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Obama Drama

Patients and activists unite against the feds for “Medical Marijuana Week”
 

When Obama became president in 2008, many American voters expected that he would order the Department of Justice to quit raiding medical cannabis clinics. During one speech in August of 2007, he practically made it a campaign platform.

“I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana users. It’s not a good use of our

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Patients and activists unite against the feds for “Medical Marijuana Week”

 

When Obama became president in 2008, many American voters expected that he would order the Department of Justice to quit raiding medical cannabis clinics. During one speech in August of 2007, he practically made it a campaign platform.

“I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana users. It’s not a good use of our resources,” became the big quote for patients everywhere who were hoping for change and just wanted access to cheap, reliable, safe medicine.

Unfortunately, once elected Obama flip-flopped. Since his election, nearly 200 raids have occurred involving paramilitary tactics resulting in 60 federal indictments against non-violent individuals who were often completely within their rights according to state law.

“President Obama’s most widespread and cynical attack so far has been direct threats from more than a dozen of his U.S. Attorneys against elected officials in at least 10 medical marijuana states,” says Steph Sherer, executive director of Americans for Safe Access (ASA), one of the country’s largest medical marijuana advocacy groups.

“The intensity and breadth of the attacks has far surpassed anything we saw under the Bush Administration and has resulted in the roll-back of numerous local and state laws,” Sherer says. Just recently, Delaware had to suspend the state’s medical cannabis program after numerous threatening letters from the Department of Justice.

In response to these attacks and to defend patients’ rights, ASA recently organized nearly a dozen rallies across the United States as part of “Medical Marijuana Week.” Thousands of activists, advocates and supporters in cities like Corona del Mar, San Diego, San Francisco, Phoenix and Seattle hit the streets to draw attention to the issue.

Aside from requesting that the Obama administration end its attacks on medical cannabis patients, protestors also requested that cannabis be officially rescheduled as a medicine instead of a harmful drug similar to heroin.

ASA has recently filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration’s potential violation of the Tenth Amendment by interfering with the legal implementation of state medical cannabis laws.

The Tenth Amendment—part of the Bill of Rights—guarantees that “ . . . powers not granted to the federal government nor prohibited to the States by the Constitution are reserved to the States or the people,” therefore protecting medical cannabis laws in places like California, Colorado or Washington where voters have legalized it.

Kris Hermes, ASA’s media specialist, believes that in this election year the President’s attacks on the rights of patients only turns away potential voters. “Obama has a lot to answer for,” Hermes says. “I think the decision to go after medical marijuana states and the laws of those states are imprudent politically. This is an issue that has 80 percent of the people in America supporting it.”

Hermes believes that Obama should just keep his original promise to leave medical cannabis clinics that are operating legally alone.

“Maybe there’s a perception by his administration that he doesn’t have enough of a reputation for being tough on crime, even though medical marijuana is not criminal behavior,” Hermes says.

Regardless of why the Obama administration has changed its stance, Hermes points out that patients are feeling betrayed and voting booths will reflect the anger.

“He should certainly be keeping his promise,” he says.

Yesterday’s Gone

The feds aren’t always a cluster when it comes to MMJ. Back in 2009, then-Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, in his “Ogden memo,” advised federal law enforcement officials that “caregivers” who operate in “clear and unambiguous compliant with existing state law” could be left alone, suggesting “investigative and prosecutorial resources” be used for other matters. Those were the days . . .

 

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