Has Obama Broken His Promise on Medical Marijuana?

The recent Department of Justice crackdown launched on California’s medical marijuana collectives shows a lack of respect for state law and a breach of President Obama’s promise to treat the medical pot issue with tolerance, argues the libertarian monthly magazine Reason.

“Barack Obama promised a more tolerant approach to medical marijuana, saying he would not ‘circumvent state laws on this issue,’" writes Jacob Sullum in an October 12 opinion column in the magazine titled, “Read My Tea Leaves.”

You can read the column by clicking on this link—or get a gist of the opinion piece below:

Obama's Campaign Promise

Instead of keeping his 2008 campaign promise to respect state laws regarding medical marijuana and to refrain from using the Department of Justice to circumvent those laws, Obama “has delivered a crackdown more aggressive than anything seen under George W. Bush, featuring more-frequent raids, threats to landlords and banks, and ruinous IRS audits,” writes Sullum.

Adds the columnist: “Although his [Obama's] underlings occasionally pretend they are respecting state law, they clearly have no intention of doing so.”

Last week, federal prosecutors announced the prosecution of a now-defunct North Hollywood marijuana dispensary, NoHo Caregivers, on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering and for “illegally operating an enormously profitable marijuana store,” in the words of a special agent quoted in a Department of Justice news statement.

(Among other things, the indictment in the case seeks the forfeiture of $14.7 million that prosecutors allege is the value of marijuana that NoHo Caregivers trafficked—based on a conservative estimate—from mid-2008 to early 2009.)

Not-For-Profit Collectives Illegal Under State Law

U.S. attorney for the Central District of California André Birotte Jr. pointed out in a Friday news conference in Sacramento that distributing medical marijuana for a profit is illegal under state law—and his statement “seemed consistent with an October 2009 Justice Department memo announcing a policy of prosecutorial forbearance for medical marijuana providers who comply with state law,” writes Sullum.

“Yet Birotte immediately cast doubt on his respect for the will of California's voters by declaring that ‘we have yet to find a single instance in which a marijuana store was able to prove that it was a not-for-profit organization,’” adds Sullum.

In any case, “why not let California officials enforce California law?” argues Sullum. “If dispensaries do not qualify for the medical exemption, their operators can be prosecuted in state court.

Writes Sullum:

• “The Justice Department disdains such deference. Melinda Haag, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, said she will close down dispensaries that violate a federal ban on drug sales within 1,000 feet of "schools, parks, and other areas where children are present," whether not they comply with state law. She and her colleagues also claimed they were responding to nuisance complaints and violations of municipal ordinances, which is the job of local law enforcement agencies.

• "The legalization advocates misread the tea leaves," says Kevin Sabet, who served until recently as senior policy adviser to drug czar Gil Kerlikowske. "They were very excited about their prospects, and they are disappointed."