On Wednesday, March 18, US Attorney General Eric Holder elaborated on his February 25 announcement of a “new American policy” regarding medical cannabis. Holder told reporters that the new policy means that the US Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will only focus on those medical cannabis providers who use state law as a “shield” for illegal activity. This new policy implies that those medical cannabis patients who obey state law will be free from federal interference and intimidation.

This is more good news for patients in the thirteen states where medical cannabis is already legal, and patients and staff at California’s legal patients’ associations are certainly breathing easier this week. It remains to be seen, however, how adept federal and state law enforcement will be in distinguishing compliant organizations from those operating outside state law. Despite guidelines published by California Attorney General Jerry Brown last year, there is still a great deal of confusion among law enforcement and elected officials about the state of the law in California.

Video: ASA Media Specialist Kris Hermes speaking in San Francisco

Advocates will have their hands full educating officials like Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, whose insistence that medical cannabis can not be acquired in storefront collectives flies in the face of the Attorney General’s position – and is hindering the city’s three-year effort to regulate hundreds of medical cannabis facilities already operating in Los Angeles. It will also be an uphill battle persuading California law enforcement officers, who have never supported medical cannabis rights, that some cannabis-related conduct is legal under state law. This misunderstanding led San Lois Obispo County Sheriff Pat Hedges to call in the DEA to bust Morro Bay collective operator Charles C. Lynch. Lynch is facing 5 to 20 years in federal prison, despite the fact that he scrupulously obeyed state and local law.

Patients and providers should temper their enthusiasm about Holder’s comments with caution about what may come next. We have to work hard to be sure that the “new American policy” works for patients and providers in the states. It is likely we will see less federal interference and intimidation, but more local scrutiny by police officers and Sheriffs with little understanding of the intricacies of our evolving state laws.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 22nd, 2009 at 1:34 pm and is filed under Medical Cannabis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.