SEATTLE (AP) — Kevin Sabet, a former White House drug policy adviser and an outspoken opponent of legalizing marijuana, watched with dismay last fall as voters in Washington and Colorado did just that.

But the next day he got a call from former Democratic U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, who has struggled with alcohol and drug addiction. The son of late Sen. Ted Kennedy was worried that the votes sent the wrong message about marijuana.

"The level of his concern impressed me," Sabet recalled. "He said, 'We have to do something that is not falling into this false dichotomy of prohibition versus legalization.'"