This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, January 1st, 2016. I'm Caleb Brown.

In his final year in office, President Obama has some clearly articulated Article 2 power

at his disposal to make America a freer and

happier place. The president could remove marijuana from the schedule of drugs

maintained by the Department of Justice. That from Ilia Shapiro, a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute.

Many states have legalized marijuana, many more states have legalized it for specific purposes and still additional

states have decided it is not a criminal law enforcement priority and so

they've decriminalized it.

So what does it matter what the federal government does?

Well, this is an area that's curiously under joint jurisdiction.

I think, unfortunately, I think the Supreme Court was wrong in the 2005 case of Raich

versus Gonzales to say that the federal government can indeed regulate plants that you grow in your backyard for your own

consumption but nevertheless that's the world we live in and the federal

government continues to classify marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug that means no acceptable uses, no medical or otherwise.

Certain states, as you've said, have taken a different tack and for purposes of their

own criminal codes.

Four have now legalized outright plus DC.

We're up to 23 with medical marijuana.

And 16 that have decriminalized. That means it's effectively like a parking ticket if you're simply possessing.

But it's still illegal for federal purposes in all of those states.

But practically speaking, there are only so many

federal agents to go around and so the federal government has said in places like

...