Pubdate: Sun, 02 Dec 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: Sari Horwitz
Page: A3

STATE LEGALIZING POT WITHOUT FEDERAL INPUT

Wash. Dismisses Cases, Retrains Police

No Guidance From Justice Dept. on Legal Conflicts

Adults in Washington state will be able to smoke marijuana legally
when it is officially decriminalized Thursday, even though the Justice
Department has offered no guidance on the conflict with federal drug
laws.

Prosecutors throughout the state have begun dismissing hundreds of
misdemeanor marijuana cases, according to authorities there, and state
and local police are being retrained to arrest drivers who are high
and allow adults to light up in their homes.

Marijuana, however, is still illegal under federal law. State
officials say the Justice Department is creating confusion by
remaining silent about what steps it may take in Washington and
Colorado, which passed initiatives in November legalizing the
manufacturing, distribution and possession of up to an ounce of marijuana.

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire (D) met with Deputy Attorney General
James Cole at the Justice Department, but came away with no answers.

"They said they were reviewing it," Gregoire's spokesman, Cory Curtis,
said Friday. "They didn't give us a timeline when they would provide
clarity."

After his state approved the initiative, Colorado Gov. John
Hickenlooper (D) called Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and wrote
him a letter asking for guidance about how the federal government will
react to the state's new law.

"We need to know whether the federal government will take legal action
to block the implementation of Amendment 64, or whether it will seek
to prosecute grow and retail operations," Hickenlooper wrote.

He also asked Holder if Justice will prosecute Colorado state
employees who regulate and oversee the growing and distribution of
marijuana.

"We find no clear guidance on these issues in memoranda or statements
previously issued by the DOJ," Hickenlooper wrote.

Like their counterparts in Washington, Colorado prosecutors have begun
throwing out hundreds of misdemeanor marijuana cases.

Holder has not responded to Hickenlooper's Nov. 13 letter. Justice
spokeswoman Nanda Chitre said the letter is "still under review."

Several universities in the two states have decided to maintain the
status quo, banning students from smoking or consuming marijuana on
campus.

The schools rely on millions of dollars in federal funding, and
officials say they are worried that failure to abide by federal
marijuna laws could jeopardize the money. The federal Controlled
Substances Act prohibits the production, possession and sale of
marijuana and classifies it as a Schedule 1 drug, putting it in the
same category as LSD and heroin.

"There are a lot more questions than answers at this point," said
Kathy Barnard, spokeswoman for Washington State University in Pullman.
"Marijuana is still illegal under federal law and as a federally
funded institution, we abide and respect that."

Mexican President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto also said he is waiting to
see how Justice responds to the conflict between state and federal
laws. In an interview with Time magazine last week, he called for a
rethinking of drug policy and the war on drugs after the legalization
of marijuana in the two states.

Pena Nieto's top adviser, Luis Videgaray, has said that legalization
"changes the rules of the game in the relationship with the United
States" in regard to antidrug efforts.

"Obviously, we can't handle a product that is illegal in Mexico,
trying to stop its transfer to the United States, when in the United
States, at least in part of the United States, it now has a different
status," Videgaray said.
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