Pubdate: Sun, 15 Sep 2013
Source: Oklahoman, The (OK)
Copyright: 2013 Associated Press
Contact: http://www.newsok.com/voices/guidelines
Website: http://newsok.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/318
Author: Pete Yost, Associated Press

CONGRESS LOOKS AT JUSTICE'S MARIJUANA DECISION

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration is facing criticism over 
its attempt to straddle the federal law that makes marijuana illegal 
and state laws that permit recreational use of the drug.

In the first congressional hearing since the administration announced 
a new, permissive enforcement policy, law enforcement and 
drug-prevention groups and their congressional allies see an 
opportunity to push back. The administration's Aug. 29 announcement 
allows the two states where recreational marijuana use has been 
legalized - Colorado and Washington - to go their own way without 
federal interference as long as they implement strong enforcement systems.

"We are at a precipice," said Kevin Sabet of Smart Approaches to 
Marijuana, a drug prevention group. "We're about to create Big 
Marijuana by allowing the commercial production, retail sales and 
mass advertising of this drug similarly to how we have had Big 
Tobacco for the last hundred years."

The lead witness at Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing was 
to be Deputy Attorney General James Cole, who signed the guidance 
putting the new marijuana enforcement standards in place.

Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who spent eight years as a 
prosecutor early in his career, says the Justice Department should 
focus on prosecuting violent crime and should respect the votes in 
Colorado and Washington to legalize small amounts of marijuana for 
personal and medical use.

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the committee's top Republican and 
co-chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, 
says Attorney General Eric Holder's action was "the wrong message to 
both law enforcement and violators of federal law."

"When marijuana will be fully legal to buy, diversion of the drug 
will explode," nine former Drug Enforcement Administration chiefs 
said in a letter to Holder.

With the door to legalization open in two states, others could follow.

The 20,000-member Marijuana Policy Project says it will support 
efforts to end marijuana prohibition in 10 more states by 2017. 
Voters in Oregon and Alaska could consider marijuana legalization 
measures next year.

At the federal level, legislation on financial institutions and 
marijuana is pending in the House, but not in the Senate. 
Legalization supporters hope the hearing "will be a springboard" for 
Senate action, said Bill Piper, director of national affairs at the 
Drug Policy Alliance, which was pleased by the federal government's new stance.

Other scheduled witnesses at Tuesday's hearing were John Urquhart, 
the sheriff in King County, Wash., and Jack Finlaw, chief legal 
counsel to Colorado Gov. John W. Hickenlooper.

Urquhart, a former narcotics detective, says marijuana prohibition is 
costly and ineffective and says it's important to send a message to 
the federal government that it should no longer categorize marijuana 
as an illegal drug in the same category as heroin and LSD.

Finlaw works for a governor who opposed legalization but didn't 
campaign vigorously against it. In May, Hickenlooper signed 
legislation governing how recreational marijuana should be grown, 
sold and taxed, calling it the state's best attempt to navigate the 
uncharted territory of legalized recreational pot.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom