Pubdate: Thu, 26 Mar 2009
Source: Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH)
Copyright: 2009 The Plain Dealer
Contact:  http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/342
Note: Letters from newspaper's circulation area receive publishing priority

ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER HAS MADE A SENSIBLE DECISION TO STOP OVERRIDING
STATE MEDICAL-MARIJUANA LAWS

In 1996, California and Arizona became the first of 13  states to
legalize marijuana use for medical reasons.  But the federal
government, under both Bill Clinton and  George W. Bush, was
consistently hostile toward what  Washington viewed as an attempt to
undermine national  drug policy.

Over the years, individuals with a handful of pot  plants or small
quantities of cannabis -- and the  state-mandated physician's approval
- -- have been raided  by federal agents. So have dispensaries or co-ops
that  grew or procured marijuana for documented patients and  that
operated with the implicit consent of local  law-enforcement officials.

In 2005, the Supreme Court upheld the prosecutions,  ruling that
states lacked the power to trump federal  drug laws -- even as some
justices in the majority  offered advice to medical-marijuana
advocates on how to  change those laws.

That hasn't happened yet, but now Attorney General Eric  Holder says
the federal government will no longer  prosecute individuals or
dispensaries abiding by state  medical-marijuana statutes. Those who
flout both state  and federal drug laws will still face arrest, Holder
 said.

Holder's sensible compromise acknowledges states' need  for reasonable
flexibility and focuses federal  resources where they can do the most
good.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin