Marijuana: The gateway to the 2016 presidential race

 John Hudak - Brookings

... "The issue engages a variety of issues that reach beyond marijuana itself, posing serious leadership questions for any prospective chief executive. It involves issues of law and regulatory enforcement, federal research policy, medical and pharmaceutical policy, state-federal relations, criminal justice, privacy, agriculture, commerce, small business policy, and banking and financial regulations. These are issues no presidential candidate can avoid, even if talking marijuana policy isn’t atop their to-do list. The nature of the issue and the penumbra of policies it involves forces the issue into the 2016 conversation, whether Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton or Scott Walker want it to be." ...