WACKY GRASSLEY, NOT TOBACCY

Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa has indicated that he
opposes President Obama's recent changes to how the federal Drug
Enforcement Agency approaches medical marijuana. Grassley's tired,
predictable response demonstrates the extent to which he is out of
touch on this issue.

During the course of the grueling 2008 election cycle, Obama promised
to end federal raids against medical marijuana dispensaries operating
in states that legally allow them. Though this pledged policy change
didn't occur immediately after the president's inauguration,
administration officials have now made it clear that Obama intends to
keep his word.

"Given the limited resources that we have, our focus will be on
people and organizations that are growing, cultivating substantial
amounts of marijuana, and doing so in a way that's inconsistent with
federal and state law," Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters
at the Justice Department according to the Associated Press. The
federal government would continue to go after those who "use medical
marijuana laws as a shield" for other crimes, he said.

But it wasn't the possibility of people abusing the system that upset
Grassley. The Iowa senator made it clear that he is strongly opposed
to medical marijuana in the abstract.

"This attorney general is not doing health-care reform any good," ABC
News reported that Grassley said. "The first rule of medicine -- 'do
no harm' -- is being violated by the attorney general with this
decision." Grassley went on to assert that the Obama administration's
new policy is counterproductive because marijuana is a gateway drug
that leads people to try and then become addicted to harder drugs,
such as methamphetamine. However, this common prohibitionist claim is
highly dubious.

One can easily find studies purporting to show alternatively that
marijuana use does or does not lead to the abuse of more harmful
drugs. But groups such as the Office of National Drug Control Policy
or the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws only
tend to tout research that supports the very positions they exist to
advocate. Thus, as is often the case with such politically charged
issues, it's difficult to separate fact from spin.

In such a situation it makes sense for the federal government to step
back, allow the people of each state to choose their own policies,
and wait to see what actually works best. To his credit, that's
exactly what Obama seems to be doing.

Currently, 13 states allow for the legal use of marijuana for
medicinal purposes. Michigan is the most recent state to pass such a
law, which was enacted through a referendum that garnered the support
of 63 percent of voters last November.

But unyielding prohibitionists such as Grassley need not look outside
of Iowa to find serious political figures who support medical
marijuana. Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, has drafted a bill that
would allow some patients in this state to use the plant.

"The bill is essentially an attempt to address the suffering that
people are in," he told The Daily Iowan, giving cancer and multiple
sclerosis as examples of painful diseases that marijuana could
potentially ease. "People with severe medical conditions are not
being helped by conventional medications. Studies have found that
marijuana is an effective treatment."

Bolkcom's bill didn't advance to the point where the Iowa Senate
could vote on it this year, but he said he would try again in the
future. And time seems to be on his side. Though Sen. Merlin Bartz,
R-Grafton, doesn't think the legislation Bolkcom drafted provides
enough checks and balances, he told the DI that he was supportive of
the general concept.

How the federal government's experiment in allowing states to
decriminalize marijuana for medical purposes will work out remains to
be seen. Many of those who approve of the new policy remain cautious
regarding Obama's commitment to it.

"Thus far, it's been hard to tell if the administration's statements
on medical marijuana are style or substance," libertarian drug-war
critic Radley Balko wrote on his blog. "But if Sen. Charles Grassley
is pissed off about it, that's a pretty sign that they're doing the
right thing."