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.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom