1. He's trying to look tough because he believes – rightly or wrongly – that he could be vulnerable to being labeled "soft on crime" during the election.
2. He doesn't think the "marijuana vote" is strong enough to have a meaningful impact on him politically.
3. The medical marijuana industry got too big too fast, forcing the federal government to intervene.
Do we have our answer here somewhere? I wouldn't immediately dismiss any of this, although if the Obama Administration actually believes they're scoring political points with this madness, they are out of their minds. In any case, these ideas effectively sum up most of the speculation I've heard recently from serious observers.
But there's a larger point to made here: the reason we can only speculate as to the Obama Administration's motives is because they won't even admit that this crackdown is taking place, let alone explain the reasoning behind it. We shouldn't have to sit around guessing what this is about. The President, or the Attorney General, or someone with knowledge of the situation should tell us.
I'm serious. It sounds terribly naïve even to me as I write it, but there really is no logical reason why our government can’t simply tell us why they are doing these things that they've been doing. We can see them doing it. Just tell us what it's all about. Wouldn't it be easier that way?
Think about it. If state lawmakers, local law enforcement, medical marijuana providers, patients, advocates, and the media all understood what the Obama Administration's enforcement priorities and long-term goals regarding medical marijuana actually are, we could all make more informed decisions that make life a lot easier for everyone else. We've all become so accustomed to this being a big guessing game that nobody stops to point out how crazy that is.
The Obama Administration's continued insistence on discussing medical marijuana in the most brief and vague possible terms has created an enormous amount of confusion and wasted time on every side of this debate. Medical marijuana is a matter of public policy. Can we please just talk about it in public?
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