Pubdate: Fri, 27 Feb 2009
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Page: A - 1, Front Page
Copyright: 2009 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Watch: The news conference http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjZeW2fcQHM
Referenced: Next President Might Be Gentler on Pot Clubs 
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n485/a03.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

U.S. TO YIELD MARIJUANA JURISDICTION TO STATES

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."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake