REEFER MADNESS

MARIJUANA is now legal under state law for medical purposes in 16
states and the District of Columbia, encompassing nearly one-third of
the American population. More than 1,000 dispensaries provide medical
marijuana; many are well regulated by state and local law and pay
substantial taxes. But though more than 70 percent of Americans
support legalizing medical marijuana, any use of marijuana remains
illegal under federal law.

When he ran for president, Barack Obama defended the medical use of
marijuana and said that he would not use Justice Department resources
to override state laws on the issue. He appeared to make good on this
commitment in October 2009, when the Justice Department directed
federal prosecutors not to focus their efforts on "individuals whose
actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state
laws providing for the medical use of marijuana."

But over the past year, federal authorities appear to have done
everything in their power to undermine state and local regulation of
medical marijuana and to create uncertainty, fear and confusion among
those in the industry. The president needs to reassert himself to
ensure that his original policy is implemented.

The Treasury Department has forced banks to close accounts of medical
marijuana businesses operating legally under state law. The Internal
Revenue Service has required dispensary owners to pay punitive taxes
required of no other businesses. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives recently ruled that state-sanctioned medical
marijuana patients can not purchase firearms.

United States attorneys have also sent letters to local officials,
coinciding with the adoption or implementation of state medical
marijuana regulatory legislation, stressing their authority to
prosecute all marijuana offenses. Prosecutors have threatened to
seize the property of landlords and put them behind bars for renting
to marijuana dispensaries. The United States attorney in San Diego,
Laura E. Duffy, has promised to start targeting media outlets that
run dispensaries' ads.

President Obama has not publicly announced a shift in his views on
medical marijuana, but his administration seems to be declaring one
by fiat. The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Michele M.
Leonhart, a Bush appointee re-nominated by Mr. Obama, has exercised
her discretionary authority to retain marijuana's classification as a
Schedule I drug with "no currently accepted medical use in treatment
in the United States." And the pronouncements on marijuana, medical
and otherwise, from Mr. Obama's top drug policy adviser, R. Gil
Kerlikowske, have been indistinguishable from those of Mr. Bush's.

None of this makes any sense in terms of public safety, health or
fiscal policy. Apart from its value to patients, medical marijuana
plays an increasingly important role in local economies, transforming
previously illegal jobs into legal ones and creating many new jobs as
well, contributing to local tax bases and stimulating new economic
activity. Federal crackdowns will not stop the trade in marijuana;
they will only push it back underground and hurt those patients least
able to navigate illicit markets.

Perhaps not since the civil rights era has law enforcement played
such an aggressive role in what is essentially a cultural and
political struggle. But this time the federal government is playing
the bully, riding roughshod over states' rights, not to protect
vulnerable individuals but to harm them.

At the federal level, there have been few voices of protest. Senior
Democrats on Capitol Hill shy away from speaking out. Republicans
mostly ignore the extent to which anti-marijuana zealotry threatens
core conservative values like states rights, property rights and gun ownership.

Mr. Obama briefly showed a willingness to challenge the drug-war
mind-set that permeates the federal drug-control establishment. He
needs to show leadership and intervene now, to encourage and defend
responsible state and local regulation of medical marijuana.