President Obama Reaffirms Intent to End Medical Marijuana Raids
By Michael Lang on Feb 9, 2009 in OBAMA'S FIRST 100 DAYS
GREAT NEWS! Sanity, it seems, is restored to the Executive Branch after a spokesman for President Obama finally reaffirmed his intent to end “medical marijuana raids” and other such attacks on state medical marijuana laws.
"The message is clear," said UCLA professor Mark Kleiman, a former Justice Department "It is no longer federal policy to beat up on hippies."
Drug Enforcement Administration agents did raid four medical marijuana shops in California last week, contrary to President Obama’s campaign promises to stop the raids, however the White House said it expects those kinds of raids to end once Mr. Obama nominates a new DEA Director to take charge.
“The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws.” White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.
In California this past week, agents raided four dispensaries in Los Angeles and seized 500 pounds of pot even though California law permits the sale of marijuana for medical purposes, though it is still against federal law.
Thirteen states have laws permitting medicinal use of marijuana. California is unique among them for the presence of dispensaries, businesses that sell marijuana and even advertise their services. Legal under California law, such dispensaries are still illegal under federal law.
That may be the law, but it contradicts the medical marijuana position of the new president.
As a presidential candidate, Obama repeatedly promised a change in federal drug policy in situations where state laws allow use of medical marijuana.
"I think the basic concept of using medical marijuana for the same purposes and with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors, I think that’s entirely appropriate," Obama told the Mail Tribune of Medford, Ore., in March.
A year earlier at a campaign stop in New Hampshire, Obama said: "I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical
marijuana users."
At age 47, Obama is part of a generation that had plenty of exposure to pot.
In his memoir, "Dreams from My Father," he described time spent as a youth struggling with questions about his race and identity, and turning to drugs _ including marijuana and cocaine _ to "push questions of who I was out of my mind."
The new president is unlikely to make any official change in policy before he has a new DEA chief and drug czar in place.
Yet experts believe it is already clear the Obama administration will change the strategy, if not the law, on medical marijuana.
Philip Heymann, a former deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration who is now a Harvard professor, said it’s time for the agency to put more effort into fighting drugs more dangerous than marijuana.
"I do expect him to appoint an administrator who takes marijuana less seriously than is traditional for the DEA, as I think most Americans do," said Heymann.
Heymann said he expects the Obama administration will eventually instruct the DEA to emphatically scale back raids on dispensaries, and conduct such raids only in instances where investigators believe a business is abusing the dispensary system as a cover for other criminal behavior.
So last week’s raids in California may be the last of their kind.
"The DEA’s not likely to want to confront a new president," said Heymann. "It may simply be that they’re behaving as they have traditionally, and they haven’t anticipated the change Obama and his spokesman are signaling."
AROUND the BLOGOSPHERE:
Medical Marijuana Policy May Change Under Obama - WASHINGTON — The White House won’t say it explicitly. Neither will the Drug Enforcement Administration. Yet there is a whiff in the air that U.S. policy is about to change when it comes to medical marijuana. …
Madison NORML: AP: Medical marijuana bill returns to Minn. Capitol - AP: Medical marijuana bill returns to Minn. Capitol. Posted by Gary Storck Sunday, February 8, 2009. The Minnesota Legislature is again seeing medical cannabis legislation in motion as the new session’s bill gets a Senate hearing this …
Medical marijuana bill returns to Minnesota Legislature | INFORUM … - The Health Department would keep a registry of authorized medical marijuana users. Gov. Tim Pawlenty has stood against the proposal and has said it would make en-forcing drug laws harder. …
4 Comment(s)
By Fred Evil on Feb 10, 2009 | Reply
Good! After 40 years of a failed ‘War on Drugs’ it’s good to see some common sense come into play. You’d think that after four decades, they would have reduced consumption, supply or demand significantly right? But in fact they have NOT. The American people have shown their disdain over yet another failed prohibition. You’d also think people today would recognize the futility of another Prohibition in the ‘War on Drugs,’ and would stop funneling BILLIONS of dollars to the DEA, prisons, and foreign coountries. But alas, they have not.
Let’s hope those days of ignorant fumbling are over, and a more pragmatic approach to drugs can be taken. The ‘War’ is FAR more detrimental to America, than decrminalizing marijuana. Instead of pouring money by the truckload into the ever-empty coffers of drug warriors, they could give American farmers a real CA$H crop, and tax it at 2-300%!
Let the hippies pay for your Universal Healthcare!!
By Michael Lang on Feb 11, 2009 | Reply
Fred, thanks for your input. Ironically, I was goung to title this article, “Sanity is Restored to White House” or something like that because, as you stated, whatever rationale or scare tactics that was used to make it illegal, certainly does not apply today!
We can hope hope and speak out….. and “smoke’em if you got’em.”
Mike Lang
Publisher
By terry on Mar 15, 2009 | Reply
Marijuana should be legal, what about alcohol and ciggerettes. Medical Marijuana should be legal in the United States.
By Консультация врача on Jul 11, 2010 | Reply
ЧТо вы думаете про Женщина в четвертый раз выиграла в лотерею миллионы долларов? Как вы к этому относитесь?