Pubdate: Thu, 28 Apr 2011
Source: Sacramento News & Review (CA)
Copyright: 2011 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://newsreview.com/sacto/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/540
Author: Nick Miller

OBAMA'S MARIJUANA FAIL

Last Wednesday, April 20, President Barack Obama made an appearance in
Northern California on the most marijuana-friendly day of the year,
4/20. That same day, cannabis-patient-advocacy group Americans for
Safe Access delivered Obama's marijuana report card. And, no, the
president didn't smoke it.

He earned an F.

"The report card highlights broken promises, half-measures, and a
general failure by the Obama Administration to address medical
marijuana as a national public health issue," read the report by ASA.
Specifically, ASA cited a 2009 Department of Justice memo, which urged
federal prosecutors to deprioritize enforcement efforts in
medical-marijuana-friendly states-but that "100 aggressive, SWAT-style
raids on patients, growers, dispensaries and laboratories in
California, Colorado, Michigan, Montana and Nevada" have occurred
since that very '09 memo.

Still, this week, Obama has a chance at redemption: Next Monday, May
2, Dr. Mollie Fry and her husband, Dale Schafer, will turn themselves
in at downtown's federal courthouse to serve five years for growing
medical marijuana at their home in Cool.

The couple was not allowed to invoke Proposition 215 or California's
medical-cannabis laws during their trial.

Fry and Schafer, who leave behind five children and two grandchildren,
are petitioning Obama for clemency, asking that their sentence be commuted.

The couple was arrested seven days after the 9/11 attacks.  
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake