Pubdate: Fri, 30 Aug 2013
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Authors: Joe Mozingo, Ari Bloomekatz and David G. Savage

FEDS SOFTEN STANCE ON BIG POT GROWERS

Justice Department Says It Won't Interfere in States That Tightly 
Regulate Commercial Marijuana Operations.

In a significant policy shift by the Obama administration, Atty. Gen. 
Eric H. Holder Jr. signaled Thursday that the federal government 
would no longer interfere in states that allowed commercial marijuana 
sales as long as they were strictly regulated.

The move comes two years after the Justice Department said federal 
drug agents would not tolerate large-scale or commercial pot 
businesses and began a campaign to shut down dispensaries and 
growers. The crackdown was particularly aggressive in California, 
where hundreds have been shut down.

The new policy suggests the federal government is trying to find a 
workable balance between federal law, which prohibits all marijuana 
use, and laws in a growing number of states such as California that permit it.

Holder informed the governors of Colorado and Washington state - 
where voters in November passed ballot measures to legalize marijuana 
for all adult use - that the Justice Department would not move to 
halt those initiatives.

Meanwhile, Deputy Atty. Gen. James Cole wrote a memorandum to his top 
prosecutors around the country emphasizing that they should not 
automatically target marijuana operations solely because they operate 
for profit and on a large scale.

"I was expecting a yellow light, but this light looks a lot more 
greenish than I had expected," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive 
director of the national Drug Policy Alliance, a group advocating an 
end to the so-called war on drugs. "The White House is essentially 
saying proceed with caution."

He said the ramifications would be felt even in other countries, such 
as Jamaica and Uruguay, where officials feared their legalization 
initiatives would be squelched by pressure from the U.S.

Beau Kilmer, co-director of the Rand Drug Policy Research Center, 
said that while it was "a big deal" that the memo did not prohibit 
commercial, for-profit production, its scope was limited. It does not 
legalize marijuana at a federal level, leaves U.S. attorneys plenty 
of discretion to prosecute, and focuses only on the Justice Department.

"There are other federal agencies and departments that can play a 
role in all this. You've got the IRS, the Treasury, Customs.... It's 
important to recognize that the federal government is not just a 
homogenous actor," Kilmer said.

It's unclear how the change in policy will affect California, where 
the medical marijuana industry remains largely unregulated.

The memo suggests that little might change in the state unless 
Sacramento implements some rules for the industry. "The department's 
guidance in this memorandum rests on its expectation that states and 
local government ... will implement strong and effective regulatory 
and enforcement systems," Cole wrote.

California's rules on medical marijuana are murky to nonexistent. 
Certain counties and cities, such as Oakland, have created clear 
regulatory schemes, but Cole repeatedly calls for "state regulation."

"This is a mandate for California to regulate medical marijuana," 
said Dale Gieringer, a longtime activist and director of California 
NORML, the state chapter of the National Organization for the Reform 
of Marijuana Laws.

A regulatory bill died in the state Assembly over a procedural issue 
in May. State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) hopes to 
reintroduce it, and key activists are hoping to get an initiative on 
the 2016 ballot to regulate all marijuana.

Steve DeAngelo, who operates Harborside Health Center in Oakland, one 
of the largest dispensaries in the U.S., called the move "a huge step 
forward for a sane policy on marijuana," but worried about the details.

"It looks very, very promising on the face of it. But we won't know 
the effects until it's interpreted by the U.S. attorneys," DeAngelo said.

Melinda Haag, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, 
filed papers last year to seize the properties where Harborside 
operated, and said in a statement at the time that "superstores like 
Harborside" went beyond what the state law allowed, implying its size 
was the key issue. She has also targeted growers in Northern California.

Cole's memo doesn't address the other methods the federal government 
is using to put cannabis purveyors out of business.

"We're still facing crippling tax assessments, seizure of our 
properties, denial of banking, credit cards, security and armed car 
services," DeAngelo said.

Cole said prosecutors should focus marijuana enforcement on several 
areas: preventing distribution of pot to minors, keeping revenue from 
flowing to gangs or cartels, preventing marijuana from being used as 
a front for trafficking in other drugs, impaired driving and growing 
on public land.

Gieringer, the California activist, noted that just because the memo 
said these were priorities over going after otherwise law-abiding 
citizens, "it doesn't mean they don't do it."

In 2009, the Justice Department released a memo saying it would not 
prioritize targeting users of medical marijuana who were abiding by 
their states' laws. That set off a boom of new dispensaries and pot 
farming in California, followed by a federal crackdown in less than two years.

Legalization opponents saw Thursday's memo as a historic step in the 
wrong direction.

"This president will be remembered for many failures, but none as 
large as this one, which will lead to massive youth drug use, 
destruction of community values, increased addiction and crime 
rates," said Paul Chabot, president and founder of the Coalition for 
a Drug Free California. "America may never recover."

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), co-chairman of the Senate Caucus 
on International Narcotics Control, said the administration's action 
sent "the wrong message to both law enforcement and violators of federal law."

"Apprehending and prosecuting illegal drug traffickers should always 
be a priority for the Department of Justice," Grassley said in a statement.

Bert "Buddy" Duzy has a hard time believing the government is making 
an about-face. "They weren't supposed to hassle California meds 
either," he said.

Duzy heads the Reefer Raiders, friends and disciples of the late pot 
guru and author Jack Herer. The group has filed pot legalization 
initiatives in various forms since 1980.

He wants more radical change: taking marijuana off the list of 
Schedule 1 narcotics. "That's been the holy grail for the cannabis 
movement for the last 30 years."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom