AP: Whiff of change in US medical marijuana policy

[Pirate Smile]

Whiff of change in US medical marijuana policy

WASHINGTON – The White House won't say it explicitly. Neither will the Drug Enforcement Administration. Yet there is a whiff in the air that U.S. policy is about to change when it comes to medical marijuana.
The message is clear, said UCLA professor Mark Kleiman, a former Justice Department official and an expert on crime and drug policy.
"It is no longer federal policy to beat up on hippies," said Kleiman.

-snip-
That may be the law, but it contradicts the medical marijuana position of the new president.
"The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind," said White House spokesman Nick Shapiro, repeating past statements.

So on Friday, DEA officials in Washington declined to comment at all on the subject.
As a presidential candidate, Obama repeatedly promised a change in federal drug policy in situations where state laws allow use of medical marijuana.
"I think the basic concept of using medical marijuana for the same purposes and with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors, I think that's entirely appropriate," Obama told the Mail Tribune of Medford, Ore., in March.
A year earlier at a campaign stop in New Hampshire, Obama said: "I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana users."

-snip-
The new president is unlikely to make any official change in policy before he has a new DEA chief and drug czar in place.
Yet experts believe it is already clear the Obama administration will change the strategy, if not the law, on medical marijuana.

-snip-
So last week's raids in California may be the last of their kind.
"The DEA's not likely to want to confront a new president," said Heymann. "It may simply be that they're behaving as they have traditionally, and they haven't anticipated the change Obama and his spokesman are signaling."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090207/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_medical_marijuana;_ylt=Atxrn57NfIX8ZTFcvNul8AiyFz4D

More from The Field:

White House: DEA Raids in Medical Marijuana States Will Stop

Posted by Al Giordano - February 6, 2009 at 2:45 pm By Al Giordano




No sooner was President Obama sworn in than the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) decided to provoke him.

Two days after the January 20 inauguration - before the Senate had confirmed the nomination of Attorney General Eric Holder - the DEA raided a medical marijuana dispensary in South Lake Tahoe, California, one of the states that has made such facilities legal. This, with full knowledge that as a presidential candidate Obama had pledged to discontinue such raids.

Yesterday, the DEA carried out multiple raids at medical marijuana clinics in the Los Angeles area. According to MSNBC:

A Los Angeles police spokesperson said the department, which is normally notified of such operations, got no advance warning from DEA.

In other words, the DEA was so worried that the LAPD might alert the White House of its plans beforehand and so it bypassed the normal procedure there.

This has of course led to a chorus of Chicken Little-ing from some corners of drug policy reform that Obama and/or Holder never intended to keep Obama's campaign promise to end the raids in states that permit medical marijuana clinics for patients with cancer, glaucoma, AIDS and other ailments treated by the plant.

Today, the White House made it clear to the Reuters news agency that the DEA is acting without its blessing:

White House spokesman Nick Shapiro on Wednesday reiterated Obama's stance that "federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws."

"And as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind," Shapiro said.

So, everybody chill. Rome wasn't destroyed in a day. Although there are some economic libertarians, Ron Paul enthusiasts, and beautiful losers in parts of the drug policy reform milieu that apparently would rather see the Obama administration break its promises - so as to be able to crow that nothing ever changes and to be able to continue their own daily poutrage - the vast majority of us absolutely want the raids to end and understand it will take not a lot, but yes a little bit, of time to clear the bureaucracy of insubordinates and steer the ship of Justice back on track.

Meanwhile, if patience is that hard, there's probably a medicine somewhere that can help.


http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/white-house-dea-raids-medical-marijuana-states-will-stop

[bluestateguy]

1. It's called respecting states rights

And I don't want to hear tired old analogies with the segreghation era, either. That was the past. The distant past, and that issue is settled.

No, states rights means allowing states to have their own laws concerning drugs. I want "states rights" turned into code words for free pot.

[Pirate Smile]

2. I added some more to the OP that deals with the State's Rights side of the issue.

:)

[Tsiyu]

3. The DEA agents simply wanted to grab some good dro and $$

this week before they are cut off from their cash/drug cow.

No arrests? No charges I've heard? So why bust in the doors, smash the place up and take weed and money?

If you're a DEA agent, apparently you're used to getting your "money for nothing and your weed for free."

[Froward69]

5. Hear Here!!!!

to a distant relative cop. ( at our nephews Bday party) I was pointing out that the DEA has not been charging anyone with crimes lately. Just busting in and taking the money and pot. and his head exploded. he went off and said I was lying.

[Tsiyu]

6. Error!

this did not post.

Yeah, it did! Sorry :shrug:

[Tsiyu]

7. Just thugs like the mafia

Busting in the place for protection money.

This administration needs to wake up as soon as possible and realize that thugs like the DEA are causing our kids to have zero respect for law enforcement.

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. The DEA is a criminal enterprise

Just do a google on DEA agents getting caught
in the trading of drugs.

[Romulox]

8. The DEA answers to the Executive. This could've stopped on 1/21/2009

if President Obama wanted it to...

[AndyTiedye]

9. One Might Expect a Bit of Insubordination When the Hard-Liners Know They'll Get Fired Anyway

The lack of charges reflects their realization that they do not have the blessing of the administration.

[Romulox]

10. Right. But it's only "insubordination" if the Executive orders them to stop. He hasn't.

[Ilsa]

11. We have a President who takes a common sense approach

and respects states' rights. I love how he prioritizes.