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WTF DOJ?!?!

ACLU questions Obama and the Justice Department on their medical marijuana flip-flop

By David Jenison

 

At the recent White House Correspondents’ Dinner, comedian Seth Meyers joked that he knew who could beat President Obama in next year’s election. The SNL star quipped, “I’ll tell you who could beat yo

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ACLU questions Obama and the Justice Department on their medical marijuana flip-flop

By David Jenison

 

At the recent White House Correspondents’ Dinner, comedian Seth Meyers joked that he knew who could beat President Obama in next year’s election. The SNL star quipped, “I’ll tell you who could beat you: 2008 Barack Obama. You would have loved him.”

The roar of laughter reinforced the point, namely that the president with the most votes in U.S. history no longer looks like the candidate who won them. One such example is states’ rights for medical marijuana. In spring 2008, then-Senator Obama claimed, “I’m not going to use Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws,” and after taking office, Obama and the Justice Department said they’d no longer go after facilities in medical marijuana states. Why then did U.S. attorneys recently threaten civil and criminal prosecution for operating such a facility? One such threatening letter even implied that state employees could be targeted simply for following state law and issuing a license. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) wants answers.

In a May 9 memo to Attorney General Eric Holder, the ACLU called the letters “inconsistent with both sound policy and the Department’s articulated position that it will respect the laws of states whose voters have recognized marijuana as a medicine.” The organization highlighted a landmark 2009 memo by David Ogden, then-Deputy Attorney General, which said U.S. attorneys “should not focus federal resources [on] individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.” The ACLU compared this to the recent letters that show “the federal government’s enforcement policies now include ‘vigorously enforcing’ federal drug laws against individuals and entities . . . in full compliance with state medical marijuana laws.” The memo calls for unambiguous clarification of the DOJ position and accuses it of “obstructionism” for “using its law enforcement and prosecutorial functions to undermine the outcome of lengthy and public legislative processes by various sovereign states.”

But here is where the memo flashes its teeth. The ACLU voluntarily dismissed a lawsuit against the federal government following the Ogden Memo. The case stemmed from a 2002 raid on a Santa Cruz medical marijuana garden and argued that “the federal government had selectively enforced federal marijuana laws in an improper federal attempt to undermine and disable the functioning of state medical marijuana laws.” The Ogden Memo seemed to provide the protections the ACLU ultimately sought so the organization dropped the lawsuit with the stipulation that it could “reinstitute this case” if the government did not live up to Ogden’s promises. In other words, by referencing this lawsuit and asking why these promises have been broken, the ACLU is setting the stage to head back to court. As Stephen Colbert would say, “The DOJ has been put on notice.”

In related news, several governors are addressing the legal threats in their own ways. Washington state Governor Chris Gregoire plans to “use her position as chair of the National Governor’s Association to lead an effort to change marijuana federal classification” to that of most prescription painkillers. Likewise, Delaware and Vermont state governments both seem intent on standing up to the DOJ by continuing to implement recent medical marijuana legislation. It makes one wonder just how busy the ACLU lawyers are about to become.

 

www.aclu.org.

 


Reversal of Fortunes

 

Naturally, besides governors and other state and local officials, MMJ activists and advocates have joined in calling out the Obama administration’s change of tact. In an op-ed piece in the Huffington Post written by the Pennsylvania-based Common Sense for Drug Policy, the group declared, “Attorney General [Eric] Holder—America needs real justice leadership. We need a leader who will help the country face up to its mass incarceration problem and its misuse of law enforcement to incarcerate people who grow a plant or smoke an herb.”

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