A generation ago, the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, Bill Clinton, insisted he had not inhaled marijuana when he smoked in college.

A decade ago, Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee who hung out with the Choom Gang in high school, offered tepid support for allowing those with medical needs to access marijuana.

Next year, the person who becomes the Democratic nominee against President Trump will almost certainly back full-scale federal legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes.

Virtually every major candidate running for president has publicly supported a raft of proposals to legalize marijuana, erase past convictions for minor possession and remove marijuana from the federal Controlled Substances Act.

Even those few who do not back recreational use support measures far more permissive than did Obama when he ran.