Pubdate: Mon, 07 Nov 2011
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2011 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Ethan Nadelmann
Note: Ethan Nadelmann is the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.

REEFER MADNESS

MARIJUANA is now legal under state law for medical purposes in 16 
states and the District of Columbia, encompassing nearly one-third of 
the American population. More than 1,000 dispensaries provide medical 
marijuana; many are well regulated by state and local law and pay 
substantial taxes. But though more than 70 percent of Americans 
support legalizing medical marijuana, any use of marijuana remains 
illegal under federal law.

When he ran for president, Barack Obama defended the medical use of 
marijuana and said that he would not use Justice Department resources 
to override state laws on the issue. He appeared to make good on this 
commitment in October 2009, when the Justice Department directed 
federal prosecutors not to focus their efforts on "individuals whose 
actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state 
laws providing for the medical use of marijuana."

But over the past year, federal authorities appear to have done 
everything in their power to undermine state and local regulation of 
medical marijuana and to create uncertainty, fear and confusion among 
those in the industry. The president needs to reassert himself to 
ensure that his original policy is implemented.

The Treasury Department has forced banks to close accounts of medical 
marijuana businesses operating legally under state law. The Internal 
Revenue Service has required dispensary owners to pay punitive taxes 
required of no other businesses. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, 
Firearms and Explosives recently ruled that state-sanctioned medical 
marijuana patients can not purchase firearms.

United States attorneys have also sent letters to local officials, 
coinciding with the adoption or implementation of state medical 
marijuana regulatory legislation, stressing their authority to 
prosecute all marijuana offenses. Prosecutors have threatened to 
seize the property of landlords and put them behind bars for renting 
to marijuana dispensaries. The United States attorney in San Diego, 
Laura E. Duffy, has promised to start targeting media outlets that 
run dispensaries' ads.

President Obama has not publicly announced a shift in his views on 
medical marijuana, but his administration seems to be declaring one 
by fiat. The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Michele M. 
Leonhart, a Bush appointee re-nominated by Mr. Obama, has exercised 
her discretionary authority to retain marijuana's classification as a 
Schedule I drug with "no currently accepted medical use in treatment 
in the United States." And the pronouncements on marijuana, medical 
and otherwise, from Mr. Obama's top drug policy adviser, R. Gil 
Kerlikowske, have been indistinguishable from those of Mr. Bush's.

None of this makes any sense in terms of public safety, health or 
fiscal policy. Apart from its value to patients, medical marijuana 
plays an increasingly important role in local economies, transforming 
previously illegal jobs into legal ones and creating many new jobs as 
well, contributing to local tax bases and stimulating new economic 
activity. Federal crackdowns will not stop the trade in marijuana; 
they will only push it back underground and hurt those patients least 
able to navigate illicit markets.

Perhaps not since the civil rights era has law enforcement played 
such an aggressive role in what is essentially a cultural and 
political struggle. But this time the federal government is playing 
the bully, riding roughshod over states' rights, not to protect 
vulnerable individuals but to harm them.

At the federal level, there have been few voices of protest. Senior 
Democrats on Capitol Hill shy away from speaking out. Republicans 
mostly ignore the extent to which anti-marijuana zealotry threatens 
core conservative values like states rights, property rights and gun ownership.

Mr. Obama briefly showed a willingness to challenge the drug-war 
mind-set that permeates the federal drug-control establishment. He 
needs to show leadership and intervene now, to encourage and defend 
responsible state and local regulation of medical marijuana.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom