News (Media Awareness Project) - US WA: Feds Threaten Crackdown If Medical-Pot Makeover Becomes Law |
| Title: | US WA: Feds Threaten Crackdown If Medical-Pot Makeover Becomes Law |
| Published On: | 2011-04-14 |
| Source: | Seattle Times (WA) |
| Fetched On: | 2011-04-16 06:01:02 |
FEDS THREATEN CRACKDOWN IF MEDICAL-POT MAKEOVER BECOMES LAW
Washington's top federal prosecutors have threatened to crack down if
the state goes forward with a proposal to legalize medical-marijuana
dispensaries and growers, putting in jeopardy a bill that has already
passed both chambers of the Legislature.
In a letter to Gov. Chris Gregoire on Thursday, U.S. Attorneys Jenny
Durkan of Seattle and Michael Ormsby of Spokane wrote that the bill
would undermine drug enforcement and could result in an array of
prosecutions or civil penalties against dispensary owners and growers,
as well as against state regulators enforcing the proposed law.
The prosecutors were responding to Gregoire's request a day earlier
for "clear guidance" about the legislative proposal, a sweeping
expansion of the state's 1998 voter-approved medical-marijuana law.
"In light of the Department of Justice's guidance, it is clear that I
cannot sign a bill that authorizes our state employees to license
marijuana dispensaries when the department would prosecute those
involved," Gregoire said in a statement Thursday evening. She pledged
to work with lawmakers on a new proposal.
The bill, SB 5073, is the most sweeping rewrite yet of the 1998
initiative legalizing medical marijuana. It is a response to pressure
from municipal governments and police unsettled about a statewide boom
in dispensaries, which were neither specifically allowed nor banned
under existing law.
Durkan and Ormsby's letter indicated no such ambiguity. Citing federal
law outlawing marijuana cultivation and sale, they wrote that, in
addition to targeting dispensaries and growers, federal agents could
go after their landlords and financiers.
And state employees who would inspect and audit dispensaries and
growers under the bill "would not be immune from liability" under
federal drug laws, the prosecutors wrote.
Durkan, in a separate statement, said her office policy has not
changed. Her staff has not prosecuted medical-marijuana patients or
doctors who help them, but her office would prioritize prosecutions
involving for-profit marijuana sales, drug-trafficking groups and
"doctors who abuse their positions and fraudulently certify
individuals as medical-marijuana patients."
Supporters of the bill said the letter is no reason to kill the
legislation. It is similar to ones sent out by U.S. attorneys in other
states that allow medical marijuana, and contains no new information
about federal drug-control policy, said Kathleen Taylor, executive
director of the ACLU of Washington.
"It looks like a threat, but it hasn't played out in other states with
medical-marijuana dispensaries on the books," she said. "The feds have
to say what they've said, but it's all theoretical."
Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, the prime sponsor of the bill,
said she was encouraged that the measure could still be passed after
talking with Gregoire on Thursday evening. She said legislative
staffers were working on alternatives. "We're looking at a brand new
approach," she said, without elaborating.
In addition to legalizing dispensaries, the bill would grant patients
strong new protections from arrest and prosecution, a provision long
sought by patient advocates. It also would allow community marijuana
gardens for authorized patients.
If the Legislature were to rewrite it, one alternative could be to
require dispensaries and growers to be nonprofits. But the Internal
Revenue Service requires an organization to have a lawful purpose to
qualify for nonprofit status.
Marijuana remains illegal under federal law and cannot be prescribed
because it, along with LSD and heroin, is classified as a Schedule I
drug.
Under the Obama administration, the Justice Department has a largely
hands-off approach to medical-marijuana patients. An October 2009
memo, issued shortly after Attorney General Eric Holder took over,
says patients who were in "clear and unambiguous compliance" with
state laws were not a department priority.
But the memo emphasized that "commercial enterprises that unlawfully
market and sell marijuana for profit continues to be an enforcement
priority."
That remains the department's position, spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler
said in an email. "We are not going to look the other way while
significant drug-trafficking organizations try and shield their
illegal efforts from investigation and prosecution through the
pretense that they are medical dispensaries," she wrote.
Northern California's top federal prosecutor in February had threated
to charge operators of a huge commercial marijuana farm licensed by
the city of Oakland. Federal agents recently raided dispensaries in
Montana, Michigan and California.
Earlier this month, Ormsby, the U.S. attorney in Spokane, warned in a
news release that "marijuana stores" are illegal and urged property
owners who rent to medical-marijuana dispensaries to evict their
clients or potentially face forfeiture actions.
"We are preparing for quick and direct action against the operators of
the stores," Ormsby wrote.
By some estimates, at least 129 dispensaries have sprouted statewide
in the past year and a half, leaving cities and police uncertain
whether to crack down on what appear to be illegal sales or to allow
much broader access for sick patients who struggle to grow their own,
legal medicine. As a result, enforcement varies by city, creating
pressure on the Legislature to act.
The pending bill would give Washington, one of 15 states that allows
medical marijuana, one of the most expansive regulatory arrangements
in the nation.
It would require testing of marijuana to ensure quality, and license
processors of cannabis-infused food. It would also ban
medical-marijuana use from being a factor in housing and child-custody
issues.
A marijuana advocacy group, Sensible Washington, is gathering
signatures to put a legalization initiative on the November ballot.
