President Obama doesn’t see it that way. In fact, just last month, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) asked Obama if he would consider rescheduling marijuana during his final year in office. Obama’s answer was “disappointing,” Cohen reported. “On marijuana, he gave the same answer as when I asked him seven years ago: ‘If you get me a bill, and get it on my desk, I’ll probably sign it.'”

This is not particularly surprising given Obama’s past dismissal of drug war reform. Despite his willingness to apply his “pen and phone” to other issues in the face of congressional inaction — not to mention the fact that rescheduling would be a legally legitimate application for executive power — when it comes to marijuana policy, Obama is remarkably apathetic. He has stated repeatedly that reform initiatives should come from Congress; that he doesn’t see that happening any time soon; and that young people shouldn’t really care.

That’s a curious position for the erstwhile head of the “Choom Gang” to take. But personal hypocrisy aside, Obama’s failure to use his lame duck leeway on rescheduling is a remarkable failure for a president who should know better. It has been plain as day for years that marijuana has no business being a Schedule I drug. It’s time for America’s president to act on that common knowledge.