Pubdate: Sat, 31 May 2014
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2014 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.mercurynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Josh Richman
Page: A1

HOUSE OKS BIG CHANGE TO FEDERAL POT POLICY

A bipartisan House - led by a pair of Californians - on Friday ordered
the Justice Department to stop targeting medical pot clubs that comply
with state law, marking a major shift in the way Congress views marijuana.

The 219-189 vote in the Republican-led House early Friday might
eventually bring relief for some targeted California operations while
emboldening other states to adopt marijuana legalization laws of their
own - if it can survive a difficult path in the Senate.

"It was a surprise vote, it was a welcome vote, and it has been 10
years in the making," Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, said Friday of the
amendment to the Justice Department's spending bill he co-authored
with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach. "It really was with
this new Republican surge that we were able to get over the top."

When this amendment was first offered in 2003 by Rep. Maurice Hinchey,
D-N.Y., Rohrabacher was among very few Republicans who supported it.
But on Friday, it won votes from 49 Republicans - about twice as many
as in 2012, the last time it was voted upon.

Rep. Steve Cohen, DTenn., said as time goes by, more House members are
able to get past old propaganda about marijuana and make wiser
assessments of its benefits and risks. "The times they are
a-changin'," he quipped Friday.

California in 1996 was the first state to legalize medical marijuana;
21 states plus the District of Columbia have followed. But marijuana
remains illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act, and many
facilities in these states have been subject to federal raids, warning
letters to landlords or civil property seizure lawsuits.

The amendment approved Friday doesn't deal with recreational use of
marijuana, which Colorado and Washington voters approved in 2012;
federal agencies so far have not cracked down on those states' activities.

Rohrabacher issued a statement calling the vote "historic" and "a
victory for states' rights, for the doctor-patient relationship, for
compassion, for fiscal responsibility. This vote shows that House
members really can listen to the American people, form coalitions and
get things done."

The amendment was offered this year by six Democrats and six
Republicans, including four from California: Farr, Rohrabacher,
Barbara Lee, D-Oakland; and Tom McClintock, RGranite Bay.

The amendment still must be adopted by the Senate and the bill must be
signed into law by President Barack Obama before it will have any
effect. But Lee said Friday she hopes the Justice Department will see
this as "a positive development" that brings clarity to what Congress
wants.

Lee, whose district includes several medical marijuana facilities that
have been threatened or raided by federal agencies in recent years,
said she intends to make sure federal agents and prosecutors "comply
with the will of the people."

"This is another tool to use to go after them, really, to tell them to
stop it," she said. "Let's hope the Senate picks this up and carries
the ball forward."

The news emboldened Steve DeAngelo, executive director of Oakland's
Harborside Health Center. U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag, Northern
California's top federal prosecutor, is waging a lawsuit to seize the
Oakland and San Jose buildings that house Harborside.

DeAngelo said a wave of state laws and supportive public opinion polls
in recent years foretold Friday's vote.

"It's time for our elected representatives to rein in the
out-of-control federal drug bureaucracy. Those elected officials who
fail to take action do so at their own peril," he said. "Contrary to
myth, cannabis consumers have very good long-term memories and staying
power."

But U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Friday that "if a similar
amendment were offered in the Senate, I would strongly oppose it."

Feinstein, D-Calif., said she's sympathetic to legitimate patients'
needs, but "rogue medical marijuana dispensaries, which require little
or no medical bona fides and are prevalent throughout California,
present major challenges for communities across the country."

Federal action has closed more than 400 such "rogue dispensaries" in
California since 2012, she said, "but the House amendment would
prevent these critical enforcement activities from
continuing."

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., offered qualified support but with
similar qualms. "I strongly support cutting off funds that would shut
down legal and licensed medical marijuana dispensaries, but I think
funds should be available to go after rogue dispensaries that are not
licensed or not abiding by state law."

Advocates like Bill Piper, the Drug Policy Alliance's national affairs
director, hope Feinstein and Boxer will be in the minority. He called
Friday's vote "an unprecedented change in course in the war on drugs
. a bipartisan consensus in Congress in favor of letting states set
their own medical marijuana policies."

He and others also hope states that had balked at approving medical
marijuana laws for fear of federal intervention and prosecution will
now reconsider. Such a bill is now pending in the New York state
Senate, for example.
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