LET THE SICK HAVE THEIR POT

After 16 years of inane and inhumane federal policies on medical
marijuana, the Obama administration last week brought some sanity and
humanity with the Justice Department's decision to butt out when
states allow sick people to use the drug.

Under the policy spelled out in a three-page legal memo, federal
prosecutors were told that it is not a good use of their time to
arrest users or providers of medical marijuana who do so legally. The
memo advises prosecutors that they "should not focus federal resources
in your states on individuals whose actions are in clear and
unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the
medical use of marijuana."

The policy is a welcome departure from those issued under President
Clinton and President Bush, both of whom went after sick people, the
doctors who prescribed them marijuana and the dispensaries where it
was sold in states where medical use of the drug was authorized.

In 1996, after California voters approved a medical marijuana law, the
Clinton administration filed lawsuits to close dispensaries and
threatened to strip the licenses of doctors who recommended marijuana
to patients. The Bush administration followed suit, raiding medical
marijuana growers and dispensaries and winning a U.S. Supreme Court
victory allowing the federal government to enforce its anti-marijuana
laws regardless of state statutes.

Scientific evidence supports the fact that marijuana has medical
benefits for chronic-pain syndromes, cancer pain, multiple sclerosis,
AIDS wasting syndrome and the nausea that accompanies chemotherapy. In
fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of
synthetic THC - the main ingredient in marijuana - to treat the same
illnesses, even though studies show that Marinol is not as effective
as the natural, inhaled drug.

Fourteen states allow medical marijuana use. The Justice Department's
decision gives the Legislature a reason to allow it in Florida, though
that would be an uncommonly progressive move by this
Legislature.

Federal prosecutors should welcome this historic policy change. It
gives them more time to spend on far more serious offenses than pot
smoking, such as corruption, mortgage fraud and gang crimes, to name a
few. The policy shift makes good on a promise President Obama made as
a candidate not to continue the raids on dispensaries.

"I don't think that should be a top priority of us, raiding people who
are using ... medical marijuana," Mr. Obama said. "With all the things
we've got to worry about, and our Justice Department should be doing,
that probably shouldn't be a high priority." The change also will
bring relief from unnecessary suffering to many Americans.