"New" med-pot regulations? Nope.

----- Original Message -----

From: "Preston Peet"

To: <DrugWar@mindvox.com>; <ibogaine@mindvox.com>

Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 12:24 PM

Subject: [DrugWar] new med-pot regulations

>I suppose you've all heard this news by now, but still....
>
> http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=afUo1a.VfXKs
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These new guidelines do not represent new regulations in any remote way. All this is is a statement, a weak guideline that maybe prosecuting patients should be taken advisedly. Period.

It does not order a stop to arrests, it does not make ganja legal, in fact, it is about worth as much as the paper it was originally printed on.

The feds' statement http://blogs.usdoj.gov/blog/archives/192 includes these great lines:

"The Department of Justice is committed to the enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act in all States. Congress has determined that marijuana is a dangerous drug, and the illegal distribution and sale of marijuana is a serious crime and provides a significant source of revenue to large-scale criminal enterprises, gangs, and cartels. One timely example underscores the importance of our efforts to prosecute significant marijuana traffickers: marijuana distribution in the United States remains the single largest source of revenue for the Mexican cartels."

Sounds like the are only hedging a little, playing head games - note the standard modern scare lines that ganja supports Mexican terrorists.

"On the other hand, prosecution of commercial enterprises that unlawfully market and sell marijuana for profit continues to be an enforcement priority of the Department."

All those "medical" dispensaries...Los Angeles County D.A. prepares to crack down on pot outlets -- latimes.com

"This guidance regarding resource allocation does not "legalize" marijuana or provide a legal defense to a violation of federal law, nor is it intended to create any privileges, benefits, or rights, substantive or procedural, enforceable by any individual, party or witness in any administrative, civil, or criminal matter. Nor does clear and unambiguous compliance with state law or the absence of one or all of the above factors create a legal defense to a violation of the Controlled Substances Act. Rather, this memorandum is intended solely as a guide to the exercise of investigative and prosecutorial discretion."

AND

"...nothing herein precludes investigation or prosecution where there is a reasonable basis to believe that compliance with state law is being invoked as a pretext for the production or distribution of marijuana for purposes not authorized by state law. Nor does this guidance preclude investigation or prosecution, even when there is clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state law, in particular circumstances where investigation or prosecution otherwise serves important federal interests."

 

So, all of those dispensaries that the DA has declared to be illegal in LA will remain federal targets. All of those people who make noise the feds do not like will still be targeted. Anything that they want to use can and will be used against you in a court of law.

Sorry, Preston, and all the Obamabots and NORML lovers, this is not even a change in policy. This does nothing to change the law or how people will be prosecuted.

This is subterfuge at best; something to hide behind and pretend things are getting better. Let me know when the federal prosecutions actually stop.

At worse, this is a conspiracy to encourage more states to undermine their own medical necessity defenses that protect all patients, limit what patients are protected by passing limited "medical" marijuana laws, further criminalize religious and recreational consumers, and step up more prosecutions of recreational and religious consumers as they have already started doing in the states that have passed "medical" marijuana laws. At worst, this is a stalking horse to new criminal prosecutions of recreational and religious ganja consumers.

Don't take this mere press statement at face value, unless Jester is your name. For, surely only a clown believes this is actually benevolent. The federal government has a history of ignoring these statements. It could go away on any cop's or agent's whim.

Now is the time to step up demands for re-legalization, not fall into the "medical" marijuana traps being laid for us.

The inclusion of language in Delaware's SB 94 to look into setting up a dispensary system is already moot, since the federal Supreme Court has already said such dispensaries are illegal.

I have not heard one cogent reason for supporting Senate Bill 94. I am a chronic pain sufferer due to severe spine damage. I was one of the original handful of complainants in the Philadelphia Federal Class Action for Cannabis Therapeutics suing the federal government to rescind cannabis prohibition. I have been active in lowering Delaware's ganja related arrest rate to three thousandths of what it was in 1968.

Do not throw the progress we've made into the trash heap with SB 94. Do NOT support Senate Bill 94. Instead, demand that the defacto legalization we are already enjoying in Delaware is made into law.