WASHINGTON - Amid a devastating economic meltdown, the issue of marijuana decriminalization hasn't exactly hounded U.S. President Barack Obama, but the calls to legalize weed are nonetheless getting louder and more persistent every day.
The issue has brought together a diverse mix of advocates, including state legislators, political pundits, a famous musician, a high-profile blogger and even White House correspondents.
Most of them point out what they see as the hypocrisy of marijuana laws in a country where alcohol, junk food and mood-altering prescription drugs are not only readily available, but marketed aggressively.
They also point out what a potential cash cow legalizing marijuana could prove to be while also potentially snuffing out urban gang violence and cutting incarceration rates and costs. The Drug Enforcement Agency spends an estimated US$10 billion a year enforcing marijuana laws.
"Why not do it?" Joe Klein argues in the current issue of Time magazine.
"One could argue that the abuse of McDonald's has a greater potential health-care cost than the abuse of marijuana ... but the costs of criminalization have proved to be enormous, perhaps unsustainable. Would legalization be any worse?"
Obama has himself acknowledged the issue is a popular subject of debate. At a recent town hall meeting at the White House, the president said questions from his online audience about legalizing marijuana to stimulate the economy were among the most common.
He dismissed the notion of dope-fuelled economic rejuvenation with a laugh, but the White House press corps pointedly peppered his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, during a briefing soon after the event.
"When the president said he doesn't think that legalizing marijuana would give the economy a boost, was he giving a political answer or an economic answer? Does he have numbers to back (his position) up?" one reporter asked.
Gibbs stammered painfully through a series of follow-up queries before shutting down the line of questioning.
Musician Carlos Santana joined the fray last week, offering advice to the president: "Legalize marijuana and take all that money and invest it in teachers and in education. You will see a transformation in America."
Obama has confessed to smoking dope in his youth - "And I inhaled frequently ... that was the point," he said - and suggested five years ago that he favoured decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Yet he's largely avoided the issue since then - although Gibbs was asked why he mentioned it, unprompted, during the town hall meeting. Some suspected Obama might have been testing the waters of public opinion on the issue.
