We don't hear about this aspect of the "War on Drugs" frequently enough. But this is a very interesting article from Slate and letter from House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers. It is worth a minute or two of your time to check it out. A brief sample:
Since 1996, California laws have permitted citizens to use marijuana "for medical purposes." But the drug remains illegal under federal law, and the Drug Enforcement Agency regularly shuts down cannabis despensaries in the state. Last month John Conyers Jr., chairman of the House judiciary committee, wrote DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart (see below and on the following two pages) questioning the "dramatically intensified … frequency of paramilitary-style enforcement raids" on authorized users and suppliers. Conyers asked for an accounting of the agency's costs for these measures against "individuals who suffer from severe or chronic illness" and for its rationale for threatening landlords of licensed dispensaries with "arrest and forfeiture of their property." Meanwhile, the California State Legislature is considering a measure that would allow state and local law enforcement agencies to refuse cooperation with the DEA.
Barack Obama's presidential campaign told the San Francisco Chronicle last week that if elected president, Obama would curb federal enforcement on state medical marijuana suppliers.
My reaction: It is absolutely ridiculous for Federal drug officials to be sending in S.W.A.T. teams to break up vicious rings of cataracts sufferers. This, especially coming from an administration that claims to believe in Federalism, yet, has no clue as to the meaning of Federalism (Supreme Court opinion notwithstanding!).
It is a breath of fresh air to see the comment (emboldened above) from Obama's campaign, that is not laced with pander but good sense.
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2 comments:
First, there is no such thing as an "authorized user." Second, without debating the soundness of the law, the way to go about changing a law that displeases you is not to go ahead and repeatedly violate it. If you choose to use "medical marijuana," you do so with complete knowledge that you risk the feds raiding you and spending years in jail. I have no sympathy for these criminals, even if the law should be changed.
I do have sympathy for people caught in a crossfire between their state and the Federal government, when the Fed, particularly this administration, talks out both sides of its mouth when it comes to Federalism.
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