Pubdate: Tue, 21 Oct 2014
Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL)
Copyright: 2014 Sun-Times Media, LLC
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/5QwXAJWY
Website: http://www.suntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/81
Page: 16

FIX POT LAW CONFLICTS SO INDUSTRY CAN GROW

Here's what's clear: A marijuana gold rush is coming to Illinois. 
Here's what's not so clear: How will fundamental conflicts between 
state and federal laws governing marijuana be resolved?

Because until those conflicts are worked out, too much of this 
lucrative industry will be a cash business, ripe for fraud and 
organized crime, and nobody-consumers or suppliers-can feel 
completely safe from federal snooping and sanctions.

About half the states, including Illinois, have enacted laws 
authorizing marijuana for medical use, and two- Washington and 
Colorado-have legalized it for recreational use. In Los Angeles, a 
new smart phone app lets medical marijuana users get deliveries right 
to their doorsteps.

Business has been booming, especially for recreational marijuana. 
Colorado took in tax receipts of about $ 45 million through August, a 
number that no doubt is registering with officials in cash-starved 
states elsewhere.

Under Illinois' new, narrowly drawn Medical Cannabis Pilot Program, 
Chicago's Zoning Board of Appeals last week began hearings on 
special- use permits for dispensaries in the city. The city could be 
home to as many as 13 dispensaries, and Cook County could get two 
cultivation centers. Final decisions on who gets a medical marijuana 
license will be made by the state.

But there are significant hurdles for people trying to get into this 
new line of business.

One hurdle is the list of stiff requirements for sale and cultivation 
in the 300- page law, which allows marijuana to be used for 40 
specific illnesses, from cancer to muscular dystrophy. Applicants 
could reasonably feel it would be easier to get permission to handle 
nuclear rods at power plants.

The other hurdle, as we say, is the nervous uncertainty caused by 
basic conflicts between state and federal laws.

As Becky Schlikerman reported in Monday's Sun- Times, the fact that 
medical marijuana remains illegal under federal laws means business 
gets conducted entirely on a cash basis. Banks don't want to touch an 
enterprise whose assets could be seized by the feds at any moment.

When a business is run on a strictly cash basis, all kinds of 
shenanigans tend to come along. Organized crime, money launderers and 
bad actors of all stripes will see great possibilities in dollars 
that don't show up on the normal statements of financial institutions.

The legal conflict also poses a problem for patients with legitimate 
health problems who would like to ease their symptoms but don't want 
their careers to crash and burn. Doctors, lawyers, teachers and other 
professionals won't want their names on lists the feds might grab to 
help with a crackdown.

A gray area like this also creates headaches for local and federal 
law enforcement, who much prefer to enforce clear-cut and non- 
conflicting laws.

Getting the feds to budge, though, won't be easy.

An entrenched bureaucracy of federal drug control agencies will 
resist easing drug laws, even if only to end conflicts with the states.

Morever, the United States is party to three major drug-control 
treaties that commit the federal government to cracking down on 
marijuana. So far, the feds have been able to ignore local pot 
policies that contradict the spirit of those treaties, but as state 
laws proliferate that allow both medical and recreational marijuana 
use, it won't be so easy to keep looking the other way. The feds are 
not cracking down on states right now, but that could change as 
quickly as a change of occupants in the White House.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom