The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    States Going to Pot or Pot Going to States or... Something

    By DF on Fri, 02/27/2009 - 2:11pm | Politics

    I didn't really believe the headline when I read it, but here's the deal:

    U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is sending strong signals that President Obama - who as a candidate said states should be allowed to make their own rules on medical marijuana - will end raids on pot dispensaries in California.

    Asked at a Washington news conference Wednesday about Drug Enforcement Administration raids in California since Obama took office last month, Holder said the administration has changed its policy.

    "What the president said during the campaign, you'll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we'll be doing here in law enforcement," he said. "What he said during the campaign is now American policy."

    Dispensaries have been operating in California since the passage of Prop. 215, but they have been continually raided by federal agents.  The back and forth between state and local laws and federal law resulted in the high-profile arrest of Ed Rosenthal, who was hired by the city of Oakland to grow cannabis.  Does this change in policy at the federal level signal the possibility of revision to the Controlled Substances Act?

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    With everything else on his plate, I doubt the president is going to spend political capital to change the law. For now, Holder's signaling of the change in enforcement priorities should do the trick.

    Canada has had legalized medical marijuana for eight years now. At first, the government tried to limit the supply to a single federally approved contractor, but the product was so predictably crappy they were forced to let users designate their own local suppliers.

    Still, the law said each one could supply only three patients at any one time. Courts have now struck down that restriction as unconstitutionally arbitrary, so some experienced growers (especially in B.C.) plan to go legit, pay their business and sales tax, and compete for the medical market. Bottom line: Canadians  will soon have access to the very best medical pot in the world.

    Which reminds me, I'm getting the munchies.


    by acanuck on Sun, 03/01/2009 - 5:59pm

    For some reason, this slipped my mind:

    http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/02/americans-growing-kinder-to-bud.html

    And note that's approval for actual legalization, not just decriminalization.


    by acanuck on Sun, 03/01/2009 - 6:01pm

    I saw Nate's data.  I think it's probably fair to say that the political initiative on this isn't going to come from up top.  The CSA, with the backing of the Supremacy Clause, has been the justification for continuing to send out DEA agents to roll dispensaries in California.  Holder issuing the stand-down order is basically just federal law enforcement joining the ranks of state and local law enforcement that have been sort of willfully ignoring dispensaries.  From a political stand-point, it makes a lot of sense.

    Though Nate's data is encouraging, I think that we have to get a bit further along this trend in order to see positive action at the federal level.


    by DF on Sun, 03/01/2009 - 6:09pm