Pubdate: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Copyright: 2015 Hearst Communications Inc. Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1 Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388 On Federal Drug Policy AT LAST, A REPRIEVE ON MEDICAL POT Washington is waving a white flag in the medical marijuana wars. In a serious shift in drug policy, a bipartisan Congress has virtually ended the raids and legal crackdowns on cannabis clinics that dispensed therapeutic pot in California and elsewhere. The decision doesn't go all the way to legalize recreational weed as Colorado, Washington and Oregon have seen fit. But it ends a decades-long uncertainty over whether federal rules would trump state law when it came to handling medical pot. The turnabout suggests a growing acceptance by Capitol Hill politicians that medical pot is acceptable to voters, as polls indicate. It's also about strange-bedfellow politics and a rare bipartisan consensus on a topic that wraps in law enforcement, individual rights, and medical judgment. Buried in the giant $1.1 trillion spending authorization bill which funds federal operations until next October is a proviso barring the Department of Justice from cracking down on medical marijuana. That directive was pushed by a clutch of liberal Democrats such as Barbara Lee of Oakland and Sam Farr of Carmel, plus libertarian-minded Republicans including Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa (Orange County) and Tom McClintock of Elk Grove (Sacramento County). Their views are a blend of arguments that states had the right to veer from federal policy and a recognition that an overwhelming majority of the country supports medical marijuana, if not full legalization for recreational use. A total of 32 states plus the District of Columbia have legalized pot for medical reasons. For California the decision adds clarity to a cloudy topic. The Obama legal team has gone back and forth on cracking down on pot outlets, some of the biggest in the nation, though it's largely backed off in recent months. The state Legislature has fumbled various plans to clarify a voter-passed law in 1996 that authorized therapeutic pot. That measure turned out to have major flaws while marijuana grows have polluted the state's back country and led to claims of gang crime. The federal decision won't solve all that ails the medical marijuana situation. But it should reassure patients who rely on marijuana along with nervous clinic operators. It's an overdue answer that should ease fears of a renewed crackdown. But the budget action is nothing close to a full solution. As reminder of how tortured the topic can be, a rider elsewhere in the 1,600-page spending document barred Washington, D.C., from following through a 70 percent majority vote to legalize marijuana. Anti-pot hardliners in the House barred the District from spending any money to carry out that decision. It's a confusing wrinkle, but it may not be as significant as the national message on medical marijuana. In one generation the country has turned from viewing marijuana as a dangerous drug that should be restricted to one that has a legitimate role in alleviating pain and discomfort. It's not hard to see the next step coming: full legalization. Washington's decision on medical marijuana just pushed that once unthinkable idea much closer to reality. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom