CALIFORNIA MEDICAL MARIJUANA GROWERS FACE PRESSURE

A new Obama administration memo approves federal prosecution of
anyone in the business of growing or supplying marijuana for medical
patients even if they are complying with state law, a contradiction,
advocacy groups say, of President Obama's pledge to let states set
their own policies.

The memo, issued Wednesday by Deputy Attorney General James Cole,
insisted that the Justice Department hadn't abandoned the policy it
announced in a set of guidelines in October 2009.

Those guidelines discouraged federal prosecutors from charging people
who were following laws in California and other states that allow the
medical use of marijuana, despite the federal government's absolute
ban on the drug.

Obama had promised as a presidential candidate, and reaffirmed soon
after taking office, that his administration would take a hands-off
approach to medical marijuana and let states chart their own course.

In his memo to local U.S. attorneys, Cole said the October 2009
policy was intended to spare seriously ill patients and their
caregivers from prosecution. At the same time, he said, there has
been "an increase in the scope of commercial cultivation, sale,
distribution and use of marijuana for purported medical purposes."

"Persons who are in the business of cultivating, selling or
distributing marijuana, and those who knowingly facilitate such
activities, are in violation of the Controlled Substances Act,
regardless of state law," Cole said. Enforcement of that federal law,
he added, "remains a core priority." Raids on suppliers

Medical marijuana advocates have accused the administration of
violating its stated policies with frequent raids on suppliers in the
16 states with such laws, and more recently with warnings to
officials in at least 10 states that they could face prosecution if
they authorized dispensaries to sell pot to patients.

They said Friday that Cole's memo comes close to repudiating Obama's
long-standing promise.

Steph Scherer, executive director of Americans for Safe Access, which
describes itself as the nation's largest medical marijuana advocacy
group, said the administration is claiming to respect the rights of
patients to use marijuana while "denying them the means to use it legally."

"It is disingenuous of the Obama administration to say it is not
attacking patients while obstructing the implementation of local and
state medical marijuana laws," Scherer said in a statement.

Because federal prosecutions would disrupt state-approved channels
for supplying marijuana to patients, "the only entity benefiting from
President Obama's stance on this is organized crime," said Tom
Angell, spokesman for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, which
advocates drug decriminalization.

California's voter-approved 1996 law allowed patients to grow their
own marijuana or obtain it from caregivers but did not expressly
authorize other sources of supply. Pot dispensaries operate under
local regulation but have faced periodic raids from federal
authorities, who describe them as profiteering drug dealers.
Oakland's bold move

Anticipating voter approval last year of a state ballot measure
legalizing personal use of marijuana - which was defeated in part
because of Obama administration threats of federal prosecution - the
Oakland City Council drafted an ordinance to legalize large indoor pot farms.

Council members retained the proposal after the election as a
potential supply source for medical patients, but put it on hold in
February after U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag told them it would violate
both state and federal law.

The administration's warnings to officials in other states have also
had an impact, said Kris Hermes, spokesman for Americans for Safe Access.

He cited threats of federal prosecution that led Washington Gov.
Chris Gregoire to veto a bill that would have legalized medical
marijuana dispensaries, and prompted Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee
to shelve plans to license dispensaries under a 2009 state law.

But Hermes said Delaware Gov. Jack Markell signed a law in May that
legalized both medical marijuana and state-regulated distribution
centers, and Vermont's governor, Peter Shumlin, brushed off warnings
by federal prosecutors in June and approved four dispensaries for
marijuana patients.

"We need local and state officials to stand up and not buckle to
intimidation," Hermes said.