President Barack Obama has said smoking marijuana is 'no more dangerous than alcohol'.
In an interview with the New Yorker magazine, Obama said it was wrong to think legalising the drug would be 'a panacea' that could solve many social problems.
According to the BBC, Obama was referring to recent legalisation of marijuana in Colorado and Washington, and said that legalising it was a 'challenging experiment'.
He has previously admitted using the drug as a kid, but added that in terms of its impact on the individual consumer 'he does not think it is more dangerous than alcohol'.
He also said that poor people, many of them African Americans and Latinos, were disproportionately punished for marijuana use, whereas middle-class users mostly escaped harsh penalties, the report added.
