DISPENSERS OF MARIJUANA FIND RELIEF IN POLICY SHIFT

LOS ANGELES -- The air inside the Los Angeles Patients and Caregivers
Group was pungent with the aroma of premium hydroponic marijuana, but
the proprietor, Don Duncan, said on Thursday that he was breathing a
bit easier.

A day before, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. had said that the
federal authorities would no longer take action against medical
marijuana dispensaries if they were in compliance with state and local laws.

While 13 states, including California, have laws allowing medical use
of marijuana, they had not been recognized by the federal government.
One of Mr. Duncan's two marijuana dispensaries was a target, in 2007,
of one of the scores of raids involving medical marijuana that the
Drug Enforcement Administration conducted in Los Angeles during the
Bush administration.

Mr. Duncan, a founder of Americans for Safe Access, a medical
marijuana advocacy group, said he was meeting with officials at City
Hall at the time of the raid, trying to work out a local ordinance
under Proposition 215, which allows the medical use of marijuana.

"I got a call and found out they smashed through our window and pried
open the back door," Mr. Duncan said. Since then, he has operated
only one dispensary, fearing he could again be a target of the
federal authorities.

Mr. Holder's statement that he would not authorize raids on medical
marijuana dispensaries appeared to shift Justice Department policy,
at least rhetorically, away from the Bush administration's stated
policy of zero tolerance for marijuana, regardless of state laws.
Advocates of medical marijuana welcomed the change.

But conversations with government officials on Thursday revealed
disagreement within the administration about how great a shift Mr.
Holder's statements represent.

A spokesman for the drug enforcement agency, Garrison Courtney,
pointed out that the attorney general's statement indicated that the
federal authorities would continue to go after marijuana dispensaries
that broke state and federal laws by selling to minors, selling
excessive amounts or selling marijuana from unsanctioned growers.

Mr. Courtney said that the agency had raided only a fraction of the
thousands of marijuana dispensaries now operating and that agents had
used discretion to go after only the worst offenders.

Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the United States attorney in Los
Angeles, said his office had prosecuted only four medical marijuana
dispensary cases since the passage of Proposition 215, a 1996 ballot
measure that made California the first state to legalize medical
marijuana. That measure set off a decade-long fight over several legal issues.

The case of Charles Lynch, a dispensary operator whose business was
raided on the same day as Mr. Duncan's, was the most prominent. Mr.
Lynch was convicted and will be sentenced on Monday in federal court.
He faces a minimum of five years in federal prison for charges that
included selling to a minor under the age of 21.

Mr. Lynch's lawyers argued that he violated no state laws while
operating his dispensary and said that by registering with the local
Chamber of Commerce and paying taxes, he was working to abide by the
law. Mr. Mrozek said Mr. Lynch had broken local and federal laws.

"Charles Lynch might be the last man to go to jail for medical
marijuana," Mr. Duncan said.

A Justice Department official said the situation of marijuana
dispensary operators already in the criminal justice system would be
decided case by case.

Mark Agrast, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a
liberal-leaning research group in Washington, said Mr. Holder's
statement indicated a more pragmatic and less ideological approach to
drug enforcement.

"This is an example of recognizing the limited resources they have,
so they have to make decisions about the soundest use of available
resources," Mr. Agrast said.

The attorney general's comments also indicated that the Justice
Department would allocate greater resources for investigations of
white-collar crime, including financial crime, and other enforcement
areas that received less attention during the Bush administration.

Ethan Nadelmann, the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance,
an advocacy group that supports medical marijuana, agreed that Mr.
Holder's statement signaled a shift in policy.

"Attorney General Holder is saying something explicitly different
from both Bush and Clinton," Mr. Nadelmann said. "He's saying that
these medical marijuana laws are kosher by state law and we're not
going after those. He's saying federal law doesn't trump state laws on this."

Mr. Duncan, the dispensary owner, said he was cautiously optimistic
about Mr. Holder's statement but would reserve judgment about how
much things would change in his business.

"I think we're going to see less and less federal interference," he
said. "At the same time, there's going to be more and more scrutiny
from state and local agencies."