END POT RAIDS, BEGIN NEW SANITY

When Charles Lynch asked local officials for permission to sell an
herbal medicine in the central California town of Morro Bay, they
granted it to him -- even though the medicine was marijuana.

That's because marijuana recommended by a doctor has been legal in
California since 1996. A dozen other states have passed similar laws.
About ten states that have been debating similar measures.

So Charlie applied for a business license, joined the Chamber of
Commerce, talked to lawyers and even called the Drug Enforcement
Administration before opening his medical marijuana dispensary with a
grand ribbon-cutting ceremony. Unfortunately for Charlie, none of
this prevented him from being arrested in March 2007 when federal
authorities raided his home and small business. That's because the
Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Gonzalez v. Raich in 2005 that in the
issue of medical marijuana federal law trumps the states.

"Today's decision," crowed Bush's drug czar, John Walters, at the
time, "marks the end of medical marijuana as a political issue."

Well, not quite. President Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder has
announced that the Justice Department will stop raiding marijuana
dispensaries in California and other states that allow medical
marijuana. But that doesn't help Charlie, whose sentencing is set for
March 23. Lynch, who tried to conduct his business as openly and
legally as possible under the laws enacted by Californians, is one of
the more poignant examples of nonviolent offenders arrested and
jailed by federal raiders.

Putting the brakes on medical marijuana raids is only one small step
of the many that still need to be taken toward a sensible drug policy
after years of backpedaling by President Bush.

Obama apparently likes to multi-task. Faced with a long list of
thorny issues, he's decided to take them on all at once while his
honeymoon lasts. While he's at it, he needs to modernize federal
policy on the medicinal use of marijuana. Stopping the raids in
states where it's legal is good. He also needs to lift what has
amounted to a ban on scientific research and push to change federal
law that currently equates marijuana with heroin.

That's right. Since 1971, marijuana has been classified as a
"Schedule I" narcotic, meaning it has no medical value. That's the
same category as heroin. And as if that's not goofy enough, that
would suggest marijuana is more dangerous than crack cocaine, a
Schedule II drug that no one in the sane world describes as more
dangerous than pot.

Yet that's the kind of thinking that gave a green light for the DEA
to terrorize growers, providers, caregivers and patients. At least 90
major raids have been conducted by DEA agents in California,
according to the Marijuana Policy Project, which advocates
legalization of medicinal marijuana.

Walters, like the drug czars before him, argued that the law must
rely on scientific research, "not popular opinion." Yet 10 years
after a study commissioned by President Bill Clinton's administration
found medical value in smoked marijuana, the Bush experts say that's
not enough.

Days before Obama's inauguration, the DEA denied an application by
Professor Lyle Craker, who has been fighting in and out of court for
eight years to obtain a license to conduct further DEA-approved
research. Yet his study is the sort that must be done to provide the
sort of data that the Bush administration said was lacking. President
Obama recently reversed much of what has been called the Bush
administration's "war against science." He needs to turn around the
war against medicinal marijuana research, too.