Pubdate: Sat, 29 Sep 2012
Source: Daily Camera (Boulder, CO)
Copyright: 2012 The Daily Camera.
Contact:  http://www.dailycamera.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/103
Note: Los Angeles Times editorial

IN A HAZE ON POT POLICY

Late last year, U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. affirmed the 
Obama administration's long-standing policy of taking a hands-off 
approach to states that had legalized medical marijuana, saying 
federal resources wouldn't be expended on enforcement actions as long 
as purveyors obeyed state law. On Tuesday, Los Angeles got a taste of 
the current interpretation of that policy -- which is that our 
dispensaries are out of bounds.

Federal officials started their first major operation in L.A. by 
raiding dispensaries, filing court papers to seize properties rented 
to medical marijuana sellers and sending letters to property owners 
and operators of 67 dispensaries warning them to shut down within two 
weeks or face similar treatment. More such actions are promised.

Holder and his boss, President Obama, almost never discuss the 
politically poisonous topic of medical marijuana unless pressed, but 
in June, Holder was pressed. Under questioning from the House 
Judiciary Committee, he explained the reason for the recent 
crackdowns in California and the 16 other states that allow medicinal 
cannabis. Some operators, Holder said, have "come up with ways in 
which they are taking advantage of these state laws and going beyond 
that which the states have authorized."

But in California's case, how can he tell? The medical marijuana laws 
in this state are such a muddle that we're in a haze about who's in 
compliance and who isn't. That situation -- which stems directly from 
a failure by both the Legislature and Attorney General Kamala Harris 
to better define the law -- has produced a fiasco in Los Angeles, 
where the City Council passed an ordinance to dramatically pare the 
number of medical marijuana dispensaries, abandoned it after a court 
decision indicated such limits were illegal, attempted to ban 
dispensaries entirely, and now must decide how to address a ballot 
measure to overturn the ban.

In the face of this chaos, the federal crackdown is, to some, good 
news -- finally, definitive action is being taken to stem the 
uncontrollable expansion of medical marijuana franchises. But the 
raids are likely to drive away businesspeople who want to run clean, 
safe storefronts serving sick people, sending the trade further 
underground and into the hands of a more criminal element. That's why 
we urge Holder to rein in the four California U.S. attorneys 
spearheading the aggressive new stance, at least until we have some 
clarity on what's allowable and what isn't.

The silence from Sacramento as this mess worsens is inexcusable. 
Federal law bans marijuana, and U.S. attorneys don't have to take 
guidance from state officials. But if California's attorney general 
issued guidelines that clearly separated legitimate distributors from 
lawbreakers, and the Legislature passed laws on licensing and 
regulating medical marijuana shops, it would probably focus their 
attention only on operators who are violating state laws. That is, 
after all, still the official Obama administration policy.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom