Justice Department Tells DEA To Leave Marijuana Users Alone

One of the most crucial tenets of the American government is the fact that States have the right to govern themselves.

Fourteen states have already taken this right to heart by passing legislation that allows the growth, sale and use of medical marijuana. Regardless of the fact that, according to state law, patients prescribed marijuana aren’t doing anything illegal; dispensaries, growers and patients have been continually harassed and even arrested by agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Thanks to a memo just released by the Justice Department, however, these patients and business people are no longer to be the target of federal investigations.

“Under the policy spelled out in a three-page legal memo, federal prosecutors are being told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state law.

The guidelines issued by the department do, however, make it clear that federal agents will go after people whose marijuana distribution goes beyond what is permitted under state law or use medical marijuana as a cover for other crimes” (Associated Press).

Just to give you an idea about how long overdue this decision is: Lester Grinspoon, MD, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, wrote in an Aug. 17, 2003 article published in the Boston Globe:

“Doctors and nurses have seen that for many patients, cannabis is more useful, less toxic, and less expensive than the conventional medicines prescribed for diverse syndromes and symptoms, including multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, migraine headaches, severe nausea and vomiting, convulsive disorders, the AIDS wasting syndrome, chronic pain, and many others.”
This policy change is a huge departure from the way that medical marijuana use was viewed by the last administration, which pledged to continue to vigorously pursue medical marijuana users regardless of any laws passed in the states themselves.

“This is a major step forward,” said Bruce Mirken, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project. “This change in policy moves the federal government dramatically toward respecting scientific and practical reality.”

14 states allow some use of marijuana for medical purposes: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

Image Credit: img.timeinc.net

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Lin M.

7:15PM PDT on Jun 17, 2011

Sounds like they should be able to smoke it to me. but if your lungs are bad you can kiss it goodbye.

send a green star

Jana C.

12:30PM PDT on May 22, 2010

Thank Goodness, it is "medical" here in New Mexico..let us hope MORE states get it "legalized for medicinal use", Keep the FAITH!

Misty M.

3:01PM PST on Nov 17, 2009

im just ready for my state to legalize it....i smoke daily for chronic back pain but none the less its still illegal

Brian W.

7:47PM PDT on Oct 29, 2009

Look, all im saying is, after growing up in a family riddled with "abuse" of one variety of substance or another, I can say with all honesty that Pot has been the most benign substance i have ever encountered, yet has the distinct honor of being demonized right up there with crack and meth. Talk about ridiculous. All I ever saw people do while high was laugh, eat munchies, and play video games...and this was in the teen years.

I know PLENTY of completely responsible adults who smoke pot, who hold down full time jobs, pay their bills, and are rather successful in most ventures of life.

I also know plenty of people diagnosed with this or that popular mental illness, who are on perfectly legal and perfect legit Prescription Drugs, who are so ZONED the crap out they wouldn't know it if their houses were burning down around them, and who would probably cut someones throat if their pills were taken from them.

Out of the majority of pot smokers I know, 99 percent of them are the kindest, friendliest, and mellow people I have ever met.

I smoked pot for probably 15 years, and for a time it was an every day thing. "Addiction"? Yeah I suppose its popular to call something someone enjoys doing an "Addiction", a very comfortable position to take indeed....

Look, all im saying is, perfectly free-to-grow and legal weed, is not going to destroy the society in any way shape or form more than having it illegal has done...and far less I suspect.

Astraea G.

1:34PM PDT on Oct 28, 2009

9th & 10th Amendments Reserve Rights to US the People

Robert S.

11:29PM PDT on Oct 27, 2009

9 unenumerated rights are no less important than enumerated ones

10 affirms the sovereignty of the states and makes it clear that the federal government's powers are limited to those granted in the Constitution -- that is, the states may exercise its authority even in areas where the federal government may not.

2:51PM PDT on Oct 27, 2009

The Federal Government needs an Amendment to Prohibit Drugs just like the legal Precedent of Alcohol Prohibition which increased crime, too. But even with an Amendment, it is still War v US which is Treason Also violates 9th & 10th Amendment Rights left to the People. (For those who haven't read all the comments).

MJ M.

12:45PM PDT on Oct 27, 2009

Urge Your U.S. Representative to cosponsor Truth in Trials!

One in four Americans now lives in a state with laws governing medical marijuana. Unfortunately, law-abiding citizens can still be prosecuted on federal marijuana-related charges.

Even with the Obama Administration’s new guidelines, federal prosecutors can still block defendants from showing that they were in compliance with state law.

The “Truth in Trials” Act, H.R. 3939, would end this injustice by ensuring that federal defendants could present evidence showing that they were following state law. Introduced by US Representative Sam Farr, this important legislation would give law-abiding citizens the ability to defend themselves in federal court.

Urge your Member of Congress to cosponsor "Truth in Trials" today.

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/182/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=28007

8:59AM PDT on Oct 26, 2009

This war on Drugs is a miserable failure and as it is applied to Pot use, a sad destructive joke, with the cure being far worse than the illness. The amount of damage done by its use in the Majority of users is minuscule compared to the vast destruction on lives caused by the incarceration and criminalization of thousands of who would otherwise be law biding productive and in many cases creative members of society. The ways that this policy are destructive could go on all day if I attempted to list them. Reasonable people who have no vested interest in this ongoing farce agree that the negatives of the Drug war outweigh any intended benefits by a tremendous margin especially applied to Marijuana which has many beneficial uses medically in addition to being relatively harmless generally. The fact is we have not stopped its use. Far from it So even if that end were a good thing the policy would be a failure. People have always and will always seek to alter how they feel. The destructive nature of some drugs it can be argued might warrant control, but Pot is not one of them. This is clear from many unbiased studies and years of personal use by yours truly.

Christopher D.

11:45PM PDT on Oct 25, 2009

Let's get something straight here. I've quit smoking weed for many months at a time, just to prove to myself that I could. Psychological addiction is a crock of shit, if you want to quit you can. I have plenty of hobbies... photography among them. I refuse to acknowledge any information put out by the american government about marijuana (a schedule 1 substance [meaning it can't be researching within american borders]) simply due to their track record. If you'd like to reference some european studies on marijuana use in consenting adults you may find most if not all american studies to be quite flawed.

Case in point: NIDA study a few years back on MDMA use. Extremely flawed.... Firstly they used Reese's Monkeys. Secondly they administered these poor critters with (if i remember correctly) 5gms of pharma grade MDMA a day. Result: severely brain damaged monkeys.

Fact of the matter: The average MDMA user ingests around 350mg of MDMA in a dose, so they gave a 5lb monkey 12x the recreational dose for humans.

So why don't you check out www.erowid.org to find some reliable references.

On another note, the US gov't issued a permit for the University of Missouri over a decade ago to supply medical marijuana to a small group of patients with prescriptions. Go to google an check it out.

That is all... no point in engaging in a battle of wits with an unarmed man.