--- title: New Barack Obama Drug Policy Doesn't Change on Marijuana description: A new emphasis on treatment and addiction, but no change on marijuana canonical: https://time.com/2973144/new-white-house-drug-policy-barack-obama/ author: Alex Altman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-10T17:15:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:01:09.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: New Barack Obama Drug Policy Doesn't Change on Marijuana og:description: A new emphasis on treatment and addiction, but no change on marijuana og:url: https://time.com/2973144/new-white-house-drug-policy-barack-obama/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt640a0e1d63a0e5c7/69869b3f35ba6f4843c02f89/ap313948209170.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Michael Botticelli og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New Barack Obama Drug Policy Doesn't Change on Marijuana twitter:description: A new emphasis on treatment and addiction, but no change on marijuana twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt640a0e1d63a0e5c7/69869b3f35ba6f4843c02f89/ap313948209170.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama's New Drug Policy Looks a Lot Like the Old One > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=d7ac668c-5742-48a2-a503-6661341f6d77&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Alaska Next In Line To Make Pot Legal? [Watch (HLS stream): Alaska Next In Line To Make Pot Legal?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/R1uoe4HC.m3u8) (1:53)  _Published 2014-01-09. With the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington, advocates in Alaska say they already have enough signatures to get it on the ballot for August._  by [Alex Altman](https://time.com/author/alex-altman/)  ## Alex Altman Altman is the executive features editor and deputy Washington bureau chief at TIME. Jul 10, 2014 5:15 PM UTC  Michael Botticelli, left, acting director of National Drug Control Policy, speaks to community leaders in Roanoke, Va., on July 9, 2014 Michael Botticelli, left, acting director of National Drug Control Policy, speaks to community leaders in Roanoke, Va., on July 9, 2014 Erica Yoon—AP  by [Alex Altman](https://time.com/author/alex-altman/)  ## Alex Altman Altman is the executive features editor and deputy Washington bureau chief at TIME. Jul 10, 2014 5:15 PM UTC The Obama Administration unveiled an updated drug policy Thursday, including a new emphasis on treatment and addiction programs and a push to curb abuse of heroin and prescription painkillers. Michael Botticelli, the acting director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, framed the retooled strategy as a shift away from the punitive policies that have produced record incarceration rates. “Our prisons and jails are already overcrowded with people who desperately need compassionate, evidence-based treatment for the disease of addiction—not a jail cell,” Botticelli said in a statement before an event in Roanoke, Va. Among the elements of the [plan](http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/ondcp/policy-and-research/ndcs%5F2014.pdf) are expanded access to drug education, treating drug addition as a health issue rather than a criminal one, and a push to divert nonviolent drug offenders into treatment rather than prisons. It promotes tackling the twin scourges of heroin and prescription opiates, whose abuse rates have climbed. The Administration’s call for criminal-justice reform reflects widespread agreement, inside the White House and out, that the war on drugs has been a misbegotten [failure](http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public%5Fcontent/politics/general%5Fpolitics/august%5F2013/82%5Fsay%5Fu%5Fs%5Fnot%5Fwinning%5Fwar%5Fon%5Fdrugs). The Department of Justice has emphasized the need to overhaul its approach from being “tough on crime” to being “smart on crime.” The updated policy is a continuation of that strategy. “The plan we released today calls for reforming our criminal justice system to find alternatives to incarceration—and effective interventions across the entire system to get people the treatment they need.” But for the most part, the Administration’s approach looks like more of the same. It outlines no changes to the White House’s approach to marijuana, a blow to legalization advocates in the same week that Washington state became the second to legalize the sale of cannibis to adults for recreational purposes. Despite the [President’s belief](http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/01/27/140127fa%5Ffact%5Fremnick) that pot is less harmful than alcohol, federal law still classifies it as a Schedule I drug on par with cocaine and ecstasy. Discrepancies between state and federal pot laws have [blocked legitimate weed-business owners from accessing banks](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,2162916,00.html) and [left the threat of jail time looming](http://time.com/2972323/the-pot-paradox/?pcd=hp-magmod) over users, sellers and growers even in states where some form of the drug is now legal. The new strategy calls the increasing perception that cannabis is relatively harmless—fed not only by state legalization efforts, but also perhaps the President’s own remarks to that effect—a “serious challenge” to drug reform efforts. “The drug czar’s office is still tone deaf when it comes to marijuana policy,” said Mason Tvert, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project. “Why stay the course when the current policy has utterly failed to accomplish its goals?” ## Transcript With marijuana officially legal in Colorado and Washington, it looks like Alaska may be next on the agenda for legalization activists. On the heels of the legalization of recreational pot use in Colorado, the Alaska campaigns to regulate marijuana turned in more than 46, 000 signatures Wednesday, almost 15, 000 more than needed in favor of a proposal to legalize the drug. The Alaska measure is modeled after the new law in Colorado. It would make limited amounts of marijuana legal for those over the age of 21 to buy, use and grow. And while Cannabis is not legal in Alaska, the regulation of pot in this State is very conflicted. In 1975, an Alaska Supreme Court decision found it unconstitutional to ban using small amounts of weed at home. But according to the Anchorage Daily News the laws on pot since then have seesawed back and forth between decriminalization and stricter enforcement which it concludes has left pot restrictions probably unenforceable. Medical marijuana was legalized in Alaska in 1998 with more than 59 percent of the popular vote. The current Alaska law allows people with a medical marijuana card to possess up to 1 ounce and grow up to 6 plants. But a proposal to make recreational use legal in 2000 failed with the same split, 59 percent voting against legalization. One legalization supporter says times have changed and he's confident if the proposal makes it to the ballot, it will be voted in to law. We were waiting to see what would be a good time to revisit it and the opportunity arose to have some outside support to help move things along. CNN reports legalization initiatives are expected to move forward in several states before 2016 including Arizona, California, Maine and Massachusetts. If the signatures are deemed valid, the measure will appear on the august 19th primary ballot. 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