Whiff of change in Washington over U.S. medical marijuana policy

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Whiff of change in Washington over U.S. medical marijuana policy

Sat Feb 7, 12:52 PM

By Devlin Barrett, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The White House won't say it explicitly. Neither will

the Drug Enforcement Administration. Yet there is a whiff in the air

that U.S. policy is about to change when it comes to medical

marijuana.

The message is clear, said UCLA professor Mark Kleiman, a former

Justice Department official and an expert on crime and drug policy.

" It is no longer federal policy to beat up on hippies, " said Kleiman.

Tell that to the DEA.

In California this past week, agents raided four dispensaries in Los

Angeles and seized 225 kilograms of pot.

" It's a little bit surprising, because I think current DEA management

didn't get the message, " said Kleiman. " The message is, this is no

longer drug warrior time. We are not on a cultural crusade against

pot-smoking. "

California law permits the sale of marijuana for medical purposes,

though it is still against U.S. federal law.

Thirteen states have laws permitting medicinal use of marijuana.

California is unique among them for the presence of dispensaries,

businesses that sell marijuana and even advertise their services.

" Anyone possessing, distributing or cultivating marijuana for any

reason is in violation of federal law, " Pullen, a DEA

spokeswoman in Los Angeles, said Thursday.

That may be the law, but it contradicts the medical marijuana

position of the new president.

" The president believes that federal resources should not be used to

circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior

leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he

expects them to review their policies with that in mind, " said White

House spokesman Nick Shapiro, repeating past statements.

So on Friday, DEA officials in Washington declined to comment at all

on the subject.

As a presidential candidate, Obama repeatedly promised a change in

federal drug policy in situations where state laws allow use of

medical marijuana.

" I think the basic concept of using medical marijuana for the same

purposes and with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by

doctors, I think that's entirely appropriate, " Obama told the Mail

Tribune of Medford, Ore., in March.

A year earlier at a campaign stop in New Hampshire, Obama said: " I

would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical

marijuana users. "

At age 47, Obama is part of a generation that had plenty of exposure

to pot.

In his memoir, " Dreams from My Father, " he described time spent as a

youth struggling with questions about his race and identity, and

turning to drugs - including marijuana and cocaine - to " push

questions of who I was out of my mind. "

The new president is unlikely to make any official change in policy

before he has a new DEA chief and drug czar in place.

Yet experts believe it is already clear the Obama administration will

change the strategy, if not the law, on medical marijuana.

Philip Heymann, a former deputy attorney general in the Clinton

administration who is now a Harvard professor, said it's time for the

agency to put more effort into fighting drugs more dangerous than

marijuana.

" I do expect him to appoint an administrator who takes marijuana less

seriously than is traditional for the DEA, as I think most Americans

do, " said Heymann.

Heymann said he expects the Obama administration will eventually

instruct the DEA to emphatically scale back raids on dispensaries,

and conduct such raids only in instances where investigators believe

a business is abusing the dispensary system as a cover for other

criminal behaviour.

So last week's raids in California may be the last of their kind.

" The DEA's not likely to want to confront a new president, " said

Heymann. " It may simply be that they're behaving as they have

traditionally, and they haven't anticipated the change Obama and his

spokesman are signalling. "