Pubdate: Thu, 08 Mar 2012
Source: Sacramento News & Review (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://newsreview.com/sacto/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/540
Author: David Downs

U.S. ATTORNEY BREAKS SILENCE ON MEDICAL-MARIJUANA BATTLE

Details from last week's Benjamin Wagner chat with press and pot
advocates

This article was published on 03.08.12.

Medical-cannabis patients and providers should expect ongoing
persecution in California. However, media backlash due to the nearly
half-year-old federal crackdown is affecting at least one prominent
drug warrior: United States Attorney for the Eastern District of
California Benjamin Wagner.

Wagner broke the Department of Justice's near silence with regard to
the crackdown during a candid, hour-long talk and question-and-answer
session last Tuesday at a Sacramento Press Club luncheon. The
$30-a-plate affair took place on the 15th floor of 1201 K Street, and
inside, Wagner admitted that the cannabis cleanup was the idea of the
four U.S. Attorneys in California, not Washington, D.C.

The four were upset because of what Wagner called "flagrant" marijuana
sales in the state. So they declared war on medical marijuana last
October, sending out hundreds of forfeiture-warning letters to
dispensaries across California. His office is in the process of
seizing at least one dispensary in Sacramento, while officials have
closed more or less every dispensary in Sacramento County.

He reiterated that they're not going after patients and caregivers,
rather interstate transporters, huge pot farmers and illicit
dispensaries grossing tens of thousands of dollars per day in cash.

But the media critique of the war is wearing on Wagner, it seems. He
said he counts on good press to create a "deterrent effect" in regard
to cases of mortgage fraud, child exploitation, human trafficking and
major gang violence. But he's not getting any of that.

"I think that the members of the press would be forgiven for thinking
that marijuana enforcement is all that we do," he said. "It is far
from the most important thing that we do. I have many other higher
priorities that have a much bigger impact on public safety. I did not
seek the position of U.S. attorney in order to launch a campaign
against medical marijuana."

Wagner was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009 and has been
with the DOJ since 1992, primarily in the Eastern District. When he
and the other three U.S. attorneys took office at the end of 2009, "We
found that we were in the middle of an explosion of marijuana
cultivation and sales," he said.

Federal policy didn't change, rather "what we saw =C2=85 was an unregulat
ed
free-for-all in California in which huge amounts of money was being
made selling marijuana =C2=85 to virtually anybody who wanted to get ston
ed."

Wagner said that's not what California voters approved. Stores marking
up pot 200 percent is "not about sick people. That's about money."

His reaction has been "quite measured," he said. Most dispensaries
just got warning letters.

"In a few instances, after ample warnings, we've brought
civil-enforcement actions while reserving criminal prosecution for the
most flagrant violators of not only federal law but state law," he
said.

He referred to cases such as one where seven Roseville and Fresno
suspects were indicted in February for growing pot with doctor's
recommendations and running a dispensary as a front to traffic it to
seven states in the Midwest and South.

Wagner also warned that a season of raids in the Central Valley is
coming in 2012, and that mega pot farmers are on notice that if they
plant again this year, their land could be seized.

He tried to make the case that pot is just a fraction of what his
office does, referring to 61 indictments on mortgage fraud last fiscal
year.

During audience questions, activists asked why the federal government
says marijuana has "no medical use," yet the United States has
patented its ingredient, cannabidiol, for treating strokes.

"What I know about marijuana as medicine you can probably put in a
thimble," he said.

But health policy is not his job, he said. "My advice to you is to
write your congressman."

Sacramento lawyer Alan Donato asked for guidelines for local
dispensaries to avoid federal attention.

"I'm not in a position to be of much comfort," Wagner said. "You don't
ask the CHP, 'How many miles over the speed limit can I go before you
pull me over?'"

Stephen Downing, a retired Los Angeles Police Department deputy chief
and member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, asked if the failed
drug war would ever make Wagner say "Enough is enough" to his boss,
Attorney General Eric Holder.

"That's hard to say," Wagner said. "I totally understand the debate
over legalization as opposed to criminalizing narcotics.

"It really depends on what the cost-benefits are. Marijuana is
obviously not nearly as destructive as [methamphetamine]. The risks in
legalizing marijuana may be significantly less that meth."

But prescription drugs "are the biggest, worst drug problem in terms
of trends =C2=85 [and] that's a legal drug."

SN&R news intern Matthew W. Urner got the biggest attention of the
lunch, asking Wagner if he ever tried the second-most-commonly used
mind-altering substance in America, and if so, what he thought.

"Uh," said Wagner, "I'll say that I went to college."
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MAP posted-by: Matt