POLICE CHIEF GETS PRIORITIES RIGHT

Why Waste Time Joining The Feds In Harassing Medical Marijuana Growers?

SAN Jose Police Chief Bill Lansdowne has his priorities straight. Hounding
people who grow marijuana for AIDS and cancer patients isn't -- and
shouldn't be -- one of them.

Last week, Lansdowne withdrew his police department's participation in a
federal Drug Enforcement Administration task force. In doing so, he sent an
important message to the feds: There are far more serious drug problems in
our area than medical marijuana.

Last month, the task force raided a cooperative farm near Santa Cruz, the
Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, arresting founders Mike and
Valerie Corral and seizing 167 marijuana plants.

The couple had been growing marijuana to distribute to patients with their
doctors' permission and under an agreement with the Santa Cruz County
Sheriff's Department. They had been following the state medical marijuana
law, Proposition 215, that California voters passed in 1996.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that federal drug laws trump Proposition
215. In response, the DEA, under U.S. Department of Justice's direction,
has been shutting down marijuana co-ops.

The issue is not law but choices. If harassing medical marijuana growers is
how the feds want to channel their resources, the locals shouldn't be
taking marching orders.

San Jose had loaned the task force a sergeant and four officers for
full-time, two-year assignments, at city expense. Now these officers will
be reassigned to San Jose's narcotics team or to the state Bureau of
Narcotics task force, where they will work on a much bigger threat:
methamphetamine trafficking.

Joint federal and local law enforcement efforts should be encouraged when
they benefit the public and abandoned when they don't. Lansdowne called it
right.