The Department of Justice will distribute new guidelines to federal prosecutors today advising that it's not a good use of their time to prosecute medical marijuana users and distributors in states where medical marijuana is legal, as long as they're following state laws. It's been understood since before the election that President Obama intended to stop raids on medical marijuana users, and, with the exception of a few raids conducted in LA before the new leadership had gotten settled at the Department of Justice, that's been the effective policy so far.
But the new guidelines--a three-page memo going out to prosecutors in the 14 states where medical marijuana has been legalized in some fashion, as well as FBI and DEA officials--will set it down in formal communique. Glenn Greenwald points out that this policy is actually more conservative than that held by the Bush administration, which vowed to enforce federal anti-marijuana laws: it's a victory for states' rights, a loosening of the federal government's centralized grip.
At a time when allegations of socialism dominate criticism of the
administration--when the stimulus was fought by conservative governors
as a federal power-grab--a softer approach to medical marijuana laws
has actually given states' rights proponents something to be pleased
about with the Obama administration. Libertarians may not like much else
about the administration: the stimulus, the auto bailouts, and the
measured progress on Guantanamo, wiretapping, and a legal framework for
terrorism suspects have all, in their eyes, marked shortcomings on behalf of the administration. But they can at least be happy about this.
Finally some sanity in Marijuana laws. It's time to stop wasting tax dollars on police, courts and jails. Now, lets what happens with the efforts to legalize it completely in California. Here's a video about those efforts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdONwv51Wm0
Speaking of wasting tax dollars Amway sites seem to attract a lot of attention from DHS, what's going on with that, not to mention how much of a waste of money those businesses are in the first place
If this will bring some of the power back to the States and out of the hands of big brother, uh i mean the federal govt. I am all for it. Our founding fathers never intended to give a National govt power over the states.
I do have some concerns with moving towards legalisation of MJ but decriminalization is an easy step we can explore and see how well the policy functions. Legal alcohol and OTC prescriptions cause many more deaths than MJ ever could. You literally cannot OD on MJ. The biggest danger with someone smoking too much MJ is they may push someone out of the way when running into 7-11 for Cheeto's.
ha, nice one Rasta