CALIFORNIA MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES CHEER U.S. SHIFT ON RAIDS

SAN FRANCISCO -- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement
that the federal government will no longer raid medical-marijuana
dispensaries was cheered by California dealers as well as state
legislators who seek to legalize and tax sales of the drug.

Under the Bush administration, the Drug Enforcement Agency raided
dispensaries across the country. Such seizures were especially common
in California, which in 1996 became the first state to legalize
marijuana sales to people with doctor's prescriptions -- in
opposition to federal laws banning any use of the drug.

The attorney general signaled recently that states will be able to
set their own medical-marijuana laws, which President Barack Obama
said during his campaign that he supported. What Mr. Obama said then
"is now American policy," Mr. Holder said.

"We may be seeing the end of an era," said Rob MacCoun, a law
professor who studies drug policy at the University of California,
Berkeley. "It's not likely to be a priority for the Obama administration."

That news relieved Kevin Reed, who owns the Green Cross, a
medical-marijuana-delivery service in San Francisco. He said he
wasn't too concerned about raids because they usually target large
dispensaries that "get out of control" with high traffic and cash
flow. But federal seizures were constantly "in the back of your
head," Mr. Reed said.

Mr. MacCoun said the Obama administration's stance may help to
legitimize a "quasi-legal" marijuana culture in California. The state
has as many as 200,000 medical-marijuana users, the most out of the
13 states that allow such use of the drug.

The state law doesn't specify for what ailments the drug can be
prescribed. Californians who seek out certain doctors can easily
obtain a prescription for marijuana use; some high-school students do
this as soon as they turn 18.

Mr. Holder's announcement also was praised by backers of a proposal
to legalize sales of marijuana for recreational use in California.
Democrat Tom Ammiano, an assemblyman from San Francisco, introduced
the bill, which proposes regulating the drug like alcohol, allowing
its sales to people ages 21 and older. "This is a significant step,"
Mr. Ammiano said. "There's a lot of support for the bill, and the
context of the conversation is going to change."

Mr. Ammiano's office has estimated that marijuana is a $14 billion
crop in California. Taxing the drug $50 an ounce, it said, would
generate more than $1 billion annually for a cash-strapped state that
closed a $42 billion budget deficit just last month.

The proposal faces opposition from police groups and other state
legislators. "Legalizing marijuana would be a horrible thing to do to
our communities," said Jeff Miller, a Republican assemblyman from
Corona. "It would be the springboard for other problems, and that's
just not the right thing to do for our children."

The federal government may also challenge the bill if it passes. "No
one should assume that just because the Obama administration is
tolerant of medical marijuana, that they'll be as tolerant of
recreational marijuana," said Mr. MacCoun, the Berkeley professor.

Thad Kousser, a political-science professor at the University of
California, San Diego, said he thinks the proposal won't get that
far, calling it a "press release" meant to spark debate. The
professor's prediction: "The bill's going to go up in smoke."