Pubdate: Wed, 21 Oct 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 COURT SIDES WITH POT CLINICS In a win for common sense - and the evolving rules on marijuana sales - - a judge is effectively barring federal sleuths from going after medical cannabis clinics. The case could end the threats of lawsuits and raids hanging over numbers of California dispensaries. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer comes with blunt language aimed at the strained logic used by federal drug enforcers who tried to get around a congressional ban on spending money to crack down on pot. The efforts by the Drug Enforcement Administration to go after dispensaries "defies language and logic" and "tortures the plain meaning of the statute," the judge said. His exasperated tone rested on a budget directive that bars spending any federal money on shutting down the clinics. Last year, two California congressional representatives, Republican Dana Rohrabacher and Democrat Sam Farr, inserted language in a spending bill that forbid using federal funds to crack down on cannabis clinics in states that had set up their own rules, such as California. It was a response to a wave of federal threats and charges that shuttered dozens of dispensaries. But Justice Department lawyers had sought a legal end-run to continue going after remaining clinics, including one in Fairfax in Marin County, which was at the center of the judge's ruling that should all but cancel the strategy. That's the Washington side of the dispute but hardly the only issue on the table. Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a major overhaul of the state's medical marijuana law. The changes should have the effect of upgrading California's lax rules, which contributed to federal sweeps in recent years. Up ahead is another huge shift in the pot world. A measure promoted by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is headed toward the 2016 ballot that would legalize marijuana, doing away with the medical justification for use. The judge's ruling stuck to the original issue: a congressional bar on law enforcement spending on a cannabis crackdown. But it's hard not to see the larger effect. An overbroad effort to eliminate marijuana sales by federal authorities is going nowhere: Lawmakers and the public won't stand for it. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom