U.S. To Yield Marijuana Jurisdiction To States

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U.S. to yield marijuana jurisdiction to states

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

 

Friday, February 27, 2009

 

 

(02-26) 20:00 PST San Francisco -- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder

is sending strong signals that President Obama - who as a candidate

said states should be allowed to make their own rules on medical

marijuana - will end raids on pot dispensaries in California.

 

Asked at a Washington news conference Wednesday about Drug

Enforcement Administration raids in California since Obama took

office last month, Holder said the administration has changed its

policy.

 

" What the president said during the campaign, you'll be surprised to

know, will be consistent with what we'll be doing here in law

enforcement, " he said. " What he said during the campaign is now

American policy. "

 

Bill Piper, national affairs director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a

marijuana advocacy group, said the statement is encouraging.

 

" I think it definitely signals that Obama is moving in a new

direction, that it means what he said on the campaign trail that

marijuana should be treated as a health issue rather than a criminal

justice issue, " he said.

 

Piper said Obama has also indicated he will drop the federal

government's long-standing opposition to health officials' needle-

exchange programs for drug users.

 

During one campaign appearance, Obama recalled that his mother had

died of cancer and said he saw no difference between doctor-

prescribed morphine and marijuana as pain relievers. He told an

interviewer in March that it was " entirely appropriate " for a state

to legalize the medical use of marijuana " with the same controls as

other drugs prescribed by doctors. "

 

After the federal Drug Enforcement Agency raided a marijuana

dispensary at South Lake Tahoe on Jan. 22, two days after Obama's

inauguration, and four others in the Los Angeles area on Feb. 2,

White House spokesman Nick Schapiro responded to advocacy groups'

protests by noting that Obama had not yet appointed his drug policy

team.

 

" The president believes that federal resources should not be used to

circumvent state laws " and expects his appointees to follow that

policy, Schapiro said.

 

The federal government has fought state medicinal pot laws since

Californians voted in 1996 to repeal criminal penalties for medical

use of marijuana.

 

President Bill Clinton's administration won a Supreme Court case,

originating in Oakland, that allowed federal authorities to shut down

nonprofit organizations that supplied medical marijuana to their

members. Clinton's Justice Department was thwarted by federal courts

in an attempt to punish California doctors who recommended marijuana

to their patients.

 

President George W. Bush's administration went further, raiding

medical marijuana growers and clinics, prosecuting suppliers under

federal drug laws after winning another Supreme Court case and

pressuring commercial property owners to evict marijuana dispensaries

by threatening legal action.

 

The Bush administration also blocked a University of Massachusetts

researcher's attempt to grow marijuana for studies of its medical

properties. Piper, of the Drug Policy Alliance, said he hopes Obama

will reverse that position.

 

" If you removed the obstacles to research, " he said, " in 10 to 15

years, marijuana will be available in pharmacies. "

 

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko.

 

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/27/MN2016651R.DTL

 

This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle