但是去年奥巴马政府发布了科尔备忘录（以起草备忘录的助理大法官的名字命名）。它似乎暗示奥格登备忘录被人们误解了，联邦检察官们应该追查大麻买卖，尤其是检察官们怀疑有非法牟利的时候。

　　The overall effect has been to confuse everybody and leave matters entirely at the discretion of individual prosecutors. Thus there are few signs of federal aggression in New Mexico, Rhode Island or Vermont, for instance. Rather, the crackdown appears to be occurring in just six federal districts—the four in California, and those in Montana and Colorado.

　　这样产生的大体影响是：人们会感到困惑，大麻的执法也完全依赖于检察官自己的判断。因此在例如新墨西哥、佛蒙特和罗德岛等州联邦很少禁止大麻，但是六个联邦特区（加利福尼亚州的四个特区和蒙太纳州、科罗伦多州的其余两特区）却有严打大麻的行动。

　　To Ethan Nadelmann, the head of the Drug Policy Alliance, which lobbies for an end to the failed “war on drugs”, this suggests that six federal prosecutors may be acting on their own, perhaps even in conflict with the Obama administration. The president, in this scenario, is too afraid to touch anything that looks soft on drugs in an election year and stands weakly by.

　　伊桑-南德尔曼是药物政策联盟的执行董事，一直为停止失败的毒品战争而进行游说。对他来说这意味着六位联邦检察官可能会独自行动，甚至会与奥巴马政府相冲突。对于这样的情况，正处大选年的奥巴马总统非常恐惧，不敢在毒品问题上表现得很软弱，必须强势出击。

　　States do not like it. Democratic and Republican legislators from five medical-marijuana states have written an open letter to Barack Obama to end the “chaos” and leave this matter to the states. Christine Gregoire and Lincoln Chafee, governors of Washington state and Rhode Island, have asked the federal government to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I drug (like heroin, say) to a Schedule II drug (like morphine) so that doctors can at least prescribe it safely in certain circumstances. Vermont, Colorado, Hawaii, and have joined in the request. Ms Gregoire has already found herself having to veto a medical-marijuana bill she supports for fear that her state employees may be indicted by federal prosecutors. To all the good reasons for drug reform can now be added this classically conservative one: states’ rights.

　　各州均很反感。共和党和民主党的立法议员们给奥巴马写了封公开信，要求结束纷争，让州政府处理是否禁止大麻事宜，他们主要来自五个允许使用药用大麻的州。华盛顿州州长克里斯汀-格雷瓜尔和罗德岛州州长林肯-切菲已经要求联邦政府把大麻重新归类，从一等毒品（海洛因等）降为二等毒品（比如吗啡），以便医生在某些情况下可以安全地开出大麻的处方药。佛蒙特州、科罗伦多州、夏威夷州和康涅狄格州也加入了请求队伍中。格雷瓜尔女士已经感到她必须否决一项自己支持的药用大麻的法案，以免华盛顿州的雇员遭联邦检察官起诉。各州的权利这一保守而又老生常谈的说法能够成为进行药物改革的中肯理由。