TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

When Obama took office, his administration said they would not prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries operating in accordance with state law. This signaled a new stance, where marijuana—illegal by federal law—would effectively be a state issue, as it should be. Since then, the administration has completely reversed their earlier policy. Tim Dickinson writes:

But over the past year, the Obama administration has quietly unleashed a multi­agency crackdown on medical cannabis that goes far beyond anything undertaken by George W. Bush. The feds are busting growers who operate in full compliance with state laws, vowing to seize the property of anyone who dares to even rent to legal pot dispensaries, and threatening to imprison state employees responsible for regulating medical marijuana. With more than 100 raids on pot dispensaries during his first three years, Obama is now on pace to exceed Bush’s record for medical-marijuana busts. “There’s no question that Obama’s the worst president on medical marijuana,” says Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. “He’s gone from first to worst.”

Very disappointing. Their policy on marijuana was, short of decriminalizing it on the federal level, exactly right. Our drug laws are patently absurd. We should have learned from prohibition that it doesn’t work, and it makes things much worse, because it empowers criminals. And yet here we are, making the same mistakes we’ve already made, putting people in prison that shouldn’t be, and sustaining drug cartels and gangs.