FEDS CAN'T GET THEIR STORY STRAIGHT ON POT

If officials in the Obama administration had set out with a goal two
and a half years ago of causing local communities as much headache as
possible with their policy on medical marijuana enforcement, it's
hard to imagine they could have done a better job.

Let's see.

First, issue a proclamation that essentially says the feds will stay
out of the way and let California's permissive medical pot laws run
their course. Do this as suddenly as possible and leave local
jurisdictions to scramble and litigate their way through the messy aftermath.

Then, wait until things are just starting to get under control, until
legitimate landlords have locked in leases, patients have grown
accustomed to where to get their medicine.

Until, truth be told, the collectives and growers themselves had
become economically significant in hard times.

Now pounce.

It does feel a little like being the toy mouse for an ill-tempered cat.

Two months ago, the attorney general issued a memo that backed away
from the hands-off approach. It signaled a willingness to pursue
large commercial operators who are most brazenly flouting the federal
law, while continuing to leave small-scale caregivers and patients alone.

Last week, the four U.S. attorneys who represent the Justice
Department in California staged a dramatic two-day blitz of
threatening letters and news conferences. The message continues to be
highly confusing.

In public statements, the prosecutors continued to maintain that
they're targeting the big operations. But they refused to release a
list of those who received the letters.

So far, it appears that north state collectives have not been
contacted. The only local operation affecting our area directly was
apparently back in March - a warehouse in Redding with 974 marijuana
plants. The warrant was unsealed on Friday, the same day federal
prosecutors held their news conferences.

The medical marijuana industry has not been its own best friend in
all this. Even small collectives make a mockery of themselves by
giving all sorts of ridiculous names to their "medicine" and painting
up their would-be pharmacies like bad tattoo parlors.

But let's be clear here. This isn't about the debate over marijuana
itself, either as medicine or recreation. This is about the
relationship between Washington, D.C., and the states, not to mention
local jurisdictions.

For more than two years, now, cities and counties throughout our
region have spent countless hours and a whole lot of taxpayer money
they couldn't really afford to try to accommodate (or not) the new
reality of medical marijuana.

They did this in good faith, based on a statement of policy they
didn't ask for, and in many cases strongly opposed. Now, uncertainty
again prevails, thanks to the same cavalier behavior.

Eric Holder, President Obama's top law enforcement officer, owed all
of us better. So did his boss.

For now, though, if the whole thing is one big headache, you might
want to think twice about what kind of prescription you get for that.