[SIDEBAR]
Gregoire letter to Attorney General Holder (PDF)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2011/04/14/2014777830.pdf
Letter from U.S. Attorneys Jenny Durkan of Seattle and Michael Ormsby
of Spokane (PDF)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2011/04/14/2014778917.pdf
2009 memo from the U.S. Justice regarding medical marijuana (PDF)
http://www.justice.gov/opa/documents/medical-marijuana.pdf
Washington's top federal prosecutors have threatened to crack down if
the state goes forward with a proposal to legalize medical-marijuana
dispensaries and growers, putting in jeopardy a bill that has already
passed both chambers of the Legislature.
In a letter to Gov. Chris Gregoire on Thursday, U.S. Attorneys Jenny
Durkan of Seattle and Michael Ormsby of Spokane wrote that the bill
would undermine drug enforcement and could result in an array of
prosecutions or civil penalties against dispensary owners and growers,
as well as against state regulators enforcing the proposed law.
The prosecutors were responding to Gregoire's request a day earlier
for "clear guidance" about the legislative proposal, a sweeping
expansion of the state's 1998 voter-approved medical-marijuana law.
"In light of the Department of Justice's guidance, it is clear that I
cannot sign a bill that authorizes our state employees to license
marijuana dispensaries when the department would prosecute those
involved," Gregoire said in a statement Thursday evening. She pledged
to work with lawmakers on a new proposal.
The bill, SB 5073, is the most sweeping rewrite yet of the 1998
initiative legalizing medical marijuana. It is a response to pressure
from municipal governments and police unsettled about a statewide boom
in dispensaries, which were neither specifically allowed nor banned
under existing law.
Durkan and Ormsby's letter indicated no such ambiguity. Citing federal
law outlawing marijuana cultivation and sale, they wrote that, in
addition to targeting dispensaries and growers, federal agents could
go after their landlords and financiers.
And state employees who would inspect and audit dispensaries and
growers under the bill "would not be immune from liability" under
federal drug laws, the prosecutors wrote.
Durkan, in a separate statement, said her office policy has not
changed. Her staff has not prosecuted medical-marijuana patients or
doctors who help them, but her office would prioritize prosecutions
involving for-profit marijuana sales, drug-trafficking groups and
"doctors who abuse their positions and fraudulently certify
individuals as medical-marijuana patients."
Supporters of the bill said the letter is no reason to kill the
legislation. It is similar to ones sent out by U.S. attorneys in other
states that allow medical marijuana, and contains no new information
about federal drug-control policy, said Kathleen Taylor, executive
director of the ACLU of Washington.
"It looks like a threat, but it hasn't played out in other states with
medical-marijuana dispensaries on the books," she said. "The feds have
to say what they've said, but it's all theoretical."
Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, the prime sponsor of the bill,
said she was encouraged that the measure could still be passed after
talking with Gregoire on Thursday evening. She said legislative
staffers were working on alternatives. "We're looking at a brand new
approach," she said, without elaborating.
In addition to legalizing dispensaries, the bill would grant patients
strong new protections from arrest and prosecution, a provision long
sought by patient advocates. It also would allow community marijuana
gardens for authorized patients.
If the Legislature were to rewrite it, one alternative could be to
require dispensaries and growers to be nonprofits. But the Internal
Revenue Service requires an organization to have a lawful purpose to
qualify for nonprofit status.
Marijuana remains illegal under federal law and cannot be prescribed
because it, along with LSD and heroin, is classified as a Schedule I
drug.
Under the Obama administration, the Justice Department has a largely
hands-off approach to medical-marijuana patients. An October 2009
memo, issued shortly after Attorney General Eric Holder took over,
says patients who were in "clear and unambiguous compliance" with
state laws were not a department priority.
But the memo emphasized that "commercial enterprises that unlawfully
market and sell marijuana for profit continues to be an enforcement
priority."
That remains the department's position, spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler
said in an email. "We are not going to look the other way while
significant drug-trafficking organizations try and shield their
illegal efforts from investigation and prosecution through the
pretense that they are medical dispensaries," she wrote.
Northern California's top federal prosecutor in February had threated
to charge operators of a huge commercial marijuana farm licensed by
the city of Oakland. Federal agents recently raided dispensaries in
Montana, Michigan and California.
Earlier this month, Ormsby, the U.S. attorney in Spokane, warned in a
news release that "marijuana stores" are illegal and urged property
owners who rent to medical-marijuana dispensaries to evict their
clients or potentially face forfeiture actions.
"We are preparing for quick and direct action against the operators of
the stores," Ormsby wrote.
By some estimates, at least 129 dispensaries have sprouted statewide
in the past year and a half, leaving cities and police uncertain
whether to crack down on what appear to be illegal sales or to allow
much broader access for sick patients who struggle to grow their own,
legal medicine. As a result, enforcement varies by city, creating
pressure on the Legislature to act.
The pending bill would give Washington, one of 15 states that allows
medical marijuana, one of the most expansive regulatory arrangements
in the nation.
It would require testing of marijuana to ensure quality, and license
processors of cannabis-infused food. It would also ban
medical-marijuana use from being a factor in housing and child-custody
issues.
A marijuana advocacy group, Sensible Washington, is gathering
signatures to put a legalization initiative on the November ballot.
[SIDEBAR]
Gregoire letter to Attorney General Holder (PDF)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2011/04/14/2014777830.pdf
Letter from U.S. Attorneys Jenny Durkan of Seattle and Michael Ormsby
of Spokane (PDF)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2011/04/14/2014778917.pdf
2009 memo from the U.S. Justice regarding medical marijuana (PDF)
http://www.justice.gov/opa/documents/medical-marijuana.pdf
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