EDITORIAL: Feds should clear up pot rules

Sep. 24—Through some crafty subversions of Oklahoma's very own petitioning system, recreational marijuana will not be on the November ballot.

It may not mean as much for consumers. Those who want to use marijuana have likely found legal means to do so.

But, it's still a goal. Arkansas will have it on the state ballot in November.

And yes, for those who follow the gamesmanship of state politics, it would appear that not having marijuana on the November ballot would ease the minds of conservatives on that ballot.

The broad-strokes thinking being that a progressive issue would bring out progressive-minded people who might not otherwise vote.

Oklahoma's State Question 788 that legalized medical marijuana was on the June 2018 ballot. That's going to be hard to compare to a February 2023 ballot.

But, even if that's good news for conservatives in November, what if that means more people who vote single issue for recreational marijuana show up to polls in February? Are a few local races enough to draw opponents? Would people show up just to vote no?

Regardless of what happens at the state level, we would like to see some clarity and action at the federal level.

President Biden has been sitting on this one.

He may not have the power outside of an act of Congress to legalize marijuana, but he does have power that would go along way to decriminalize it.

As we've learned by all the pardon talk in the past five years, the president does in fact have a broad range of power to affect how laws are enforced.

Or at least, power to direct agencies to make it so states don't have to deal with federal hang-ups.

Marijuana is still a Schedule 1 narcotic at the federal level. The laws between the federal government and states don't have to be as muddy as they are right now.