U.S. won't prosecute medical pot sales (LAT)

[kpete]

The statement by Eric H. Holder Jr. represents a landmark shift from the Bush administration's zero tolerance toward the use of pot by people with cancer and other serious ailments.

By Josh Meyer and Scott Glover
March 19, 2009

Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington -- U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. said Wednesday that the Justice Department has no plans to prosecute pot dispensaries that are operating legally under state laws in California and a dozen other states -- a development that medical marijuana advocates and civil libertarians hailed as a sweeping change in federal drug policy.

In recent months, Obama administration officials have indicated that they planned to take a hands-off approach to such clinics, but Holder's comments -- made at a wide-ranging briefing with reporters -- offered the most detailed explanation to date of the changing priorities toward the controversial prosecutions.

The Bush administration targeted medical marijuana distributors even in states that had passed laws allowing use of the drug for medical purposes by cancer patients, those dealing with chronic pain or other serious ailments. Holder said the priority of the new administration is to go after egregious offenders operating in violation of both federal and state law, such as those being used as fronts for drug dealers.

"Those are the organizations, the people, that we will target," the attorney general said.

more at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-medpot19-2009mar19,0,4987571.story

[Zhade]

1. Not just b*s* -- Clinton before him, too.

More people wound up in jail for pot under him than any prior president.

And all over a medically-proven beneficial herb.

Thank goodness for a good FIRST STEP.

[Traveling_Home]

2. NEW MEXICO US Forest Service says they will arrest Medical Marijuana Patients in National Forests..

I'm a Colorado Medical Marijuana Patient and plan on spending a lot of time in the National Forests in Colorado and New Mexico this summer. I received a ticket for marijuana possession last year while in a National Forest.


I contacted Judith Yandoh, Southwestern Regional Office, in Albuquerque.

I wanted to know, in light of the President's new policies on medical marijuana, would the Forest Service continue to ticket and make arrests of medical marijuana patients on Public lands in National Forests.

New Mexico is a new medical marijuana state. Colorado is a medical marijuana state.

Judith Yandoh says that USFS Law Enforcement will continue to ARREST MEDICAL MARIJUANA PATIENTS IN NEW MEXICO NATONAL FORESTS!

IT'S STILL AGAINST THE LAW!

Be careful out there kids.

Call Newspapers, Call The Forest Service.

Call the President.

It ain't right.

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