Pubdate: Fri, 30 Aug 2013
Source: Tulsa World (OK)
Copyright: 2013 Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.tulsaworld.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/463
Authors: Pete Yost and Gene Johnson, Associated Press

FEDS WON'T BUST STATES FOR POT

Washington and Colorado Will Be Expected to Have "Robust" Regulation.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite 75 years of federal marijuana prohibition, 
the Justice Department said Thursday that states can let people use 
the drug, license people to grow it and even allow adults to stroll 
into stores and buy it - as long as the weed is kept away from kids, 
the black market and federal property.

In a sweeping new policy statement prompted by pot legalization votes 
in Washington and Colorado last fall, the department gave the green 
light to states to adopt tight regulatory schemes to oversee the 
medical and recreational marijuana industries burgeoning across the country.

The action, welcomed by supporters of legalization, could set the 
stage for more states to legalize marijuana. Alaska is scheduled to 
vote on the question next year, and a few other states plan similar 
votes in 2016.

The policy change embraces what Justice Department officials called a 
"trust but verify" approach between the federal government and states 
that enact recreational drug use.

In a memo to all 94 U.S. attorneys' offices around the country, 
Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the federal government 
expects that states and local governments authorizing 
"marijuana-related conduct" will implement strong and effective 
regulatory and enforcement systems that address the threat those 
state laws could pose to public health and safety.

"If state enforcement efforts are not sufficiently robust ... the 
federal government may seek to challenge the regulatory structure 
itself," the memo stated.

The U.S. attorney in Colorado, John Walsh, said he will continue to 
focus on whether Colorado's system has the resources and tools 
necessary to protect key federal public safety interests.

Gov. John Hickenlooper said the state is working to improve education 
and prevention efforts directed at young people and on enforcement 
tools to prevent access to marijuana by those under age 21. Colorado 
also is determined to keep marijuana businesses from being fronts for 
criminal enterprises or other illegal activity, he said, and the 
state is committed to preventing the export of marijuana while also 
enhancing efforts to keep state roads safe from impaired drivers.

The Justice Department memo says it will take a broad view of the 
federal priorities. For example, in preventing the distribution of 
marijuana to minors, enforcement could take place when marijuana 
trafficking takes place near an area associated with minors, or is 
diverted to minors.

Following the votes in Colorado and Washington last year, Attorney 
General Eric Holder launched a review of marijuana enforcement policy 
that included an examination of the two states. The issue was whether 
they should be blocked from operating marijuana markets on the 
grounds that actively regulating an illegal substance conflicts with 
federal drug law that bans it.

Last December, President Barack Obama said it doesn't make sense for 
the federal government to go after recreational drug users in a state 
that has legalized it.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom