Interstingly, shortly ago several people on another thread confidently asserted legalization would not increase demand. If that is true, Obama is undeniably correct. Legalization wouldn't grow the economy at all if it did not result in more people buying more marijuana.  With taxes it might increase federal revenues (assuming people bought marijuan in lieu of lower taxed products) but if people purchased the same amount or less how is that going to grow the economy?

Although many problems are difficult and painful to solve, this one is not.

With the stroke of a pen, the President could undo something like 500,000 cases of injustice.

We are spending a fortune to the prison industrial complex to lock up non-violent people who simply are not criminals.  

Obama took the easy way out by saying that this wasn't a strategy to grow the economy. But the question was about the injustice and stupidity of keeping this substance illegal. The benefit to the economy would be an incidental byproduct, not the purpose of legalization.

Obama used to enjoy smoking.
He is so uptight in so many ways it is unfortunate for him and for us that he doesn't occasionally still take a puff or two.

During prohibition the Feds would shoot and kill people for brewing beer. Now they do it to people who grow and sell a plant.

"And I don't know what this says about the online audience..."

I'll tell ya what is says B.O....they're using their brain, which is more than I can say for you.

That it will cause crime?
Make failures out of the people who use them?
That it is immoral?
What?

While an early AP wire story sported the headline "Obama says he opposes legalizing marijuana," it should be noted that the president specifically only dismissed the notion that the "cash crop" would significantly boost the economy.

However, later on Thursday afternoon during the White House press briefing after multiple reporters asked marijuana-related questions, Obama Administration spokesman Robert Gibbs unequivocally said that the president opposed legalization.

The success of drug decriminalization in Portugal

In 2001, Portugal became the only EU-member state to decriminalize drugs, a distinction which continues through to the present.  Last year, working with the Cato Institute, I went to that country in order to research the effects of the decriminalization law (which applies to all substances, including cocaine and heroin) and to interview both Portuguese and EU drug policy officials and analysts (the central EU drug policy monitoring agency is, by coincidence, based in Lisbon).  Evaluating the policy strictly from an empirical perspective, decriminalization has been an unquestionable success, leading to improvements in virtually every relevant category and enabling Portugal to manage drug-related problems (and drug usage rates) far better than most Western nations that continue to treat adult drug consumption as a criminal offense.

Let me tell you "what this says about our online audience" - It says "Mr. President, We the People demand the restoration of our original freedoms to consume Cannabis!  We know Cannabis to be a plant that will solve many of the issues facing this country now, and if you will study real facts you will know this to be true.  We the People want the Medicinal Properties of Cannabis, the Economic Boost from Cannabis, the Green Ecological Benefits of Cannabis as well as a Safe Alternative to the horrible and very deadly Alcohol and Cigarettes that are totally legal under U.S law."

Not all of us can handle hard drugs like Alcohol (which I hear the U.S. Government can and does drink large quantities of).  Yet we are asked - as they take over ¾ of a million of us yearly to jail - "Why don't you just Drink?"  Alcohol is NOT a safe alternative!

Cannabis would be great for the economy and would stop much of the violence in the U.S. and Mexico.

Does this really seem to be a laughing matter?