US: MEDICAL MARIJUANA RAID RAISES QUESTION: WHAT'S OBAMA POLICY?

WASHINGTON - A recent Drug Enforcement Administration raid on a South
Lake Tahoe, Calif., medical marijuana dispensary showcases one of the
legal conflicts inherited by the Obama administration.

The Jan. 22 raid near the California-Nevada border occurred two days
after Obama took office and before the new president's own Justice
Department team was in place. The raid resembled many conducted during
the Bush administration, but seemingly clashed with Obama's campaign
opposition to such tactics.

"I think the basic concept of using medical marijuana for the same
purposes and with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by
doctors (is) entirely appropriate," Obama told Oregon's Mail Tribune
newspaper in March. "I'm not going to be using Justice Department
resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue."

Now, citing the Tahoe episode, medical marijuana activists and civil
libertarians are urging Obama to freeze future raids. Some hope, as
well, that Obama will reverse a Bush administration decision and let
additional legal marijuana production to take place.

At the very least, activists and law enforcement officials alike are
awaiting clarification about what's changed in the world of medical
marijuana. This could take time.

"We're sympathetic to the fact the administration is just getting its
feet on the ground," Marijuana Policy Project spokesman Dan Bernath
said on Thursday, "but this does show he needs to appoint folks who
will respects his principles and policies."

Attorney General Nominee Eric Holder has not yet been confirmed by the
Senate, and his proposed deputy hasn't yet had a confirmation hearing.
The phrase "medical marijuana" never came up during Holder's extensive
hearing, nor in the follow-up written questions asked by senators.

Obama has yet to nominate a permanent DEA administrator, though acting
administrator Michele Leonhart is considered one potential candidate
and would be the first African-American woman to run the agency.
Obama, likewise, has yet to nominate a new head of the White House
Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"The new drug czar could recommend policies that are more restrictive,
or more lenient," noted Bill Ruzzamenti, director of the Central
Valley High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area in California.

With federally funded staff in Sacramento and Fresno, the Central
Valley HIDTA coordinates antidrug efforts in a 10-county area. It
participated in a high-profile investigation into the California
Healthcare Collective, a Modesto-based medical marijuana dispensary
whose founders were sentenced last year to long prison terms on
charges of running a criminal enterprise.

"The ones that are targeted are the ones making millions and millions
of dollars," Ruzzamenti said.

Federal agents during the past two years similarly have raided
organizations in Bakersfield, Vallejo, San Mateo and other California
cities. The most recent raid, on South Lake Tahoe's Patient-to-Patient
Collective, seized five to 10 pounds of marijuana and a small amount
of cash, according to police reports. No arrests were made.

By one count, the DEA has raided more than 60 medical marijuana
facilities nationwide during the past two years, including a July raid
in Seattle in which agents seized hundreds of patient files. The
ongoing raids underscore a running conflict between state and federal
laws.

Through a 1996 ballot measure, approved by California voters with a 55
percent to 45 percent margin, patients can obtain medical marijuana
with doctors' permission. Ten other states, including Washington and
Nevada, have followed California's lead.

Several hundred marijuana dispensaries are now publicly listed by the
California branch of the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws, with names such as High Flight Deliveries in Stockton,
Mr. Purple Skunk in Modesto and Earth Meds in Tulare County.

These dispensaries, and their counterparts in other states, have been
on thin ice following a 2005 Supreme Court ruling that empowered
federal authorities to prosecute marijuana purveyors even in states
that permit medical marijuana use. Bush's drug czar, John Walters,
championed such prosecutions.

Leonhart, a week before Bush left office, likewise took a hard line in
issuing a 118-page decision rejecting a DEA administrative law judge's
recommendation to allow a University of Massachusetts researcher to
grow higher-quality medicinal marijuana. The American Civil Liberties
Union and medical marijuana proponents hope this last-minute
rejection, coming two years after the judge issued a positive
recommendation, is put on hold until Obama's team is fully in place.