US MELLOWS ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department told federal prosecutors Monday
they shouldn't pursue medical-marijuana users who comply with state
laws, a step activists said may encourage more states to partially
legalize the drug.

A three-page memo from Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, affirming
a policy disclosed earlier this year, said it was "unlikely to be an
efficient use of limited federal resources" to prosecute "individuals
with cancer or other serious illnesses who use marijuana as part of a
recommended treatment regimen."

Law enforcement officials this year have seized and destroyed a
record amount of illegal marijuana grown in remote parts of public
land in California: more than four million plants with a street value
of as much as $16 billion. Stacey Delo reports.

The memo, sent to U.S. attorneys nationwide, said the Justice
Department continued to view pot as a dangerous drug and that the new
policy shouldn't prevent prosecutors from pursuing cases where state
laws are being used as a cover for illegal activity.

Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, said issuing
formal guidelines "certainly lifts a cloud from the people in states
that allow medical marijuana." Mr. Mirken, whose group opposes
criminal penalties for pot use, added, "I think in terms of state
legislatures and governors, as a policy matter, it gives them a great
deal of reassurance" in considering medical-marijuana laws.

Rules vary in the 13 states that have medical-marijuana laws on the
books, but the common theme is that seriously ill residents who have
recommendations from doctors to use marijuana as a treatment shouldn't
fear arrest.

Several states are considering bills that would allow the use of
medical marijuana. Delaware has a bill pending, and lawmakers in New
Hampshire are expected later this month to hold a vote on overriding
the governor's veto of a bill they passed earlier this year.

Some state legislators and governors have been reluctant to support
medical-marijuana laws because they would put their residents at risk
of federal charges.

The Obama administration's policy emerged at a February news
conference in which Attorney General Eric Holder said federal raids
would be stopped on medical-marijuana dispensaries in the states where
voters have made medical marijuana legal. Agents had previously
conducted such raids under federal law, which doesn't provide any
exceptions to its pot prohibition.

A Drug Enforcement Administration spokeswoman on Monday said the
agency had been adhering to the guidance since January.

James Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, the
nation's largest law-enforcement labor organization, said the policy
change -- along with other proposed changes on criminal-justice
issues, such as easing the penalties on crack-cocaine crimes -- "looks
like we're taking a somewhat different approach to criminal justice."

Even with the new guidelines, federal pot policy remains muddled. On a
government Web site about the perils of marijuana abuse, the DEA says
"smoked marijuana is not a medicine," and contrasts the federal
approval process for prescription drugs with state medical-marijuana
laws, which it calls "inconsistent with efforts to ensure that
medications undergo the rigorous scientific scrutiny of the approval
process."

The guidelines do little to clarify the situation in California, where
voters approved a medical-marijuana initiative in 1996 but rules vary
widely by county. The regulations allow doctors to recommend pot for
medical use and enable medical caregivers to provide pot, though not
for a profit.

Since then, the state has largely left interpretation of the law to
local agencies. As a result, the amount of medical marijuana a person
may have -- and the ways in which the drug may be sold -- isn't consistent.

Alameda County, which includes Oakland, has allowed a handful of
storefront pot dispensaries. Other counties have banned storefront
dispensaries or tried to close marijuana stores.

Los Angeles County has been struggling with a ballooning number of
marijuana markets. District Attorney Steve Cooley said last week that
most, and perhaps all, of the hundreds of dispensaries there violate
state law. Los Angeles has banned new medical-marijuana dispensaries,
but on Monday a Superior Court judge there issued an injunction
against the ban in one such case. ""John Emshwiller contributed to
this article.