Happy 420 'National Weed Day'! Obama Hints At Supporting Legalizing Medical Marijuana

In light of today being April 20 (420) aka National Weed Day, President Obama hinted that he is open to supporting medical marijuana, saying "we should follow the science as opposed to ideology" on the issue.

In an interview with CNN that aired Sunday, Dr. Sanjay Gupta asked the president whether he would support a Senate bill that would roll back federal restrictions on medical marijuana.

Obama didn't outright endorse the bill, but he expressed views that were supportive of the bill's purpose.

"You know, I think I'd have to take a look at the details, but I'm on record as saying that ... I think carefully prescribed medical use of marijuana may in fact be appropriate, and we should follow the science as opposed to ideology on this issue," Obama told Gupta.

According to the Huffington Post, Obama also went on to address other public health and safety challenges that have successfully been overcome without the blunt and costly tool of criminalization.

"One of the great victories of this country has been our ability to reduce incidences of smoking, increase the incidences of seat belt use," said Obama, according to the Huffington Post.

"You know, we save tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of lives every single year. We didn't throw anybody in jail; we just made sure that they were well-informed and if somebody has an addiction, we made sure that we made it easy for them to get help. And I think we need to re-emphasize that approach, because we don't want to encourage our kids to engage in drug use, but there are going to be more effective ways than, too often, the approach we're taking today."

As of April 2015, medical marijuana is legal in 23 US states and the District of Columbia.