Puff the Magic Dragon—in his naughtier incarnation—bit the dust when President Barack Obama recently made it clear that he is against legalizing marijuana. His message was delivered on his website, Change.gov, even before he placed his hand on the Lincoln Bible. Astonishingly, legalization of marijuana ranked as Priority No. 1 for the new administration among the thousands of possible actions voted upon on the website by the public. Yes, even above stem cell research, the war in Iraq, and Wall Street bailouts. Obama's prompt no to the query "Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion-dollar industry right here in the U.S.?" dashed the hopes of many who thought our young, hip, new president—who long ago dabbled in the stuff and, by his own admission, inhaled—would come to marijuana's rescue.


Listen to the president's inauguration speech, and it seems clear why he's unwilling. In a "new era of responsibility," somehow a fat new billion-dollar U.S. marijuana industry doesn't quite square with a world that almost universally outlaws the stuff. Making weed as accessible to our children as cigarettes doesn't fit with Obama's words to parents about nurturing their children, as he and Michelle so sweetly do their own little girls. And it would be the antithesis of the inaugural pledge he made to respect science.