GIVING IN TO BULLYING

DA Ramsey Gets His Way-but at What Cost?

With their decision (see Newslines, page 9) to repeal their
medical-marijuana ordinance pertaining to collectives and
dispensaries, members of the Chico City Council who supported the
ordinance because it provided safe access to cannabis for qualified
patients lost a round to District Attorney Mike Ramsey and the Obama
administration.

Basically, they gave into bullying by U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner,
who threatened city staff with prosecution if they facilitated
dispensaries. It's obvious he did so at Ramsey's behest.

Credit the DA with consistency on this front. He's opposed
dispensaries from day one and has done everything in his power to get
rid of them.

President Obama and the U.S. Department of Justice have been anything
but consistent, however. The president campaigned promising to end
the war on drugs and establish a progressive policy designed, as much
as possible, to take the profits out of the drug trade. Early on,
Attorney General Eric Holder made it clear that his agency would not
enforce federal laws against marijuana in states where
medical-cannabis use was legal.

That's all changed. Now a U.S. attorney is threatening to prosecute
local officials for trying to implement California law. It's shameful.

Mind you, we have no illusions about medical marijuana. Proposition
215 is widely abused. But there are many people who have a legitimate
need and use for medical cannabis. Not all of them can grow their
own. Some are disabled. Some live in apartments. How are they now
supposed to obtain their medicine?

That's a question Mike Ramsey has yet to answer.