Pubdate: Fri, 06 Nov 2015
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Timothy M. Phelps

POT PROSECUTION REJECTED

Ruling Reins in U.S. Cases Against Medical Marijuana Sales.

WASHINGTON - A recent federal court ruling in San Francisco deals a 
blow to Justice Department efforts to limit the sale of medical 
marijuana in California and 22 other states, according to legal 
experts and government officials. Anne Cusack

In a scathing opinion last month, U.S. District Judge Charles R. 
Breyer challenged the Justice Department's narrow interpretation of 
part of a law Congress passed last year that bars the department from 
spending any money to prevent a state from implementing its medical 
marijuana laws.

Justice Department lawyers say the budgetary restriction does not 
stop them from prosecuting medical marijuana users or providers, a 
claim that Breyer said "so tortured the plain meaning of the statute 
that it must be quoted to ensure credible articulation."

The legal controversy is the latest clash between federal law, which 
still lists marijuana as a dangerous illegal drug, and the movement 
in some states to allow its use for medical and sometimes 
recreational purposes.

The legalization push hit a roadblock Tuesday in Ohio, however, when 
voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposed state constitutional 
amendment to allow the recreational and medical use of marijuana. The 
initiative failed to carry a single county.

Including California, 23 states permit medical marijuana use in some 
form. Four states also have legalized the sale of marijuana for 
recreational use. Ohio would have been the first state in the Midwest to do so.

Two years ago, then-Deputy Atty. Gen. James M. Cole wrote a memo to 
all U.S. attorneys saying the department would not prosecute 
marijuana cases in states where the drug is legal if the state had a 
strong regulatory system, including bans on sales to minors and 
across state lines.

But the Justice Department has continued to prosecute isolated 
medical marijuana cases in California, Washington state, Montana and elsewhere.

Cole said in an interview when he left the Justice Department this 
year that California's system, which relies on local jurisdictions to 
adopt their own regulations, was not sufficient to meet the federal concerns.

California law on medical marijuana "is a bloody mess," said Douglas 
Berman, a law professor at Ohio State University who follows marijuana issues.

Last month, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed three laws to create a 
statewide regulatory system for medical marijuana. They will not go 
into full effect until 2018, however.

Melinda Haag, who was U.S. attorney in San Francisco until September, 
was particularly aggressive in prosecuting medical marijuana cases in 
the Bay Area.

In 2011, her office helped shut down the Marin Alliance for Medical 
Marijuana in Marin County. That group brought the lawsuit that won 
the ruling from Breyer, who barred the Justice Department from 
enforcing its injunction against the alliance. Its owners said they 
would reopen.

Medical marijuana dispensers and users in the Bay Area had 
consistently lost in federal court despite support from local jurisdictions.

But last year, Congress placed a restriction on the Justice 
Department budget prohibiting it from spending any money to block 
states from implementing their medical marijuana laws. It did not 
remove marijuana from the federal list of restricted drugs, however.

The bipartisan measure, sponsored in the House by Rep. Sam Farr 
(D-Carmel) and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), expires in 
December but is likely to be renewed, according to congressional aides.

"The mere threat of prosecution of individuals acting in compliance 
with state law by the Department of Justice is enough to have a 
chilling effect on those who are interested in using or providing 
marijuana for medicinal purposes," said Jeff Vanderslice, an aide to 
Rohrabacher.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled against 
Oakland's effort to keep open the largescale Harborside Health 
Center. But Steve DeAngelo, who runs it, said Harborside will invoke 
Breyer's ruling to prevent Justice Department lawyers from trying to 
enforce it.

Breyer's ruling is not binding on other federal judges, but he is 
highly regarded in the judiciary. He is also the younger brother of 
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer.

Between the Breyer ruling and new state regulations, Harborside and 
other clinics should be able to fend off additional efforts by the 
Justice Department until 2016, when marijuana advocates expect the 
state's voters to legalize marijuana for recreational use as well as 
medicinal, DeAngelo said.

"One way or another, we expect to survive this case," DeAngelo said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom