RE-LEGALIZING MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Whether we accept the presumed benefits of medical marijuana as
legitimate or not, Californians should at least be grateful that
state and federal laws will no longer be in conflict when it comes to
enforcement.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder says the U.S. will undertake a shift
in federal drug laws relative to medical marijuana, widely believed
to ease symptoms in cancer patients and sufferers of a wide array of
other maladies.

That means raids on medical marijuana distributors licensed in
California will cease or be greatly reduced.

In 1996, California became the first state to legalize the sale of
cannabis to people with doctors' prescriptions. Many patients say
they've been helped, but dueling jurisdictional interests have caused
headaches for everyone concerned, especially for local law
enforcement authorities bound by contradictory mandates.

The new administration's approach to the problem seems to come too
late for eight people arrested in July 2007 at Bakersfield's Nature's
Medicinal Inc., which had been operating at 323 Roberts Lane. The
dispensary's co-owners, David Chavez Sr. and David Chavez Jr., face
hearings this month in U.S. District Court in Fresno, as do other
dispensary employees.

Several pot dispensaries in Bakersfield closed in the wake of the
2007 crackdown by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency. The DEA was
working in concert with the Kern County Sheriff's Department, which
issued marijuana dispensary licenses to the very same businesses it
helped close.

The Obama administration's decision does not guarantee smooth
sailing. On the contrary, it creates another set of challenges as law
enforcement and other licensing agencies brace for the task of
separating legitimate users from those without a recognized medical
need. The decision also puts the ball into the court of medical
licensing boards, which must help guide "pot doctors" out of the
realm of perceived quackery and into the light of tightly regulated legitimacy.

We're a long way from fully understanding the practical applications
of medical marijuana. This latest step clarifies the picture by
getting the feds out of the game and leaving states to come up with
consistent approaches. It's up to leaders from the medical community
and law enforcement to take things from here, with compassion and
consistency two of the key objectives.