Wrong. The POTUS cannot selectively decide which laws are enforced and which are not, that would be an abuse of presidential power. We don't elect kings.
LMFAO. . .yeah, no President EVER abuses their power, let alone does anything illegal or borderline so.
You better believe that not only CAN the President do this, but they ALL do it.
The Presidents all sign laws with "signing statements" indicating how they think a particular new law should. . .or shouldn't. . .be enforced. In some cases POTUS's even speculate on the Constitutionality of laws they themselves are signing! There is no constitutional provision for this. . .but they all do it.
One other way this is done is simply by setting Law enforcement priorities.
Every law enforcement agency is overworked and understaffed. So their department directive GREATLY affects the type of cases any agency will pursue.
If the President says "Forget the State-legal grow ops; go after border violations instead" then that's what the DEA does. And that is what it *DID* do, until relatively recently when the Obama administration reversed its earlier "hands off" policy.
Look again at what I actually said.
There is a big difference between "The American public" (which is what you're saying) and "The VOTING public", which is what I said.
Your poll says 77% of American adults favor MMJ. Maybe that's true, and maybe it isn't.
But in the empirical reality of the actual world, MMJ is still illegal in 2/3 of the States, and most of them have NO provision for legalizing it any time soon. 77% is a supermajority of support for ANY issue. If American VOTERS actually supported MMJ by 77% margins, it would be legal everywhere.
It isn't, and its not even close.
Therefore there is a big disconnect here between the Americans purportedly surveyed by that poll (who probably significant skew young and liberal), and the ones who actually cast votes (who skew older and more conservative). Or the poll is flawed in other ways too.
Again **WHEN** (ie if) the American voting public comes around, I'd expect motion towards decriminalization on a Federal level. But not until then.
