Obama Won't Legalize Pot, Wonders If Online Community Is a Bunch of Stoners

In his first ever interactive townhall meeting, President Obama addressed questions and issues raised online from the change.gov site.  One of the most popular ideas floated online there and on the pre-inuagural citizen's policy book was the legalization and taxation of marijuana, which could provide additional taxes and jobs, as well as lowering crimnal justice costs. His response:

 There was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation, and I don’t know what this says about the online audience.

Yes, it got some laughs. Then he added that he wanted to make sure the question got answered.

The answer is no, I don’t think that was a good strategy.

And it's probably not a good strategy to mock your constituents, either. Not everyone who supports legalization of marijuana smokes it recreationally, or even at all.