Yes, But, However!

LOS ANGELES (YBH.ME) – “It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana.” So said United States Attorney General Eric Holder today. Further, in a memo to Federal prosecutors, with a cc to the DEA and FBI, Deputy Attorney General David Ogden requested that law enforcement resources not be diverted to going after medical marijuana users and purveyors who are clearly in compliance with state laws. Medical marijuana is  available in 14 states including Maryland, though marijuana advocates don’t consider Maryland’s approach of simply not hassling medical marijuana users as satisfactory.

Attorney General Holder had earlier stated his intention to change Federal policy away from that of the Bush Administration’s hardline stance on even legal marijuana use at the state level.  Marijuana advocates see yesterday’s announcement as a huge victory.

A map of Los Angeles' medical marijuana dispensaries, licensed and un-licensed.

Also yesterday, Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfan found in favor of plaintiff Green Oasis, a medical marijuana collective, against the city of Los Angeles. Oasis had argued that the city violated state law by imposing a two year moratorium on new dispensary applications.  The city had struggled in vain to frame a workable local ordinance to curb the exploding dispensary business.  California has the most medical marijuana storefronts, with 186 in Los Angeles County alone.   Nearly 800 applications are now pending in Los Angeles due to the city’s moratorium. The dispensaries behind the applications are mostly open and running illegally.

Irrespective of the judge’s ruling, Los Angeles City Attorney Steve Cooley announced he would be cracking down on the dispensaries on three fronts: doctors who write prescriptions for patients who are not ill; dispensaries who do not obtain their marijuana as prescribed under the 2003 state law: (by growing it themselves and selling it at a price which only recoups their costs), and dispensaries which illegally sell pot over the counter without a prescription.

Numerous websites advise would-be users how to find amenable doctors who will write a medical marijuana prescription, and what symptoms to present so as to qualify for the drug. Though legalized with an eye to helping AIDS, cancer, arthritis and glaucoma patients, chronic problems such as depression, insomnia and uncontrollable muscle spasms are currently considered to be qualifiers in many states, which give doctors wide discretion in writing presciptions.

Law enforcement generally takes the position that marijuana dispensaries are current or potential crime magnets. Policy-makers see medical marijuana advocates as employing a Trojan horse to relax drug prohibitions in general. Alaska legalized pot use in the 1970’s. Upon experiencing twice the national average of teen drug use, it was re-criminalized in 1990.

The marijuana legalization movement has benefited by the long-term Washington lobbying presence of such groups as the Marijuana Policy Project. Heavyweight contributors such as Progressive Insurance magnate Peter Lewis keep the group well-funded. Jack Black, Adam Corolla, Bill Maher and Jesse Ventura, as well as former U.S. Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders are also on board. The Drug Policy Alliance is equally well-funded by George Soros.

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