Drug War Issues
Politics & Advocacy
The unhappy reaction to the renewed federal offensive against medical marijuana growers and distributors continues to spread, with several members of Congress and California's attorney general among the latest to voice their displeasure.
On Friday, nine members of Congress, led by Reps. Sam Farr (D-CA) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), sent a letter to President Obama expressing "concern with the recent activity by the Department of Justice against legitimate medical marijuana dispensaries in California that are operating legally under state law." The other congressional signers were Reps. Mike Thompson (D-CA), Jared Polis (D-CO), Pete Stark (D-CA), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), and Bob Filner (D-CA).
Citing "aggressive SWAT-style federal raids in at least seven states," as well as threats directed at landlords and elected officials, the solons told the president such actions "directly interfere with California's 15-year-old medical cannabis law by eliminating safe access to medication for the state's thousands of medical marijuana patients."
The nine US representatives called on the president to reschedule marijuana as either a Schedule II or Schedule III drug with recognized medicinal uses, either by administrative action or by supporting legislation to achieve that end. A bill that would do just that, H.R. 1983, the States' Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act, has already been filed, they helpfully pointed out.
A week before the congressional letter, California Attorney General Kamala Harris added her voice to the choir of the concerned. "Californians overwhelmingly support the compassionate use of medical marijuana for the ill," she noted in a statement.
"While there are definite ambiguities in state law that must be resolved either by the state legislature or the courts, an overly broad federal enforcement campaign will make it more difficult for legitimate patients to access physician-recommended medicine in California," the state's highest elected law enforcement officer said. "I urge the federal authorities in the state to adhere to the United States Department of Justice’s stated policy and focus their enforcement efforts on ‘significant traffickers of illegal drugs.'"
In mid-October, state Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), stalwart friends of marijuana law reform, were among the first to speak out against the federal crackdown, followed shortly by fellow San Franciscan state Sen. Leland Yee (D).
"Medical marijuana dispensaries are helping our economy, creating jobs, and most importantly, providing a necessary service for suffering patients," Lee said in a statement. "There are real issues and real problems that the US Attorney's Office should be focused on rather than using their limited resources to prosecute legitimate businesses or newspapers. Shutting down state-authorized dispensaries will cost California billions of dollars and unfairly harm thousands of lives."
In the face of widespread criticism, the US Attorneys have attempted to insulate their boss from the political heat, with a spokesperson making pains to tell the Huffington Post they had coordinated only with the Justice Department, not the Obama administration. But it is ultimately President Obama who is in charge, and who will pay whatever political price is to be paid.
Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
Comments
 The inevitable & nefarious
The inevitable & nefarious effects of Prohibition have made us totally subordinate to a corporatized, despotic government with a heavily armed and corrupt, militarized police force whose often deadly intrusions into our homes and lives are condoned by an equally corrupt and spineless Judiciary who are intentionally protecting Transnational Corporate Institutions over Individual American Citizens.
Prisons have been filled to capacity. Violent criminals, murderers, rapists and child molesters are released early to create space for these so called drug offenders. Half of court trial time and also a huge chunk of police officers time is pointlessly wasted. Enormous untaxed profits from illegal drugs fund multi-national criminal empires which bribe law enforcement authorities and spread corruption faster than a raging bush fire. These laws take violent criminals and turn them into multi-billionaires whilst corrupting even entire countries such as Columbia, Panama, Mexico and Afghanistan. The extreme violence on and south of the border is drug gangs fighting for turf in this lucrative business. The drug laws are also funding the Taliban whose illegal opium profits allow it to buy weapons and pay it’s fighters more than $300 a month, compared with the $14 paid to an Afghan policemen.
Due to the tyrannic and mindless actions of prohibitionists, tens of millions of people world-wide (both users and non-users) have been either killed, maimed, incarcerated or had their lives very seriously disrupted. Prohibitionists are solely responsible for an immense increase in violent organized crime, an AIDS Pandemic, the undermining of international development and security and a grave abuse of human rights on a scale barely witnessed in human social history.
Corporate greed and individual bigotry have accelerated us towards a situation where all the usual peaceful and democratic methods needed to reverse the acute damage done by prohibition no longer function as envisaged by the Founding Fathers of our once great and free nation. Such a political impasse coupled with great economic tribulation is precisely that which throughout history has invariably ignited violent revolution.
