MALAGA, N.M. â Agents with a regional drug task force raided Leonard Frenchâs home in southeastern New Mexico on Tuesday and seized several marijuana plants [Ed., it was actually just 6 seedlings]
But the wheelchair-bound man said heâs certified by the state Health Department to possess and smoke marijuana for medical reasons. The 44-year-old lost the use of his legs about 20 years ago as the result of a motorcycle crash and now suffers from chronic pain and muscle spasms. [Santa Fe New Mexican]Normally, the DEA would avoid this kind of bad publicity. But since New Mexico's medical marijuana program just started, they're trying to intimidate patients and confuse legislators in other prospective medical marijuana states:
A press release jointly issued by the Pecos Valley Drug Task Force illustrates the political nature of the raid, reading in part, "Citizens of New Mexico need to be aware that they can still be prosecuted on the federal level even though New Mexico has a law permitting marijuana for medicinal use." [DPA]
Drug warriors keep arguing that medical marijuana laws create conflict between state and federal laws, but all they have to do is stop arresting threatening patients and there'd be no problem. They're creating confusion and then citing that confusion as an argument against state laws that protect patients. Meanwhile, sick people like Leonard French are caught in the crossfire, and countless other patients are afraid to try medicine that could help them.
Revealingly, Mr. French has not yet been charged with a crime. You see, DEA is tough enough to arrest wheelchair-bound medical marijuana patients, and even boast about its authority to continue doing so. All of that serves their interest in scaring people and creating doubt as more and more states pass laws to protect their citizens from precisely this sort of foul treatment. But they won't actually try to put him in jail because that would be just hideous.
So the real message here, for those reading between the lines, is that the feds aren't always going to enforce federal law. And that tells you everything you need to know about the debate over medical marijuana. This is all a big stupid publicity stunt, and while there are casualties to be sure (getting arrested and losing your medicine does suck), the whole "conflict with federal law" argument is largely a hoax.
Regardless, we cannot tolerate any federal efforts to scare people out of treating their illnesses with doctor recommended medicine that is legal in their state. That is obscene, and it's no surprise presidential candidates are lining up in opposition to it.
Update: My mistake. Leonard French wasn't taken into custody, so "arrested" was the wrong way to describe what happened to him. I've updated the post accordingly. It's important, because patients in New Mexico should understand that you're not in any great danger if you choose to participate in the medical marijuana program. I should have been more careful about this, because I certainly don't want to perpetuate these intimidation tactics. The fact that he wasn't even arrested is significant.
Would it surprise you to learn that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is refusing to allow medical marijuana research to move forward â despite a clear recommendation from its own administrative law judge to let such research happen?
If youâre like me, this will be just the latest outrage from the same agency that insists on terrorizing and arresting medical marijuana patients and providers who are complying with state law and their doctorsâ advice.
Would you please take one minute to ask your U.S. House member to direct the DEA to permit medical marijuana research to move forward? MPPâs online action center has done all the work for you; just click a few buttons and your letter will be sent.
(Congress provides the DEA with 100% of its funding â all of it taxpayer money â so the DEA is more likely to listen to members of Congress than just about anyone else.)
In February of this year, DEA Administrative Law Judge Mary Bittner recommended that Professor Lyle Craker and the University of Massachusetts be granted a license to grow research-grade marijuana that would be used in FDA- and DEA-approved clinical studies into marijuanaâs therapeutic uses, noting that it would be âin the public interestâ to do so. But the DEA has ignored her recommendation and continued to block the research.
And earlier this month, during a hearing before the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, DEA official Joseph Rannazzisi refused to commit to a timeline for ruling on the University of Massachusettsâ application ... even implying that the DEA might just wait until after a new presidential administration takes power in January 2009!
This is the height of hypocrisy. The DEA continually cites insufficient research as a reason for keeping medical marijuana illegal â while simultaneously blocking the very research thatâs needed to persuade the FDA to approve marijuana as a prescription medicine.
How can the DEA hide behind the FDA in arguing against medical marijuana access, and then block any attempt to move marijuana through the FDA approval process?
Would you please take one minute to ask your U.S. House member to stop letting politics interfere with research into the medicinal value of marijuana?
Thank you,
Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.
What happens when qualified medical marijuana patients have encounters with law enforcement? Too often, their state-legal medicine is confiscated and not returned, even once it is determined that they are operating within the limits of the law. For more than two years, ASA has been leading a campaign to correct that injustice, helping patients get court orders for the return of their medical marijuana and even getting a fundamental change of policy from the California Highway Patrol, who was once one of the worst offenders. ASA has now taken that fight to the state court of appeals, arguing that patients who have committed no crime are always entitled to return of their property.