Put Your Lighters Up for the Justice Department

Posted on 20. Oct, 2009 by Kaili Boyd in Uncategorized

Yesterday, US Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., issued a memorandum to the 14 states with medical    marijuana laws under their jurisdiction, stating that the government will not prosecute users and    distributors on the Federal level.  Weather the reason for this is because the Feds have more pressing  issues at stake, or this is a small step on the road to full scale legalization remains to be seen. I for one  applaud the Obama administration for taking a states rights stance on this issue. It is a step in the right  direction, although we are long way from federally legalizing marijuana for medicinal use, let alone  passing the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2009, introduced to the House by Barney Frank and Ron Paul. Even though some law-makers feel the Justice Departments current views on the subject weakens enforcement of federal drug laws, there are more pressing issues at stake for the DEA. The production and sale of Methamphetamines with its wider-reaching effects to public health is still a grave issue and there is a growing epidemic of teenage heroin use in suburban communities across the United States.  

For now, I am at least satisfied that peoples use of pot for pain and those who supply them, will not be subjected to Federal scrutiny and undo pursecution.

“For now, Federal law is blind to the wisdom of a future day when the right to use medical marijuana to alleviate excrutiating pain may be deemed fundamental. Although the day ha not yet dawned, considering that during the last ten years 11 states have legalized the use of Medical Marijuana, that day may be upon us sooner than expected”

– Ninth Circut Court of Appeals, Riach vs Gonzalez, March 2007