Prior to becoming president, Barack Obama was vocally against the drug war and candid about his own youthful drug experimentation.
Obama disappointed many supporters by doing very little to reform drug policy in his first term. But, Reason Senior Editor Jacob Sullum writes in the February 2017 issue, Obama deserves a modicum of credit for actions he took once he was re-elected:
During his second term, Obama tolerated state-level legalization of marijuana, talked honestly about the relative hazards of alcohol and marijuana, removed barriers to medical marijuana research, shortened more than 1,000 drug offenders’ sentences, and spoke out against draconian drug penalties.