with that, after the opening statement, i see we have four witnesses, we heerl from them. we'll withhold questions until we've heard from all our panelists and get to introduce you and swear you in after the opening statements. so with that, let me begin. again, i have an important responsibility to look at changing laws. this subcommittee has, in fact, been investigating the federal response to state and local government, legalization and change of laws relating to marijuana and examining the administration's sometimes chaotic and inconsistent policies on marijuana. in fact, most of our proceedings since the beginning of the year have been based on a statement that the president made, and he said that marijuana was no -- not much different than alcohol. and i think one of our first hearing was to bring in the office of national drug control policy who differed with the president's statement. we looked at that issue. then we heard from the law enforcement agencies, dea, they disagreed with that statement. then we saw the conflict in colorado and other states, department of