This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, November 30, 2012.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Drugs Zare Gil Kirlekowski says, of course, the feds will continue to prosecute marijuana cases in Washington and Colorado, the legalization

of marijuana in those two states notwithstanding.

But if we take the Constitution seriously, says Cato Institute Legal Affairs Vice President Roger Pillan, the feds should

stand down immediately.

This is from Marketplace Radio, the American Public Media Program.

On election day, voters in Washington and Colorado went for

President Obama. They also voted to legalize marijuana. Gilkur Likowski, however, the President's top

drug advisor says the states that have passed their own laws to

legalize or decriminalize marijuana should not assume the federal government will look

the other way. This is a state versus federal power issue here.

The states have essentially said,

we are no longer going to have laws that punish adults

for engaging in this activity. but what is the federal government here essentially

asserting?

Well, it's striking that one of the constitutional issues here is that the enforcement of laws pertaining to alcohol, tobacco, and the like,

are ordinarily done under the state police power.

But of course here we have a federal statute making marijuana a,

but here we have a federal statute making the possession and sale of marijuana a federal

crime, and so we have federal law overriding state law.

But let's step back just a bit.

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