Up until now, US President Barack Obama had made little to no comments regarding the legalization of marijuana in two states of the Union; however, as Congress attempts to interfere, Obama's DC pot opinion prevails: he thinks the legislative body should stand down in the face of the legalized bill.
After the success of the bill that made Colorado the first state in the US to legalize cannabis as a recreational habit beyond medical use, Obama's DC pot stand becomes clear in the midst of a Congressional battle to stop the legislation: the will of the people of the District of Columbia should be respected.
According to ABC News, the latest Obama DC pot update says that the US president approves of the recreational use of the drug, as it was approved to be legalized in the state in a referendum last November, though further measures regarding this topic have been stopped by the United States Congress.
"We do not believe that Congress should spend a lot of time interfering with the ability of the citizens of the District of Columbia to make decisions related to how they should govern their community," said Josh Earnest, a White House representative, to Jonathan Karl earlier this week.
According to The Hill, the Obama DC pot statement came last Thursday, after the Congress has interfered in the DC law, blocking the recently approved legalization. When asked directly whether the president supported the general legalization of cannabis, Earnest replied that, since the people of the District of Columbia had voted yes on the ballot last November, the president believed that "on principle" their opinion regarding it should not be ruled out.
According to The Washington Times, the issue that drove Obama's DC pot statement was that Congress Republicans have intended to block the approve legalization by inserting a budget rider in the spending plan, which would prevent the city from spending its own money for legislation to loosen drug penalties - or, in this case, abolish them entirely.
