The Feds Will Finally Be Leaving Medical Marijuana Patients Alone… Hopefully
According to a new policy guideline to be sent to federal prosecutors from President Barack Obama today, federal officials will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws. This is the complete opposite approach that George W. Bush took and I think we can all agree that we need to do everything differently from how he handled it.
Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws.
The new policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal anti-pot laws regardless of state codes.
Fourteen states allow some use of marijuana for medical purposes: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
Some of you may be wondering why I could of a picture of Obama in a cowboy hat. The answer to that is, I just thought it looked cool. Has nothing to do with the rest of the story. Getting back on topic, attorney general Eric Holder said that they would be falling back from doing raids and prosecuting patients months ago. We will see if it's for real this time.
