Last Thursday, members of Congress submitted HB 2306, a bill that would end Federal prohibition of marijuana completely and allow each state to decide whether they wanted to ban it, regulate it, or simply legalize it.

There’s been quite a lot of discussion since then about how it would work, whether it would work, it’s never going to work, etc. But few people have been talking about the states’ rights issue, and the fact that many similar and important decisions are left to the states, such as how to regulate alcohol consumption, driving laws, gun laws, and so on.

So it’s heartening to learn the following:

President Obama supports access to medical marijuana for patients in need of it, and believes that states like California and Colorado making medical marijuana legal is an example of the process working “just as it should,” an administration spokesman said today.

“The President has long believed that medical marijuana patients deserve the same rights and legal protections as any other sick people,” White House spokesman Shin Inouye said. “That’s why he has called for repeal of the so-called ‘Schedule I’ status of cannabis and determined that his Administration would no longer defend the War On Drugs in the courts.

“The states should determine for themselves how best to uphold the rights of their own citizens,” he said.

Oh, wait. No, he was actually talking about gay marriage. But why shouldn’t that last sentence still hold true, President Obama?