ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER HAS MADE A SENSIBLE DECISION TO STOP OVERRIDING
STATE MEDICAL-MARIJUANA LAWS

In 1996, California and Arizona became the first of 13 states to
legalize marijuana use for medical reasons. But the federal
government, under both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, was
consistently hostile toward what Washington viewed as an attempt to
undermine national drug policy.

Over the years, individuals with a handful of pot plants or small
quantities of cannabis -- and the state-mandated physician's approval
- -- have been raided by federal agents. So have dispensaries or co-ops
that grew or procured marijuana for documented patients and that
operated with the implicit consent of local law-enforcement officials.

In 2005, the Supreme Court upheld the prosecutions, ruling that
states lacked the power to trump federal drug laws -- even as some
justices in the majority offered advice to medical-marijuana
advocates on how to change those laws.

That hasn't happened yet, but now Attorney General Eric Holder says
the federal government will no longer prosecute individuals or
dispensaries abiding by state medical-marijuana statutes. Those who
flout both state and federal drug laws will still face arrest, Holder
said.

Holder's sensible compromise acknowledges states' need for reasonable
flexibility and focuses federal resources where they can do the most
good.