FEDS: POT LAW IS STATE'S PROBLEM

Warning To Medical Users Is 'Speculation'

Sunday, June 03, 2001 - If Gov. Bill Owens and Attorney General Ken
Salazar have a problem with the state's new medical marijuana law, they
shouldn't look to federal prosecutors for the solution, Colorado's U.S.
attorney said.

"Neither the governor nor the attorney general should engage in
unfounded speculation about who might be prosecuted in federal court,"
Richard Spriggs, acting U.S. attorney for Colorado, said in a prepared
statement issued late Friday.

Spriggs' remarks were a blunt response to an earlier statement from
Salazar, in which the attorney general said a recent U.S. Supreme Court
decision doesn't invalidate Colorado's marijuana law.

Salazar also said he had called on Spriggs to "enforce federal law," and
stated that he had warned doctors they could face federal prosecution if
they participate in the medical marijuana program.

"We in the U.S. Attorney's Office are truly grateful to Governor Owens
and Attorney General Salazar for sharing their problem with us," Spriggs
said. "We, however, are not the solution to their problem. That solution
(if there is one) lies with the 22 duly elected district attorneys and
local police."

The exchange - via faxed statements - was triggered by the U.S. Supreme
Court. Last month, the high court ruled that there is no exception in
federal anti-drug laws for medical use of marijuana. In that California
case, the court upheld federal prosecutors' right to close down cannabis
buyers' clubs despite a state law allowing medical marijuana use.

The ruling sparked speculation that Colorado's Amendment 20, approved by
voters last November and opposed by both Owens and Salazar, might not
hold up to judicial scrutiny.

The amendment lets people petition the state to be included on a
registry of patients allowed to possess up to two ounces of marijuana,
or a few marijuana plants. To be included on that registry, applicants
must have one of a handful of specified illnesses, and must have a
doctor verify their condition and sign a statement saying that they
might benefit from smoking marijuana.

Last month, Salazar's office reviewed Amendment 20, and the Supreme
Court ruling, and concluded that Colorado's constitutional amendment
should stand.

At the same time, Salazar sent a letter to the Colorado Medical Society,
warning that doctors who recommend marijuana for patients could face
federal prosecution.

But Friday, Alan Gilbert, Colorado solicitor general, confirmed that
while the attorney general's office might encourage federal prosecutors
to go after doctors, they couldn't do much to aid such prosecutions.

Amendment 20 calls for the medical marijuana registry to be confidential
- - including the names of doctors who sign the applications, Gilbert
said.

And the attorney general's office likely would fight any attempt to
subpoena that information, he said.

"We will defend as vigorously as we can the confidentiality of the
registry," Gilbert said.

"I don't think that's a conflict," he said. "In order to enforce against
doctors, the prosecuting authority would have to find out somehow
(doctors' names). They just can't find out this way."

Federal law prohibits possession and sale of marijuana, and labels it a
class-one narcotic - putting it in the same category as heroin and LSD.

Colorado, like most states, has its own set of drug laws.

There are many cases where states and the federal government have
complementary sets of laws, said Dick Weatherbee, law enforcement
coordinator for the U.S. attorney's office in Colorado.

Theoretically, someone who possesses or is selling illegal drugs is
eligible to be prosecuted by state or federal authorities, Weatherbee
said.

Who prosecutes the case often depends on which agency uncovers the drug
activity - if a local police department makes the arrest, a local
prosecutor usually handles the case. If a federal agency, like the Drug
Enforcement Agency, handles the investigation, it is usually turned over
to federal prosecutors.

Cases involving very large amounts of drugs, or where a suspected wide
distribution network is uncovered, often fall under federal
jurisdiction.

Despite all the questions it has raised, Amendment 20 took effect Friday
as scheduled.

The state health department, which is overseeing the program, mailed out
about 75 information and application packets in the weeks leading up to
the law's implementation.

Before the year is out, the department expects to handle about 800.