Pubdate: Mon, 09 Jun 2014
Source: Boston Herald (MA)
Copyright: 2014 The Boston Herald, Inc
Contact:  http://news.bostonherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/53
Note: Prints only very short LTEs.
Page: 16

CONGRESS GOES TO POT

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency is doing precisely what we would 
expect an agency in charge of combating illegal drug use to do. 
They're warning Massachusetts physicians that they can engage in 
lucrative consulting deals or employment contracts with state 
marijuana dispensaries - or they can hold a license to prescribe 
narcotics, which is issued by the DEA.

But since marijuana remains illegal under federal law, they simply 
can't do both.

Word that DEA agents are having such "conversations" with some of the 
state's aspiring pot docs is giving some folks the vapors - mainly 
those pushing the notion that marijuana is a cure-all for every 
ailment, or just a bang-up business opportunity.

But there is no requirement under state law that medical marijuana 
dispensaries have a doctor on the payroll, and so their participation 
is very much a choice.

And far more alarming than the DEA warning docs about relevant 
passages of federal law is the possibility that the agency may soon 
be prevented by Congress from doing so.

The U.S. House, in a rare if misguided show of bipartisanship, voted 
219-189 for a budget amendment that would prevent the Justice 
Department from interfering with state laws that allow so-called 
"medical" marijuana use. Only two members of this commonwealth's 
congressional delegation, Reps. William Keating (D-Bourne) and Joseph 
Kennedy III (D-Brookline) - both former prosecutors - voted against 
the measure.

The amendment is being billed as a benevolent act to protect those 
poor souls whose extreme medical conditions can only be treated with 
a toke or two.

At least Keating and Kennedy apparently recognize the foolishness in 
tying the hands of federal law enforcement authorities who have a 
duty to uphold the nation's drug laws.

And of course Bay Staters have had a front-row seat to the kind of 
shady operations and sketchy characters that are driving this 
burgeoning industry. The idea that the DEA would be forbidden from 
acting in cases of clear violation of federal law is simply ludicrous.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom