Reefer Madness: Medi-Pot States Free to Inhale
It's official: The feds are backing off
By Jordan Smith, Fri., Oct. 30, 2009
More than six months after U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters that the feds would end their raids and prosecutions of medical marijuana patients, the promise has finally been put on paper and sent out as a policy memorandum addressed to federal prosecutors in the 13 states where the medicinal use of marijuana is legal.
The memo, penned by Deputy A.G. David Ogden and sent out Oct. 19, advises federal prosecutors to focus pot investigations and prosecutions on "core federal enforcement priorities." The Department of Justice is "committed" to enforcing the federal prohibition scheme codified in the Controlled Substances Act – and marijuana distribution in the U.S. is the "single largest source of revenue for the Mexican cartels," writes Ogden. But in an effort to make "efficient and rational use" of "limited" funds, "as a general matter" the DOJ policy now states that those funds should not be spent to pursue "individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana."
Legal medical use: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington
Bills Pending: New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Illinois
The policy makes final a campaign promise made by President Barack Obama; nonetheless, in the weeks after Obama's inauguration, raids of California medi-pot dispensaries by the Drug Enforcement Administration had picked up. In February, Holder promised the practice would not be ongoing: "What the president said during the campaign, you'll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we'll be doing here in law enforcement." Now, it appears that will be the case.
According to the memo, people using pot in compliance with state laws should not be put in the crosshairs of federal law enforcers. "For example, prosecution of individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses who use marijuana ... or those caregivers in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state law who provide such individuals with marijuana, is unlikely to be an efficient use of limited federal resources," reads the memo. "On the other hand," it continues, prosecution of "commercial enterprises that unlawfully market and sell" dope outside the state-sanctioned schemes will not get a pass – and, Ogden's memo notes, there are those who will use the state medi-mari laws as a "mask" for illegal operations, "and federal law enforcement should not be deterred by such assertions when otherwise pursuing the Department's core enforcement priorities." Unlawful possession or use of a firearm, selling to minors, and employing violence are all among "characteristics" that "may indicate illegal drug trafficking activity of potential federal interest."
Pot-law reformers were, not surprisingly, pleased with the memo, but Texas' own GOP U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith was not. Smith, who is a ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, instead felt that championing prohibition and sacrificing states' rights was the way to go – a rather ironic position for any Republican, let alone Central Texas' Smith, who told San Antonio's KSAT news in September that medical decisions should be made by the individual and not the government. Moreover, he said he was against Obama's health care reform because it would cost too much and do too little. (As opposed to the drug war, which, ahem, has done so much with so little?) The new policy, Smith said in a statement, was as good as telling federal narcos to ignore federal drug laws. As a result, he said, the Obama administration is "tacitly condoning the use of marijuana in the U.S." and undermining the plan to attack Mexican drug cartels. (How that would be the case is unknown since the pot that is legal for medical marijuana must be grown and used in-state.) The way to "win the war on drugs," he opined, is to get the narcos to "investigate and prosecute all medical marijuana dispensaries and not just those that are merely fronts for illegal distribution."
Meanwhile, medi-pot-law advocates say that instituting the new policy is likely to help laws pass in additional states. "Federal hostility is an objection" to passing medi-mari laws, wrote Bruce Mirken, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project, in an e-mail. The objection "is constantly raised by legislators and governors, either in the form of (unfounded) fear that states would be violating federal law, or that they would be setting up their citizens for federal prosecution," he continued. Bills are currently pending in four states: New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois.
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