Pubdate: Mon, 26 Oct 2009 Source: Palm Beach Post, The (FL) Copyright: 2009 The Palm Beach Post Contact: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/333 LET THE SICK HAVE THEIR POT After 16 years of inane and inhumane federal policies on medical marijuana, the Obama administration last week brought some sanity and humanity with the Justice Department's decision to butt out when states allow sick people to use the drug. Under the policy spelled out in a three-page legal memo, federal prosecutors were told that it is not a good use of their time to arrest users or providers of medical marijuana who do so legally. The memo advises prosecutors that they "should not focus federal resources in your states on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana." The policy is a welcome departure from those issued under President Clinton and President Bush, both of whom went after sick people, the doctors who prescribed them marijuana and the dispensaries where it was sold in states where medical use of the drug was authorized. In 1996, after California voters approved a medical marijuana law, the Clinton administration filed lawsuits to close dispensaries and threatened to strip the licenses of doctors who recommended marijuana to patients. The Bush administration followed suit, raiding medical marijuana growers and dispensaries and winning a U.S. Supreme Court victory allowing the federal government to enforce its anti-marijuana laws regardless of state statutes. Scientific evidence supports the fact that marijuana has medical benefits for chronic-pain syndromes, cancer pain, multiple sclerosis, AIDS wasting syndrome and the nausea that accompanies chemotherapy. In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of synthetic THC - the main ingredient in marijuana - to treat the same illnesses, even though studies show that Marinol is not as effective as the natural, inhaled drug. Fourteen states allow medical marijuana use. The Justice Department's decision gives the Legislature a reason to allow it in Florida, though that would be an uncommonly progressive move by this Legislature. Federal prosecutors should welcome this historic policy change. It gives them more time to spend on far more serious offenses than pot smoking, such as corruption, mortgage fraud and gang crimes, to name a few. The policy shift makes good on a promise President Obama made as a candidate not to continue the raids on dispensaries. "I don't think that should be a top priority of us, raiding people who are using ... medical marijuana," Mr. Obama said. "With all the things we've got to worry about, and our Justice Department should be doing, that probably shouldn't be a high priority." The change also will bring relief from unnecessary suffering to many Americans. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake