A NEW POLICY FOR MEDICAL POT

Finally, the federal government is going to allow Californians to buy
marijuana as a medication, 13 years after state voters approved it.
Yet the issue isn't quite settled.

What matters now is how federal prosecutors interpret a change in
policy, laid out for the first time Wednesday by the new U.S. attorney
general, Eric H. Holder Jr. The intention, Holder said, is to
prosecute only egregious cases of selling to minors, selling to people
without physicians' recommendations, or selling from an unauthorized
place.

There is a lot of that going on, unfortunately, which clouds matters
for anyone who truly needs marijuana for its proven abilities to ease
pain, nausea and other conditions without the side effects of
prescription medications. Some marijuana clinics are pretty relaxed
about requiring doctors' recommendations, and some are merely fronts
for dealers.

An overeager federal prosecutor could make life difficult for even the
most scrupulously honest clinic operator. But a spokesman for the U.S.
attorney in Los Angeles told the L.A. Times that the office already
has focused only on worst offenders.

Let's hope that will be the practice throughout California, and a
dozen other states that have legalized the medical use of marijuana.
Federal law trumps state law, as these states have learned the hard
way, and under federal law marijuana is treated the same as far more
potent and potentially dangerous drugs.

It hasn't been that long since the last federal raids on medical
marijuana dispensaries. Drug Enforcement Administration agents seized
marijuana at two Long Beach shops in October, Long Beach Holistics and
HHA, and a year earlier raided Long Beach Compassionate
Cooperative.

The Bush administration took a hard-line approach to marijuana, which
seems ludicrous in the great scheme of things, considering the mild
nature of the stuff. It is no more harmful than aspirin and far less
dangerous than an addiction to, say, alcohol. The most serious
objection to it, other than legality, is the risk associated with
smoking any kind of weed, including tobacco, which is a lot more addictive.

The new attitude in the Justice Department is not a surprise, given
assurances President Barack Obama has made that medical marijuana
clinics would be left alone. But the new attorney general has spelled
out the policy nicely.

The next improvement should be a thoughtful review and reform of all
federal regulations and policies on drug abuse.