Pubdate: Wed, 11 Sep 2013
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2013 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: Ashley Southall

ANSWERS SOUGHT FOR WHEN MARIJUANA LAWS COLLIDE

WASHINGTON - A deputy attorney general told the Senate Judiciary 
Committee on Tuesday that the Justice Department had begun working 
with Treasury officials and financial regulators to clarify how it 
legally deals with banks and other businesses that serve marijuana 
dispensaries and growers in states that have legalized the drug for 
medical or recreational use.

The deputy attorney general, James M. Cole, said the Obama 
administration was dedicated to enforcing federal drug laws and was 
choosing the best among a number of imperfect solutions by relying on 
states to regulate marijuana "from seed to sale."

The hearing was the first aimed at sorting out differences between 
state and federal laws since Colorado and Washington State passed 
measures approving the recreational use of marijuana in November.

Those laws "underscored persistent uncertainty" about how the Justice 
Department resolves conflicts between state and federal marijuana 
laws, said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the committee's chairman.

Financial institutions, security providers and landlords that serve 
marijuana businesses can be prosecuted for racketeering, money 
laundering and trafficking under current federal laws, which Mr. 
Leahy said also hinder states in regulating the banking and taxation 
of growers and dispensaries.

But Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the panel's ranking 
Republican, said the Justice Department move was a step toward broad 
legalization of marijuana that would result in disastrous 
consequences for public safety and might violate international 
treaties. More broadly, he and other critics said, the Justice 
Department's new policy was another example of the Obama 
administration's picking which laws to enforce and which to disregard.

Marijuana's status as an illegal drug "isn't based on a whim," Mr. 
Grassley said. "It's based on what science tells us about this 
dangerous and addictive drug."

Mr. Cole responded: "We are not giving immunity. We are not giving a 
free pass. We are not abdicating our responsibility."

He said the agency would go after marijuana providers who market the 
drug to children or who try to sell it across state lines.

Advocates for marijuana legalization say a more coordinated effort 
between states and the federal government would be an improvement 
over current policies that have failed to rein in drug cartels and 
reduce violence.

The Justice Department said last month that it would not seek to 
pre-empt the state laws as long as states set up "robust" regulations 
to keep marijuana operations from running afoul of the agency's top 
enforcement priorities, like preventing children and drug cartels 
from obtaining the drug and prohibiting its use on federal land.

But John Urquhart, who was a police officer for 37 years in Seattle 
before he became the sheriff of King County, Wash., said states were 
still handcuffed by not knowing how banks and other financial 
institutions could conduct marijuana-related business.

"I am simply asking the federal government to allow banks to work 
with legitimate marijuana businesses who are licensed under state 
law," he said.

Kevin A. Sabet, a former drug policy adviser in the Obama 
administration who opposes legalization, said the administration's 
decision to rely on states for regulation ignores the Justice 
Department's own statements that some marijuana operations had 
already violated its enforcement priorities.

"I just don't see any of that being regulated, and that's what I 
worry about," he said.

Colorado and Washington are among the 20 states and the District of 
Columbia that allow the use of marijuana for medical reasons or for recreation.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom