If you really, really believe that, I don't think that we have anything more to discuss.
I will simply say that his administration's record in the way it deals with California has been, and continues to be, abhorrent. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few years in both COL and WA. Based on the past record of this administration I know what *I* expect to happen.
Unless his hand truly is forced as it was re gays in the military and gay marriage I don't see much changing on the national level. This will truly have to a state by state fight.
CO & WA residents can't help it if CA law & regulatory effort are a mess, inviting intervention by US Attorneys & the DEA. Actual State level regulation of MMJ in California is a joke. It's impossible for federal authorities to hand off regulatory responsibility when there's nobody there to give it to. We're also blameless if CA advocates can't put together a proposal addressing the interests of various groups as A64 has done in CO.
Not to mention the successful roll out of retail MJ in Colorado went off w/o a hitch while Obama benched the DEA. If the Obama people had wanted to stop it, they'd very likely have done so from the start, with federal lawsuits & injunctions, also with enforcement of federal law on an immediate basis. That's not what happened.
Non-enforcement of federal law is a paradigm shift, a tipping point. It follows a paradigm shift in public perception. A strong majority of Americans now believe that legal marijuana is better than prohibition. Facts do not support belief to the contrary. The heirs of Harry Anslinger's legacy can no longer maintain the mythos he created.
Of course this will proceed state by state. That's the only way it *can* proceed, regardless of wishful thinking to the contrary. "Conservative" (authoritarian prohibitionist) elements enjoy disparate power & representation at the federal level. And they're entirely comfortable taking hostages to their agenda. In pushing it down to the state level, Obama denies them a national forum & their usual hostage taking opportunities. They have to go toe to toe with legalization activists in states where they can't win, and toe to toe with MMJ advocates in many more.
Barring some unforeseen fuckup, legalization will have proceeded much too far for turning back by the time Obama leaves office. That's because it's conceptually sound. The real negative consequences will prove negligible, barely making a ripple, while the positives are entirely too obvious to mention. 3 years from now, it'll be unstoppable, and I'm confident that the Admin knew that when they created current policy, when WA & CO voters provided the opportunity.