Pubdate: Mon, 26 Oct 2009
Source: New York Times (NY)
Page: A1, Front Page
Copyright: 2009 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Kirk Johnson
Referenced: The memo 
http://www.justice.gov/opa/documents/medical-marijuana.pdf
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/dispensaries
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?420 (Cannabis - Popular)

STATES PRESSED INTO NEW ROLE ON MARIJUANA

GREELEY, Colo. -- Health and law enforcement officials around the 
nation are scrambling to figure out how to regulate medical marijuana 
now that the federal government has decided it will no longer 
prosecute legal users or providers.

For years, since the first medical marijuana laws were passed in the 
mid-1990s, many local and state governments could be confident, if 
not complacent, knowing that marijuana would be kept in check because 
it remained illegal under federal law, and that hard-nosed federal 
prosecutors were not about to forget it.

But with the Justice Department's announcement last week that it 
would not prosecute people who use marijuana for medical purposes in 
states where it is legal, local and state officials say they will now 
have to take on the job themselves.

In New Hampshire, for instance, where some state legislators are 
considering a medical marijuana law, there is concern that the state 
health department -- already battered by budget cuts -- could be 
hard-pressed to administer the system. In California, where there has 
been an explosion of medical marijuana suppliers, the authorities in 
Los Angeles and other jurisdictions are considering a requirement 
that all medical dispensaries operate as nonprofit organizations.

"The federal government says they're not going to control it, so the 
only other option we have is to control it ourselves," said Carrol 
Martin, a City Council member in this community north of Denver, 
where a ban on marijuana dispensaries was on the agenda at a Council 
meeting the day after the federal announcement.

At least five states, including New York and New Jersey, are 
considering laws to allow medical marijuana through legislation or 
voter referendums, in addition to the 13 states where such laws 
already exist. Even while that is happening, scores of local 
governments in California, Colorado and other states have gone the 
other way and imposed bans or moratoriums on distribution even though 
state law allows it.

Some health and legal experts say the Justice Department's decision 
will promote the spread of marijuana for medical uses because local 
and state officials often take leadership cues from federal policy. 
That, the experts said, could lead to more liberal rules in states 
that already have medical marijuana and to more voters and 
legislators in other states becoming comfortable with the idea of 
allowing it. For elected officials who have feared looking soft on 
crime by backing any sort of legalized marijuana use, the new policy 
might provide support to reframe the issue.

"The fact that the feds are backing off is going to allow changes 
that are going to make it more accessible," said Bill Morrisette, a 
state senator in Oregon and chairman of a committee that oversees the 
state's medical marijuana law. Mr. Morrisette said he expected a 
flurry of proposals in the Legislature, including a plan already 
floated to have the state grow the marijuana crop itself, perhaps on 
the grounds of the State Penitentiary in Salem.

"It would be very secure," he said.

Here in Greeley, anxiety and enthusiasm were on display as the City 
Council considered a ban on dispensaries.

Most of those who testified at the hearing, including several 
dispensary operators, opposed the ban and spoke of marijuana's 
therapeutic benefits and the taxes that dispensary owners were 
willing to pour into Greeley's budget, which has been battered by the 
recession.

But on the seven-member Council, the question was control. Mr. 
Martin, for example, said that he hated to see the spread of 
marijuana, but that the barricades had fallen. Still, he said he 
opposed a local ban on dispensaries.

"If we have no regulations at all, then we can't control it, and our 
police officers have their hands tied," Mr. Martin said.

Mayor Ed Clark, a former police officer, took the opposite tack in 
supporting the ban, which passed on a 6-to-1 vote.

"I think we do regulate them, by not allowing dispensaries," Mr. Clark said.

The backdrop to the debate here in Colorado is a sharp expansion in 
marijuana dispensaries and patients, fueled in part by the State 
Board of Health decision in July not to impose limits on the number 
of patients handled by each marijuana provider.

The state attorney general, John W. Suthers, said the federal 
government's retreat, combined with the growth in demand, had created 
a legal vacuum.

"The federal Department of Justice is saying it will only go after 
you if you're in violation of state law," Mr. Suthers said. "But in 
Colorado it's not clear what state law is."

In New Hampshire, by contrast, where the state legislature is 
scheduled to meet this week to consider overriding the governor's 
veto and passing a medical marijuana law, government downsizing has 
colored the debate.

The state agency that would be responsible for licensing marijuana 
dispensaries has been battered by budget cuts, said Senator Sylvia B. 
Larsen, the president of the New Hampshire Senate and a Democrat. 
Concerns about the department, Ms. Larsen said, have made it harder 
to find two more votes in the Senate to reach a two-thirds majority 
that is needed to override a veto by Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat.

An even odder situation is unfolding in Maine, which already allows 
medical marijuana and where residents will vote next month on a 
measure that would create a new system of distribution and licensing.

The marijuana proposal, several political experts said, has been 
overshadowed by another fight on the ballot that would overturn a 
state law and ban same-sex marriage.

The added wrinkle is that opponents of same-sex marriage, said 
Christian Potholm, a professor of government at Bowdoin College, have 
heavily recruited young, socially conservative voters, who by and 
large tend to not be concerned about medical marijuana expansion.

"The 18- to 25-year-old vote is going to be overrepresented because 
of the gay marriage situation, so overrepresented in favor of medical 
marijuana," Professor Potholm said.

Some legal scholars said the federal government, by deciding not to 
enforce its own laws (possession and the sale of marijuana remain 
federal crimes), has introduced an unpredictable variable into the 
drug regulation system.

"The next step would be a particular state deciding to legalize 
marijuana entirely," said Peter J. Cohen, a doctor and a lawyer who 
teaches public health law at Georgetown University. If federal 
prosecutors kept their distance even then, Dr. Cohen said, legalized 
marijuana would become a de facto reality.

Senator Morrisette in Oregon said he thought that exact situation -- 
a state moving toward legalization, perhaps California -- could play 
out much sooner now than might have been imagined even a few weeks 
ago. And the continuing recession would only help, he said, with 
advocates for legalization able to promise relief to an overburdened 
prison system and injection of tax revenues to the state budget. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake