Lit_Match

Tide Turning Against Feds in Medical Marijuana - thanks to Libertarians!
05-02-08|ThirdPartyWatch.com|by Steve Kubby

Is the tide finally turning against the Feds in their feud with California over medical marijuana? It certainly looks like 2008 will be the year that California tells the DEA to GO AWAY! Big changes are happening this year and Libertarians deserver credit for their role in turning the tide against the Feds.

It’s been over ten years since I played a key role in the drafting and passage of Prop. 215, the historic California voter initiative that legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes. During that time, I have represented the American Medical Marijuana Association in private meetings with various government officials, from Attorney General Janet Reno to judges, sheriffs, district attorneys and state legislators. All of them have told me the same thing: “At first, we thought medical marijuana was a fraud and a scam, but now we know it’s real and it’s not going away.”

It’s been a long, slow process of acceptance—until 2008. This year has seen an extraordinary level of change and acceptance of medical marijuana. Incoming US Attorney for Northern California Joseph Russoniello held his first press briefing January 31st of this year, and during that briefing, he admitted that raiding and prosecuting medical marijuana providers is a waste of resources.

“We could spend a lifetime closing dispensaries and doing other kinds of drugs, enforcement actions, bringing cases and prosecuting people, shoveling sand against the tide. It would be terribly unproductive and probably not an efficient use of precious federal resources,” said Russoniello. Since making that statement, there has not been a single raid against a Northern California medical cannabis dispensary (MCD).

On April 2, 2008, the Los Angeles City Council voted 9-1 to give its support to a state resolution seeking federal recognition of California’s voter-approved measure legalizing medical marijuana use.
Senate Joint Resolution 20, authored by state Sen. Carole Migden, D- San Francisco, calls on the federal government to enact legislation requiring the Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies to “respect the compassionate use laws of states, including returning any assets seized from medical marijuana dispensaries.”

There are 183 registered MCDs in the city of Los Angeles, according to City Councilman Dennis Zine. An estimated 250,000 Californians use medical marijuana to relieve aliments associated with AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis and other chronic conditions.

“This is not about getting high. This is not about drug dealing on the street corners. This is about the Compassionate Use Act,” said Zine, who is a former member of the LAPD.

On April 10th of this year, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom issued a letter to Congressman John Conyers. Jr., Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, urging investigation into the tactics of the Drug Enforcement Administration to undermine California’s state medical marijuana laws.

In Newsom’s letter, the Mayor expressed his support for the State’s medical cannabis laws, San Francisco’s patient identification card program and MCD regulations. He also extended his support to the patients, caregivers, physicians and the landowners who rent to the MCDs.

Mayor Newsom condemned the DEA for threatening landlords with asset forfeiture and imprisonment and for interfering with the implementation of state and local laws. He is urging Congress to do something about it.

Mayor Newsom’s letter is the fifth in a string of requests already sent to Conyers by the mayors of Berkeley, Oakland, Santa Cruz and West Hollywood.

“It’s good to see that local and regional leadership is all on the same page on this issue,” said Michael Hunt, spokesperson for Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums. “It’s the responsibility of the state and local governments to uphold the will of voters and adopt sensible guidelines to regulate the provision of medical cannabis in our communities.”

Libertarians in California and in DC have played a valuable, but largely unrecognized role in the legalization of cannabis for medical purposes. Libertarians like Judge Gray and Medical Cannabis pioneer Lynnette Shaw, deserve our highest praise for their important role in this fight.

We also remember that it was Ron Crickenberger, who as the Libertarian Party’s national political director, teamed with medical marijuana patient Cheryl Miller, to create television ads featuring a bed-ridden Miller asking Congressional Drug Warrior Bob Barr, “Why do you want to put me in jail, Bob?”

Fortunately, Bob Barr got the message and has worked diligently, as a Libertarian, to defend medical marijuana. Thanks Bob.

Sick, disabled and dying patients who require medical cannabis, are safer today, because of the extraordinary and generous work by members of the Libertarian Party.

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Donation links to NORML (The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) | MPP (Marijuana Policy Project)