The stars may be aligning on the issue of medical marijuana. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced today (I first saw this on OpenLeft) that enforcement of the nation’s drug laws would be state matters, opening up the possibility that New Jersey’s medical marijuana law — should it get through the Senate and be signed by the governor — will have the real force of law.
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.”
Under the Clinton and Bush administrations, state medical marijuana laws were rendered meaningless.
The federal government has fought state medicinal pot laws since Californians voted in 1996 to repeal criminal penalties for medical use of marijuana.
President Bill Clinton’s administration won a Supreme Court case, originating in Oakland, that allowed federal authorities to shut down nonprofit organizations that supplied medical marijuana to their members. Clinton’s Justice Department was thwarted by federal courts in an attempt to punish California doctors who recommended marijuana to their patients.
President George W. Bush’s administration went further, raiding medical marijuana growers and clinics, prosecuting suppliers under federal drug laws after winning another Supreme Court case and pressuring commercial property owners to evict marijuana dispensaries by threatening legal action.
This policy never made much sense — neither from a medical nor from a law-enforcement point of view.
Hank Kalet 