A COMPASSIONATE, SENSIBLE CHOICE ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Last week, the U.S. Justice Department rolled out what was touted as a
major policy change, that it would no longer target and arrest
severely ill folks who legally use medical marijuana with a doctor's
prescription in states that allow it.

It's a significant shift, but one that sensibly prioritizes what's
important for Uncle Sam -- stopping drug dealers and drug addicts, not
law-abiding sick people.

Indeed, we have long had no problem with the notion of a state voting
to permit strictly regulated cannabis use by people with
life-threatening conditions, and have supported measures in the
Legislature allowing it here. If anything we see it as a compassionate
response, as some medical studies have shown the drug boosts appetite
and calms nausea in some AIDS and cancer patients and reduces pain and
suffering among those severely afflicted with multiple sclerosis or
other ailments.

As ever, money and manpower need to go where they can do the most
good. Going after scofflaws who cloak themselves in the trappings of a
legal operation, trying to halt and arrest large-scale drug
traffickers and working to contain the shooting war threatening people
who live near the Mexican border are all more pressing needs. Each is
a far more important use of scarce resources than spending time, money
and effort trying to make a federal case out of people in pain living
within the bounds of their state laws.