In order to avert what will surely be a far more violent situation than we are already experiencing, and to restore our Republic to a system "OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE," there appears to be just one last avenue left to us – Jury Nullification. If we choose not to use this peaceful means for change then a violent solution may inevitably be forced upon us:
“To function as the founders intended, our republic requires that “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
- Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to William Stephens Smith, November 13, 1787
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.” - John F. Kennedy
Jury Nullification is a constitutional doctrine that allows juries to acquit defendants who are technically guilty, but who don’t deserve punishment. All non-violent drug offenders who are not selling to children, be they users, dealers or importers, fall into this category. If you believe that prohibition is a dangerous and counter-productive policy, then you don’t have to help to apply it. Under the Constitution, when it comes to acquittals, you the juror have the last word!
To avoid such carnage and turmoil on a scale not seen in this land since the 1860s, we may have just one last chance: If you wish to see this insane prohibition replaced by a workable policy based on science, public health and sound principles of Justice & Human Rights, one that will ensure a safe future for your children and grandchildren, PLEASE VOTE TO ACQUIT! — We must now create what we can no longer afford to wait for.
Nothing LIke a Good Chiding
Nothing like a good chiding from some nobodies (people with no money or power) to put the feds in their places. I'm sure they'll never do it again.
If marijuana is a schedule 1
If marijuana is a schedule 1 drug... where does nicotine fit in? It has no medical value, is highly addictive and results in hundreds of thousands of death annually with a huge cost to society. The tobacco whore lobbyists own Washington so the FDA will never consider scheduling it in the first place. So if nicotine is legal with its costs to society why isn't a far safer drug?
I just don't buy the "society doesn't need another 'dangerous' drug added to the mix" argument. Legalized marijuana use would be optional as is tobacco and alcohol currently... and it is so ingrained in certain segments of society it will never go away. If that weren't true it would have been gone a long time ago. It's been used by humans since time immemorial and a silly law written 74 years ago will do nothing to make it go away now. Anyone who thinks otherwise is in denial. Forfeiture laws and for profit prisons are a great incentive for the "war" to continue despite its stupidity. Follow the money, see the foolishness. We have the largest incarceration rate IN THE WORLD.
We should refuse to pay the proportion of our taxes that go toward marijuana law enforcement.
I am disappointed by Obama's commitment to have law follow science and enraged by the DOJ's disregard for states' rights. Shame on all of them.
If marijuana is a schedule 1
If marijuana is a schedule 1 drug... where does nicotine fit in? It has no medical value, is highly addictive and results in hundreds of thousands of death annually with a huge cost to society. The tobacco whore lobbyists own Washington so the FDA will never consider scheduling it in the first place. So if nicotine is legal with its costs to society why isn't a far safer drug?
I just don't buy the "society doesn't need another 'dangerous' drug added to the mix" argument. Legalized marijuana use would be optional as is tobacco and alcohol currently... and it is so ingrained in certain segments of society it will never go away. If that weren't true it would have been gone a long time ago. It's been used by humans since time immemorial and a silly law written 74 years ago will do nothing to make it go away now. Anyone who thinks otherwise is in denial. Forfeiture laws and for profit prisons are a great incentive for the "war" to continue despite its stupidity. Follow the money, see the foolishness. We have the largest incarceration rate IN THE WORLD.
We should refuse to pay the proportion of our taxes that go toward marijuana law enforcement.
I am disappointed by Obama's commitment to have law follow science and enraged by the DOJ's disregard for states' rights. Shame on all of them.
American Fed govt terrorism
American Fed govt terrorism against Americans to support big pharma, alcohol, tobacco, opposing fibre makers, cartels, etc, is outrageous and must end, anyway possible, with Ganja completely off the Fed Sched, not being toxic and with broad benefits. Big pharma greed wants the money for themselves, not the people or social benefit taxes for state govt., and uses the bought off Fed, including Obama, to get it--profits at ANY cost. And yet they only drive big money profits into prison biz and cartels-as dumb as. The current Fed Sched itself causes huge damage and death itself, while Ganja has never caused a single death from direct use?? The law is the crime! Also, alcohol and tobacco should both be on the Fed Sched, being toxic with no medical benefits-whats good in wine is available, without alcohol, in fruit juice-putting poison alcohol in fruit juice and calling it good for us is non-sensical. It is also non-sensical to pressure fibre hemp out of use with the Fed Sched-its not ingested! Duh! Obama and the Fed are IDIOTS, and clearly not working for Americans-just big opposing money, bought off SOB's! And now using miltarized police and all Fed depts to TERRORIZE AMERICANS..homeland security? Of by and for..? The Constitution? What a joke. Time to Occupy alright..or whatever it takes...
A Taste of Their Own Medicine
Identify those DEA agents involved in these raids and arrest them for violations of CA law, like armed robbery, breaking and entering, trespassing, whatever. And since those would be state and not federal charges, they of course would not be able to mention federal law or their jobs as DEA agents in state court. Seems fair and just to me. And sends a more powerful message than just being scolded in a few letters.
I hate to say this but the
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