MSNBC: 2016 will decide the fate of drug-policy progress

By Steve Benen, Apr. 16, 2015, MSNBC

There have been some historic breakthroughs in recent years on U.S. drug policy, but there’s an under-appreciated fragility to the progress. When voters in Alaska, Colorado, and the state of Washington voted to legalize marijuana, for example, their experiments were allowed to proceed because the Obama administration extended its approval.

But it didn’t have to – under federal law, officials could have ignored voters’ will and blocked those policies from advancing. In this case, neither President Obama nor Attorney General Eric Holderwanted to intervene, so state experimentation has been allowed to flourish.

There is, however, a presidential election coming up – the outcome of which may have an enormous impact on those experiments.

If New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) becomes president of the United States, he said on “The Hugh Hewitt Show” Tuesday, he will “crack down” on those states that have ended prohibitions on marijuana. 

When asked by Hewitt if he would enforce federal drug laws in those states that have legalized and regulated cannabis, Christie responded unequivocally.

More:  www.msnbc.com