(Newser)
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President Obama seems to have made nothing but enemies in the pro-pot camp over four years. Those in favor of medical marijuana or the larger principle of legalizing recreational pot see it this way, writes Byron Tau in Politico: Obama the candidate in 2008 left the distinct impression he would help their cause, but Obama the president has actually made things worse. Federal raids on dispensaries continue, even after Eric Holder issued a 2009 memo widely interpreted to mean that the Justice Department would lay off.
“I’m very disappointed,” says Barney Frank. “They look more like the Bush administration than the Clinton administration.” (For good measure, he also carps that even Pat Robertson makes Obama look behind the curve.) Some in the article suggest that because the issue isn't high on the president's personal radar, he doesn't have a good handle on federal policy. Others say that policy is in dire need of clarification. But the feeling of having hopes dashed looks to be universal. “Obama has gone from being the greatest hope for marijuana reform to the greatest disappointment, and is now officially the worst president in terms of interference with state medical marijuana laws," says a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project.
