Why Obama got tough on medical marijuana: 3 theories

In 2008, President Obama promised to give the medical marijuana world breathing room. Now he's bringing down the hammer. What gives?

President Obama's Drug Enforcement Administration has taken the position that "medical marijuana is not medicine," going so far as to call the drug a “mortal danger," says Michael Scherer a
(Image credit: Dennis Brack/Pool/Corbis)

When President Obama won the White House in 2008, few groups had more more hope for change than proponents of medical marijuana, the dispensaries allowed to sell pot under some state laws, and the cancer, HIV/AIDS, and other patients who benefit from the drug. And in the first two years of Obama's term, things looked pretty good for the medical marijuana industry: Attorney General Eric Holder told federal prosecutors to lay off individuals complying with state laws, and they did. Then the hammer came down, and now, the Obama administration is "cracking down on medical marijuana dispensaries and growers just as harshly as the administration of George W. Bush did," says Michael Scherer at TIME. What happened? Here, three theories:

1. Obama doesn't want to look soft on crime

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