Pubdate: Sun, 25 Oct 2009 Source: Record, The (Stockton, CA) Copyright: 2009 The Record Contact: http://www.recordnet.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/428 Referenced: The memo http://www.justice.gov/opa/documents/medical-marijuana.pdf Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/dispensaries Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - United States) Finding the Middle Ground WE MUST HAVE AN OPEN DISCUSSION ABOUT MARIJUANA LAWS Attorney General Eric Holder has told federal prosecutors to not waste time, money or energy going after patients, prescribers and dispensers in the 14 states that allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes. His is an attempt to find a reasonable middle ground in the conflict between marijuana laws in some states and federal law for all states. There was a second part to Holder's edict: there is to be no let up in the prosecution of those who use the more lenient pot laws as a cover for illegal activity. The Justice Department memo gives prosecutors wide discretion in choosing which cases to pursue. Prosecutors are urged to pursue marijuana cases involving violence, the illegal use of firearms, selling pot to minors, money laundering or involvement in other crimes. To be sure, there is a growing public acknowledgment that our marijuana laws are not working despite years of effort and millions spent on enforcement. There are petitions being circulated to place propositions on the California ballot to make marijuana legal. Those, however are issues for another day. What we question is the seeming internal contradiction of Holder's order. On the one hand, prosecuting those who prescribe, dispense and use marijuana for medicinal purposes - as allowed under California law - seems more like persecution. For some, marijuana offers temporary relief for what often are chronic health problems. Denying that relief seems inhumane. On the other hand, as any number of police raids have demonstrated, there are those who are simply running head shops, illegally dispensing marijuana under the guise of the medical marijuana laws and reaping hefty profits in the process. Last month in San Diego, authorities raided 14 medical marijuana dispensaries and arrested 31 people. They seized more than $70,000 cash. Authorities said that at one dispensary alone, more than $700,000 worth of pot was sold in six months. That would tend to be a red flag for illegal activity. It's a puzzle just how federal officials are expected to not waste valuable investigative and prosecutorial time on legitimate marijuana dispensaries while at the same time gathering the information needed to pursue illegal dispensaries. A short-term solution might be to simply remove legitimate pot sales from the hands of private entrepreneurs and place it in the hands of state officials. This would be something like alcohol package stores operated in some states. If we did that, it would mean that all other pot sales would be illegal. The long-term solution, however, requires a calm, measured look at the issue of marijuana. To have any chance of working, a law must have two key elements: wide public acceptance that it is necessary and enforceability. It's increasingly clear our existing marijuana laws enjoy neither. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake