Pubdate: Sat, 05 May 2012
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2012 The Washington Post Company
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/mUgeOPdZ
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project
Cited: http://www.mpp.org/

MEDICAL POT: WHY DID OBAMA SWITCH?

During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama raised hopes among those who
support medical marijuana by pledging to respect state laws on the
issue. But his administration has reversed course and massively
escalated the federal government's attacks on medical marijuana
businesses, most of which are legal under their states' laws.

This is perplexing because medical marijuana is far more popular than
Obama is. A Washington Post-ABC News poll from January 2010 found that
81 percent of Americans supported legalizing medical marijuana. A CBS
News poll from October found that 77 percent of Americans support
allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana for serious medical
conditions. By contrast, the president's approval rating last October
hovered around 42 percent - and is currently about 47 percent.

The shift has been clear. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.
announced in March 2009 that the Obama administration would end the
Bush administration's practice of raiding medical marijuana providers
that violated federal statutes. A memo from the Justice Department
later that year said the department would not prioritize prosecutions
of individuals acting in compliance with state medical marijuana laws.

Through 2010, that policy seemed to work. California, Colorado, Maine
and New Mexico took steps to regulate the distribution of medical
marijuana at the state and local levels. Other states had similar
plans in the works.

But last year the tide turned. Obama's Justice Department authorized a
series of letters from U.S. attorneys across the country threatening
to "vigorously" prosecute individuals acting in compliance with state
medical marijuana laws. In some cases the U.S. attorneys suggested
that government employees who help regulate their states' medical
marijuana systems could be prosecuted for "facilitating" a crime.

There was more. The IRS cracked down on medical marijuana
dispensaries, refusing to allow them to deduct such standard business
expenses as rent and payroll. Last September the National Institute on
Drug Abuse refused to provide federally grown marijuana to a Food and
Drug Administration-approved research protocol seeking to measure the
extent to which marijuana helps combat veterans with their
post-traumatic stress disorder. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives outlawed gun sales to medical marijuana
patients. And federal prosecutors in California announced that they
would crack down on dispensaries across the state, saying that they
intend to seize the property of landlords who lease space to these
businesses that are legal under state law.

Last month Obama clarified his position on medical marijuana, saying
on a late-night show that "we're not going to be legalizing weed . . .
anytime soon." This after he had recently told an interviewer: "I
never made a commitment that somehow we were going to give carte
blanche to large-scale producers and operators of marijuana - and the
reason is, because it's against federal law. I can't nullify
congressional law."

Simply put, Obama has become more hostile to medical marijuana
patients than any president in U.S. history.

To put Obama's implosion in perspective, consider what Texas Gov. Rick
Perry (R) wrote in his 2010 book "Fed Up!": "When the federal
government oversteps its authority, states should tell Washington they
will not be complicit in enforcing laws with which they do not agree.
Again, the best example is an issue I don't even agree with - the
partial legalization of marijuana. Californians clearly want some
level of legalized marijuana, be it for medicinal use or otherwise.
The federal government is telling them they cannot. But states are not
bound to enforce federal law, and the federal government cannot
commandeer state resources and require them to enforce it."

Perry also wrote, "If you don't support the death penalty and citizens
packing a pistol, don't come to Texas. If you don't like medicinal
marijuana and gay marriage, don't move to California."

The five presidents from Richard Nixon through George H.W. Bush
allowed medical marijuana research to proceed unhindered.

The three presidents from Jimmy Carter to George H.W. Bush allowed
patients to apply to the federal government for waivers to use medical
marijuana legally under federal law.

Obama appears to be to the right of Ron Paul, Gary Johnson, Ronald
Reagan and even George W. Bush on this issue. It's hard to imagine how
this helps Obama politically, and it's easy to imagine how forcing
patients to purchase their medicine from an illicit provider instead
of a regulated business hurts people who are suffering from cancer,
AIDS and multiple sclerosis.
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MAP posted-by: Matt