President Obama, like a beautiful woman who is the target of unrequited love, is an enigma when it comes to his marijuana policy.

Marijuana bad, marijuana good? Who knows. We do know that his administration penned a memo a few years back asking feds to back off on enforcement and prosecution in medical-legal states. At the same time, feds have not backed down on enforcement and prosecution in medical-legal states, making pro-pot forces furious.

So which way does his wind blow? Not even Obama, it seems, knows:

At a town hall meeting in Minnesota Monday, Obama was asked about his stance on medical marijuana, an issue near and dear to many folks, particularly in California.

“If you can't legalize marijuana, why can't you just legalize medical marijuana?” a woman asked.

Obama:

A lot of states are making decisions about medical marijuana. As a controlled substance, the issue is then that is it being prescribed by a doctor as opposed to… you know, well, I'll leave it at that.

Obama's a sharp guy — much more on his toes than a predecessor who continued reading a children's book while the United States was in the midst of its worst-ever terrorist attack — and we've rarely seen him caught flat footed like this.

Our read? He's pro-medical marijuana, but he can't be seen as such as Republicans fight for their presidential nomination and battle over who can make Obama seem more liberal.

Now's not the time for him, politically, to embrace weed.

[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com]

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