91.5 Chapel Hill 88.9 Manteo 90.9 Rocky Mount 91.1 Welcome 91.9 Fayetteville 90.5 Buxton 94.1 Lumberton 99.9 Southern Pines 89.9 Chadbourn

'We've Got Bigger Fish To Fry' Than Going After Pot Smokers, Obama Says

By Mark Memmott
Published December 14, 2012 at 9:57 AM EST
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
A woman, identified only as "Hurricane," lights up in Seattle. Washington state's law legalizing the recreational use of marijuana went into effect on Dec. 6.
Cliff Despeaux

It looks like the feds will not be worrying much about those folks who choose to smoke pot in Colorado and Washington state, where new laws decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.

"We've got bigger fish to fry," President Obama tells ABC News' Barbara Walters during an interview set to air on 20/20 at 10 p.m. ET tonight.

Though it's still a federal crime to use or possess pot, "it would not make sense for us to see a top priority as going after recreational users in states that have determined that it's legal," the president tells Walters.

Those are the first comments the president's made about the laws in Colorado and Washington since they were signed into law .

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

NPR News
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Mark Memmott
Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.
See stories by Mark Memmott
More Stories
  1. Nebraska Republican brings resolution to censure Ilhan Omar
  2. Biden decries surge of antisemitism since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel
  3. Brittney Griner reflects on 'Coming Home' after nearly 300 days in a Russian prison
  4. What we can learn from 4 schools that have reached agreements with Gaza protesters
  5. TikTok challenges U.S. ban in court, calling it unconstitutional