OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO STOP RAIDS ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSERS

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Wednesday
outlined a shift in the enforcement of federal drug laws, saying the
administration would effectively end the Bush administration's
frequent raids on distributors of medical marijuana.

Speaking with reporters, Mr. Holder provided few specifics but said
the Justice Department's enforcement policy would now be restricted
to traffickers who falsely masqueraded as medical dispensaries and
"use medical marijuana laws as a shield."

In the Bush administration, federal agents raided medical marijuana
distributors that violated federal statutes even if the dispensaries
appeared to be complying with state laws. The raids produced a flood
of complaints, particularly in California, which in 1996 became the
first state to legalize marijuana sales to people with doctors' prescriptions.

Graham Boyd, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union drug
law project, said Mr. Holder's remarks created a reasonable balance
between conflicting state and federal laws and "seem to finally end
the policy war over medical marijuana." He said officials in
California and the 12 other states that have authorized the use of
medical marijuana had hesitated to adopt regulations to carry out
their laws because of uncertainty created by the Bush administration.

Mr. Holder said the new approach was consistent with statements made
by President Obama in the campaign and was based on an assessment of
how to allocate scarce enforcement resources. He said dispensaries
operating in accord with California law would not be a priority for
the administration.

Mr. Holder's comments appeared to be an effort to clarify the policy
after some news reports last month interpreted his answer to a
reporter's question to be a flat assertion that all raids on
marijuana growers would cease. Department officials said Mr. Holder
had not intended to assert any policy change last month but was
decidedly doing so on Wednesday.

Ethan Nadelmann, the founder of the Drug Policy Alliance, said Mr.
Holder was telling the Drug Enforcement Administration that it should
leave legitimate growers of medical marijuana untouched. "The message
from the Bush Justice Department was 'watch out -- we have the
authority to go after everybody,' " he said.

On other matters, in his first wide-ranging conversation with
reporters as attorney general, Mr. Holder said the Justice Department
was still reviewing the case files of detainees held at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, to determine whether they could be released or would be
tried in a civilian criminal court or some other legal forum. He said
it was possible that some detainees like the Uighurs held in Cuba
could be released into the United States.

He also said the department was "monitoring" developments related to
accusations of abuse of detainees by the Central Intelligence Agency,
but stopped short of endorsing the appointment of a special
prosecutor. "We will let the law and facts take us to wherever we
need to go," he said.

Mr. Holder said the department should be open to preserving a healthy
newspaper industry. He said he would consider adjusting enforcement
of antitrust statutes if that would help news organizations develop
collective distribution systems.