CONFLICTING FEDERAL LAW PUTS MARIJUANA GROWERS AT RISK

Many medicines come with side effects, but few can compare with
medical marijuana's: What other drug, when used as directed, could
land you in jail?

That's because even though 16 states, including Maine, have legalized
the use of marijuana in some applications, the federal government
still considers it to be illegal under any circumstance.

To confuse matters even more, the U.S. Department of Justice has sent
mixed signals about how it views use of the drug. Early in his tenure,
Attorney General Eric Holder gave states reassurance that his
prosecutors would not go after medicinal users of marijuana. But
recently, some U.S. attorneys, including one in Rhode Island, have
announced that they would not look the other way at the establishment
of legal marijuana growing and selling businesses, even if they were
regulated by the state.

That's a cause of concern for Maine, which is implementing a
citizen-initiated law that tries to control the distribution of
marijuana to make sure it goes to the right people.

As a result, state officials are overseeing transactions that are
criminal under federal law, and patients are engaging in activities
that are both legal and illegal at the same time.

This is a problem and it is one that the federal government should
fix.

While there is still debate within the medical community about the
therapeutic value of marijuana, plenty of sick people and their
caregivers say that it works for them.

They have changed the laws in more than a quarter of the states and
the District of Columbia, and more states are likely to come on board.
The federal government should give the states that choose to do so the
opportunity to make marijuana available to patients without putting
them in danger of prosecution.

There is a simple way to do it. We have many drugs that are legal for
medical use but illegal otherwise. We have no problem distinguishing
between chronic pain patients who use prescription medications and the
outlaws who sell pills on the street. There is even a parallel
pharmaceutical distribution system overseen by the state that
distributes methadone to narcotics addicts.

Why can't marijuana have a similar status? Maine's congressional
delegation should apply some pressure to end a disconnect that puts
state residents in legal jeopardy.