then we might see those rates drop again." (link)

Finally, I think something like this can be handled better at a state level, rather than at the federal level. As several political factions have stated, the amount of power at the federal level is way too strong as they have slowly been usurping the states powers over the years.

Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.