cingraham

One of the biggest factors is that federal bureaucracy moves slowly. In essence, we've got this huge bureaucracy built around the notion that "drugs are bad, mmkay." And so any loosening of drug policy is a direct threat to the existence of those bureaucracies.

We've already seen a considerable amount of change at the federal level. When Obama first took office, the Justice Dept. was conducting raids on medical marijuana dispensaries at a faster rate than Bush did.

Eight years later, and Justice has taken an explicit hands-off policy on the legalization states, and Eric Holder is calling for a rethinking of marijuana's schedule status. Holder has also nominated an outspoken proponent of legalized marijuana to the top post at Justice's Civil Rights Division.

yes

The largest thing at the federal level is that the government lists marijuana as a schedule 1 controlled substance, which means they consider it dangerous, without accepted medical use, and having a high potential for abuse.

Most researchers and independent observers agree that this scheduling is non-sensical. The status is currently under review by the FDA, although they've reviewed it twice in the past decade or so and recommended leaving it as-is.

Beyond that, the U.S. has obligations toward 3 international drug control treaties to prohibit marijuana use and prosecute it if necessary. Notably, though, the State department has given signals that it is rethinking our relationship with these treaties. Assistant Secretary of State William Brownfield recently called for "flexibility" in implementing these treaties, to accommodate states and other countries that are experimenting with legalization.

John I am deeply offended you misplaced my underscore: @_cingraham. :D

Here's a write-up of the latest revenue figures. Colorado had a bear of a time projecting total revenues, because nobody knew how large the legal market would be, or how quickly people would migrate to it from the black and medical markets.

Overall, revenues have been slower to materialize than initially expected. But they've grown steadily and are now coming in considerably higher than the latest department of revenue projections.