Pubdate: Fri, 30 Oct 2009
Source: Palladium-Item (IN)
Copyright: 2009 Palladium-Item
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Website: http://www.pal-item.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2624

MOVING NATION TOWARD FAIRER, SENSIBLE POT POLICY

The most surprising response to Attorney General Eric Holder's recent 
announcement that the federal government would cease raids or arrests 
in states where medical marijuana is permitted is the general lack of response.

Sure, Holder was simply making good on a pledge delivered by 
candidate Barrack Obama.

But on another level, the administration's announcement could change 
the entire balance, or some would say historic imbalance, where drug 
enforcement and punishments are concerned.

Politics in practice demands nothing less than a tough posture against crime.

And so it was that presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, both 
of whom had admitted to once trying marijuana, were nonetheless 
expected to stand down any attempt to undermine national drug policy, 
even if that meant states approving laws outlining marijuana's legal 
use for medical ends.

That 13 states have now voted to legalize marijuana use for medical 
reasons -- principally to offset the nauseating side effects of 
cancer treatments -- did not deter the federal government under those 
previous administration from staging raids on property in states 
where medical marijuana had been approved by elected state 
legislators. Raids were similarly launched against dispensaries and 
co-ops where marijuana was being grown for distribution to patients 
and with the implied consent of state and/or local laws.

The Supreme Court in 2005 upheld those federal prosecutions, ruling 
that states lacked the power to trump federal drug laws.

So Holder's announcement does not alter that arrangement. The federal 
government still holds pre-eminent enforcement power over drug laws.

What it should do is permit the federal government to reorder 
priorities in a manner that will let federal drug agents and 
prosecutors focus limited resources on the hardest, most addictive 
drugs and the biggest cartels.

And what we hope it will additionally accomplish in the long turn is 
a change in the very dynamic of this long-time fight. Rather than 
more of the same get- tough approach that to date has cost taxpayers 
billions of dollars and imprisoned thousands of pushers and users, 
hard-drug addicts and casual marijuana users s alike, isn't it time 
to embrace a smarter drug policy that makes proper distinctions among 
drugs and drug laws?

We think so.

And without Holder's small but important first step, it may have been 
added years before the national conversation was properly redirected.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake