Federal agents raid marijuana dispensaries in Washington

[kristopher]

69. You cited the paper, it is polite to include a link or titled reference

I thank you for producing it.

I have only skimmed about 5 random pages and this paragraph (forming 1/4 of the author's summary of the content of the paper) is probably the main point, and it doesn't support the interpretation you presented in your first post. Note the underlined sentences:
The Colorado and Washington laws that legalize, regulate, and tax an activity the federal government expressly prohibits appear to be logically inconsistent with established federal policy toward marijuana, and are therefore likely subject to a legal challenge under the constitutional doctrine of preemption. This doctrine generally prevents states from enacting laws that are inconsistent with federal law. Under the Supremacy Clause, state laws that conflict with federal law are generally preempted and therefore void and without effect. Yet Congress intended that the CSA would not displace all state laws associated with controlled substances, as it wanted to preserve a role for the states in regulating controlled substances. States thus remain free to pass laws relating to marijuana, or any other controlled substance,so long as they do not create a “positive conflict” with federal law, such that the two laws “cannot consistently stand together.”
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43034.pdf

There is certain degree of legal tension that can exist, but the intent of the federal law (to prevent the trafficking of MJ) trumps the trend by the states to make MJ widely available for recreational use.

I'd love to see MJ made legal; I've been waiting 45 years for that to happen. It used to be because I wanted to smoke it in peace, but as I've aged and observed what the War on Drugs has done to the US and the world, I've come to consider it one of the supremely evil policies in the world. It is a fundamental tool of authoritarianism and oppression.

I'm disappointed by the fact that there hasn't been as much progress under Obama as I'd hoped for, but I lay the blame squarely at the feet of the most obstructive Congress in the history of the US. Their efforts have completely stalled the movement towards a more progressive country that the collapse of conservatism under Bush, and the resulting landslide for the alternative authorized.

In normal times, fighting the battle to legalize Mj would have been worth fighting at the presidential level. But in a time where the opposition is so insane as to be intent on crashing the economy when they don't get every crazy thing they ask for, I can't blame the man for putting it on a back burner. That is a victory for them, but it is an even greater victory for them when simple minded fools blame the good guys for the shit the bad guys are responsible for.