Obama on Marijuana Legalization: ‘It’s Important for It to Go Forward’

Reasoning based in biased criminal justice system

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President Obama has some pretty liberal views on the decriminalization of marijuana, and voiced his support for Colorado and Washington’s legalization of the drug in a long and wide-ranging interview in the New Yorker, published Sunday.

On the two states that have legalized pot, Obama said that “it’s important for it to go forward because it’s important for society not to have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished.”

His reasoning: “Middle-class kids don’t get locked up for smoking pot, and poor kids do … And African-American kids and Latino kids are more likely to be poor and less likely to have the resources and the support to avoid unduly harsh penalties.”

The President hasn’t publicly made any statements about legalizing marijuana nationwide.

You can read the rest of the interview here